Tag: #passioninspirecreate

How I approach topics that I don’t have knowledge of.

What do you do if you haven’t had an experience like homeless or PTSD as a writer? Your character is homeless; how do you describe their emotions, actions and thoughts? This is something that I have been thinking about ever since I started writing: being male, how would a woman react to a situation? Or what does it feel like to be a homeless person? Or how someone would deal with racism? I will review the steps for addressing this and other situations.

One of the things I deal with gender is asking someone of the opposite gender about how they would react to my proposed story. I start with the character being a person, not male/female/non-gendered, as the base personality is unique to every person, even more so if they are of a fantasy race. I then create a scene and express how this character would react. Then, I will reach out to a few people of the same gender and ask them how they would tell me. I would do that for any gender or race, as I will not make up something that isn’t a real emotion in my stories.

Next was a coincidence for my main character in ‘Journal of an Adventurer’, Lone Solo/Orphan. He had a huge drinking problem, borrowed money from loan sharks, got into fights, was arrested and had a destructive attitude. I just thought it was an exciting flaw of his, and his character would grow through the book and series.

A reader/author of mine, an ex-soldier, came to me and said he related to Lone, as he too has PTSD (and he wrote a book about it). He asked if I did do that on purpose. I did not; it was an accident, but I, too, had a traumatic past and reacted in the same way when I left that situation, drinking to excess and being cold with emotions. In this regard, I used my own experiences, by accident, to create a more whole character.

The new thing I am dealing with is homelessness and gangs in Savage Rebellion. I have seen movies and read fictional books about these topics, but I want to know how a realistic person deals with this. I have a few sources that I will ask for. Still, in this regard, I will have to research as it is vital to me to represent this situation with the utmost care, respect and knowledge. Going in half-cocked or making the topic into some fantastical idea.

It matters to care about using fundamental ideas and people’s experiences for my books, even though they are set in a fantasy world. Racism, sexism, war trauma and homelessness are real things that we humans deal with daily, and how can I ignore that in my books? As in the real world, I want to show that even the most broken soul can be a hero.

Re-writing Lake Merrin

After finishing my first draft for Savage Rebellion, I will return to re-write Lake Merrin. I want to change it from 1st person, present tense, to 3rd person, past tense. This will be hard as it has been a while since I edited/published the novel. 

The main reason why I am doing this is simple: I realised that after Lake Merrin (spoilers), the story will go from an individual to a group. Trying to balance the storyline through the eyes of Ophan/Lone Solo will be hard (well, easy for me as I like writing in 1st) but hard for readers to connect from book to book.

The company novella, The Great Spoon Heist, was in 3rd and had three POVs. I am carrying this into my next novel. It rounds up the story I want to tell quite well.

The first thing I noticed was the amount of thinking dialogue my main character has. I did a lot of inside his head, which made him funny. One is a sarcastic thought with a more measured conversation. Also, Lone/Orphan does not use contractions, meaning he uses does not, cannot, do not, etc. It was pointed out to me by my beta readers, and I considered that his way of speaking. 

So, considering all that, I have to write more descriptions as you can get away with more with 1st person using an unreliable narrator. Lone isn’t unreliable but concentrates on weird things like the street names. My naming convention is simple. I don’t particularly appreciate making big, strange, and fantastical names for street, town, person, city, or country. The name of my world is Amsul, which was a nickname of mine from my sister.

In 3rd, you must paint more of a picture, not just what your main character sees or cares about. You should not go above and beyond but a little more.

For example, in the first scene:

The original:

What a beautiful day on Lake Merrin! That afternoon breeze from the shoreline is why I love this place, though the smells from the tavern downstairs can be a little on the nose.  

Who cares? Time for my liquid breakfast! Splash some water on face and chest. 

Now I just have to try not to wake up my ‘beautiful’ companion. She will only want me to spend more money on her. She can throw back grog even harder than me.

The Re-write:

Another beautiful day in Lake Merrin, thought the Orphan as he awoke. That afternoon breeze from the shoreline is why I love this place, though the smells from the tavern downstairs can be a little on the nose. Who cares? It’s time for my liquid breakfast! Splash some water on your face and chest.

The man known as Orphan was known by a few names; the orphan title came from his years of army life and being an orphan.

The man looked at his ‘beautiful’ companion, hoping she would not awaken. She will only want him to spend more money on her. She can throw back grog even harder than Orphan.

See the difference. 

So, when you want to re-write your novel, don’t do what I have done but realise early that a group of people are better in 3rd than 1st. Have a fantastic day writing #passioninspirecreate.

You can find Lake Merrin at http://samuelcolbran.com or Amazon.

