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A well done interview with The Oatmeal
Posted 12 years agoOver at Penthouse; in the January edition with Lexi Belle on the cover. Or you can go to their website linked below.
My favorite part is this bit. Because I hope people here can learn from this message.
I noticed you have comments disabled on your website.
I used to think it was an integral part of being a writer or artist—that you have to read comments, and you have to react to them, and you have to mold your work around them. But that doesn’t make me a better artist—if anything, it just makes me doubt myself. So I just don’t read any of it, because I can’t help focusing on that one negative one where some guy writes something awful. I’ve found that my comics are becoming more and more of a rhetorical performance. I just want to draw things that I hope are funny and put them on the web, and that’ll be the extent of the communication, to preserve my own sanity more than anything.
http://penthousemagazine.com/featur.....matthew-inman/
My favorite part is this bit. Because I hope people here can learn from this message.
I noticed you have comments disabled on your website.
I used to think it was an integral part of being a writer or artist—that you have to read comments, and you have to react to them, and you have to mold your work around them. But that doesn’t make me a better artist—if anything, it just makes me doubt myself. So I just don’t read any of it, because I can’t help focusing on that one negative one where some guy writes something awful. I’ve found that my comics are becoming more and more of a rhetorical performance. I just want to draw things that I hope are funny and put them on the web, and that’ll be the extent of the communication, to preserve my own sanity more than anything.
http://penthousemagazine.com/featur.....matthew-inman/
Structured Writing
Posted 12 years agoCharacter Development
Creating a character’s “bone structure” from Lajos Egri’s ‘The Art of Dramatic Writing’
Determine then write down the following characteristics of your chosen character. You need not fill in every category, but try to complete as many as possible. Many of these characteristics might never be stated in your story, but your awareness of them will shape how your character behaves in many situations, and may ultimately shape the story’s outcome.
Physical Characteristics:
1) Sex
2) Age
3) Height and weight
4) Posture
5) Overall appearance
6) Unusual Physical characteristics such as birthmarks, tattoos, unusual coloring or disabilities.
Social Characteristics
1) Socioeconomic class
2) Occupation and attitude toward their work
3) Education and educational ability
4) Home life: Parents status and influence on character; character’s own personal relationships or lack of them
5) Religious Orientation
6) Race/ethnicity
7) Place in the community
8) Political affiliations
9) Personal Interests
Psychological Characteristics
1) Sexual and moral standards
2) Personal ambitions
3) Key frustrations or disappointments
4) Attitude toward life
5) Fears, Inhibitions, Superstitions, Obsessions
6) Extroverted? Introverted?
7) Special abilities
8) Special personal qualities
9) Intelligence
Philosophical Discussion on the Dragons of the 'FMC' world..
Posted 12 years agoSome may be aware; my novel series is "For Mythical Creatures"(FMC) after the main character, Leon Schneider, who writes self help books for said... among other things.
I'm working up a list, basically, 'This is how things work in the world of For Mythical Creatures' because, I as the writer, get the final say in what makes the world work.
Borrowing from a few places it's always been easy for me to fill out a character outline, character sheet, or what have you. For each creature in the universe I've tried to borrow from some of the folklore they came from, as much as my memory serves me from long bus rides growing up, reading over the various Monster Manuals from TSR (RIP Gygax).
So, the main character, Leon. We get to experience the first set of novels through his eyes. Spoiler: He gets the world of magic revealed to him when he was in college, only to find out, he's a dragon.
And what about Dragons then. A Dragon in the city.
Dragons vary by culture and region but every culture seems to have something in a similar mythical vein... those of European and East North America tend to have one set of physical features, Leon is one of them. Leon sports wings, neck and tail distinguishable from a body, in addition to hands and digitigrade legs.
Eastern Asian, and Pacific Rim tend to be the longer, Shen Lung / Luck dragon style, and are more overall serpentine in shape, often with no wings. They tend to favor rivers, and have a great affinity for swimming, and hunting tigers.
