The end of BEDA

That's it, 30 consecutive days of blogging.

I'm glad that I participated in BEDA but daily blogging is not something I want to do long-term. I enjoy writing different kinds of things, not just blog posts, and making sure I posted here every day meant that some days, I didn't have time for something else I wanted to work on.

So I'm going back to my usual blogging schedule with one or two posts per week.

Thank you for reading!

Choose Your Own Adventure in digital space

Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? They were interactive books written from a second-person point of view. You assumed the role of the main character and made decisions for them throughout the book. The story outcome changed and depended on the decisions you made. The books were popular in the 1980s and 1990s and you can still find them in bookstores.

I love those books because you could re-read them, make different decisions, and end up with a completely different story. That sort of interactivity could work in other mediums as well. Some YouTubers have made interactive videos in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure. YouTube works well for this because creators can set up the decisions as annotations. Choose option 1 if you want the characters to do this and option 2 if you want them to do that instead, and then the next video plays.

Netflix's run of Arrested Development is going to be somewhat in the spirit of Choose Your Own Adventure because the order in which you watch episodes won't matter. But we aren't going to be making decisions for Michael or anything like that (x).

I think Choose Your Own Adventure stories have great potential on a platform like Netflix. Each story would essentially be a mini-series with all of the episodes released on the same day (much like Netflix is doing with Arrested Development). The episodes would be written so that you can watch them in consecutive order, or you could jump around and experience a different story.

YouTube and Netflix have changed how we watch video content, but the format of TV shows hasn't changed that much in response to internet technology. There are opportunities for experimental, non-linear series. It's only a matter of creating them.

On planning stories

George R.R. Martin says there are two kinds of writers, architects and gardeners:

I've always said there are – to oversimplify it – two kinds of writers. There are architects and gardeners. The architects do blueprints before they drive the first nail, they design the entire house, where the pipes are running, and how many rooms there are going to be, how high the roof will be. But the gardeners just dig a hole and plant the seed and see what comes up. I think all writers are partly architects and partly gardeners, but they tend to one side or another, and I am definitely more of a gardener. (x)

When I'm writing fiction, I like knowing the basic elements beforehand and figuring out everything else in the process of writing. I'm an architect at the beginning but then I take the gardening approach.

I like seeing how other people organize their notes, and maybe you do too, so here are a few ways I have organized story notes.

In my head

When I first have an idea, I keep everything in my head. I've always had a good memory for stories, so it's easy for me to figure out characters, places, plot points, even structure—and keep it in my memory. This method lets me have my "notes" with me all the time and I can work on the story wherever and whenever (nice), but it's also possible I'll think of something and forget it before I fit it into the story information I already worked out (bummer).

Paper

When things get more detailed, I move to paper. I draw diagrams, flow charts, maps, and webs. I use a notebook for this method, so it's portable (nice), but I tend to take notes haphazardly so it can be difficult to search through my notes (bummer).

Evernote

I keep one digital notebook for a story with separate notes for characters, a rough outline, locations, and ideas. I can access Evernote from any internet connection and it's searchable (nice), but digital notes means that I don't see them all the time (bummer). They don't have a physical presence on my desk to remind me that I should be writing (instead of scrolling through Tumblr).

Index cards

Using index cards is a hybrid method of Evernote and physical paper. I just started using these for the story I'm working on. I have cards for characters (one on each card, adding details as I write them into the story), locations, and scenes. I use different colored cards to separate information (character cards are blue and scene cards are white). Hole-punching the cards and keeping them on a ring makes them portable. (So would wrapping a rubber band around the stack, but I like being able to turn through the cards.) I can rearrange the cards however I want, whenever I need to (nice), but card size is a limitation, so I might need a notebook in conjunction with index cards (bummer).

How do you like to organize notes?

Weekend Roundup - April 28

A different list this week: blogs and feeds that post creative writing prompts.

On Tumblr

FY Writing Prompts
I Dare You To Write
Odd Prompts
Photo Prompts
To Write Prompts
Writing Prompts That Don't Suck
Yeah Write!

On Blogger

Prompts for Writers
Easy Street Prompts

Lists

CreativeWritersPrompts.com
25 Creative Writing Prompts (Writing Forward)
Thirteen Writing Prompts (McSweeney's)
The Daily Prompt (Reddit)

Why doesn't Nick talk to Juliette?

After all the weird stuff that has happened to Juilette, I'm still surprised that Nick hasn't told her that he is a grimm.

Nick doesn't know about Juliette's hallucinations. From his point of view, Juliette is getting her memories back, but she is having a rough time. She asked him to leave her alone, which is fine, but the self-imposed isolation isn't helping her.

I like Juliette, but at this point, I'm waiting for a wesen to attack the house. She won't be able to respond because she won't know what's going on. Hopefully Nick will be there to save her because the way her character is, Juliette won't be able to protect herself.

Hank found about about wesen and is still a detective. He can better help Nick with research and fighting wesen. The writers should give Juliette the same chance.

