Current Updates

Here's just a brief idea of what I've been up to:

- Preparing to make video reviews for my video game blog. Getting Final Cut Pro and a tutorial and starting tinkering around.
- Submitting Half to everything that moves. Had a few decent bites! (woo woo)
- Editing Quarter, doing my second minor edit of Half, and going back to Death's Aria
- NOT writing my middle grade book. I've written almost four books this year already, each on a deadline (all three of them took less than a month each) and I need a breather. Priming the pump or whatever. I'll start writing it once I feel the creative spark to write punch me in the face.
- Watched The Dark Knight Rises. Didn't like it. I'd promise a review, but I promise those all the time and then don't pull through. But I do want to write one.
- Enjoying taking a break from my hobbies. Sometimes I treat them with even more seriousness than my actual job (read: I do this all the time) and the stress is getting to me. A breather was necessary.
- I bought a Dreamcast (actually two Dreamcasts; one of the ones I bought was a model I didn't want...anybody want a Dreamcast?) and am enjoying playing games on that. Also bought like 50 NES games, so I have to burn through those.
- Considering writing scripts for previously mentioned movie reviews. They're gonna be crazy. Crazy AWESOME, or at least I hope.

That's it; just enjoying some laid-back summerness. I'll keep updating the Video Game Blog, but aside from that I'm on hiatus. I hope you are all having good summers as well!

Review: Apparition by Michaelbrent Collings

There is nothing I personally fear more than losing myself. Losing control of my emotions and making a mistake, failing to maintain dominance over my most basic of functions and becoming manipulated by some other, sinister force. I believe this is why the concept of possession is so chilling to many people: you lose what makes you YOU, so you still have to witness the awful consequences of your actions.

Apparition by Michaelbrent Collings is about parents killing their children. I'm not going to mince words here, this book deals with filicide. If that sort of thing bothers you even in the very slightest, you should probably avoid this book, because it will get in your head and royally mess you up. However, if you are the kind of person who loves books that get into your head and royally mess you up, then I really have a novel suggestion for you!

To put it into context: this book starts with a graphic description of filicide. Not so much that I'd consider it distasteful, but absolutely horrific enough to make me squirm uncomfortably. Which, considering I got this book to be scared, I'll write that down as a bullet point for the positive.

The story follows Shane and his two children, who are seeking answers in regards to why parents suddenly snap and murder their children. All the while dark things being creeping into their lives, influencing Shane and putting some rather awful thoughts into his head. Without spoiling much, I'll just say that as Shane gets closer and closer to finding the truth, he falls deeper and deeper into the abyss of madness.

Michaelbrent Collings is a master of building suspense, providing lulls that are still unnerving and then hitting you with big scares. I felt he did this near-perfectly in Rising Fears, while The Haunting had sections that felt a little long for me. In Apparition his pacing is at its finest: starting with a horrific, jolting scene to set the mood, and balancing the brief breathers with the heart-stopping horror. I literally read until three in the morning until I was so tired I passed out with Kindle in hand, and when I returned to the book I didn't stop until I had completely finished it.

While I'd argue this is my favorite of Michaelbrent's books I've read so far, I had two issues with it. The first is I never really had a grasp on Matthew's age, which kept throwing me off. He seemed particularly young considering how he talked (and was talked to) at the beginning, but then he'd observe things in his viewpoint that seemed way too old for his thought processes. A minor nitpick (especially since the teenage daughter was done so well), but enough to throw me off.

The other is the issue that horror masters have been battling since the genre began: that not seeing a monster is far more scary than when you actually reveal it. While I think Apparition did very well by concealing the true identity of the monster until the very end, once the reveal happened it was, as one expects, far less scary than anything I was speculating. A few of the final scenes even came off as a bit corny. This didn't detract from the absolutely bananas climax that Apparition has (not to mention the fantastic, fantastic epilogue that capstones this horror novel perfectly) but I often wonder if a horror book would work where we never actually see the big bad and only witness it's influence and awful aftermath. But that's not a question for this review.