South American and African tend to key more to the 'Feathered Serpent' mythology. [I've yet to bring any of those into the books.]
But focusing in on Leon...
I envisioned him more as some of Larry Elwood's designs for red and green dragons, back in the day. long neck and tail, massive wingspan that folded nicely to maneuver in and out of one's easily defensible lair, chosen for it's strategic location near water, food.
Scales covering the body from head to toe, horns as accents along his center dorsal line, a 'mane' of them, that would progress farther down his back with age (He is young, after all). IN most areas, very fine scales, but, more akin to interlocking armor plates in 'high impact' areas, elbows, knuckles, the bonier ridges of his skull, jaw.
In the world of FMC, dragons are 'the physical manifestation or embodiment of magical might' they draw it in from the Earth, and spill it where they wander, unconsciously if they're not careful. They store it up inside, if they're enjoying an afternoon sunset on the beach, they're soaking the heat of the sun, and the rippling energy of the surf unleashed against the sand, soaking it up like a big 'mana battery'.
Plot spoilers for the novels: There haven't been dragons around in any living creature's known memory, and they've been 'extinct' since just after the sinking of Atlantis.
They were in FMC legends, depending on which culture you're talking to, ancient sources of wisdom, responsible for teaching the smaller races the ways of magic, horribly destructive monsters who engaged in turf wars using the 'mortal' races as pawns, or tools - weapons of war goaded into fighting.
When you wanted to end a siege, you brought in a Dragon, depending on which culture heard it from, either summoned, bribed, or allied with. The first side in a conflict to bring out their Dragon(s) won. Weapons of mass destruction. Deity like entities responsible for fire, flood, tsunami, earthquakes, hurricanes & typhoons.
But they've been gone for so long, they are regulated to the back burner of most cultures, a scary monster to frighten your children with in bedtime stories. Something to ramp up the hopes of every prince who wants to grow up to find and slay one.
In the MFC world... As they age, they grow in mass, dependent upon their dietary constraints. A dragon with scarce food, would increase in size rather slowly, while the more massive, are either very old, or very well fed.
Big and scaly, answered.
My thoughts then wander to 'hot or cold blooded' endothermic or exothermic. As far as Leon knows, he's quite Endothermic, but this is a misunderstanding. He's endothermic because he has a fairly decent food supply, and a fairly good supply of magical energy, compared to his expenditures. He can sit and soak in the sun, spread his wings and enjoy the heat, simply storing excess heat back into that 'mana battery' of his. This is true of all the dragons in the FMC world. A dragon starved for food and magical energy might be observed as quite exothermic.
Those that are colder, are drawing less from the land, eating less, or spending a lot more being magically mischievous and or destructive. [There aren't any other known dragons as of book 3]
Since dragons store up magical energy as their nature; there is a crazy demand for their body parts on the magical black market. Horns, claws, teeth, incredibly strong, requiring carbide/diamond tools to cut. Hence this piece I had done. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10105240/ Why give yourself a pedicure when you can bribe someone to trim those nails for you, trading for the resulting powdered claw material?
Toughness! Yes, won't do to be the 'indestructible badass of the ancient world' if you could get shot down with a single arrow to a loose scale. [Sorry, Tolkien fans, you won't see Leon getting shot by this kind of arrow...] But this is in part due to the nature, immovable object, irresistible force. In a weakened, energy drained state, you could start plinking away at a dragon. But your army has to survive long enough to get the dragon worn down, tired, hungry, and cut off from available sources of magic.
In Leon's case, he's not that experienced. He expects blades to cut, needles to prick, so they do. But ask him the last time he got scuffed up in a fall, and he couldn't tell you - because the nature of that impenetrable armor was shining through, even in his youth. Never a broken bone, or even more than a wrenched ankle or pulled muscle.