Community: Switching bodies and teaming up

Spoilers for Season 4, episode 11, "Basic Human Anatomy."

I loved the Freaky Friday homage. Abed and Troy have always been paired off as best friends, even within the study group, but each character maintains his own identity. Troy is friendly, a movie fan, and sometimes slow on the uptake. Abed is obsessed with TV and movies, socially awkward, and usually the most insightful person in the group. When they switch bodies, they are obviously different people. The credit goes to Glover and Pudi for mimicking each other's mannerisms and speech patterns so well. You can tell that the person who looks like Abed is talking like Troy, and the person who looks like Troy is moving around like Abed.

Troy and Abed are the perfect choice for two character switching bodies, but the Freaky Friday trope made something else obvious: Annie and Shirley are basically the same character now.

Both are up for valedictorian, as we've been hearing in every episode. They team up against the rest of the group (in this episode, as the banner approvers), and they say the same things at the same time ("Awww, that you remember?" and "Sorry."). Shirley even tells Annie to use "we" and "us" because Annie uses first person pronouns when she actually means both Shirley and herself.

The writers keep lumping Annie and Shirely together, and it stagnates both women. Neither character can develop when they keep sharing roles and goals.

"Basic Human Anatomy" is a fun episode, but the interesting developments with Troy and Abed are diminished by the redundancy between Annie and Shirley.

I want movies loosely based on novels

The major problem with making a movie based on a novel is, most people expect the movie to be very close to the novel and it's difficult to do that because stories in books and stories on screen work differently.

You'll never be able to fit everything from a 300-page novel into a 2-hour movie. You have to cut scenes, maybe eliminate characters, and probably rework parts to make the story work for the movie.

I wish instead of seeing "based on ", we would see more movies "inspired by" novels. Instead of trying to recreate the book on screen, take the characters and some plot elements and run in a new direction. 

This is how the Bourne movies were made. I watched The Bourne Identity, liked it, and then read the book, expecting it to be similar to the movie but with more fleshed-out parts. But the book is so much more than the movie. More scenes, more locations, more challenges. The movie took the essential characters and one thread from the plot and that's what you watch on screen. You don't need to have read the book to understand the movie, and watching the movie does not spoil the book for you. They are separate but related, and each great stories in their own mediums.

Pilot Study: Touch

(x)

Touch - "Tales of the Red Thread" (50 minutes)
Original air date: January 25, 2012

Themes

Fate, destiny, patterns

Setting

Modern day, New York City (with scenes in other places around the world)

Opening 

Narration: voice over by a young boy (11 years old)
- Fibonacci sequence
- Golden ratio: 1.618
- red thread of fate in Chinese legend

Characters

Martin Bohm

- baggage handler at JFK airport
- scared of heights
- former report
- Jake's dad
- wife, Sarah, was a stock broker in World Trade Center and died on 9/11

Jake

- Martin's son
- autistic and mute
- math genius—uses numbers to find connections between people and make predictions
- likes orange soda, popcorn, and taking apart cell phones

Clea Hopkins

- child services representative
- evaluating the home life of Jake because he keeps getting in trouble at school (going off on his own and climbing cell towers) and Martin's succession of low-wage jobs can't provide the resources Jake might need

Simon Plimpton

- from London
- sells restaurant supplies around the world
- lost his phone at the Heathrow airport (London), and wants it back because it's the only place he has photos of his daughter, Lily, who died the previous year.

Red threads

Globe-hopping telephone

- belongs to Simon Plimpton from London

• London: Heathrow airport. Simon lost his phone.
• New York City: JFK airport. Martin finds phone and answers when it rings, but he gets interrupted by a call on his own phone from Jake's school. Martin leaves Simon's phone on the luggage carousel.
• Ireland: Niles uses the phone to record singer Kayla Graham. Then he stashes phone in a business man's luggage.
• Tokyo: A girl finds the phone, watches Kayla's video, and starts a fan club. She arranges to have the phone's photos and videos uploaded on screens around the city. Then she passes the phone on to a man traveling to Kuwait.
• Kuwait. (We don't know what happened to the phone, but it ends up in Iraq.)
• Iraq: phone become countdown for a bomb strapped to the boy who needs an over for his mother's bakery

The phone is a red thread connecting Simon Plimpton (the restaurant supplier) to the boy in Iraq (whose mother needs an oven). Bonus: Simon is in Tokyo when the phone's contents go up on the big screens, so he sees the photos of his daughter.

Winning lottery ticket 

- belongs to Randy, the firefighter who tried to save Sarah. The numbers are the details of when and where he found her. He isn't sure that Sarah was dead when he left her during the 9/11 attack, so he played the same lottery number every day and decided if he would win, he would give the money to her family.

• Jake takes the ticket after Randy buys it, copies down the numbers, and then gives it back to Randy.
• Randy tells Martin that Jake should be kept in a cage. Randy punches Martin in the stomach and leaves.
• Martin realizes that Jake's numbers mean something is going to happen at Grand Central Station. He goes there, sees Randy, and they get into a fight.
• Randy misses his train because of the fight. On his way back to his New York apartment, he sees the overturned school bus and rescues the kids on it.