Long story short, Apparition provides exactly as advertised: raw, unflinching horror speckled with gore and a healthy dose of "that's just wrong!" If you have any affinity for the horror genre whatsoever, I high suggest picking up this and all the rest of Michaelbrent Collings' works. Just be warned: this book was the first book I've ever read to give me nightmares, so maybe you should read it with all the lights on.

Four out of five stars. 

Nathan vs Video Games Kickstarter

(I'm reposting this from my video game blog. Please consider throwing a few bucks in my direction so I can make some awesome movies! :D)

I'm doing a kickstarter!

Like Let's Play's? Curious what I'd sound like on camera? Want me to play some REALLY AWFUL GAMES (Like PK Out of the Shadows on Gamecube) with commentary? Want to SUGGEST an awful game and have me review it ON VIDEO?

All this can be yours if you just contribute a few bucks to my kickstarter! RAD.

GO GIVE ME SOME MONEY! 

In all seriousness, I've been wanting to do video stuff for a while. I have a ton of video editing software already (hence why the kickstarter doesn't have to be too expensive) but I'd love to get a really nice capture card and maybe some good microphones and do some delicious video content. I can't guarantee it'll be all quality right out of the gate (hey, it's a learning experience) but I'm determined to make some awesome stuff should this get funded, and if anything watching me swear at Donald Duck while playing that awful PK game will probably be worth a couple bucks (in my humble opinion).

If you are interested, PLEASE go donate! As another cool bonus, if you donate $15 or more you get a PERLER BEAD sprite of your choice! Pretty rad, huh?

Share this around and we'll see how it goes! Thanks for contributing; and expect tons more content coming up in the next few weeks!

Quarter, book #10, complete!

In another three-week (and a day change) book blitz, the sequel to Half, Quarter, is completed! Huzzah and hooray!

I'm hungry and want dinner, so here's some really basic level stats:

Total words: 75,064

Total chapters: 27 (including the epilogue)

New main characters: 3-4

Fight scenes: 7 (if you count the final fight + car chase as two)

Vampires: JUST HALF OF ONE THIS TIME!!!!

So that's it. This is less exciting than the usual book finish posts, but hey...what do you expect? Next on the docket, werewolf uncles. See ya then. 

A Book A Month All Summer

A brief update (I'll be back from my blog hiatus soon; expect a post on writing book summaries!) for what's going on with my current plans:

I'm going to try and write a book a month for every summer month (June, July, August, September). This is more feasible than my original plan to write two books in June, mostly because life got in the way in June.

However, my current plan is to finish the half-done Quarter in the next week, and then start on my middle-grade novel in July. August we'll churn out Eighth, the third book in my Half chain, which should be pretty cool. Then, in September, we'll do the third Might of the Steelgods book: The War of Blood and Oil seeing as it's tradition to write one of those dumb things at the end of summer every year. (Steelgod September returns!)

After that I have no idea. I also plan on finishing A Straight Cut sometime in July if I have time. I'm going to just write it on days I'm not writing something else. That book annoys me.

I also have to edit Death's Aria and do minor Half revisions, as well as send Half to everybody and their dog in July. If I don't start submitting, my year goals to submit at least two novels this year will fail. I have more than enough material; I just need to submit!

That's it for now. I'm writing Quarter like a fiend! Expect some cool life updates soon, too. :)

GRE Induced Hiatus

In case you haven't noticed, I'm taking a slight blogging break for the next couple of weeks. A week from Saturday I'm taking the GRE (and studying for it has sucked up most of my brain power) and then we are going to family reunion, so I will be too busy to provide updates.

I do plan on writing Quarter and my middle-grade novel in June (two weeks for each). However, don't expect updates from this blog for a while still.

Thanks for your patience; see you eventually!