Shoot a gun at the young Leon and he'd be confused as hell that it didn't kill him, and scream in pain at the resulting tissue damage as his hide spreads the force of the impact through the surrounding tissue. Haven't had an opportunity for someone to try shooting him yet.
I'm working up a list, basically, 'This is how things work in the world of For Mythical Creatures' because, I as the writer, get the final say in what makes the world work.
Borrowing from a few places it's always been easy for me to fill out a character outline, character sheet, or what have you. For each creature in the universe I've tried to borrow from some of the folklore they came from, as much as my memory serves me from long bus rides growing up, reading over the various Monster Manuals from TSR (RIP Gygax).
So, the main character, Leon. We get to experience the first set of novels through his eyes. Spoiler: He gets the world of magic revealed to him when he was in college, only to find out, he's a dragon.
And what about Dragons then. A Dragon in the city.
Dragons vary by culture and region but every culture seems to have something in a similar mythical vein... those of European and East North America tend to have one set of physical features, Leon is one of them. Leon sports wings, neck and tail distinguishable from a body, in addition to hands and digitigrade legs.
Eastern Asian, and Pacific Rim tend to be the longer, Shen Lung / Luck dragon style, and are more overall serpentine in shape, often with no wings. They tend to favor rivers, and have a great affinity for swimming, and hunting tigers.
South American and African tend to key more to the 'Feathered Serpent' mythology. [I've yet to bring any of those into the books.]
But focusing in on Leon...
I envisioned him more as some of Larry Elwood's designs for red and green dragons, back in the day. long neck and tail, massive wingspan that folded nicely to maneuver in and out of one's easily defensible lair, chosen for it's strategic location near water, food.
Scales covering the body from head to toe, horns as accents along his center dorsal line, a 'mane' of them, that would progress farther down his back with age (He is young, after all). IN most areas, very fine scales, but, more akin to interlocking armor plates in 'high impact' areas, elbows, knuckles, the bonier ridges of his skull, jaw.
In the world of FMC, dragons are 'the physical manifestation or embodiment of magical might' they draw it in from the Earth, and spill it where they wander, unconsciously if they're not careful. They store it up inside, if they're enjoying an afternoon sunset on the beach, they're soaking the heat of the sun, and the rippling energy of the surf unleashed against the sand, soaking it up like a big 'mana battery'.
Plot spoilers for the novels: There haven't been dragons around in any living creature's known memory, and they've been 'extinct' since just after the sinking of Atlantis.
They were in FMC legends, depending on which culture you're talking to, ancient sources of wisdom, responsible for teaching the smaller races the ways of magic, horribly destructive monsters who engaged in turf wars using the 'mortal' races as pawns, or tools - weapons of war goaded into fighting.
When you wanted to end a siege, you brought in a Dragon, depending on which culture heard it from, either summoned, bribed, or allied with. The first side in a conflict to bring out their Dragon(s) won. Weapons of mass destruction. Deity like entities responsible for fire, flood, tsunami, earthquakes, hurricanes & typhoons.
But they've been gone for so long, they are regulated to the back burner of most cultures, a scary monster to frighten your children with in bedtime stories. Something to ramp up the hopes of every prince who wants to grow up to find and slay one.
In the MFC world... As they age, they grow in mass, dependent upon their dietary constraints. A dragon with scarce food, would increase in size rather slowly, while the more massive, are either very old, or very well fed.
Big and scaly, answered.
My thoughts then wander to 'hot or cold blooded' endothermic or exothermic. As far as Leon knows, he's quite Endothermic, but this is a misunderstanding. He's endothermic because he has a fairly decent food supply, and a fairly good supply of magical energy, compared to his expenditures. He can sit and soak in the sun, spread his wings and enjoy the heat, simply storing excess heat back into that 'mana battery' of his. This is true of all the dragons in the FMC world. A dragon starved for food and magical energy might be observed as quite exothermic.