NaNoWriMo! Samuel the Author is back!

Woot! It’s the 15th day of NaNoWriMo! I hope everyone is going hard at their keyboard/paper/whatever. I just hit 38k today. It is fantastic to get back into my writing. I have been on track to finish NaNo since 2016 with my 1st novel, Lake Merrin (which I am doing a rewrite too, so shhhh).

I will also try to put up some blogs as long as I don’t get behind with my writing.

Good luck with your stories, World! Wooo, NaNoWriMo #passioninspirecreate

Life, love lost and creativity.

It has been a few weeks since my last blog. This is due to surprisingly being pretty broken, and if you put your life and soul into a task (being my mother’s carer), all those little pains and problems don’t crop up. I am taking steps to correct these issues, but I still miss my mother.

So what am I up to? There was plenty of stuff watching the live-action One Piece, which was bloody brilliant compared to other live-action anime shows; this had the passion and love for the original manga/anime. I suggest anyone who loves anime to go and watch it.

Now, writing my next book, Savage Rebellion, it is a bit harder to get back into the grove. I have the premise and some of the plot, but getting back into it seems more complicated than I thought. First, I want to start at the Adventurer’s Hall Tournament, with principal and minor characters fighting to become the Champion of the Hall. Even have the breakdown of each fight, then off on to the main quest about what is causing this “Savage Rebellion”, dun dun daaa.

The thing about being a writer is don’t push yourself. Creativity is fluid and mysterious; find a way to express yourself and try not to emulate other creatives as they have found their way. That is my two bits. It took me years to realise that passion inspires you to be creative, encouraging you to be passionate.

Curiosity, my bread and butter.

I signed up to a particular site asking interesting questions. The questions asked on the site could be about many different topics like anime, science, movies etc. This particular question was about high IQ.

The question was Do people with high IQ think differently?

Questions about IQ on this particular site are subjective and I was surprised by this person answer.

The answer was by the user name Sanya K

Had you asked me 10 years ago, if have given you a different answer. But I used to work, play, and surround myself with people with above average intelligence. I was no different to them in my thinking.

But now I live in a retirement village, and I volunteer with foodbank, and I now mix with many people with below average intelligence. Some people are bordering on intellectually disabled.

The difference between me and them, I find, is curiosity, or lack thereof.

Lower IQ people just aren’t curious about things, and aren’t interested in learning new things. They get by doing what they’ve always done, and they’re contented with that.

When a person comes up against something they don’t understand: a low IQ person will just shrug and move on, or they’ll ask someone else to fix the problem for them; a high IQ person will google it, ask questions, read more, try it for themselves, experiment, and is determined to understand.

High IQ people are curious about lots and lots of things. Even if it’s just academic, the knowledge and understanding in itself is a reward. Even if you’re not going to apply it, the titbits of trivia are fun. Low IQ people aren’t even interested in a trivia quiz that’s aimed at their level. Low IQ people don’t watch quiz shows. If they do, its more about the prizes, or how much money the contestants win. High IQ people are interested in the questions and answers, and test themselves while they watch, because it’s fun. It’s a hobby in itself.

There’s also the aspects of learning faster, picking up on concepts easier, etc, but in a field you are interested in, even an average person can learn faster than a higher IQ person who is not interested. To me, this is similar thinking across the board – I want to do this thing, therefore I want to know how to do it, therefore I’ll push myself till I get it right. The need to apply a skill comes first, therefore they learn.

With curious people, the learning is first, then that opens possibilities to applying it.

Now that I know quite a few lower IQ people, I have found the real difference is curiosity. I’m actually amazed how uncurious some people are. They wont play a card game they don’t already know, because they just aren’t interested in learning it. They won’t try a food they’ve never had, because they aren’t interested in a new experience. They’ve never needed it before, so they don’t see the need for it now. They just aren’t curious.

With high IQ people, there’s an awareness of possibilities out there. They realise there’s a whole lot they don’t know. And when they find out about a new thing, they want to know all about it. Science, the arts, mathematics, geography, history, culture, what makes people tick, what makes the world go round… That’s curiosity.

I have a drive to know things, just the love of learning, discovering and just seeing things in a different way/light.

Curiosity is one of my strongest traits, if there is something I don’t know, I will research, look at multiple sources and try to understand the topic.There is a downside to curiosity, mental health. Needing to know things can cut both ways. To shrug things off would be wonderful but I need to know, even though it could damage me.

What do you think of this answer?

