Category Archives: The Writing Life

Reality has taken a strange turn of events lately, becoming fiction and arcing out into quite possibly the greatest spy story since the Cold War.

There’s a saying in my line of work, it involves a couple of expletives and the rationale that truth is stranger than fiction.

Consider the news coverage over the past several months, the conspiracy theories that have popped up and the whistle blowers who are making history.

When we write fiction, there are always certain beats that you aim to hit. And when I long for inspiration, sometimes the best medicine is a quick trip to the television and a tune in to the nightly news.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I do live in a rather strange place. We have face eating zombies and killer bees. Primordial forests and dank swamps. But it wasn’t a local caper that caught my muse this time.

No, it was something on a more global scale. I won’t get into the specifics, or even mention the incident for fear of coloring this blog political in any way. So, instead let’s focus on a few general beats that every story needs to succeed. Every night when you watch the news, there is always a beginning, middle, and end to every story. Heck, that’s why they call them stories. News media operates in a reverse pyramid formula where the most important element is mentioned first. You can take that theory and apply it to fiction as well. All good stories should start with the most important thing that has ever happened to your character. It’s something that triggers the rest of the plot to move forward.

Let’s take a news event and break it down:

Catalyst – Every story begins with a precipitating event that sets your main characters on a collision course with destiny. In this case, something that has far reaching global implications. Do we hold Pandora’s Box? Did we just set off a nuclear bomb or leak a secret government plot?

Reaction – The main characters react to the catalyst, sometimes in strange or unusual ways. Sometimes even more mundane. Do we flee the country? Blast off to space? Vow to seek revenge?

Romance – Do the characters fall in love? Fall out of love? Do they sacrifice their relationship to save the world?

Climax – The chase is on, the reaction boils over and spills into a global conflict. The gods have awakened and they are angry. Pandora’s box is open. Nuclear winter is here.

Resolution – Does your hero go to jail? Get the girl? Save the world? Or tragically die trying to do the right thing?

It’s not just news that we can draw inspiration from. I’m a big fan of conspiracy theories. Not because I believe in them, but because they tell a great story and lead to some awesome What If moments. If I recall correctly, Stephen King writes most of his books under a “What If?” scenario. Let’s take a few of the more common conspiracy theories and break them down into a story.

Chemtrails:

Certain conspiracy theorists believe that every time a plane flies overhead, its contrail is a secret mixture of chemicals used for mind control, population control, weather control, or any other sort of illicit means you could think up. So – let’s play What If.

What if your main character is an air force pilot, retired. Let’s call him Jim for ease. Jim flies for GloboAir. Before a Trans-Atlantic flight, he is approached by a shadowy man in a business suit. The man claims to be from the TSA and there’s been a threat to the security of the plane. The federal government received “credible information” that a terrorist organization was preparing to shoot down a commercial airliner as it passes through the 48th Parallel. The shadowy man offers an alternative flight path that leads him, his crew, and his passengers safely out of harm’s way. The detour he is provided secretly takes him into a military operation in which his plane has become a weapon of mass destruction. The chemtrails that his plane are set to leave will result in a monster tsunami that will destroy a large city, which would open the country up to a mutually beneficial trade agreement as the USA helps them rebuild from their disaster. Jim discovers the secret plot while in the bathroom and vows that he will not become a pawn in a global chess game. He ignores the new flight coordinates and his plane goes off the air traffic control flight path. Military jets scramble under the belief that Jim’s plane has been hijacked. Now Jim is on a race against time to save his passengers and the world.

Bermuda Triangle:

The Bermuda Triangle is more of a supernatural conspiracy in which people believe that there is a strange reason so many ships or planes disappear in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, between Puerto Rico and Bermuda. Popular victims of the Bermuda Triangle include Amelia Ehrhardt, USS Cyclops, and the creepiest to me, The Connemaria IV.

Let’s play What If.