My biggest problem with the Game of Thrones TV Show

This show still has my favorite opening of any show ever. 

(This still isn't my post on violence or an album review. Sorry?)

So I've been watching A Game of Thrones on HBO. The sad truth is it was the first season that actually got me to finally read the books, which I devoured up until #4 which I am currently stuck on. Sorry, but after the insanity that was Storm of Swords, it's a little hard to keep going and have everything live up to expectation.

Regardless, reading the books opened my eyes a lot about how the TV show is produced and presented, especially now that I've read the second book before the second season kicks in. And, after re-watching the first Season (for my failed attempt to review them episodically on here, which I swear I'll do someday) I had a sort of revelation:

I don't think the TV show is very confident in itself.

But Sean Bean is always confident. THAT HE'LL DIE. The man's a two-legged spoiler. 

Hear me out: I love the TV show. I think it does well in presenting an adult fantasy story on mainstream television (if HBO is "mainstream"), which is something that very rarely happens. Usually these things fall apart under the silliness of the story or magic, and when they attempt to be "dark" they end up being shallow or pretentious. Which Game of Thrones manages to not fall in. 

Yet.

The reason I say "yet" is I feel it's skirting on the edge here. And the reason I have is this: it isn't confident enough in its dark premise.

Let me elaborate: A Game of Thrones (and the whole Song of Fire and Ice) is a dark batch of books. The characters are delightfully gray, with even the most noble appearing "heroes" often making selfish, poor mistakes and having us (as readers) question if we really admire these people as much as we thought. It has been said that the only good main character in this book is Samwise, which I can agree with. 

What made the books (especially the first one) so good is the fact it manage to be exciting, tense, and dark without having to do much stuff that the mainstream would classify as "exciting, tense, and dark." While there was plenty of violence, it wasn't at the forefront. While there was sex happening all the time (including incest, rape, and more) it was almost never on camera, and tended to not be sexually explicit (minus a rather putrid scene at the start of A Clash of Kings). The first book was confident that it could tell its story and be compelling without any cheap tricks. Sex and violence was presented as part of the story, not as gratuitous stimulation to titillate and excite. It was a necessity but not the point, with the violence or sex not being at the center of a scene but rather something that happened to support the dialogue, politics, and dark schemes. It's a fine line to skirt, because a reader can easily get bored without some "cheap thrills," but it was confident and masterfully done enough to pull it off.

But the TV show is not like this, at all.

If you are a legal age female in this show, odds are you'll be seen topless at least once. 

Nudity is all over the place. Scenes in the novel that originally didn't have it added it as a "bonus," and scenes that did have sex are longer and more drawn out to keep things going. They even added an extra "main" character in the first season, some hooker Theron liked, just so she could spout some expository dialogue while the two of them were getting it on. It has gotten so bad that when last week's episode (Season 2 Episode 5, "The Ghost of Harrenhal") came out and was actually the first episode in the series without nudity, people stood up and took notice. Yeah, essentially episode 15 was the first one without some boobs. Nice work.

The reason for this is obvious, if a bit annoying. Since they have a limited run and the books are big, they had to get the expository dialogue out somehow. My main problem is that their #1 choice for doing this is during a sec scene. Vesyris needs to explain about dragons? Do it while he's having sex in a tub. Theron Greyjoy needs to explain the Starks and his frustrations to build into Season 2? Do it when having sex. Dani needs to learn more about the Dothraki? Make sure you do it when also talking about sex. Littlefinger needs to talk about his political goals? Position it over him teaching prostitutes how to turn each other on. Renley and the Knight of Flowers need to chat? Make sure it's while both are nude and shaving each other. Not all expository dialogue is presented via sex, but it does seem to be the vast majority.

What? Characters talking without sex? REWRITE IT!