The winning lottery ticket is a red thread connecting Randy (who wants to make up for leaving Sarah behind) to Sarah's family (who need money because Martin's job does not pay enough). Bonus: Jake's predictions set up Randy to be in the right place at the right time to see the overturned school bus. Randy couldn't save Sarah, but he has the opportunity to save a group of kids.

318

- school bus number (and date it overturns)
- fire department badge at Sarah's grave
- alarm clock on Martin's computer
- address of Teller Institute (who knows about children who find mathematical patterns in everything)
- security footage time on each instance that Jake gets caught at school
- Lily died on March 18, the previous year

Grimm moves to Tuesday nights

NBC announced that it canceled Ready to Love, and Grimm is moving to fill its slot on Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

Up to now, Grimm has been airing on Friday nights, also known as the "death slot." So on the one hand, it's a good sign that NBC thinks Grimm will do well in a more competitive, prime time slot.

But on the other hand, Grimm is doing well on Friday nights, and this change asks the audience to follow the show to a new night and time.

I watch Grimm on Hulu (and hardly ever on TV, the night it airs), so this change won't affect me. I wonder how large Grimm's online audience is, and if networks take that into consideration when they re-assign TV time slots.

When a chain feels local

More and more, I notice that my local Barnes and Noble cafe feels like a locally-owned cafe, even though it's a chain retailer serving coffee and food from chain vendors (Starbucks and Cheesecake Factory).

I spent a couple hours there today, reading and writing, and I ended up people watching and eavesdropping a little too. This is what I saw:

• three people planning a community event
• a group of native and non-native Spanish speakers who meet up every week to speak Spanish (maintaining cultural ties for the native speakers and providing practice for the non-native speakers)
• two young women chatting and catching up with each other
• two middle-aged men playing chess
• an elderly couple reading magazines
• the usual scattering of solo people (including me), writing, reading, or typing

There are plenty of tables, open space, good lighting, and what I think is optimal background noise (quiet and scattered enough that it's not distracting, but loud enough to make the atmosphere feel vibrant), and there's a community-centered feeling about the place (instead of cookie cutter chain).

Usually I'm an advocate of shopping and eating at locally-owned places, but the closest locally-owned cafe to me has limited seating and I would feel bad ordering only coffee and taking up a table for two hours. Instead, that local cafe is my spot for getting coffee to go or going out to lunch with a friend and Barnes and Noble is my spot for sitting down and working.

Weekend Roundup - April 21

Articles I read this week. Sources in parenthesis. Comments from me.

Why I'm Trading a House and Salary for a Motorcycle and Map (Thought Catalog)

How the Boston Marathon tragedy revealed the best side of social media (io9)

Why You Should Go To That Interview (Even If You Don't Want To) (Daily Muse) - The second point is about going so that you can practice your interview skills. That's the best reason for me to go to an interview when I'm not that excited about the position. Last year, I interviewed at a marketing firm and halfway through, I realized I didn't want the position. But I asked great questions and finished the interview on a strong point. It's easily the best interview I've ever had, and that experience has helped me prepare for other interviews.

Why Medium Might Be Large (Chris Brogan) - An overview of a new(ish) content publishing platform.

10 Tutorials to Make Your Own Unique Notebooks (Apartment Therapy)

Blogging pet peeves

A list of things that people do (or don't do) on their blogs that bug me.

1. No search box

Search boxes are useful for 1) finding posts on a specific topic and 2) finding a post you already read. But if you don't have a search box on your blog, I'm forced to try to find what I'm looking for through the archive (if you have one available) or tags (which may or may not be helpful).

2. Pop-up subscription box

When I click on a blog post, I want to read the post first. I don't want a pop-up getting in my way. If I want to subscribe to your RSS feed or newsletter or check out your free e-book, I'll find the information for that on your site. Don't get in the way of me reading your content in the first place.

3. No dates on posts

Depending on the content of your blog, knowing the date that you posted is essential. If you review technology or online services, chances are those things change often and quickly. A two-year old post about Spotify might not be relevant anymore, so I need to know when it was posted.

4. Irrelevant or unnecessary images

Somewhere along the way, we were encouraged to include at least one image in every single blog post. Images draw people in. They're more attractive than a block of text. That's true for relevant images that add value to your content. But if you're combing stock photography for an image to stick in your post, I'd rather not see it. Skip the fluff and post good content. If I'm interested in the topic, I'll read, regardless of if you included an image.

5. Small, thin font

Blogs tend to be text-heavy, and the design should complement the content. Choose font and spacing that make your content easy to read.

6. Low contrast between background color and font color

This goes with #5. Your text should be easy to read. If I'm struggling to read light gray text on a white background, I won't spend much time on your blog.

7. Multiple pages for one post

I don't see a need to post one article over multiple pages, except for people who focus on page-clicks as an indicator of a successful site. Photo slideshows are one thing, but don't make me click through 10 pages to see "10 tips for your job search." I've found dozens of interesting-sounding articles and then never read them because the site was set up to make me click through several times before I could read one article.