Those that are colder, are drawing less from the land, eating less, or spending a lot more being magically mischievous and or destructive. [There aren't any other known dragons as of book 3]
Since dragons store up magical energy as their nature; there is a crazy demand for their body parts on the magical black market. Horns, claws, teeth, incredibly strong, requiring carbide/diamond tools to cut. Hence this piece I had done. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10105240/ Why give yourself a pedicure when you can bribe someone to trim those nails for you, trading for the resulting powdered claw material?
Toughness! Yes, won't do to be the 'indestructible badass of the ancient world' if you could get shot down with a single arrow to a loose scale. [Sorry, Tolkien fans, you won't see Leon getting shot by this kind of arrow...] But this is in part due to the nature, immovable object, irresistible force. In a weakened, energy drained state, you could start plinking away at a dragon. But your army has to survive long enough to get the dragon worn down, tired, hungry, and cut off from available sources of magic.
In Leon's case, he's not that experienced. He expects blades to cut, needles to prick, so they do. But ask him the last time he got scuffed up in a fall, and he couldn't tell you - because the nature of that impenetrable armor was shining through, even in his youth. Never a broken bone, or even more than a wrenched ankle or pulled muscle.
Shoot a gun at the young Leon and he'd be confused as hell that it didn't kill him, and scream in pain at the resulting tissue damage as his hide spreads the force of the impact through the surrounding tissue. Haven't had an opportunity for someone to try shooting him yet.
NANOWRIMO
Posted 13 years agoI'm registered this year, will be searchable as 'Zarnth' in NaNoWriMo
The novel for NaNoWriMo: Volume 2 of the For Mythic Creatures series, as I wait for feedback from my test writers to go into the next draft of volume 1.
A bit of the writing. Not sure yet if this will find it's way into book 2 or 3. But since it's pre-existing it won't go into the book for the NaNoWriMo 50,000 word count.
She stepped towards him, the flicker of the candlelight caused the shadows to heave and dance in rhythm with the slightest movement of the air. Stepping across the circle she approached, the gleaming dagger holding his attention, this was the first time he’d looked at it, with it’s bone hilt ornately carved, stained with the years and polished with use. The fat base of the blade, the way the gleaming metal warped the reflections along its curves until that ever so sharp tip.
She moved with a practiced step, her bare feet dancing with a slow winding rhythm, one footfall flowing into the next, her arm movements ritually sweeping the dagger, drawing it through the air, he could feel her slicing through the ether, his mind and senses telling him that she was cutting through more than the air, and that her steps were deftly guiding her through invisible veils of magic, carefully she treaded as she stepped. Just beyond the edge of his perception, he thought he could see the tearing, that he could see her lift and raise her foot, her fingernails with their glimmering paint opening the tear in reality, and stepping through, and brushing her hand behind, smoothing the gap back, with the same gesture that one would associate with a zipper. He could feel her nearness now; feel his own body heat reflecting off her movements, the ripples and waves of the air were more perceptible for his focus on them. He watched her come to a halt, standing, she turned the dagger sideways, and cradled it in both hands, offering it up to him.
Slowly, he reached for the dagger and took it in his left hand. He could feel the weight of the hilt, the balance of the blade. He could feel the air slowly moving, he could feel her standing close, watching him now from out of his reach with a deep curiosity in those green eyes.
"Take the blade and prick your finger. Let gather a drop of blood and let it fall into the bowl at your feet." She instructed and illustrated what she bid him to do, indicating the copper bowl on the white sand.