Links for more insight into this subject:

https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/developing-curiosity/0/steps/156372

https://www.spring.org.uk/2022/05/curio.php

https://hbr.org/2014/08/curiosity-is-as-important-as-intelligence

Part Two: Getting back to my Roots

I have come to an impasse; will I continue being an author? Now this question seems to be flawed, and I have people in my life who would scream bloody murder if I just give up. Then I have to inform them, I am not giving up, just changing perspective. I can still be a writer but not an author.

What does that mean? A fantastic person who gave me this advice at the being of my writing path, ‘Do you write? If yes, then you are a writer.’ Simple as that.

Now, I hope some of my thought processes may give some insight into people who have nearly given up. Cause I just don’t want to quit something entirely when it has given me so much joy as writing. I have been filled for 36 years with imagination, creativity and stories, but only 4 of those as a published author.

As I see it now, I have two paths; I will still be writing, but it will be more about how I view myself.

Over a year ago, I quit being a book typesetter with formatting print and ebooks. I had a clause in my contract that I could not compete with said publisher if I was either was fired or resigned. This is my first option, becoming an independent formatting guru. Still, before choosing this path, I will have to decide if I will be an author.

How I will determine if I will be a book formatter and hobby writer or an author will be simple; having people read my book(s).

I have figured out how this might work for all those good fiction writers who want to be self-published. The ‘How’ is simple, and I found this out by an author named Shirtaloon (click if you want to read his series).

Shirtaloon’s book series is called ‘He who fights monsters’, a Litrpg book about an Aussie being sucked naked into a weird world with magic and monsters. I might write a review on it later, but back to my thought process. I found out that he has a Patreon account, which links to a web novel hosting site called Royal Road.

Looking over this and dating back to the publication of his first book, I realised that this is where he started. Not only him but a few of my favourite authors began at Royal Road.

I thought to myself, why can’t I do this thing? I have one complete novel and 3 novellas. I could publish them on this site and see if people are interested.

Now you might say, ‘But you were making money from your books, why give them away for free?’ Easy answer, I haven’t sold a book in over 2 years.

So people are not buying them, and I will never have the money to finish my book series. Never mind, I have a whole lot of imagination and plotted out at least 8 books. It is simple now, either Royal Road will show me if I will stay being an author or give it up and work on formatting with a bit of writing (so I stay sane and happy).

If you like to follow my progression, click the link: Journal of an Adventurer.

Blood Brothers: Part Seven

“Sorry, lads, but you are going to have to walk next to the cart.” Hermes sitting next to his wife, occasionally cracking his reins.
Asteria looked like he was about to complain, but Aldrich interrupted, “That is fine. We are used to walking.”
Orroark just jogged back from scouting, “I seen some bees just up ahead. One looks aggressive. What should we do?”
“Stop the cart, are there any different types of giant bees or just workers?” Aldrich turned to look at Hermes.
Enes nodded, “We have noticed some soldier bees occasionally roaming the fields.”
“Let us move forward, wait until….” Staring up at the sun, it was about mid-morning, “An hour then follow.”
Orroark pulled his book of slicing and chucked it on the back of the cart, and then pulled out his Big Book, “Time to ask for late fees!”
Asteria cocked a well-shaped eyebrow, “Late fees?”
“Well, you know, late fees for late books. Um, library…. Bah, let us smash the bees.” Orroark stammered.
“What does the area look like?” Aldrich asked Orroark.
“Just outside the forest we are heading for, we might be able to scare off the workers, but as soon as we are seen, that soldier one will attack.”
“Fine, I’ll head off and flank them. You Orroark head straight in, and Asteria wait then throw some magic.” Aldrich instructed.
“Time to get those returns!” Orroark roared.
With that, Aldrich went into a crouch and move off. Orroark swung his Big Book of Bashing to loosen up while Asteria started to have electricity spark between his fingers.
Coming over the small hill, they saw the crop of trees and three bees. Two were flying from each flowering branch, each strained as the bee taking the pollen. The lone bee made sweeping patrol between two, but this one was at least 6 feet long, and the stinger was massive.
Orroark moved ahead of Asteria, his weapon ready. Asteria flung out a spark of lighting, just a tiny jot but hit one of the workers. Suddenly the warrior bee flew aggressively towards Orroark.
“Why did you attack the worker!” Orroark roared as he charged to intercept the two massive bees.
“I missed, or maybe didn’t know which one was the right one.” Again another spell started to form in Asteria’s hands.
With a substantial two-handed arc, Orroark clobbered the lead bee. “No colour spray; they are immune!”
“What?” The coloured sand effect faded from his hand, “Fine!” so Asteria let off another jolt towards the worker bee and missed.
Swinging again, Orroark smashed his Big Bash into the ground, missing. Dirt erupted from the attack. The warrior bee returned to stick Orroark with his big stinger, piercing his left side flooding his body with poison.
“Damn it!” Orroark bellowed as he attacks with gusto, smashing into the side of the bee knocking it down onto the ground.
Just as he did that, Aldrich appeared and jumped upon the back of the warrior bee, striking the base of the wing. Asteria blasted the worker bee again with magic, its body spasming from the second dose of electricity.
Orroark swung his Big Book above his head and brought it down on the soldier’s head, “You forgot your book return!”
Aldrich leapt off the back of the warrior and rushed towards the other bee, slashing with his dagger, slicing off two of its legs. Asteria threw another bolt, and with a bit of flutter, the second bee dropped to the ground.
Orroark held his side, “Weak poison, at least that is one thing.”
Asteria walked up, “Hold still,” A light burst from his hands, and he touched Orroark’s side. “This should help, still a bit weak for a healing spell.”
The bleeding slowed then stopped after six seconds. Orroark smiled a tusky grin. “Did you hear my finishing move statement?”
“Book return?” Aldrich asked.
“Yeah, I smashed him with my Big Book of Bashing…. It works; I returned the book to his head!” Orroark tried to explain.
Asteria stood next to his brothers, “Don’t worry, it works. At least you hit the right bee.”
They stood there and watched the last bee fly away. Maybe this might not be as hard as the brothers thought.

