Preview Soon

Coming soon: a preview of my story that is a work in progress. In this I will hopefully be able to provide a glimpse of how everything that I have shown so far can be used to shape the writing and make the exposition a little more interesting. Anyway, the sneak preview is over... but today I want to talk about setting up the mood of the novel before going into the beginning of the story (aka: talking about back story).

This idea does not work for all novels, but it can also be used throughout the story to make it easier for readers to understand some parts of the story. For example, there could be flashbacks at random intervals so that the reader can understand the character's history better. After all, have you ever wondered why a character has a certain quirk-- why is he or she overprotective, or why does the character get so emotional when people say a seemingly unimportant word or phrase?

Sometimes we cannot fit a lengthy blurb about the past into the novel, and sometimes it is unnecessary. I think that the best way to incorporate the past is in reference to dreams-- the character can relive the past in the scope of a dream, or a dream can provide some sort of insight into why the character behaves a specific way (are they dreaming of the future?) so that the reader can better understand. While it is up to the judgement of the writer on where to incorporate it, if written at the right spot, one can successfully set up a good foreshadowing of part of the plot or give the readers more information to make the character make more sense. My example is the very beginning of my story, which highlights the events that lead to specific plot elements that are revealed later. While the time jumps after it, I feel that it does a good job of setting up the story and some of its elements.

  

There was a rumbling through the ground, and the queen recoiled as if she had been punched in the stomach. The king rushed over to her, and helped to keep her on her feet. “What is the matter?” he asked, and she looked into his eyes.

“Something is wrong in time… but I do not know what it is.” She almost sighed when the tremor passed and slowly unfolded as if the most sudden movement could make her fall into pain again. The king helped her through the halls to doors that opened onto the realm where time manifested itself. When they reached the doors, she froze as she saw a small bundle curled up in front of them.

“Love,” the king had to shake his wife gently before she came back to herself. She bent down and brushed coppery strands away from a sleeping face, and an icy blue eye opened sleepily to look at her.

“Where do you come from, young one?” she asked, but the child decided to close her eyes again and fall back to sleep. The queen sighed and picked her up, cradling her in the crook of her arm. “I guess questioning her will have to wait until morning.”

“Do you think she had something to do with the convulsion of the gate of time?” he asked.

“Maybe; power seems to be flowing through her.” She handed the girl over to the king, “I’m going to check on the gate, and I’ll ask Sam if he knows anything.” She opened the door and stepped through into the realm of time.

Any Thoughts?

Petty Quarrels and Other Such Nonsense

While I was developing the character of Toralu, my male protagonist, I was brainstorming what type of personality I wanted him to have. While I wanted my characters to get along (at least for the most part), I also wanted them to have some moments of random humor, and some small quarrels here and there. Toralu ended up being a funny character who, while still developing, is pretty much the way that he is going to be throughout. As such, he is relatively humorous and sarcastic, and he is somewhat of a flirt (which I find hilarious to write). On the other hand, he has his grumpy moments (don't wake him up, whatever you do), and he has a bit of a short temper. Still, he's cool.

Anyway, since I decided to create the character to be the way that he is, I realized that there were going to be some arguments involved... many of which would involve something ridiculous and develop into a hilarious situation between the two. I feel like this can be one of the ways to almost liven up a piece that is dragging along on the ground behind you like a dead body (not that I would know...). Even some of the larger fights can be incorporated into the story line, as my two main characters are going to have a blowout about something that is going to lead to a key event, but I refuse to spoil it more than that. However, there are some very funny situations that your characters are able to find themselves in.


1. Quibbles: everybody fights, so if there isn't some sort of argument in your story, there probably should be. After all, what is the conflict that needs to be resolved? Do your characters who have different emotions confront one another? On the other hand, small quibbles can end up being pretty funny, not only for you when you go back and read it ("I can't believe I made them argue about potatoes" or some such nonsense), and can be humorous for the reader as well. Unfortunately, depending on the character personalities, little quibbles like this may not always be within the character of the piece.

2. Awkward situations: who doesn't love giggling over these...or at least among the girls. I mean come on, you know that the one character has some sort of crush or something for the other one, and then the clumsy nature comes out... though this can end badly. For instance, if the other character doesn't notice, the character could trip and land face-first in the mud... though that in itself is pretty funny. On the other hand, there could end up being some sort of semi-romantic moment by chance. It's all up to how evil the plot bunny feels.

The biggest thing to do if you want to add some humor is to look at your characters. Now that you know the personality, think about the best ways that you can make the character be humorous and yet not become OOC (out of character). I hope you enjoy my example below, and I am curious to know what other kinds of situations your character might find himself or herself in. Until next time!