Jim, the fisherman runs a charter vessel off the coast of Florida. He accidentally sails into the Bermuda Triangle, where he is accosted by the ghosts of the Connemaria IV. A chase ensues as the ghosts attempt to destroy Jim’s vessel. While fleeing, he ends up running aground in the middle of the ocean. There he discovers the lost city of Atlantis and falls in love with a beautiful siren named Janis. Jim becomes the target of an assassination attempt when Janis’ boyfriend, John finds out. The assassin fails and accidentally kills the king with poison meant for Jim. Now Jim is accused of a crime he didn’t commit and trapped by people he could never hope to understand.

Elvis:

One of the longest running conspiracy theories is that Elvis Priestly never really died.

Elvis Priestly, Knight of Thorns, had to fake his own death so that he could begin his secret life as a vampire hunter. Seriously, how fun does that sound?

There are plenty of other conspiracy theories out there that are ready to burst with creative energy. Operation Northwoods, MK-Ultra, Psychic Warfare, New World Order syndicates, and dozens more beyond that. So, don’t get discouraged when you hit a stumbling block or can’t think of the next great story. Just know that whatever impetus you need to propel your muse back into life can be as simple as a click away.

Tools for Creating Your Own Mythology

June 20, 2013

Ace Jordyn

In yesterday’s post we asked if it was possible to create mythology and why, as writers, we need to. In this post, I’ll talk about some of the tools I use to build mythology.

The truth is that our rational minds want to and need to rationalize what we cannot control. We need to make sense of the paradoxes and the unexplainable. It doesn’t need to be far out – it can be based on pagan principles (survivalist on Maslow’s hierarchy*), technological environment (Robert J Sawyer’s trilogy, Wake, Watch, and Wonder in which hte world wide web wakes up. Although doesn’t tackle the question of myth creation directly, it makes a good case for a developing a myth based in technology). In a world of proto-people, vampires, werewolves, zombies, revenants and the rest, how do your characters view their own origins and existence? How do the humans view them? Are these proto-people like mythological figures to the humans?

The starting point is to look at the geography, the world that your characters inhabit. Is it a harsh environment like the polar ice cap, low gravity of mars, void like the moon, rich and abundant like Tolkein’s Middle Earth, or is it an urban setting on modern? Whether it’s an alien on/from another planet, ancient peoples, futuristic people on space ships, a post apocalyptic world (in Hunger Games they lived with the mythology, the “gods’ who determined whether they were chosen to die) you need to know your environment and then determine how your characters will respond to it.

So, what challenges will your protagonist face based on where she lives? How does her environment affect her and those around her? Most importantly, how does she make sense of what is happening around her? In my current work, a fantasy with historical overtures, the ancient civilization lives on a volcanic island. Rules, conduct, religious practices are all based on keeping the God of Thundering Mountain happy so he doesn’t erupt. When He rumbles, then the Magic Master is in trouble. Throw in the Earth Mother and her goddesses who have been upset since the God of Thundering Mountain arrived. Now the world is rife with possibilities. Of course, we don’t get to see the God and Goddesses interact, we know the tension exists between them through the interactions of the High Priestess who serves the goddesses and the Magic Master who serves the god. Throw in some commerce-based political drama, a murder and a foreign kidnapping and all actions in this new mythological background are bound to blow up – literally and figuratively … especially when we learn that the God wants to be incarnate so he can walk the world and rule it.

So you can see how this mythology developed from the environment. First, by determining the geography, the time period and the level of technology. Then there’s the interpretation of that world by its inhabitants which then determines how people act and react. But let’s talk about technology for a moment. In the time period I’m working in, 2000 BC on Crete, archaeologists discovered that the Minoans had developed some basic, actually very sophisticated, astronomy.

The cool thing is that the constellation we know as Orion’s Belt, was known to them as the Double Headed Axe. That’s all we know about it – not even why they saw it that way. Isn’t that the most exciting piece of information a writer can have? I mean, it’s the perfect symbol in the book! When it pops up, all sorts of things are going to happen! And, I’ve even mentioned that for one character, the double axe looks like it’s slung on a belt. That modern reference draws the astute reader further into the mythology because there is now a ring of truth, a familiarity to it. So even basic technology and information can tell us a lot about how people interpreted their world and how they would have reacted. Most importantly, it can help us create that mythology with a deeper meaning rooted in basic survival.