Pilot Study: Teen Wolf

I noticed that the storytelling and degree of detail varies in pilot episodes of shows, so informally, I've been watching pilot episodes and keeping track of everything we find out in that episode. (Sometimes I also watch and take notes on episode 2 to see what the pilot episode set up and how it's resolved.) These "Pilot Study" posts come from my notes.

Teen Wolf on MTV.com

Teen Wolf - "Wolf Moon" (41 minutes)
Original air date: June 5, 2011

Setting

Modern day, Beacon Hills, CA

Opening

Woods - police cars, policemen with flashlights and dogs, Sheriff
House - music playing, teenage boy (Scott) fixing a lacrosse stick, doing pull-ups, brushing teeth. He hears a noise, grabs a baseball bat, and goes out on the porch. Scott's friend, Stiles, startles him and tells him he heard there's half a dead body in the woods. They go looking for it. The sheriff, Stiles's dad, finds him and walks him back to his car. Scott walks through the woods, finds the dead woman, and gets attacked by a wolf.

Characters

Scott McCall

Main character. After the wolf bite, his asthma goes away, he has better reflexes and agility, and enhanced senses. Love interest: Allison.

Stiles

Scott's best friend. Researches lycanthropy and werewolves after Scott's attack.  Love interest: Lydia.

Allison Argent

New girl in town. Her dad is one of the hunters in the woods that find Derek and Scott.

Lydia Martin

Popular girl, dates Jackson.

Jackson

Popular, rich, jock (captain of the lacrosse team), dates Lydia.

Derek Hale

Werewolf. A few years older than Scott. His family died in a fire ten years ago.

Sheriff Stilinski

Stiles's dad

Scott's mom

Allison's dad

One of the hunters in the woods

Lacrosse coach

Plot

• A werewolf in the woods bites Scott. The wound heals quickly and afterward, Scott has enhanced senses (hearing Allison's heartbeat, smelling the gum in Stiles's pocket), strength (shoving Stiles against the wall), agility, and speed (scoring goals at lacrosse practice).
  
• Police are investigating what happened to the woman's body they found in the woods. Tests revealed that the hair samples on the body are from a wolf. (But there haven't been any wolves in California for decades.)
  
• Scott and Stiles see Derek in the woods, after Derek hasn't been in town for a few years.
  
• Allison accidentally hits a dog with her car and takes it to the veterinary clinic where Scott works. The dog calms down when Scott touches it, and he makes a splint for its broken leg. He asks Allison to go with him to a party on Friday night…
  
• …but Friday night is the full moon. Derek is hanging around in the background of the party, watching Scott. Scott feels sick and goes home. He transforms into a werewolf. Stiles tells him that Allison left the party with Derek, and Scott takes off, believing that Allison is in danger. Stiles goes to Allison's house and sees she's there and safe. Scott finds Derek in the woods. Hunters find them too, and one shoots an arrow into Scott's arm. Derek saves Scott, and Stiles drives Scott back home. The next day, Allison's dad picks Allison up from school, and Scott sees that her dad is one of the hunters from the night before.

Nice touches

• In Scott's English class, they're reading Kafka's Metamorphosis, which connects to Scott's transformation intoto a werewolf.
• Scott's mom says she doesn't want to end up on a reality TV show with a pregnant teen (something like 16 and Pregnant…which airs on MTV, the same network at Teen Wolf).

Amy Pond in Pompeii

If you've been watching Doctor Who for a few years, you probably remember that Karen Gillan guest-starred in a series four episode, "The Fires of Pompeii," as a soothsayer. Here is a screenshot of her from the episode:

Years later when Gillan was cast as Amy Pond, I thought it would be neat if her story finished in Pompeii. Like River, we would see Amy's death before we knew the character was part of the Doctor's future.

Imagine my excitement last year when I heard that the final episode with Amy and Rory would have Weeping Angels in it. It made sense—the Angels would send the Ponds back in time and feed off their energy. We already saw Rory as a Roman and Pompeii isn't far off. The Angels do send the Ponds back in time, but to 1930s New York, not ancient Italy.

Yesterday I re-watched "The Fires of Pompeii" to check on the plausibility of Amy ending up as a soothsayer in Pompeii. It might have gone like this:

• The Weeping Angels send Rory back in time to ancient Rome, after seeing his memories of being a Roman soldier.
• When Amy lets the Angel touch her, it sends her to the same time as Rory, but not the same place. Amy ends up in Pompeii.
• A side effect of being sent back, a head injury, or the fumes from the hot springs mess with Amy's mind. She doesn't remember her life in the 21st Century and she barely remembers traveling with the Doctor.
• When the soothsayers find her, Amy talks about a blue box and they realize she knows about the blue box in their prophecies. The sisters decide Amy has the gift of prophecy and they take her in.
• Amy never met Ten or Donna, so she does not recognize them when she follows them in Pompeii. She doesn't make the connection between the TARDIS and the man who steps out of it.
• Ten wouldn't know that Amy is his companion in the future, so he has no reason to care about her. Amy dies in the volcanic eruption, and we have definite closure to her story that fits with the show's canon.
• We could assume that Rory lives as a Roman soldier. Maybe his memories are scrambled or forgotten too, or maybe he is the "boy who waited" once more.