While this could easily be dismissed as laziness of the writers, I honestly don't think so. There are plenty of added scenes that are actually quite good. The highlight for me is a dialogue between Robert and Ceresi in the first season that isn't in the book. You don't really learn much about their relationship in the novel except they generally hated each other and were married out of politics, but this little scene is just the two of them talking and remembering their times together. Both are horrible people (Robert because he's a fat, lazy sloth and Ceresi because she only cares about her personal gain and the gains of her children) but cast in this light you see them differently. You are given dialogue that explains the world and digs deeper into the character's. It's a great scene.

So I know the writers are capable here, because the rest of the show (both stuff that's new and old) is written masterfully. So why the need for all the sex? (and exaggerated violence, but we'll just assume everybody knows that's in there so I don't have to talk about it)

I think it's because Game of Thrones isn't confident that it'll be "dark" enough without showing all this awful stuff. It isn't confident in the viewers understanding the depth of the characters without shoving it into their faces.

Consider this: In Season 2 Episode 4, "Garden of Bones," Joffery is given two whores from his uncle as a birthday present. What happens is a long, horrible scene where the young king basically forces them to beat each other bloody. It's a stressful thing to watch because of how awful and trapped these whores are (though don't worry; both are completely nude and the show isn't afraid to show it).

I don't remember if this happens in the book, but it was certainly never presented in scene. My question is this: Why was it necessary to burn 10 minutes of a already crammed show on this? We already know Joffery is horrible. We knew it the second we laid eyes on him; he was a smug, pompus jerk. The actor was fantastic at portraying this without being overt. And, after he has done so many horrible things already, why is this necessary?

Because they aren't confident, is why. They can't let the subtle characters of the book simply play out; they have to slap you in the face with it. Over and over. "Look at us! Look how dark our characters are! Look how edgy we are! We are HBO, you can't see this on normal TV!"

Look at this picture. You KNOW he's a douche. You didn't need to see him order naked prostitutes to beat each other to prove it. 

There are many, many examples of this. And while you could argue it's to make it more appealing to a mainstream (read: dumber) audience than those who read the books, I really feel that it is more of them thinking their "edgy" drama is impotent, so they always overcompensate. Trust me guys: we know how bad the characters are. We know this is a dark story. But because you insist on showing us how edgy you are, the impact is lost. We are desensitized to boobs because they are all over the place. We are desensitized to violence because it's always gory and gruesome. And so, when a scene that is supposed to be impactful because of the violence or sex or abuse comes up, its effect is lessened. You are actually weakening your characters by having them be so blatant.

This might be a little nitpick and again, I'm technically a "new" fan of the books so I might be wrong, but it is really starting to get to me. It's almost predictable now...is an infodump needed? I bet you the next scene starts with somebody getting it on with somebody else. Oh look, I was right, what a surprise.

It's like HBO is a kid trying to hard to be dark and evil and scary he went to Hot Topic and bought all the clothes and stacked them all on and goes around growling and cussing and making lewd gestures, while all the adults just shake their heads and chuckle to themselves. That isn't edgy, it's overkill. The source material is so incredibly dark already, it would work better if you were subtle. Don't beat it into our heads that Joffery is the worst human being on the planet, just let him show it in line with the story. What does the beating of the whores have to do with the overarching narrative? Nothing. But when he forces Sansa to strip and humiliates her in front of the court (which Tyrion saves her from), this shows progression. It shows Joffery is awful right there. It shows Sansa is broken. And it shows Tyrion might actually have a heart, while earning plenty of Joffery's ire. It's a great scene, and it had no boobs (probably because the actress for Sansa is underaged), no forcing the point, and no expository dialogue. And hey, it was a scene lifted from the book. What a surprise.

At least all of Arya's plot arch is wonderfully intact.

Lastly, since this has gone on far too long anyway, let me give one final example. As I mentioned before, the Episode "The Ghost of Harrenhal" was the first episode to not have any boobs. I'd like to just point out a scene (minor spoiler here) that I felt was powerful that didn't have to rely on any cheap tricks to make it that way.