Blood Brothers: Part Six

Waking up the following day, Asteria could see both his brothers already ready to go. Orroark pointed to the bowl on the table. “They brought in breakfast; I’m going out back to do my exercises.” Turning to Aldrich, “Want to spar?”

Giving a huge yawn, Aldrich shook his head. “I am a little tired this morning, when you lot ‘helped’ with the dishes, I went to talk to the farmers Enes and Hermes. They have been working on a scaled-up hive for the bees; if we can capture the queen, they are willing to give us fifty gold pieces.” It was really 150 gold, but Aldrich kept that to himself, “But I need you two to cut down some trees so they can finish off the hive.”

Asteria sat up straight. “You promised that we will cut down trees. Why can’t you help?”

Aldrich shrugged, “I did get us ten smokesitcks and a net as well with the payment of 50 gold. Also, I am tired and need to rest if we want to go after the hive this afternoon.”

Orroark asked, “Were these the people that knew the comings and goings of the bees?” Aldrich nodded, “Damn you, Aldrich, I wanted to ask them questions.”

“They didn’t know much than you knew, so come on and eat Asteria; you have a big day ahead of you.” Aldrich smiled at his scowling brother.

They all ate and geared up. Heading out the bunkhouse, Asteria spied Teresa. “We have finished with our bowls, sorry we can’t help this morning, bees to deal with.”

“Not like you helped that much last night either, Asteria.” Teresa teased.

“That is true, but I was good company, though.” Asteria winked at Teresa then strutted off.

Orroark watched the interchange, shaking his head at his brother, Asteria. When will he just not go after every skirt available? Still, I learned a lot about different types of wood for cutlery. He then followed Asteria.

Aldrich nodded at Teresa, then jogged up with his brothers. “Okay, we head north, then take the first right path. Not far from there.”

“What tree are we using?” Orroark asked.

“Um, Trees?” Aldrich replied.

Orroark hid his sigh by checking the harness for his Big Book of Bashing. “I mean, certain types of wood would be better for a humid condition, like in a beehive.”

Asteria laughed at Orroak and Aldrich. “Aldrich, you did say that these farmers raise bees?” Aldrich nodded, “So, Orroark, you just have to chop down the trees they point out.”

“What do you mean, I will be chopping the trees down? By myself?” Orroark remarked.

Asteria shook his head, “No, no, you won’t be doing it alone.” He bluffed his younger brother.

Then the three brothers walked in silence, even though they are used to a larger town, both people and size, but this one is quite quaint. Following the cobblestone road, they took the right path, which is just packed gravel. 

Orroark pointed at the road, “You know the gravel would help with drainage, so wagons….” 

“We don’t care, Orroark. I know you like to know stuff, but it is a road.” Aldrich interrupted.

Muttering under his breath, Orroark grumbled. “Well, I think it is interesting.”

Asteria slapped his large brother’s back. “Don’t worry what grumpy is saying, but I do find it interesting that they invested in this type of road for a farmer’s track.”

“My yes, Asteria,” Orroark excitingly exclaimed, “Not even the farms around our town have this level of care for the roads.”

Aldrich started to walk faster, as he didn’t want to be dragged into talking about roads. Ten minutes later, the brothers reached the farm; the central part of the farm is filled with sunflowers, while the backfield is filled with fifteen boxes and behind that is a half-built barn.