 I think this would have worked better than what actually happened to Amy and Rory.

Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons

Last week I watched Rise of the Guardians and afterwards, I went through the tag on Tumblr and I found out about The Big Four—a mega-crossover with Rise of the Guardians, How to Train Your Dragon, Brave, and Tangled. Combine the titles and you get "Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons." There are entire blogs about this combination of characters and worlds, including this one.

People are writing fanfic, making videos, drawing fanart, and cosplaying. This is my favorite kind of fandom, when people take elements from things they like and re-combine them into something greater, something we won't see from the original creators.

Here are some of my favorite works about the Big Four:

princekido | Deviant Art

jiidesu | tumblr

The Man From Earth stays in one room

One of my favorite things about Netflix is, it predicts how much you'll like a movie based on what other movies you have watched and rated. Yesterday I was looking for something to watch and I looked at what's in my instant queue. The Man From Earth was sitting there with five red stars next to the title.

Netflix's prediction was right—I loved it.

(Spoilers ahead.)

Quick summary of the plot

Professor John Oldman surprises his friends and colleagues by his unexpected decision to leave the university and move away. They come over to his house for a last-minute goodbye party and he reveals to them that he's actually 14,000 years old. He stopped aging at about age 35 and he moves every 10 years or so, when people start to notice that he's not getting older. He's lived through major shifts in civilization, wars, and plagues. The entire movie is the conversation he has with his friends. He explains parts of his life, they ask him questions, and they try to figure out if he's telling the truth or making it all up.

This is why I loved it:

1. Bottle movie

The whole movie takes place in John's house, mostly in his living room. The simplicity makes me pay attention to the characters more, and staying in one room for an hour and a half means the dialogue and the characters are doing all the work. No room for fancy cuts, car chases, explosions, or special effects. You have to focus on the people, much like what happens in 12 Angry Men and bottle episodes on TV.

2. Scholarly discussion 

All the people in the room are professors (and one student). They cover history, archeology, anthropology, biology, religion, and psychology. The conversation reflects their academic interests, and the scenes play out like an intellecutual game. They're playing with an idea: if someone were to live for 14,000 years, what would that person be like? Each person in the room asks questions and weighs in from his or her academic viewpoint.

3. Mind game

The characters waver back and forth in believing John. John can answer all their questions with thoughtful, detailed answers, but he can't offer any proof besides his words. Some points of their conversation go to far for some of the characters while other characters want to hear even more about John's life. It isn't so much a mind game between the audience and the movie because we're just sitting in on the conversation. We can't participate. But we watch the characters figure out where they stand and what they believe.

I recommend watching The Man From Earth if you like movies with good discussion. It's technically a sci-fi film, but it plays out more like a psychological mystery. You spend the time watching a group of smart people play with an interesting idea.

Pilot Study: Alphas

I noticed that the storytelling and degree of detail varies in pilot episodes of shows, so informally, I've been watching pilot episodes and keeping track of everything we find out in that episode. (Sometimes I also watch and take notes on episode 2 to see what the pilot episode set up and how it's resolved.) These "Pilot Study" posts come from my notes.

Alphas on Amazon Instant Video

Alphas - Pilot (82 minutes)
Original air date: July 11, 2011

Setting

Modern day, New York City

Format

A case every week with a dose of character development

Characters 

Cameron Hicks

Archetype: loner, bad boy vibe, the unwilling hero
Ability: hyper-kinesis, increased sense of balance and hand-eye coordination
Limitation: Buckles under pressure (or does he?)
How we see his ability (camera work or sound editing): no cues for us, just watch him do amazing feats

Gary

Archetype: social outcast, little brother vibe 
Ability: transduction, can see electro-magnetic waves (tech in the air)
Limitation: Underdeveloped social skills, Asperger's Syndrome
How we see his ability: wavelengths as lines floating/running through the air; colorful, translucent tubes; he uses his hands to move info and zoom in; uses grids in real space to organize data (whiteboard, chessboard), or works freely in the air

Bill

Archetype: all business, bossy
Ability: super-strength when fight or flight response is triggered
Limitation: Major headache afterwards, anger issues
How we see his ability: veins in his arm tense, images of synapses firing, forehead sweats, panting for breath

Rachel

Archetype: smart but quiet
Ability: "synesthesia" - she can enhance one sense by muting another one (e.g. enhanced sight --> temporarily deaf)
Limitation: Low confidence, self-esteem issues, except when she's using her ability to help people
How we see her ability: objects glow or give off smoke, her vision zooms in, we hear sounds from her perspective

Nina

Archetype: attractive woman who gets what she wants (but she's emotionally/psychologically damaged)
Ability: can persuade people to do whatever she wants, temporary brainwashing
Limitation: Doesn't work on everyone, seems like she's paying penance for past mistakes
How we see her ability: person focuses on her and everything else fades; voice sounds hollow and echoes

Dr. Lee Rosen

Archetype: guide/comforter
Leader of the Alphas, psychologist/neurologist, bit of a health freak
Does he have a special ability?