Tywin is around a table with his lords, discussing the war against Robb Stark. He's decided Arya is to be his cupbearer, without knowing her true identity, so she is essentially hearing her brother's mortal enemy discuss how he is going to destroy his armies in a methodical, tactical manner. As the scene plays out she is brought into the conversation, believed by Tywin to be a northern girl but not aware she's a Stark. After asking her what the northerns think of Robb, she spins a tale of mythological proportions about Robb's strength and Direwolf. Tywin laughs, asking Arya if she believes Robb is invincible. She says, "No...any man can be killed." Scene closes on Arya.

It's worth nothing there is almost no swearing, violence, rude behavior, sex, or anything of the sort in this scene, yet it is dark, creepy, tense, and powerful. We see Tywin as he really is: a genius and ruthless warlord whose competence makes him sympathetic but also a bit arrogant; had he know it was Arya there he might have realized his life was potentially in danger. And we also see Arya's arc growing: she's becoming more revenge fueled, convincing herself that she can kill anyone, even Tywin. Lastly, we are seeing the world and war develop, and all this is portrayed by some downright killer acting across the board. 

These are the types of scenes the show needs. We don't need people spouting politics in bed or right after. Giving somebody to do while spouting dialogue is a common writing trick: people sitting around is boring. But adding sex to make it "edgy" is just crass and cheap. If you can't use a scene from the book, make one that isn't there but doesn't involve tons of nudity. If you need to infodump, do it through other scenes. It was already sublimely interwoven in the novels; do it here if you want to retain that spirit. 

Plus, you know you want this in Season 3, HBO. 

Let me close by saying this: I do not hate this show. In fact, it's probably my most favorite TV show ever. It's magnificently cast, acted, and the production values are through the roof. I think it's setting a new bar for television, and I also am glad that medieval fantasy is finally getting through to the mainstream public as this might open up options for future TV shows in that genre.

That being said, I think the series could do better. Right now it's amazing, but with just a few changes it could be unforgettable. It shines with greatness, presenting powerful scenes and characters, and right when I'm sold that it's just the greatest thing we cut to a scene of expository dialogue and boobs. Or some grotesque, overly-bloody gore and violence. Or some other scene of crass tastelessness that seems to be there just to shock and awe. 

You are better than this, Game of Thrones. Stop pandering to the lowest common denominator. You are making a show for smart people, so stop backpedaling and make it for smart people. We don't need boobs and guts to get our attention. We want rich characters, crazy politics, and Tyrion outsmarting everybody with hilarious results. We want it to be dark but not edgy, serious and realistic but not overblown. The show is so close it hurts, and I was hoping after Season 1 when fans complained about these little things they'd fix them. They haven't, so I'm complaining again.

Make it happen, HBO. Make real, adult television. And then maybe this show will be remembered for much more. 

(Not so) Brief Update

Don't worry; the Violence in Fantasy Writing Part 2 blog will be here soon enough, as will my review of my friend's album. However, I straightened some things out with regards to my writing and I thought I'd share.

I have goals set for May and June, and they are as follows:

May
Finish A Straight Cut
Edit and send out queries for Half
Give Half to a limited Alpha run (while queries are out, probably)
Edit and prepare queries for Death's Aria
Plan Quarter (Half sequel; almost done with that already!)
Plan chapter outline for middle-grade novel


June
Write Dapper Lycanthropies Time Travel to Ancient Egypt and Save History (or whatever it ends up being called) in two weeks
Write Quarter in another two weeks


More Details
Editing Death's Aria is obviously the biggest thing in store for May, as A Straight Cut probably only has 20-30k left in it. I'm not stressing over wordcount for May I've decided; I already did for both March and April, and I have more important things to do (like fix my currently finished novels and submit them to meet my yearly goals slash actually move on this "career" thing).

