Origins

My Father asked me something recently that I feel needs addressing, a digression for explanation. To me it is a self-evident, something that I've known so long just because of who I am and what I am; but this isn't universally true for anything. To be self-evident is to understand at a base level, we see it throughout our culture because between us and our peer, there is a basis that is consistent that we can connect and reflect upon as a whole under one idea. Something that universally connects us in this world view. But between writer and reader, there is a gap that is not traverse-able (Usually.) that we sometimes forget about. We are explaining a world view alien to anyone but ourselves.

The question my Father asked me was simple: "How do you come up with this stuff? Where does it come from?"

And to be honest, the answer is not so simple, but I'll try my best to articulate on a personal note. For me, everything originates from experiences, and every variation that they are capable of. Every sound and voice I hear, vision I see, texture I touch, taste and smell, each of these creates a facet of originality, and uniquely alters every experience before and after.

I'd like to use an analogy if you'd permit, but it requires a bit of explanation first. One of the key principals of a gun, is the concept of rifling. Riflings are grooves that spiral around the inside of the barrel of a gun used to stabilize a bullet by imparting a spin. When a bullet is passed through the barrel and over these grooves, albeit doing its job of stabilization, it also marks each bullet with a kind of gash along its sides. This is a very powerful tool when it comes to forensics as each gun has a unique type of marking that will be left, based on the slight variations between the spacing of each groove, the depth, and speed the bullets are rotated between the varying gun types and guns within the same type. Relating this to writing, the author's mind is "grooved" by every experience he or she has, and each of these things is unique from the next. And while the mind is the barrel, each idea or new thought is a bullet, locked into the chamber and ready to be fired. So as the new idea is ignited, every one of our experiences carves its way onto its face, creating a unique entity. And being that we experience things at such a rapid rate in our lives, the variations upon each new idea or type of "bullet", unlike a gun, will be vastly different than the last. Although, the core will remain the same, the key word is addition.

So to speak plainly, these original concepts are merely an interesting idea, dragged through my head, being marked away at by experiences, other dormant ideas, and extrapolated upon to craft something that could only be generated from within me. It is a reflection of everything that constitutes the inner workings of my mind.

Reaching back to the first paragraph, as a writer, one must take into consideration that their readers don't understand everything in the way we do. It is up to our explanation in its entirety to shed light upon an imaginary world that exists only within us. There's no aftermath, there's no encyclopedia ala your brain. Just what's written. Explain it.

Cathan

#1. Progress

On a more topical note, I've been stumped recently; whether or not that is merely a question of laziness, I'm not sure. I've had a hard time recently being able to devote time to my writing. Oddly enough, I do most of my writing at work when I've got spare time, and lately its been unusually chaotic at work, not that that is an excuse, but a trend I've noticed.

But this is the first time I've spoken about my novel, so I'll give some background on it. Spurring from my adoration of Mythology, I'm beginning to craft a fantasy novel based on Norse mythos. Though surrounded in fantasy, it is also a type of sci-fi. It has to deal with immortality and the shackles it holds, as well as the mindset of someone who has seen near the entire life span of human society. It delves into the Gods themselves, their reign and fall, and the new Gods born from the ashes. Equally, it eventually has to do with the mechanics of the universe and how one's horizon grows as they reach new levels of consciouseness; how someone created by a God can somehow surpass even their Creator.

There are really so many themes... and so hard to articulate consicely. Once I finish the first three chapters and get the piece in the works of being copyrighted, I will start posting segments here and breaking them into pieces to explain. For now though, I ask that you bare with me and its infancy. I'm nearly three-fourths done with the first chapter, and once I knuckle down again, I don't suppose it will take much longer.

Cathan

Word of the Week: Motive

Motive
1. something that causes a person to act in a certain way, do a certain thing, etc.; incentive.
2. the goal or object of a person's actions: Her motive was revenge.
3. (in art, literature, and music) a motif.

Simply put, motive is drive. A human can't exist without a drive for something, and though that something may lie underneath a thousand leagues of water, it is still very present in everything that we do. Every action is driven, and we never act in a way that we don't see best. These particulars are incredibly important to an author, most so because as writers we attempt to create beings most similar to ourselves as possible. If we even slightly diverge in this, all things become unhinged; once a character loses credibility of humanity, or rather the attribute of identification and projection (As humanity oft only refers to humans.), there is no mitigating the damage to the story's immersion of the reader.

The "why" of this is that one of the main goals of an author, although we may not even know it, is to craft a world for our reader to delve themselves in to. It is the human condition to become a part of this world and to draw parallels to their own world (Identification), and more, to apply themselves to a character in that world as if they, themselves, were that person (Projection). It is not a goal to cleanly aim for this, as its near impossible to didactically target the plethora of demographics, but to give realistic characters without unbelievable flaws, or worse, no flaws at all... but these are blurred lines. Both of the above categories have a name, nearly one in the same, in fact, that was coined over characters that became too flawless. The term is Mary Sue; a Mary Sue is a character that is flawless, can do no wrong, and incites only jealousy and self-esteem related conflict. The general theme is: More powerful, more beautiful, more agile and cunning, more intelligent and better than the best at everything they do (Also note that Mary Sue was derived from Fan Fiction, wherein an author would interject a new character, sometimes themselves, into situations with other pre-made, Fiction, characters. Writing one's self into a story is usually considered a Mary Sue character.). This may seem over-the-top, but the concept is that of a scale. It is only once a character reaches a certain tipping point that these terms apply, and even then, it is a hard call to make. The anti-thesis to the Mary Sue is just that, the Anti-Sue, or Anti-Mary Sue; a character that does everything wrong, everyone hates them, nothing is correct, evolution seriously failed and-if-that-thing-ever-breeds,-we're-all-fucked.

Some Anti-Mary's end up becoming under-dogs of sorts, but they're still just as powerfully cliche that it hurts. The main error in Mary Sue's is that they lack true motives. The motive lies in the author, the one who's writing the character, it is their motive, not the characters, and though we as authors understand our motives, it is something that leaves the reader wondering. Characters must eat, breath, sleep, and construct their own story - personally, to me, they are not finished until they themselves write their own story, I'm just the guy with the keyboard.

What gives us our meaning in life? What gives you your meaning? Really think down deep, claw your way down if you have to, and think hard. When you find your meaning, maybe it will give you a real glimpse of what it is to be unique, and how you can generate that uniquely. All characters are a part of you in one form or another, they cannot be unique of you, but unique amongst themselves is very possible. Family, Friends, Money, Love, Hate, Anger, Martyrdom, Warmth, Blackness, every reason you can think of to wake up in the morning, all its positives and negatives, that is Motive. What is your character's reason to wake up in the morning? Don't stray from that. Don't patronize your reader with it either though.

With that in mind, it is hard to say what will and will not be received positively. Some characters are considered annoying or spoiled by some, but adorable by the next. It is when the majority can easily tag the idea, stereotype or character type that things tend to become uninteresting, which breaks the reader from the world you've made with a discomforting abruptness.

Cheers,
Cathan