He looked at the tip of the dagger, and at his hand, and considered his fingers, look at them, and the claws that his mind were beginning to recognize as his own, the way the candlelight glinted on his almost metallic skin, flickering and dancing. He brought the dagger to the pad from his left ring finger, somewhat mistrustful of the blade, and pressed against the blade, it seemed that the metal flashed, or the air did, that with the sharp explosion of pain from the digit, the very air was charged by the blood that he saw filling the small cut, holding it over the bowl beneath him, he watched as the blood, seemed to glow faintly to him, like it was drawing the candlelight, it didn’t quite seem … real, in the way movies didn’t quite seem real. The blood seemed too thick, too tangible, realizing it was his own body heat he was feeling as it ran down the tip of his finger, falling through the night air to spatter into the bowl below, almost sounding like a gong was sounded, he could see the hammered copper bottom of the bowl, and the way the blood seemed to splatter, strange and mysterious. He had never considered blood in this manner before, but now he could trace the intricacies of the impact, and how hitting that exact point had caused the trace of blood. He was lost in the minutiae of the moment even as the second drop fell alongside the first, so very loud in the silence, the metal ringing just faintly, it made his ears twitch and swivel forward.
"That is enough, suck on your finger for a moment until the bleeding stops, and do not let any land, on the sacred sands." she murmured, bending low to take up the bottle from beside the bowl, pouring into the bowl, the clear liquid swirled, pouring it made contact with the blood, and swirled, not mixing well, red smoke on the surface and depths of the liquid.
He could taste the copper, and feel the flash of pain as he sucked on the fingertip, but as if willing it to top had a greater effect, he could even feel the skin sealing as his tongue flicked across it. Soon only the phantom of the pain remained.
"The bowl whispers to you…. hear its voice and know the name… your name… and know it to be true." she reached for a small piece of rounded bone, and brought it slowly around the hammered edge of the bowl, making it resonate just slightly.
He could hear the tone of the bowl, and beneath it, the shifting of the sands, the same sands he could feel the vibration, all the way to his feet, and from his feet, he envisioned the sound bouncing off his very blood, and resonating, closing his eyes to listen more, he could hear.
"Narthaing, Bringer-Of-Ashes"
He started to mouth the name, as it did roll off his tongue, but she put up her hand, still bringing the bone stylus around the edge of the sand, "This is your name. Known only to yourself… and in time, maybe you will trust it wisely to another. For in Magic, many things have power. But especially Names."
The novel for NaNoWriMo: Volume 2 of the For Mythic Creatures series, as I wait for feedback from my test writers to go into the next draft of volume 1.
A bit of the writing. Not sure yet if this will find it's way into book 2 or 3. But since it's pre-existing it won't go into the book for the NaNoWriMo 50,000 word count.
She stepped towards him, the flicker of the candlelight caused the shadows to heave and dance in rhythm with the slightest movement of the air. Stepping across the circle she approached, the gleaming dagger holding his attention, this was the first time he’d looked at it, with it’s bone hilt ornately carved, stained with the years and polished with use. The fat base of the blade, the way the gleaming metal warped the reflections along its curves until that ever so sharp tip.
She moved with a practiced step, her bare feet dancing with a slow winding rhythm, one footfall flowing into the next, her arm movements ritually sweeping the dagger, drawing it through the air, he could feel her slicing through the ether, his mind and senses telling him that she was cutting through more than the air, and that her steps were deftly guiding her through invisible veils of magic, carefully she treaded as she stepped. Just beyond the edge of his perception, he thought he could see the tearing, that he could see her lift and raise her foot, her fingernails with their glimmering paint opening the tear in reality, and stepping through, and brushing her hand behind, smoothing the gap back, with the same gesture that one would associate with a zipper. He could feel her nearness now; feel his own body heat reflecting off her movements, the ripples and waves of the air were more perceptible for his focus on them. He watched her come to a halt, standing, she turned the dagger sideways, and cradled it in both hands, offering it up to him.
Slowly, he reached for the dagger and took it in his left hand. He could feel the weight of the hilt, the balance of the blade. He could feel the air slowly moving, he could feel her standing close, watching him now from out of his reach with a deep curiosity in those green eyes.
"Take the blade and prick your finger. Let gather a drop of blood and let it fall into the bowl at your feet." She instructed and illustrated what she bid him to do, indicating the copper bowl on the white sand.