Seeing the two gnomes doing everyday chores around their household, feeding the chickens, feeding the ponies and drawing water from the well. Seeing the three brothers, a gnome with a straw brimmed hat with a mesh veil covering his face.

“Ah, Aldrich, right?” Aldrich nodded as he approached the farmer. The farmer flipped his mesh veil up. “And these are your brothers?”

It wasn’t new that people doubted that these three were blood-related, but that is what happens when you are born from a half-orc and a half-elf. 

“Yes, this is Asteria and Orroark.” Aldrich introduced his two brothers. “And this is Hayes, over there is his wife, Enes.”

Hayes waves, “Okay then, just finishing up with hitching up my ponies. Then we are off to chop down some cedar trees.” He looked at the three, “Where are your axes and saws?”

Orroark grabbed another book weapon, this one has a beaten metal edge attached to the spine of the book, and again it is bolted into a length of wood.

“This can do the job, but we don’t have a saw,” Orroark said.

Looking sceptical at the ‘tool’, “Sure, come on, I’ll chuck mine on, but it is sized to me.” Looking at Orroark bludging arms. “But I think we don’t need to worry about that. You chop, and I will say. Then we will finish building my giant hive for the bees.”

Part One: Getting back to my roots

So next Sunday will be the first day of my ‘going back to my roots.’ I will be introducing three new people to dungeons and dragon. Still, I have found some interesting concepts and want to write a side by side short stories on their adventures. I will first start as an introduction to future games.

I would introduce each character and break into the story after the first game on the 11th of April.

The three players are the children of Karraaaggg, the Half-Orc Barbarian (Mum, 7ft tall) and Jazerith, Half-Elven Ranger (Dad, 5 foot 8 inches).

The oldest child is Aldrich, a roguish man of the grand age of 27. He inherited from his mixed-race parents only the human side—a bit of a trouble maker and a disappointment to his father not following in his ranger’s ways.

The next Asteria, a half-elven like his father but was born with magic from a long lost dragons’ bloodline. Being the prettiest of all the children and 21 years old. You can find him down either in the fields practising his innate magic or down at the town centre as he is a bit of a ladies man.

The last is Orroark, a strapping 16-year-old half-orc like his mum and did follow/forced to become a barbarian, but he loves to read. Unfortunately, Karraaaggg knocked sense into him (literally), so he cannot read. A wandering scholar told him in passing that knowledge is power, and the best way to knowledge, can be found in books. So now he uses books as his weapons.

Now, they are off into the big bad world searching for adventure!

Why I have lost the will to Write.

Pullout my laptop and wireless keyboard, blowing off the dust and then waiting for the computer to boot up, which was like waiting for a 386 to come alive (that is an old person reference). It made me realise that I might not have done any writing for a long time. There are reasons which I will touch on in this blog, but I don’t want to make this a morose blog, only a learning experience for future self-published authors.

If we have to start anywhere, it would be the dedication page of my novel, Lake Merrin. It states:

 I would like to dedicate this to my friends. Kstar, Hobbit, Khaos, Carebear, Raccoon and Kiba. As this story would not have existed without you.

Obviously, my friends had a hand in helping the world-building Favinonia and supported my writing of the said novel. Lake Merrin was published in 2017, and many things have changed. Only one of the six is still a friend, two outright slammed my creative expression, and the others fell to oblivion. I only realised this when a now close friend mentioned ‘How was my writing going?’, and I cried for the loss of passion for my creative spirit. Again this is only one of the reasons.

The next section of my dedication I will like to state is:

 I would also like to thank my Publisher, believing in me.

I will not name my Publisher, but a simple search would find the name of the company. Did they support me? My oath they did, even when I should have been thrown aside because of my depression. The thing is, they started small, and I felt comfortable talking to my publishers about my hopes and dreams of future works. Unfortunately, they have gotten so large and focus on more non-fiction that they are no longer a fit for me. I will remember the past fondly, but I can’t live in their publishing present.

The next is about selling my books, and yes, I do have multiply published books. You hit a wall as a self-published author, libraries and bookstores. They will not accept your book period! There are other ways to move your blood, sweat and tears, creative expression, Conventions. They, unfortunately, are hit and miss. Each year I barely made back the money to pay for the booth, let alone the books, flyers and other expenses.

With all this negativity, where should I go from here? My decision was to start back to my roots, which was dungeons and dragons. Creating stories that a few can enjoy and maybe motivate my flagging creativity. I do have some fans, not many, but they have been very passionate about my books. All I can give them is an undying thanks.

I hope future authors learn that there is a wall, and sometimes you have to go back to basics to get through to inspire your passion and creativity. #passioninspirecreate