Here are just a few examples of my random sense of humor... you may or may not find them funny, but I try to incorporate as much context in as I can:

1. “Arynna,” she heard the voice but mumbled something incoherent and rolled over to go back to sleep. “Oh for the love of…” there was a sigh, and then she was picked up and spilled onto the floor, much to her aggravation.

2. The only thing he will know unless he has some of his court watching is that I am within the Shadows. She smiled and padded over to the banister, nimbly hopping onto it to look at the garden below. When she saw Toralu below her, she cursed and narrowed her eyes. He seemed to hear her because he looked up and waved sweetly at her. Arynna gritted her teeth. That man gets on my last nerve sometimes! Placing a smile on her face, she hopped down, bending her knees as she landed so that she was engulfed by the Cloak of Shadows.

Sorry for the lack of more examples, but I am not yet very far in my story... I will be able to provide more later when I have written farther into the plot, but as of now I am barely beyond exposition.

Sketching Session 3

So today I was magically inspired by Lancha, one of my favorite artists ever, who had a live stream of herself working on her latest project. Of course, it looks amazing as always. After watching it, I was really inspired to try to shade on my Adobe Photoshop, and I ended up with something intersting and pretty (in my opinion), as well as a sketching topic.

The first thing that I want to note is that I started with the lineart, and there are a few programs to separate the lines from the background. So I will talk about some of the steps that I took to get the image from the black and white lines to the finished image at the bottom.

• After I duplicated the layer, I used some programs that I installed from an online source (if you type eliminate white into a web browser you will be able to find tools similar to the ones I have), and then I adjusted the brightness/contrast to make the black of the lines stand out more against the white background. 

• Next I added another layer each for the base tones of the hair, eyes, and skin. It is easier if you are working with a tablet to get all of the edges worked out than if you are using a mouse. The layer with just the lines is going to remain on top of the other layers, so it is best to create a new layer while clicking on one of the layers below this (it helps to stop a lot of clicking and dragging. Also, rather than using swatches like some people do, I use the tool to duplicate the color that is clicked and then either make it lighter or darker depending on if it is a highlight or shading.

• After this, I shaded the skin tones. The big thing to remember is the point of light for the source of the object, and how it can affect the way that all objects in the image are shaded or highlighted.

• The final thing that I did was to work on the hair. I was not satisfied with the original color so I decided to tweak it a bit before adding in the shading and the highlights. Looking at it now, I have decided that I am probably going to come back to it over the weekend, because some of the edges are bothering me, and I really want to change how some of the shading turned out.

The biggest thing that I want to stress here is that I have not divulged specifics for how to shade or how to draw highlights because everyone has their own way of doing things. You should find a style or way of doing all of this that works for you. I am still trying to work on my style, so what you see here is a shading experiment more than anything else. Good luck with any such endeavors that you have in the field (if you so choose to delve into the world of Photoshop or other such programs). I look forward to writing about something pertaining to stories and characters next week rather than focusing on art, as I have been in a very big art binge of late, and I need to get back into my writing.

Sketching Session 2

I really feel like being creative today, so I am going to attempt to make a relatively coherent and helpful sketching session, especially since I just bombarded deviantart with a massive sketch dump. I guess that the main thing that I want to focus on now is perspective, that is, making art look more three-dimensional. It is one of the hardest things to do as an artist, and even the people who are very good at drawing may not have fully mastered it.

The main thing that I find helpful is something to look at how the body looks in different positions. They can be pictures of yourself so that you can see how your arm looks when stretched in front of you, or how you look when sitting in a chair. Or, like what I use when I am at home, you can use a mannequin as a reference. They are three-dimensional objects as they are, and when they are positioned in the pose of your choice, they not only show you what each part of the body should look like, but they also indicate how the figure would be shaded.

 Of course, nothing beats practice, but the hardest part is that when it is wrong, it looks wrong. You will be able to tell before all of the main lines are drawn if the person or object is in the wrong position (which is why I always draw the outlines lightly first), so it might be fixable before you darken the final outline. The worst thing that I find is that I get frustrated when it keeps turning out badly, so I tend to give up on that specific piece for a while. Even though I tend to come back to it by the next day, it is very uncomfortable to know that no matter how you draw it, the figure will not turn out right. Be persistent and don't give up. It will take a while, but eventually the perspective will fall into place-- so long as you practice!

Speaking of Horror...

Inazuma

I just realized that I forgot to post some sort of image this week, and I feel bad about that. Because of this, I would like to add this post. I promise that I will try not to forget again!

Also, for the sake of rehashing this... all of the images that I post on this blog are my creations. Many of them can be found here:

http://schoononover.deviantart.com/

~Schoon

Oh the horror!