After re-reading Half I've decided I actually think it turned out decent enough to submit to people. Is it perfect? No. But to be honest my strength as an editor is (in my opinion) overshadowed by my strength to write decent first drafts, so after a clean-up I'm sending it to every paranormal/urban fantasy person I know. Also: if Half does not get picked up, I will Kindle publish it. Despite it being silly I like it too much to just let it die (like what is currently happening to the Steelgods series).

I will need Alphas for the book. However, this is a very "pulpy" novel. Think the Monster Hunter International books or the first Dresden Files novels. It is intended as a fun ride and, while I'd love for it to be a refined fun ride, it's clearly seated in the less... prestigious realms of literature.

I'm also preparing for the GRE which I take the last weekend of May, which is right over CONduit. So I won't be at CONduit. Sad day. And I'll have to do that in May too.

June should be easier in theory. Quarter is practically sorted out already. I don't have an outline but I have the main plot points and twists, which is more than I had for Half and it ended up ok. We'll also be doing my middle-grade novel about time-travelling werewolves who are super British and go to Egypt, which will be short so two weeks should be feasible. I am going to a Jenkins family reunion so this isn't an easy goal at all, but as a plus I'll be surrounded by kids of the intended demographic for the werewolf book, so maybe I'll get some early Alphas. :P

Also both Quarter and Dapper Werewolves are books I just really want to write. To be honest, while I've been excited about ideas before (like A Straight Cut) I haven't really gotten sucked into a story on a personal level on a while. Death's Aria did a decent enough job, but the difference in my writing (both personally and the actual words on the page) between A Straight Cut and Half point clearly to the fact that I should be loving what I write more. So I'm going to write awesome stuff that appeals to me, even if it isn't high brow or whatever.

Not that I hate A Straight Cut (I FINALLY figured a bunch of stuff about it out, so the underarching story is really awesome now) but it isn't sticking. Also I know I have to almost completely rewrite the first 2/3rds (or do very heavy edits) before I can even show it to anybody, which is discouraging.

So that's my personal update that you probably don't care about. It works for me because it clears my head and now I have goals. So expect novel #10 (A Straight Cut) by end of May, and than a blitz for #11 and #12 in whatever order come June.

On Violence in Writing Fantasy: Part One

Pictured: Potential violence in fantasy. And Sean Bean

So I've been considering the topic of violence while writing fantasy for some time now, though a more recent conversation with my father-in-law finally sparked it to the point where this blog post exists. Violence in fantasy novels is fairly commonplace, as it is part of that whole "swords and sorcery" appeal that draws people into fantasy in the first place. You could argue a fantasy novel without a swordfight really isn't a fantasy novel, as if it's some unspoken requirement. What I want to look at is two important questions: Why do we feel violence is necessary in fantasy, and How do we portray the violence to best help a manuscript or story progress?

For this first part in this multi-part blog post, here's a brief look into other mediums to see how they handle violence. We'll start with perhaps the easiest to explain: Video Games.

From Bloodforge, a game that released yesterday on Xbox 360

Video Games have become dependent on violence to even exist. From the very first time Mario stomped a Goomba flat to the throngs of 12-year-olds currently blasting each other to death in Call of Duty, video games have become completely desensitized to violence. In fact, they are all reliant on violence to even make a game. Name me a dozen games that don't use violence at all to tell a story. Modern games. Old adventure games don't count.

Journey is the only one that comes to mind, and perhaps the recently released Fez, both indie games. The point is: violence is so overblown in video games that they are glorifying in it. The bloodies, messiest games (like Bloodforge above, God of War, Dead Space, etc.) often do so because they sell better. Like the slogan "Sex Sells" in advertising, "Violence Sells" could be applicable to video games.