Don

Government agent, liaison between Alphas and government
No special ability

Questions

How did the Alphas develop? (Evolution or something else?)
How did the group get together?

Weekend Roundup - April 14

Articles I read this week. Sources in parentheses. Comments from me.

How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes (Copyblogger) - Tips on how to quickly write quality posts. I like #7 the best —"Never save a good idea."

Do You Make These 7 Mistakes When You Write? (Copyblogger) - I mess up with "e.g." = "for example." My problem is, I pull from Spanish and write "e.j." (for "ejemplo").

Stop calling us 'PR practitioners' (PR Daily) -  The article says that "practitioner" is "a serious-sounding word that is supposed to add credibility to the profession." I don't think it sounds serious, though, because I associate "practitioner" with witchcraft and magic. "PR practitioner," then, sounds like a role you cannot legitimize. Magic isn't real, so what are these people doing at work every day?

What Writers Can Learn From Rockstars (The Review Review) - The analogy to aspiring musicians is great.

Words for people with magic

In books, movies, and TV shows, we use different words to describe people with magic. Sometimes the words specify gender or if the person uses magic for good or evil. But the terms and their meanings are not consistent across different stories and fantasy worlds. I wanted to compare the dictionary definitions of witch, wizard, sorcerer/sorceress, and warlock to how they are used in a few fantasy worlds that I am familiar with.

Most common dictionary definitions:
witch - A woman claiming or popularly believed to possess magical powers and practice sorcery.
wizard - One who practices magic; a sorcerer or magician.
sorcerer - One who practices sorcery; a wizard.
sorceress - A woman who practices sorcery.
sorcery - Use of supernatural power over others through the assistance of spirits; witchcraft.
warlock - A male witch, sorcerer, wizard, or demon.

How these terms are used in fiction

Merlin

In Merlin, the dragon Kilgharrah calls Merlin "young warlock." Warlocks can sometimes be associated with dark power (see "demon" in the definition above), but the dragon never seems to think that Merlin might use his power for evil purposes. In Merlin's world, then, "warlock" is synonymous with wizard or sorcerer (x). The prophecies call Merlin a "sorcerer," and that is the general term used in the series for anyone who practices magic.

The Dresden Files

"Wizard" refers to a man or a woman with a substantial amount of magical talent. Sometimes "dark wizard" will be used for someone who uses magic for evil purposes. "Warlock" is the term for anyone who breaks any of the Seven Laws of Magic (x).

Harry Potter

"Witch" refers to a female and "wizard" refers to a male. In the Harry Potter series, "witch" and "wizard" do not carry with them a certain expectation of power or experience. Twelve year-olds studying at Hogwarts are witches and wizards and adults who work for the Ministry of Magic are witches and wizards too. "Warlock" usually denotes a person with high skill or achievement (x).

A Modern Witch

In this novel by Debora Geary, "Witch" refers to a male or female with any level of talent. No mention of any other terms for people with magical talent.

I like that writers use already-existing words for characters with magical talent, but at the same time, it can be confusing that these words do not have universal meanings. There's another way of looking at this though: molding these terms to their specific worlds means that writers can form their own structures for how magical talent is defined in their stories.

The opening credits of Community (and puppet disappointment)

Sometimes TV shows change their opening credits after a few seasons or when there's a major shift in the direction of the show. I thought Community might have changed its credits this year since Dan Harmon is no longer the showrunner. But no, the credits are the same and at the end we see this:

Dan Harmon's name etched onto a desk. In the real world, that etching would be a permanent thing but since Dan Harmon is no longer working on Community, we just have a weekly reminder that he made this incredible show that doesn't know how to be incredible anymore.

I've been trying to stay positive this season. I loved last week's episode, but "Intro to Felt Surrogacy" felt messy.

(Spoilers ahead.)

The puppets were a cool idea but the episode didn't have a good story to go along with the change in format. Each character shared a "dark" secret, but that was it. There were good moments but overall, this episode felt like fluff. I didn't expect that because 1) Community has fewer episodes this year so why would they waste any of their time with filler? and 2) Past Big Episodes have had excellent stories to go with them (paintball and "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas," for example).

I didn't hate the episode, but I didn't like it either. Community is still better than most of television, but it doesn't compare to what it used to be. I'm not sure if that's because Harmon isn't there anymore or if it's simply the show aging and transitioning.

The problem with screen adaptations

The Dresden Files is an urban fantasy series written by Jim Butcher. The main character, Harry Dresden, is a wizard and private investigator. There are fifteen books in the series so far, but my first introduction to Harry Dresden was on TV.

