This one is aspirational. Wormhole Mana is good (at least book one; I just started book two). In no particular order… It’s tight third person. There are internal monologues in first person of the character monologuing. It’s all very obvious. No weird point-of-view changes. There is incremental “what’s going on?” as the magic system isContinue reading “My Competition 4”
Author Archives: Mark
Who’s Responsible?
I really, really like black-and-white morality in my fiction. Unfortunately, that makes for unrealistic (and often dull) stories. A reasonable current events example is Iran. One of the problems with decapitation is that when you kill those responsible, who’s left to make decisions? Iran as a state cannot surrender because there is no one whoContinue reading “Who’s Responsible?”
Impulsive Anger
I’ve finally figured out what irritates me so much about Cultivation books: The cultivators spend so much time, effort, and pain doing all sorts of complicated techniques to grow stronger, but as soon they feel insulted – legitimately or not – all that discipline flies out the window and they fly into an impulsive rage.Continue reading “Impulsive Anger”
OK, Boomer
What Grocery Stores Lost When They Ditched the 1970s Layout contains a lot of interesting factibbles. It also contains a lot of opinions. This quote needed some trimming. It’s section 6. Ask anyone who grew up shopping with their parents in the 1970s about the deli counter and you’ll usually get a smile before theContinue reading “OK, Boomer”
Justification
Humans are really good at justifying themselves – especially to their own self. We all do it. The one that drives me nuts is “if I don’t kill this guy, my kid will suffer.” That’s all well and good when “this guy” is a knife-wielding maniac attacking your kid. It’s more than a bit differentContinue reading “Justification”
When Would You Pick?
If you were to die today and were offered the chance to be injected into your own mind at any point in your life’s timeline, when would you pick? Before you had your children? For me, that one’s easy because I don’t have children. Chances are very high that, even if you try to avoidContinue reading “When Would You Pick?”
Obstacles
A story is basically a description of how the intrepid hero overcomes the obstacles between him and his goal. I have not been explicitly writing down the obstacles. That shall change. In my OutlineThingy document, I have the cross-chapter arcs and the chapter goals. I have not written down the obstacle. I will now toContinue reading “Obstacles”
Integration
I haven’t been writing of late because I’m trying to figure out what happens in book two because it affects how book one ends – and I’m getting close. The biggest problem is that I’ve apocalpysed Earth and granted people superpowers, but governments do not go quietly. For every intrepid werewolf, there are fifty superpoweredContinue reading “Integration”
Redemption Interrupted
This is an interesting story arc: Nasty (“blinkered” might be more accurate) person moves to a new place. Causes grief. Realizes she’s nasty/blinkered/culturally out-of-step and starts to adapt. Things get better. Stops adapting. Causes even more grief. Ends badly. The usual redemption arc continues until redemption. Getting halfway there and going off the rails backContinue reading “Redemption Interrupted”
My First Jelly
While I wait in hunger for the bread to cool, it occurred to me that I haven’t posted since before my computer died (power supply bit it). So, here we are. Much like the peas, this is not for self-sufficiency. I mainly want to cover up a chain-link fence, so why not grape vines? That’sContinue reading “My First Jelly”