Because of this, any sort of emotional impact violence might have in the majority of video games is lost. How am I supposed to feel sad my companion died in Modern Warfare 3 if I spent the whole game gunning down hundreds of people? Why should I be sad in an JRPG when my one character dies when I've spent the whole game slaughtering people, animals, and anything that has XP attached? Nier is the only game I can think of that actually turned this idea of glorifying slaughter against the player through its story, which is probably why I feel the game is atrociously clever. It was a game with swords, blood, and killing that lured you into the traditional gaming mechanic of "kill everything that moves," then pulled a clever twist on you that I won't spoil here.

The point is this: video game violence has become completely meaningless in terms of story, for most games. Even story-centric ones like Mass Effect seem to lose and edge when somebody I know dies because I've just finished killing hundreds of people. Perhaps the worst culprit of this is Uncharted, which is essentially Indiana Jones if Indiana Jones was just killing random mercenaries instead of Nazies, and doing it by the hundreds. As he cracks jokes and laughs he looks like a psychopath to anybody not familiar to this blood-soaked medium, like the creators saw Indiana Jones but completely missed why we didn't think he was a raving loon: he didn't kill everything that moved. In fact, someone counted the murders across all four movies, and there's only around 20, tops. I do more than that in the first ten minutes of any video game I've picked up in the last six months.

So video games don't know how to use violence for anything other than glorification (as a majority, anyway) and appealing to males.

One of the few movies that portrays all violence as horrific as it actually is.

Movies and television, however, haven't pigeonholed themselves into the violence-centered showcase like video games have. But, to be honest, they aren't without their flaws. The main difference between movies and games (aside from the interactivity) is movies aren't afraid to make movies without violence. They can make romantic comedies. They can make family dramas that are powerful and without a single ounce of violence in them. They can make silly movies, odd movies, and art-house movies. Comedies and more can all be bereft of any form of physical violence whatsoever.

However, when you go down to the fantasy genre, you find movies can be just as guilty as anyone else in glorifying violence.

Let's take the example from the first picture: the Game of Thrones TV adaptation. It's worth noting there actually isn't a hefty amount of violence in the first book, compared to other fantasy novels. Most violence happens off-screen, is very brief, and clean. The book is more about being a mystery story set in a dark fantasy world, while we follow a family as their lives change and influence the world around them. Even the most powerful death in the book, which I will not spoil here, is not described at all. Even abstractly. It's a brilliant death, too, and far more harrowing because you don't even see it. 

And then we have the TV show. Aside from adding tons of sex to "spice up" when expository dialogue was needed, they also extremely ramped up the violence. A guy gets a knife stabbed through his eye. You see a man get his head ripped off in the first fifteen minutes, and another one beheaded shortly after. A guy rips out a man's throat and pulls his tongue out through it, on screen, unashamed. Glorifying violence much, HBO?

Khal Drogo will mess you up. 

Looking at other fantasy novels it doesn't get better. The Lord of the Rings adaptations were surprisingly faithful, but they still spent a whole lot of time watching our heroes slice up orcs. Scenes that were off-camera in the book were put into the movie simply because they were battle scenes. The original novels certainly had their share of battles, but they weren't important. What was important was the characters, and that was forgotten.

I can't end this without mentioning the Disney adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. C.S. Lewis knew very well that putting a battle in the middle of a children's book was a slippery slope; should you really be showing kids killing mythological creatures? He did the right thing and cut straight to the aftermath, glossing over it because it really wasn't important. We all knew the Narnian's would win, and what happened after was far more interesting. Of course, the movie adaptation completely ruined this, showing kids murdering tons of stuff on camera, unashamed. The rest of the movie was downright fantastic, extremely faithful, and actually quite touching. But the second that battle comes on I'm pulled out. Also, how the heck is that movie PG?

The point is that movies are just as guilty at glorifying violence as video games, if just not as frequent. I can't think of any fantasy movie off the top of my head that manages to get through their whole thing without a swordfight or somebody killing somebody else. While I think violence can be used in a powerful way (such as in A History of Violence), in the fantasy sub-genre of film it rarely is, ever. Star Wars is actually an excellent example for both good and bad (past movies vs prequels), but I'll get into that later.