The thing to watch for is not to assume that the current value systems we hold, religious, political, economic and law enforcement systems we adhere to are the same for the characters in your book. If they are, that makes for safe, dull writing unless you’re writing a great emotional drama in that specific environment. The purpose of writing is to entertain, to challenge readers with new thoughts and perspectives. Readers want to understand and experience the world you are delivering. Even if it is set in modern day, they want to read about those who rightly or wrongly challenged the status quo, became the hero, went on an epic journey mentally and physically. And the easiest way, to my mind, is to do that by developing a new mythology for that makes it a fun and safe way to deal with paradoxes.

I’ll share one more tidbit with you. On Minoan Crete, they had tholos tombs where bodies were put to rot before the bones were placed in pithos jars. Cool, eh! So the basic questions are, why? What did this mean? How does it relate to their world view and what’s happening? My answer was that the Earth Mother, who helped give them life needed to feast on the flesh of her children to welcome them back into her womb and her world. The bones remained so people would remember their connection to their ancestors and the Earth Mother. What’s your interpretation? Go, delve into the world you’re creating. Look closely through the eyes of your characters and let them tell you how they see it. You never know what great mythology lies in that first inkling of an idea!

*for more information on Maslow’s check out my post: http://www.fictorians.com/2011/10/17/valuing-your-characters-or-maslow-for-writers/

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Just a small reminder to not forget about Monique Bucheger’s Book Bomb today! You can now get 30 ebooks by participating, 19 free and 11 at $.99. Go to Moniquebucheger.blogspot.com for full details.

Creating Your Own Mythology

June 19, 2013

Ace Jordyn

Ace Jordyn Craft & Skills Fantasy Ideas & Plotting Outlines Setting and Milieu Storyline World-building Writing Tools 3 Comments

Creating your own mythology – how cool! And loads of fun! We write in an era where readers embrace modern and new myth. When Bram Stoker penned Dracula, he took an obscure legend, gave it its own rules and a new mythology was born. Today, we understand the social action and values for vampires, werewolves and zombies. This is newly created mythology has been embraced by generations of readers. In Tolkien’s books, the fantasy world received a new mythology Middle Earth and that lore, that mythology, is still embraced by people today.

There are those who argue that because myth is defined as being of the distant past, that it has its own cultural criteria and that it requires organic growth in a culture, that it can’t be instantly created. Humbug! Myth is a way for people to reconcile the paradoxes of life – the things that don’t make sense to us. How was life created? How do the gods and people interact? What are the rules for interaction? Apply it to everyday life and we can call it religion. Apply it to books and we call it world building.

And perhaps that is the difference – scholars will argue that because what writers create isn’t part of the everyday, ordinary belief systems for people, then it isn’t legitimate myth. But who draws that line? Who determines when an idea crosses that line? And does it matter? Is it any less compelling? I think not. We no longer believe in the Greek Pantheon of gods yet they’re as popular as ever in literature like in Rick Riordon’s Percy Jackson and the Olympian’s series. Do we have to believe in those specific gods for the mythology to be relevant, to explain creation, our relationship with the world, our struggle with life’s paradoxes and our need to have legitimate heroes to inspire us? Not at all. When we delve into other people’s belief systems, we challenge and enrich our own. We discover new ways to escape and to solve problems.

Mythology creates rules. How do heroes, people and proto-people (vampires, werewolves and the like) behave? What kills them (silver bullets, kryptonite or a stake through the heart)? Who are the gods, and what are their rules? How did creation happen and what happens after death? Why are their problems? Can man solve them or is he powerless?

We’ve established that not only can we create new mythology we must do it to explain the rules of the new worlds we’ve created. And many myths born of ancient legends and modern science are being created and believed by people (no judgements here). This is the mythology of ancient aliens coming to earth for their own purposes and seeding mankind (biologically and technologically). It is all a way to rationalize, to understand our history, what makes us human and to explain the anomalies and paradoxes of who we are and where we’ve come from.

