So…last blog I made the claim that evil in fiction is often portrayed as undying and overpowering. (Author’s note: The jumping off point for this statement was Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which I finished since that blog and which ending only reinforced my claim.) But, I also claimed good was not often portrayed in…
Archive for Thoughts – Page 4
I’ve been watching the anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which, by the way, is fantastic. The bad guys are known as homunculi. They are nearly impossible to kill. They keep regenerating whenever hurt, and only sustained, brutal beatings can take one out. This type of thing occurs all the time in movies. The…
Okay, this requires a bit of explanation. I’ve been looking through lots of old files and stories. It’s been encouraging to see what I’ve written in the past, especially since I’ve been in bit of a dry spell. (Or, at least, I feel like I haven’t gotten done what I…
In a modern story, if things seem perfect, you know trouble’s bubbling beneath the surface. Partly, this is the drive of conflict in story, but I think there’s something more. As a culture, we have a sense of impending doom. My wife reads a LOT of young adult novels. Many of…
There’s not a word yet For old friends who’ve just met. -“I’m Going to Go Back There Someday,” The Muppets I don’t cry often. The number of people who’ve seen me in tears is a single digit. But I have a distinct memory of trying to hold back tears as…
Many eons ago (meaning late August), I started a little post about why I write. And then I got busy. This particular type of busy-ness makes it difficult to write, not because I don’t have some time to write but because I don’t have the space I need to write. My…
I recently watched Studio Ghibli’s The Secret World of Arrietty. If you want a review, visit my wife’s blog. I want to highlight two aspects of the film that impressed me–its simplicity and its sense of wonder. The story follows little people, Borrowers, who live in human houses and “borrow” what they…
Writing is not a straight line. At least, not for me. The Unremarkable Squire was started sometime in 2003, if my memory serves, and revised numerous times before I ever managed to write the last chapter. It’s just now seeing the light of day. Trouble on the Horizon was published in…
One of the powers of the storyteller is that he makes you feel. Say, for instance, there’s this guy. We’ll call him Tristan. And he’s madly in love with this princess, but she’s married. We’ll call her, I don’t know, Isolde. For a time, they sneak around in passionate, forbidden…
Real life, in case you’ve forgotten, is that thing that happens outside of the stories that surround us. Real life moves slower than stories. It makes less sense. It’s not as black-and-white. Usually, it’s far less entertaining. In real life, you don’t know what chapter you’re in. Maybe you’re somewhere…
At its most basic, desire simply means the protagonist wants something. If he can’t get what he wants, conflict ensues. A story is born. For me, however, the relationship between storytelling and desire have another, more personal meaning. That longing for something you can’t quite express, the hope for something…
Occasionally, I look at the list of books I’d like to read and wish I could read faster. That’s not the problem, though. Reading isn’t a race; it isn’t an attempt to cram more knowledge in your head, not with fiction. It’s a chance reconnect and recover. Reading should take time….
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