Don’t screw with Grandma
The following was written based on the article linked below. It’s set in… Well, the story actually explains the setting in some depth. But if you want to know exactly what I’m imagining, purchase a time machine or a deep space telescope and have a look at Puckett’s or Pritchard’s grocery store in Shamrock, Texas, somewhere around 1988.
The Nature of Interest
I have long held that the world was a more interesting place when it was flat. The best concrete example I have of this fact is Wikipedia, which is filled with incomplete articles on a variety of topics: reading a one-paragraph stub is apt to produce hours of conjecture and related research, whereas digesting a full article with references and extensive elaboration is an act forgotten in mere minutes.
Poetry
I hate poetry. Any work that doesn’t make you money until after you’re dead doesn’t count as work at all. I’m an arrogant son of a bitch, but I don’t think I’ll be making my living as a poet laureate any time soon. But everyone’s talking about this one…
Putting into practice: 1
scene/sequel
motivation/reaction
setting/description
This piece is an update of a scene that has appeared in several versions of a manuscript tentatively titled Wake the Dragon, something I’ve been working on for about two years now.
The manuscript kept becoming bogged down in scenes between scenes where nothing much would happen, so I set it aside. Each time I tried to fix the problems that appeared, it seemed the fix was worse than what had gone before it.
I must also confess that I never felt I was able to convey the setting with any confidence.
There is still hope that this manuscript will eventually be completed, but I fear that I will absolutely have to forego any editing during the process. However, even if I manage to finish things this time around, I doubt this exercise will be a part of the finished product.
Old Sketch
This is not actually just a character sketch; it was part of the character’s introduction in an old version of the WTG manuscript.
Some parts of this scene make no sense: why can the slavers not find other wood here in the desert? Are materials really that scarce?
Also, it may be unclear what Aki’s “wound” is.
“Do the job.” Part 3 (conclusion)
This continues from “Do the Job.” Part 2.
Part 1 sets the scene: Bishop and his team have arrived on Parc-3 ostensibly to help local security forces in keeping the peace, though there are some suggestions that Bishop may not have laid all his cards on the table.
Part 2 reveals Sergeant Pirsin’s misgivings about Bishop’s plan; he points out that they are facing civilians rather than enemy combatants. Unfortunately, he does not reveal the nature of Bishop’s plan.
Part 3 reveals the dirty truth.
“Do the job.” Part 2
This continues from “Do the job.”
The previous installment set the scene: Bishop and a team of mercenaries have set down on Parc-3 ostensibly to provide additional security for the ISEC campus there.
Read on to see how the story continues.
“Do the job.”
This was inspired by a passage from the game Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. The writing in that game played a vital role in setting the scene for each mission — far more important than any of the cutscenes.
This piece is what I call a “character sketch.” Basically, it’s a scene or series of scenes focusing on aspects of a character. Sometimes I have in mind a specific trait that I want to showcase, or backstory that I want to flesh out. Other times, I’m hoping to find out something about a character that I don’t already know.
This sketch is incomplete; further parts will follow soon, I hope. This segment contains what Hudson would term “harsh language.” You’ve been warned.
Prewriting: Setting
This article is a continuation from last week’s article on characterization.
The Importance of Setting
When a setting is successful, the audience comes to understand the story on its own terms and by its rules; the audience doesn’t question that an old hotel can bring ghosts to life in the presence of a powerful psychic; the audience instead fears for the pyschic’s safety while wintering in said malevolent building.
Setting is more important as a tool to help the audience understand the story than it is as a stage upon which the story takes place. Any given story can be placed in more than one setting, depending on which parts of the story the storyteller intends to emphasize, or on the storyteller’s intended audience. In The Lion King a story originally set in Denmark has been relocated to Africa and the human characters replcaed by a cast of animals.
Realizing that any basic story can take place anywhere, how can you be sure you have the right setting?
Read the rest of this entry »
“Fight in the Shade”
Example:
when Dienekes, a Spartan soldier, was informed that Persian arrows would be so numerous as “to block out the sun,” he retorted, unconcerned: “So much the better…then we shall fight our battle in the shade.”
Also:
…made in the shade…
…etc. Why is it that in English we have only one shade? Doesn’t matter what casts the shadow; countless trees the world over provide only one dark, cool place in which we can sit and enjoy a summer afternoon.
I wonder if this is peculiar to English, or if the same thing is found in other languages as well, and in what form.
The character of the phrase could be wholly changed by simply removing the word the and saying simply shade; such a variant would still (as far as I can see) be grammatically correct, and would not imply that, as Duncan McLeod would say, “There can be only one.”
But we don’t say it that way. No one says it that way. There are actually plenty of examples of this sort of singularity: the rain, the wind, the sun, the shade…
Who put that the in there, anyway?