And where will the next new mythology arise? The future. Outer space, I think. With the newly emerged and proven theories of space and time and the universe expanding faster and faster (not more slowly as some would believe) to end up in a black hole that swallows it entirely – like how do we explain that? Mythology, that’s how. A futuristic mythology born of predicted apocalyptic events. How cool would that be?

In creating the mythology for my books, I look closely at the world I’ve built along with the premise of the story. Mythology is about explaining how things came to be. Why they are the way they are. Why people believe as they do. It’s answering these questions that makes a world unique and believable. In one series, I asked what makes this one item so valuable? Why is it such a threat? How did it get where it is? What happens now that it’s been loosed upon the world? What do people believe about the item and their power to change destiny?

In the historically-based fantasy series I’m currently working on, the creation and afterlife myths mythology are crucial to how this world acts. The problem is, there is very little information about societal beliefs for the time period I’ve chosen to write about and I’ve been scouring academic journals for months. And that, for a writer, is perfect! From minute tidbits of factual information on tools, trade and astronomy, I’ve got just enough information to ground the story in history yet enough leeway to create a whole new mythology as to why things were done the way they were. This has forced me to really see the world through my characters’ eyes and in doing so, their actions and reactions have a genuine truth. And in doing that, the story has become so real, so alive and so fascinating!

You can take more modern or current historical events such as the decay of an empire, an evil despot trying to conquer the world, invading armies, geological tragedies, interpersonal tragedies, whatever you wish – take these larger events and change the details of the experience. Create a new world, a new way of looking at things, a new mythology which your characters use to explain their circumstances, their world, why the scourge seeps through the country – use all that to create and influence your hero, your proto-humans and your society. Or, take one of the ten basic creation myths, put you own spin on it and ask yourself, how would this influence a given society? Again, Rick Riordon did this in his series when he brought the Greek gods to America. Neil Gammon has his own unique spin on mythological figures come to the Americas in American Gods.

So go for it! Create new worlds with ground breaking, mind bending mythologies. There’ll always be a flick of our modern realities and value systems in them, how can there not be? Besides, those bits of our world in them is what will make the issues, the dilemmas and the challenges ring true for the reader. Mix, mash and have fun with it.

In tomorrow’s post I’ll talk about how I create new mythology for my worlds.

Happy mythology building!

Ginnie West Cover Reveal Extravaganza!

June 17, 2013

Leigh Galbreath

Giveaways Guest Posts The Writing Life No Comments

Happy Monday, everyone. I hope you’re all enjoying our month long look at myth & legend!

We’re taking a break from our normally schedule programming to bring you something fun this week. Monique Bucheger’s Ginnie West Adventure series has gotten all new covers, and to celebrate it, we’re taking part in the extravaganza surrounding her cover reveal with a giveaway and a Book Bomb! on Thursday, June 20th. Check out Monique’s great work below and stick around for the details for lots of free stuff at the bottom of the post.

The Ginnie West Adventure series gets new covers!

To quote Ginnie: “They are totally awesome sauce!”

THE SECRET SISTERS CLUB: A GINNIE WEST ADVENTURE (Book 1)

Twelve-year-old BFFs-Ginnie and Tillie-want to be sisters. Tillie’s divorced mom plus Ginnie’s widowed dad could equal a lifetime of round-the-clock girl talk and slumber parties. Too bad Dad vowed to never marry again. Ginnie and Tillie form a secret club and come up with the perfect mission to change his mind: “Operation: Secret Sisters’.

Before long, Tillie seems happier about gaining a dad than a sister. Ginnie suspects that Tillie has turned “Operation: Secret Sisters’ into a scam called “Operation: Steal My Dad.’ Things get more complicated when Ginnie stumbles across her real mom’s hidden journals. Ginnie can finally get to know the mother she doesn’t remember and Dad doesn’t talk about. When Dad discovers she has the journals, he takes them away. Ginnie needs to figure out why before her relationship with her father and her best friend are ruined forever.