The Sci Fi Channel ran 12 episodes of The Dresden Files in 2007, and then the series was cancelled. I really liked the TV show, and so then I got into the books. The books and the show aren't exactly the same, but they are close enough that if you like the one, you'll like the other.

The only thing that keeps tripping me up is Murphy. In the TV show, Valerie Cruz plays Murphy and she looks like this:

But in the novels, Murphy is short, blonde, and has blue eyes. More like this:

Valerie Cruz was cast as Murphy because of her "ability to effectively portray the character's personality in spite of the difference in appearance" (x). She is a great actress and I like her portrayal of Murphy, so much that I keep imagining Cruz as Murphy while I'm reading the books, years after the TV show ended.

I'm reading Small Favor right now, and there's a scene where Dresden and Murphy are talking in McAnally's pub. I know I was picturing Valerie Cruz because there's a mention of Murphy's blue eyes and I stopped on that sentence. Right, book Murphy looks different. Blue eyes. Blonde hair. I can keep reading until another mention of her physical appearance makes me pause, but most of the time the Murphy in my head is the Murphy from TV because that's where I first met the character.

Image sources: TV Murphy | Book (graphic novel) Murphy

FYI: My reading list is now here

I made a page on this blog to keep my Reading List. Just a place for me to keep track of what I read. You can access it from the tab at the top or the link in the footer.

Monroe the Clockmaker

I've always liked that Monroe is a clockmaker, but only recently I realized why. Over the past two seasons, we've seen that Monroe puts in a lot of effort to be a normal man and not give in to his violent Blutbad nature. He is a vegan, practices yoga, and generally tries to maintain a calm mood.

Then there's working with watches, which requires a disciplined, delicate skill. Monroe has to be patient and focused in his work. It's probably another form of meditation for him. Clockmaking is an old trade and it ties back to his German heritage, so Monroe found a method of discipline and control that doesn't completely break with his identity.

I'm impressed because he wants to be a better version of himself, and he's doing it. But his success is more than personal. Ever since he met Nick, Monroe has helped to stop violent wesen who can't control themselves. He has constant reminders of what could happen to him if he slips up, and he never lets that intimidate him.

Vampire or Werewolf: Did Kenny have a choice?

Spoilers for the season 3 finale of Being Human.

I wonder if Kenny could have become a werewolf instead of a vampire. Going by the werewolves in Being Human, we know that they:

• have heightened senses right before the full moon (Josh and Nora)
• become physically stronger over time (Ray)
• might age differently from normal humans (Pete and Liam)

We don't know if becoming a werewolf would have negated Kenny's Bubble Boy syndrome, but I would have liked to see the characters consider that option. If Kenny would have become a werewolf, he would have still aged, he wouldn't need blood to survive, and as long as he didn't get mixed up in supernatural trouble, he could have lived a mostly-normal life.

And maybe he wouldn't have become a vampire abomination.

Pilot Study: Being Human (U.S.)

I noticed that the storytelling and degree of detail varies in pilot episodes of shows, so informally, I've been watching pilot episodes and keeping track of everything we find out in that episode. (Sometimes I also watch and take notes on episode 2 to see what the pilot episode set up and how it's resolved.) These "Pilot Study" posts come from my notes.

(x)

Being Human (U.S.) - "There Goes the Neighborhood: Part 1"
Original air date: January 17, 2011
"There Goes the Neighborhood: Part 2" aired on January 24, 2011.

Opening

Aidan narrating:

We're all hiding something, aren't we? From the moment we wake, look in that mirror, all we do is spin our little lies. Suck in that gut, colour that hair, twist off that wedding ring. Any why not? What's the penalty? What are the consequences, really? "I'm only human," you say, and all is forgiven. But what if some cruel twist of fate makes you something else, something other? Who forgives you then? Every human spends a night or two on the dark side and regrets it. But what if you only exist on the dark side? We just want the same things that you do: a chance at life, at love. We're not so different in that way. And so we try and sometimes fail. But when you're something other, a monster, the consequences are worse. Much worse. You wake up from your nightmares. We don't. [x]

We see Josh go into the woods. It's a full moon, and he changes into a wolf. Aidan and Rebecca are on a date. Aidan vamps out and kills her.

Characters

- Josh: werewolf, hospital orderly, has a sister (Emily)
- Aidan: vampire, nurse (works in same hospital as Josh), out on a date with Rebecca
- Sally: ghost, had a fiancée Danny (who becomes Josh's and Aidan's landlord)

Setting

Modern day, Boston

Plot

Rebecca is missing. Will the police trace her back to Aidan?
---Resolved: Bishop turns her into a vampire (leads into episode 2)
How and where can Josh transform in a controlled environment?
---Resolved: Hospital basement, but Emily locks herself in there with him! (leads into episode 2)
Is Sally supposed to move on?
Should Josh and Aidan try to have a normal life?
---The first step is renting an apartment together (the apartment where Sally and Danny lived). This question is not resolved in this episode because having a normal life is an on-going goal.

