Create Strong Settings #AtoZChallenge #IWSG Blogging History

Create strong settings

In the opening, we saw The Forest. In this next scene, we see the Valiant Tavern. The highlighted areas below show setting details that point out what the place basically looks like, especially as it will relate to the story.

The portrait is our first clue that Monoghan was once famous and that he is much older than the audience might believe. 

The trash becomes important later.

We learn from the porch that this is a bit like a red carpet at an awards show. Judgment reigns supreme here, but Monoghan doesn't care. 

The door is so heavy and solid that it suggests this place may have been a stronghold at some point. The walls are stone, adding to that theory. Inside has hiding places, such as the rafters and corners. 

Hopefully, the five primary senses are involved: 

sight 👀 - The look is described, especially the dirty portraits.

smell 👃 - We can imagine how that trash might smell. (Moreso if you've been in allies with such dumpsters.🚮)

hearing 👂 - The first sounds are the judgemental porch patrons. Later, the door and the echo.

taste 👅 - He orders a mead 🍺 later in the scene. 

touch ☝ - The weight of the door is the clearest usage. Velvet on the stool also has a distinct feeling.

Is this the sort of place you'd want to go or read about?

A lot of fantasy stories include a tavern or similar place, especially near the start. 

A bit of intrigue, a little mystery, and perhaps danger make the place intriguing. 

Do you expect this type of place in a high-fantasy story?

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Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
#AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com

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InsecureWritersSupportGroup.com

Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Janet Alcorn, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre, and Pat Garcia!

April 3 question - How long have you been blogging? What do you like about it and how has it changed?

I started back in 2012 so I could join the #AtoZChallenge. The first blog was on a platform that is now defunct. The second platform shut down after some problems with coding. This Blogger blog is the third and current blogging platform for my blog. 

I enjoy sharing more details about what I'm writing, participating in blog hops, and connecting with fellow bloggers. The biggest change is the shrinking community. A to Z and the IWSG are the strongest groups of bloggers I know, and they are supportive of one another.

Have one of those, or both, brought you here today?

Books for Authors on the Craft of Writing and #WritingCommunity #IWSG

 Before I dive into this IWSG post, I'm going to leave a quick remark about my previous post. 
On the subject of teens trick-or-treating. Not every teenager has good parents or a good home or food on the table. There is exactly ONE night a year where they can go door to door to ask for food without being frowned upon. 

Well, that's not true, because some people do frown upon it. Look, everyone is going to feel how they're going to feel. But what if people who hand out candy to children opted to hand out raisins or those McDonald's coupons for a free small fry to the teens? 🍟 Something like that. Because maybe some of those young adults aren't trying to pull a goof or take advantage, maybe they've just found a one-night loophole to get some free food. businessinsider.com There is historical evidence of poor children using that night to get free food. 🎃 Just something to consider.

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Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: PK Hrezo, Cathrina Constantine, PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, and Sandra Cox!

August 4 question - What is your favorite writing craft book? Think of a book that every time you read it you learn something or you are inspired to write or try the new technique. And why?

You gonna make Daddy pick between two of his children? 😮

Okay, beyond tooting my own horn 🎺, here's a list of writing craft books I'm into: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/7120981-j-dorner?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=book-on-writing

Of those, and ones that aren't my own, my favorite is "Around the Writer's Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer's Resistance" by Rosanne Bane.
If you haven't been writing for bit, or have been struggling, this book is very helpful.

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Only a couple more days until the next WEP! writeeditpublishnow

How would you describe a fluid character look #writetip #writingcommunity #writingquestion

I'm in a discussion about the look of a certain character. The villain would be good-looking if not for their evil choices. To me, this makes sense. I've met people who could be good-looking, but they've done so many horrible things that it shows on them. Maybe it's more of a feeling, something in your instincts that keep you from feeling attraction. Except actors can do it.

Here's a good-looking James McAvoy.


(Wikimedia Commons
File: James McAvoy by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg - Wikimedia Commons - Labeled free for reuse)

Is it the hair?
 Nope. Still goodlooking.




Ah! Now we're getting somewhere. This guy isn't good-looking.


Hollywood does it with women too. I could drop examples all day long.

But how does a writer describe this? Without referencing movies or actors. Someone who has pleasing facial features, but there's something that keeps them from being good-looking. Some darkness in the eyes, the way they move their face, there's just something.

Or, do only a few people see what I'm talking about?

Have you ever looked at a picture of someone from history and thought, "Wow, that person is incredibly good-looking," and then found out they did something deplorable? Or do you see the pictures and think, "This person is almost good-looking, but there's something keeping me from feeling attracted or recognizing the beauty"?

This blog post is a two-part question.

1) Do you recognize evil in someone when you see it, and find it unattractive?
2) How would you describe that? 

Original: ~ One of the captors who held the girl's chains, a young man who would be quite desirable if not for his villainous choices, chuckled at the question. ~

Improved attempt 1: ~ One of the captors who held the girl's chains, a young man who was handsome behind his aura of evil, chuckled at the question. ~

Improved attempt 2: ~ One of the captors who held the girl's chains, an almost desirable young man if not for the hatred radiating from his grin, chuckled at the question. ~

W Questions for Characters #AtoZChallenge

My theme this year is blogging about my author brand. Mondays' posts are on Characters or Settings.



W Questions for Characters

Here are some questions to use when creating a character:

What are my strengths?
What are my short-term goals?
What are my long-term goals?
What is my proudest accomplishment?
What is my biggest failure?