As a writer of fantasy, few stories set in reality succeed in capturing my interest so thoroughly that they leave me wanting more. With her spirited personality and flare for fun, Ginnie West does just this as she draws the reader into her unique world from the start and never disappoints. An engaging read that entertains the young as well as the young at heart, this novel manages to become what most rarely do–memorable. ~~ S.E. Gerard, A Fracture In Time

I LOVED this book! I didn’t know a book without zombies could be good! ~~15 yr-old Amanda

TROUBLE BLOWS WEST: A GINNIE WEST ADVENTURE (Book 2)

Putting her body in motion before her brain is in gear creates a mountain of problems for 12 year-old Ginnie West. She is certain that defending her twin brother, Toran, from the biggest bully in sixth grade was the right thing to do. But Ginnie couldn’t be more wrong. She quickly figures out that Toran doesn’t appreciate being rescued by a girl any better than Pierce likes being knocked down by one.

When Pierce seeks revenge on Ginnie, Toran sets aside his anger and helps her plot a playback prank at Pierce’s house. Sadly, Ginnie learns that Pierce has a reason for being a bully when she sees his dad drop him to the floor like a rag doll. Realizing he’s a boy in big trouble, Ginnie decides to be his ally, even if he won’t let her be his friend.

If you like farms, friends, horses, and secrets, you’ll love: Trouble Blows West: A Ginnie West Adventure. So saddle up and be ready to ride with Ginnie as she explores the true meaning of friendship. ~~Debbie Shakespeare Smith, middle-grade author of The House of Chicken

An excellent book that deals with the sensitive topics of bullying, abuse, and forgiveness. It is action packed and full of raw emotions. Bucheger does an amazing job of writing this story, without giving a cookie cutter answer to the problems Ginnie faces. The characters are full and rich-which makes me wish I could be part of the West family as well. ~~ Karen D.

SIMPLY WEST OF HEAVEN: A GINNIE WEST ADVENTURE (Book 3)

Twelve-year-old BFFs schemed to get Ginnie’s widowed dad to fall in love with Tillie’s divorced mom. When their parents go along with the matchmaking, the girls are stoked. Sweet! Not long after though, Ginnie stumbles upon her late mom’s journals, making life even more awesome sauce … until her dad confiscates the journals, determined to protect Ginnie from a danger he won’t name. Ginnie is counting on her future sister’s help to make Dad change his mind, but Tillie’s not so sure the ghost of Ginnie’s mom will make a good addition to their new family tree.

Besides, Tillie is too busy trying to keep the memory of her abusive, no-good , rotten-excuse-for-a-birth-father from bubbling to the surface to worry about what’s bugging Ginnie. He left six years ago and Tillie’s knows a better dad when she sees one … Ginnie’s dad. The girls’ world gets flipped upside-down when a blast from the past shows up and makes Tillie go nutburgers. Ginnie is torn between helping her best friend and what could be the answer to her prayers. Life gets complicated lickety-split in what is sure to be the most pivotal summer of Ginnie’s life.

With the charm of The Little House books, and the courage of today’s American Girl, Bucheger has created a series that has staying power. ~~Mikey Brooks, The Dream Keeper

As a mother I couldn’t put these books down. While they may be written for middle grade children, I was not only entertained, but inspired. ~~ Courtney W.

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When Monique Bucheger isn’t writing, you can find her playing taxi driver to one or more of her children, plotting her next novel, scrapbooking, or being the “Mamarazzi” at any number of child-oriented events. Even though she realizes there will never be enough hours in any given day, Monique tries very hard to enjoy the journey that is her life.

She shares it with a terrific husband, her dozen children, an adorable granddaughter, a son-in-law, three cats, and many real and imaginary friends. She is the author of several books and plans to write many more. You can find more about Monique and her works at: www.moniquebucheger.blogspot.com

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Monique has opened a Rafflecopter giveaway for you to enter and win some great prizes. Enter as often as you like with your Facebook log-in or e-mail (you can do each once per day). The giveaway ends Friday, June 21st.

On June 20th, Monique is hosting a great Book Bomb! Anyone who buys the third book in the series for $5.99 gets 27 books for free or $.99! How can you beat that?