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn novels (the original trilogy) manage to have violence that is fun to read while not being gratuitous

Then we come to our current medium of choice, written books. While books certainly have been violent and gory, for the most part the majority of fantasy novels tend to tone it down substantially when compared to movies and video games. My personal theory on this matter is that the demographic that tends to enjoy graphic, gory violence tends to be males, usually in the age ranges of 13-25. It's also known that males (especially in this age range) tend to be most stimulated by anything when it is taken in visually (which is why pornographic videos tend to cater more towards males rather than females, etc.). Blood and guts in a video game or movie is easy to watch, digest, and get the violence "high" that is somewhat common with this generation of boys and men, while reading it doesn't quite do the same thing.

The point being that, if you want to argue which medium is the most "mature," the point would obviously go towards literature. It also has been around the longest, which one could use as the reasoning, but also there's that visual aspect that makes it different. Books also have the widest scope of the above mediums: they can be informative texts, artistic literary stories, romances, mysteries, fantasies...the list goes on. Unlike movies, however, you rarely find books that are violent just for the sake of being titivating (like the Saw or Hostel movies), nor do you find books overtly pornographic in nature (though the erotica genre could be argued for, but if you compared that with film pornography you'd see a massive distance, undoubtably due to target demographic).

The point is that with books much more is expected from the creators. In movies and video games you can get away with just adding tons of violence without purpose except to be "exciting." With books, that will come off as shallow or even boring. Long, overdrawn action scenes may be exciting for the author to write, but reading it might actually just be tiresome.

So we have our three mediums. In writing, how can we make violence be important?  How can it impact the reader? I'll try and go over this in the next couple of blog posts.

Revising, finishing, all that jazz

A Straight Cut's third act draws from this awesome book

So I finished plotting A Straight Cut, which actually involved completely reworking the third act. My main issue with the novel currently (and will need to be fixed in an edit before going out to Alphas) is the lack of direction for the first 2/3rds of the novel. While it's been fun to have characters interact and putter around in the world I've made, the underlying plot has been shrouded in secrecy, making it boring. Luckily Act 3 will ramp things up a bit, but it really needs a stronger first two acts in order for the third act to both make sense and actually be meaningful. 

Which means heavy editing, but we aren't worrying about that now. Now I just need to finish this dumb thing.

In other news, I restructured how Death's Aria will play out, which mostly involved moving key scenes to make the final confrontation stronger and more significant. The biggest complaint from Alphas was that the ending confrontation felt weak. Generally the results of it were fine, but the actual scene itself and the events leading up to it were stagnating after such a strong second act. I've relocated one of the strong second act scenes (clever readers might guess what I'm referring to) towards the end of the book, making the final conflict much more character driven. This also allows me to further develop the characters up to that point and fix lots of the third act's pacing issues, which will be good.

The other major change is Aria's character. While many readers felt they warmed up to her by the end, others were so disgusted with her at first they couldn't get over that initial first impression and despised her throughout. I'm reworking her so that she is more likeable at the beginning but still seriously flawed, which makes her less of a jerk who has a social problem and more of someone trying to do better...who has social problems. This shouldn't change the character enough to break my initial idea, but I think it will make her much more sympathetic. 

All this is going to require a hefty amount of editing, so I'm hoping to burn through A Straight Cut quickly so that I can move on to Death's Aria and start submitting. We'll see!

I'm also mad that I scheduled the GRE over CONduit without knowing it, and they think it's acceptable to charge freaking $50 to reschedule. Seriously? For a test I'm taking on a computer that probably is proctored by one person you aren't paying enough for? Besides, we all know you just have a pool of these SAT questions you draw from to make tests. How much could it possibly cost? Monopoly at its finest. 

Anyway, that's it from me. I have a review of a friend's album coming up within the next little bit, so keep an eye out for that!