Who matters most to me?
Who are my support people?
Of what am I ashamed?
What am I worried about?
Where do I feel the safest?
What or who gives me comfort?
If I wasn’t afraid, I would ___________
What does my inner critic tell me?
What do I do to show myself self-compassion and self-care?
Am I an introvert or an extrovert? Am I energized being around others or being by myself? What proves this in the story?

What do I like to do for fun?
What new activities am I interested in or willing to try?
What do I like about my job? What do I dislike?
What is my biggest passion?
What is my happiest memory?
What do my dreams tell me?

What are my values? What do I believe in? (consider politics, religion, social issues)
If I could have one wish, it would be ___________
Am I a night owl or an early bird, and in what ways can I arrange my life to better suit this part of my nature?


What is my favorite:

• Book? 
• Movie? 
• Band? 
• Food? 
• Color? 
• Animal?

How much time do you spend on character creation?

Quotes #AtoZchallenge #writetip

My theme this year is blogging about my author brand. Mondays' posts are on character tips.



Quotes

There are billions of characters in fiction. What's one way we remember them?

John McClane - Die Hard

We remember quotes and catchphrases. That's why giving them to your main character can be useful. It can also reveal something about your character.

From Fractions of Existence, I have one pretty good example to share and one sort-of-okay example.

This is a pretty good example because Heath's use of the word magma reveals something about his character and makes him memorable. (It's an Urban Fantasy and not all readers figure out what this reveals in the first book, but it becomes more clear in book two.)

This is a sort-of-okay example because Xavier uses the word "reunite" fairly often. It's a reference to his main external and internal goals in the book. But it isn't used in such a way as to be catchy for the audience. It's not likely that "we must reunite our kind" would appear on a t-shirt, for example.

  
Can you think of a quote or catchphrase of a fictional character?

#atozchallenge Kirstie - Character Insight

My theme this year is blogging about my author brand. Mondays' are posts are about characters.



Kirstie - Character Insight

Kirstie has no lines in Fractions of Existence. Why does she even have a name?

Though her role is small, she has a purpose. She represents one of Wend's biggest internal struggles. Kirstie has something Wend longs for (and it's not a change of clothing). The character is mentioned as Wend nearly quits her journey. What's interesting is that Wend is, well, what she is, but Kirstie is completely ordinary. And yet she is envied by Wend.

Some characters exist as mirrors for other main characters. It's someone who has already achieved a goal that the main character is struggling with now. It's mocking, on one hand. It's hope on the other. The purpose, especially in fantasy, is to give the reader a moment to pause and see how an extraordinary character can have something in common with a regular person.


What do you have in common with a fantasy character?

#atozchallenge Education - Character Insight #writing

My theme this year is blogging about my author brand. Mondays' are posts are about characters.



Education - Character Insight

One way to distinguish between characters in fiction is to look at education. Not just how and where they were educated, but how they feel about education. As an example, I'll discuss a few of my characters from the Existence series.

Five of the main characters of Fractions of Existence had attended the Apollo Cheever Academy (a fictional school) in the late 1980s to the late 1990s. The school becomes a setting again in a later book in the series, and in some of the short stories that are floating around the web.

Xavier:

• Apollo Cheever Academy
• Harvard

Xavier was a good student, but not the best student. He wanted to be done with school and move on to doing, to living, and to changing the world. Xavier was bored with school because he remembers more than the others do. He feels everyone should have as much education as they desire.

Heath

• Apollo Cheever Academy
• MIT

Heath is a fantastic student who excels at anything he studies. Were his parents around to give permission, he would have graduated from the Academy in seventh-grade. Luckly, it's a very good school, so he was able to take college-level courses while there.

"Why do people always underestimate how much I know? My IQ is in the ninety-nine point ninth percentile. TNS!"

Heath has multiple degrees, but rarely ever mentions it. He believes learning is a life-long pursuit. Oppressing people by denying them knowledge, or by teaching inaccurate information, angers Heath. No one realizes it, but Heath uses his power, influence, and money to get a lot of people into college. Especially women who are fighting for it. Heath would have you believe that he's going to the private room of a strip club for sex. In reality, he's back there helping the lady with her math homework.

His love of knowledge is his most guarded secret. The porn collection he leaves out in plain view. The floor below his apartment? Only Xavier and one building employee know that it's one of Heath's private libraries.

Gwendolyn (Wend)

Wend is in college because that's the next step in the plan. She majors in music at Moorpark. She didn't attend Apollo Cheever Academy. In fact, she's never heard of it. Wend went to public school. She thinks the current system is fine, that everyone is getting just the right amount of education. Actually, she's never given it a lot of thought. Like most political matters, she doesn't think she matters enough to change anything, so she simply doesn't think about it. (At least not in book one.)

There you have it.
Three characters, three different viewpoints on education. It's one of the many ways that similar characters can be different from each other.



Do you feel that every child should get the best education possible? Should access to knowledge be restricted based on family income?

#AtoZchallenge 2020 Theme Reveal #AuthorBrand

On my previous blog, I posted about my author brand. It started after I read a book that included the subject. Every month I would do my goal check-in posts. And every month I'd notice that I didn't focus enough or evenly on what I feel is my author brand. So, for the April A to Z Challenge 2020, I'm going to focus on my author brand topics each week.

• Characters and Settings (Mondays)
• Speculative Fiction (Tuesdays -- includes a WEP Flash Fiction post)
• Reading and then writing book reviews (Wednesdays)
• About J Lenni Dorner (Thursdays)
• Legends, Myths, and Storytelling (Fridays) A continuous story told in parts!
• Lenni Lenape /Native American interests (Saturdays)