While I was trying to think of something witty and helpful for my blog earlier, I realized that I hit something yesterday in my story. It is my worst enemy and a major hitch in the momentum that my story had been building for the past few weeks. The worst part is that it comes without warning (though I usually get it when I am transitioning between scenes or chapters) and it can delay any progress for some time.

It's the dreaded writer's block, and I am currently in its grasp.

My current problem is that I just finished the opening chapter of my story (of which I felt accomplished and excited) and until then it had been building momentum. I felt like the words were literally leaping onto the computer, and the sentences poured from me with extreme ease. And then it hit. Right as I closed chapter one, I thought, "Well now what?" Until then, I had a variety of ideas floating in my head that would match seamlessly with what I had on the page. When it came time to write them, they flew the coop.

Now, I am in combat mode with my own mind, if that makes any sense. Trying to think about my next topic gave me a headache last night, and left me frustrated with my lack of results. While I understand that writer's block is something that just needs to run its course, I also want to be able to expand upon my storyline. For the sake of my sanity, I will probably have to resort to writing something completely unrelated, let my mind detox from the plot, and then think of something after I feel like I have worked out all of the kinks. I know that if I go on with the story as I am now, I wold probably end up getting rid of everything that I wrote anyway, because during writer's block my thoughts are not as solid and end up sounding like garbage (not to mention that they take forever to spring forth from my mind). Oh well, I guess it has to be done, right? I hope that I can find something to work on to make next week more exciting. Until then, my friends.

Magic Example

As I did for the action/ fight scenes, I am going to add a selection from my work in progress. However, I am going to add a couple of shorter selections to show different ways to go about portraying magic (and so that you do not have to read something as long as what I posted last time). I hope you enjoy them!

Poof

• The gem in her hands, she closed her eyes and fell into the dance of the magic. Once she was certain that there would be no traps or backlashes, she opened her eyes to watch the movements of the component spells. Small black-purple threads connected each star-like point, and she looked around to find a marker that would give the power of the caster. After fifteen minutes with no success, she let herself back out of the spell and unraveled it, watching it fall from the gem and disappear like the morning mist.
   
• Standing up, she held her left hand out so that the palm was facing upward. The spell that she pooled there was golden in the realm of time, and she tipped her hand so that it trickled like water to the ground, cascading in ripples along the fabric of time.

Magic

It was hard for me to think of something useful to say for this week, but I think that I have found something that is very near and dear to my heart. As a reader and as a writer, I absolutely adore magic. It is part of my writing that I do not want to be without, and it is something with which I can express the very essence of my feelings. Normally when I write about people using their magic, there are a few things that I make sure of.

Swirling Wings

• The type of magic involved: when my protagonist finds dark magic, it sends either a shiver or a feeling of discomfort through her (or worse, depending on the severity of the magic). However, the feeling of her magic or magic that is not warped in some way but rests in its natural states brings a peaceful or tranquil feeling (for the most part). However, the magic can be jolting or it can make your character feel a variety of different ways, so play around with it and see which one fits your character's personality the best. 

• Does your character need to say anything to activate a spell? Are there certain symbols that he or she needs to draw upon (a very good reference for this sort of magic lies in the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix)? Can the magic just spontaneously take the shape that your character sets in his or her mind? There are a lot of things to consider, especially because magic is so tricky in the first place.

The best thing to do with such an ambiguous topic as magic is to find your comfort level and play around with it. Remember, magic is always changing, and your character may be able to advance how much or what kind of magic he or she can accomplish. With this topic, there is no limit, especially if there is no limit to your imagination as the writer. Enjoy yourself and let yourself become immersed in this with your character- it may lead you to something that you have never found before.

Action Scene Example

Now that I have given you my recommendations, I would like to provide an example from my current project. As a bit of exposition, this was caused by the vice-captain of the Temporal Guard (Maeru) taking out his frustration on one of the training members. As a result, the captain (Arynna) decides to let him fight her in the hopes of teaching him a lesson. I apologize in advance for its length, but it gets the job done. Without further ado, here it is:

Maeru shivered and backed up a step, and she took a broad stride forward until her face was inches from him. Arynna’s height allowed her to have a slightly higher gaze, and she used that to her advantage. “If you want to fight so badly, then you will fight me.” She motioned and one of the guards threw her a staff. One of the others led the injured boy out of the ring, and she moved into the ready stance. She saw a small flare of frustration in his expression, and then he too moved into the stance.

They circled one another as they had done in countless drills, and she used her staff to block his attacks, flipping it from side to side in a dance that flowed from one defense into another. Watching the pattern of his movements, she looked for openings as she began to exchange attacks. She moved swiftly from block to strike and back to block, her hands only shifting their weight on the weapon in her hands. She noticed that every few attacks he would leave his side open, and she knew that he was reading her movements for any weak blocks or openings.