He looked at the tip of the dagger, and at his hand, and considered his fingers, look at them, and the claws that his mind were beginning to recognize as his own, the way the candlelight glinted on his almost metallic skin, flickering and dancing. He brought the dagger to the pad from his left ring finger, somewhat mistrustful of the blade, and pressed against the blade, it seemed that the metal flashed, or the air did, that with the sharp explosion of pain from the digit, the very air was charged by the blood that he saw filling the small cut, holding it over the bowl beneath him, he watched as the blood, seemed to glow faintly to him, like it was drawing the candlelight, it didn’t quite seem … real, in the way movies didn’t quite seem real. The blood seemed too thick, too tangible, realizing it was his own body heat he was feeling as it ran down the tip of his finger, falling through the night air to spatter into the bowl below, almost sounding like a gong was sounded, he could see the hammered copper bottom of the bowl, and the way the blood seemed to splatter, strange and mysterious. He had never considered blood in this manner before, but now he could trace the intricacies of the impact, and how hitting that exact point had caused the trace of blood. He was lost in the minutiae of the moment even as the second drop fell alongside the first, so very loud in the silence, the metal ringing just faintly, it made his ears twitch and swivel forward.
"That is enough, suck on your finger for a moment until the bleeding stops, and do not let any land, on the sacred sands." she murmured, bending low to take up the bottle from beside the bowl, pouring into the bowl, the clear liquid swirled, pouring it made contact with the blood, and swirled, not mixing well, red smoke on the surface and depths of the liquid.
He could taste the copper, and feel the flash of pain as he sucked on the fingertip, but as if willing it to top had a greater effect, he could even feel the skin sealing as his tongue flicked across it. Soon only the phantom of the pain remained.
"The bowl whispers to you…. hear its voice and know the name… your name… and know it to be true." she reached for a small piece of rounded bone, and brought it slowly around the hammered edge of the bowl, making it resonate just slightly.
He could hear the tone of the bowl, and beneath it, the shifting of the sands, the same sands he could feel the vibration, all the way to his feet, and from his feet, he envisioned the sound bouncing off his very blood, and resonating, closing his eyes to listen more, he could hear.
"Narthaing, Bringer-Of-Ashes"
He started to mouth the name, as it did roll off his tongue, but she put up her hand, still bringing the bone stylus around the edge of the sand, "This is your name. Known only to yourself… and in time, maybe you will trust it wisely to another. For in Magic, many things have power. But especially Names."
CaramelRoses is awesome
Posted 13 years ago
CaramelRoses is indeed awesome, she just finished this for me. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8931093/And brought to mind more things to think about for the novel. Which is sitting there tempting me to pick it up and start revising and editing/rewriting it immediately but I'm letting it sit for another month and a half.
Working with artists helps me think about the way I write the descriptions.
-Zarnth
This pleases me. }:>
Posted 13 years agoA new Skrillex video.
http://youtu.be/BGpzGu9Yp6Y
Some people with Firefox were telling me that wasn't working so ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGpzGu9Yp6Y
It appeals to me at many levels.
1) If you don't like Dubstep, mute it and make up your own music to the BEAUTIFUL video.
2) If you don't like the Video... close your eyes and dance to it.
(Why am I thinking of everything in terms of hashtags these days?)
#nativeamerican #animaltotem #shaman #sundance
-Z
And on a side note, book 1 is done, putting an endcap on it and going to let it gel for a while, while I work on everything else
http://youtu.be/BGpzGu9Yp6Y
Some people with Firefox were telling me that wasn't working so ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGpzGu9Yp6Y
It appeals to me at many levels.
1) If you don't like Dubstep, mute it and make up your own music to the BEAUTIFUL video.
2) If you don't like the Video... close your eyes and dance to it.
(Why am I thinking of everything in terms of hashtags these days?)
#nativeamerican #animaltotem #shaman #sundance
-Z
And on a side note, book 1 is done, putting an endcap on it and going to let it gel for a while, while I work on everything else