He hit her knuckles with one of his attacks, and she stepped back to avoid the following move, twirling so that she came to his flank. Her staff connected with is ribs, and he stumbled but managed to block her next attack. He growled and began to increase the speed of his attacks, his frustration beginning to break through. She blocked and parried each of his attacks, focusing on finding a way to disarm him. When she saw her chance, she deftly flipped her staff between his hands and broke through his thumbs, sending his staff twirling to land on the other side of the field. She quickly twisted the staff so that the other side hit him and sent him stumbling back before sweeping his legs from under him and planting the end of the staff into the base of his throat.

Looking up at her, Maeru almost gulped at the coldness of her expression. She revealed small fangs as she spoke to him, and he gulped, wondering what animal’s form she could assume. “Do not ever take out your frustration at me or my orders on one of the guards again, or you will be permanently banished from the guards and from the lands of the royal palace.” She narrowed her gaze at him, “Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, mistress,” he stuttered. The end of the staff was removed and she turned away to walk back to the watching guards.

Action Scenes

We have finally arrived at the beginning of our work on showing things that happen! While it might be fun to talk about exposition (please not the hint of sarcasm), I decided to start with something near and dear to my heart- fight scenes. However, depending on how they are written, they can either make or break an influential part of your story. Therefore, I would like to bring up just a few things. 

·         Be specific with strikes. As a martial artist and a reader, it is not very helpful for my imagination to read “person A punched/kicked person B.” Where did person A strike, and what kind of strike was it? It is better with such words to say that he or she did a roundhouse kick to the person’s side, as it helps the reader to better picture the scene.

·         Remember, weapons are the extensions of your arms. There are many types of weapons, and each has a style and specific pattern of attacks. You will never see a person wield a staff (which is supposed to be as long as the person is tall) with one hand because he or she would be easily disarmed. Similarly, some weapons such as sai are used in pairs, and can be used for both offense and defense. If you are not sure how a specific weapon is used, it is best to do research to make sure that you get it right. It might be annoying, but it will make the portrayal of the scene much better (and more accurate as well).

·         Do not carry them out for extended lengths. Most fights do not last long in reality, especially if one party is much more skilled than the other. Also, not only is it taxing reading a fight that takes a long time, but it is also difficult to keep your concentration while writing it. Do not make it too short, but please keep it a reasonable length.

Relationships

This is (at least in my opinion) an interesting subject, as this is one of the topics that will develop through the course of the story. I feel like this is going to be my last post of exposition before delving into the action (which means a look at perspective and portraying action in the near future) of the story. Since this is a fluctuating topic, this is in no way, shape, or form concrete! Before you begin, you might want to make a chart or something to show how your characters relate to one another, who gets along (and who doesn't), and which ones are in charge of the others. To be honest, this is the first time that I am going to do so before I begin to write, as I like to write the introduction of my main character(s) of my stories before anything else. However, initial relationships between characters should not be an afterthought.

Feathery Thoughts (schoononover.deviantart.com)

Now that I have my miniature rant out of the way, let's get down to business. First of all, which other characters comprise of your main character's family? Who are they friends with? Who do they dislike (or hate, since it makes it much more fun to have a character that frequently pops in to annoy your main character... but I digress)? Do they have a boss, or are they someone else's boss? Are they in a relationship with another character in the beginning of the story? Since we have the laundry list, we can begin to compile everything... or at least to make some sort of chart and show where all of your characters lie.

As I have before, I will use Arynna as an example (she is my current story muse, as the story events play out randomly in my head).

• Family: her mother and father are very influential members of the kingdom's court, though she has no idea that they are her parents. The only one who knows that they are related is her mother, and she isn't talking.
• Arynna is the captain of the Temporal Guard, but because of her personality her vice-captains do not stick around long. Her current captain is Maeru, and he can be cocky, so she has to put him in his place at times (much to his distaste). The other guard that shows up in the beginning is Hyorin, who is constantly getting in trouble for being late (he is like a lost puppy on the side of the street in the rain) but is very loyal.
• She is very close to the queen/ keeper of the realm of time, for reasons other than being the captain. The queen acts as her mother (plot hole/ hint). Arynna's relation to the king, however, is more related to her business than friendship or family. From time to time she is required to perform tasks as the Court Assassin (her job is interesting and complicated), and when she goes to fix a rift in time she should report back to the king (she makes her vice-captain do this- just one of the reasons why they do not stick around).

There is not much more to tell about my character, but trying this with your character might be able to help the exposition move more smoothly. Just remember that these things can be changed whenever you feel like it, and please do not exhaust your characters by writing too much. If anything, you could simply write the names of the characters and a sentence about who they are. Have fun writing, and be prepared next week to tackle some action!