Questions

How did Sally die? (we find out in episode 2)
How did Josh become a werewolf? (answered in episode 2)
How did Aidan become a vampire? (answered in episode 2)
How did Josh and Aidan meet? And how did they find out each other's secret?
When/why did Aidan decide to stop feeding on people?

Weekend Roundup - April 7

Articles I read this week. Sources in parentheses. Comments from me.

Stop working (so hard) (Medium)

Our Regressive Web (Medium)

Monroe stars in “The Great Brain Vasectomy Caper” in this week’s Grimm (io9) - A review of this week's episode of Grimm. I liked that the episode put Nick in the background and we saw more of the other characters. Nice shift in storytelling.

Doctor Who's new companion is only lovable when the show isn't trying to make us love her (io9) - A review of this week's episode of Doctor Who. Clara was great. The rest, not so much.

The Worst Interview-Day Disasters (and How to Avoid Them) (Daily Muse)

Sherlock wants to make you smarter

Spoilers for "Snow Angels," episode 1.19.

Sherlock is clearly the best at putting little details together to figure out the big picture, but I like that he helps other people become better investigators.

Examples from this week's episode:

1. Sherlock and Joan go to the crime scene and see where the guard died. There's a bullet hole in the far wall, and Sherlock looks to Joan to explain what happened. She figures out that the guard was not dead when he fell. He fired once at someone who was standing by the wall and hit that person in the abdomen, judging by the height of the bullet hole and the blood stains.

2. Sherlock finds a strand of synthetic blonde hair at the robbery scene, so one of the thieves wore a wig. Later at the hospital, Detective Bell notices a strand of blonde hair on Elle's coat (but she has brown hair). He holds the strand under a lamp and it melts, so he knows it's synthetic. Then he arrests Elle to take her to the police station for questioning.

3. At the end of the episode, Sherlock is setting up a fake blood splatter on the floor of the apartment. He tells Joan to come back to the living room in ten minutes with a blindfold, and then the lesson will begin. Sherlock shows people his investigative methods while he is out on a case, but then he sets up simulations to practice methods, too.

More like Commumity

Spoilers for Season 4, episode 4 "Herstory of Dance."

Finally, Community feels like Community again, and not an imitation of itself.

This week's episode went back to the classic Community structure: a story on Greendale's campus that involves each character in a different capacity, and, of course, the show continues to play with sitcom tropes and its own recurring elements.

Abed

Abed understands how stories and characters work in TV shows, and he applies that understanding to figure out what's happening in the real world. That part of Abed wasn't strong this season until this episode. (Instead, we had an Abed that is tangentially connected to the plot. Delta Cubes! Delta! Cubes!) Abed thinks he should grow away from that dependency on TV understanding, but then he ends up in the Two Dates on the Same Night Trope. Community takes the plot device one step further: Abed has an accomplice to help him switch between dates, and it ends up being a woman who genuinely interests him. Instead of choosing between the dates, he chooses her.

Britta

Britta protests the sexist, old-fashioned Sadie Hawkins dance by organizing her own dance. She meant to celebrate Susan B. Anthony, but she misspeaks and says Sophie B. Hawkins instead. She brittas her idea but instead of admitting her mistake, Britta sticks to what she said and Pierce helps her bring Sophie B. Hawkins to the dance. Britta changes the term "britta" from meaning you messed up to meaning you succeeded.

Annie and Shirley

Annie and Shirley team up and compete in several episodes (starting with season 1, episode 20 "The Science of Illusion), and in "Herstory of Dance," they compete to find a date for Abed. Annie chooses a student who she thinks complements Abed's personality. Shirley chooses a young woman from her church, but we don't see anything to suggest Abed would be interested in her. Abed doesn't want to disappoint Annie or Shirley, so he agrees to both dates and knows he can treat the situation like a TV trope.

Troy

Troy is back to looking for wacky stuff to do, playing the Hobbes to Abed's Calvin. He helps Britta with her dance, but it seems like it is in a friend—and not boyfriend—capacity, which is good because their romantic relationship felt forced.

Jeff

Jeff starts out being mean to Britta and teases her for messing up the idea for her own dance. But by the end of the episode, he congratulates her for doing a good job. His change of attitude echoes back to season 1, where he thought he was stuck with an odd study group and then realized that these people are actually his best friends.

Pierce

Pierce finally shows his redeemable side when he tells Jeff that he shouldn't give Britta such a hard time. The first three episodes of this season had Pierce saying sexist and racist comments and being a constant annoyance. It left very little to like about him, but now that he interacts more with Jeff and Britta, we see the not-so-bad side of Pierce.

Magic should be difficult to learn

When the Harry Potter books came out, what I enjoyed about them the most was that the characters had to learn and study magic, even to do something simple like levitate a feather. The children come into their abilities at age eleven, but they can't automatically use magic to accomplish whatever they want.

It was completely different from the characters I grew up watching on TV, primarily Sabrina Spellman. Sabrina found out she was a witch when she turned 16. Yes, she had to learn certain things about magic, but most of the time she could point her finger, think of what she wanted to happen, and it would happen. Just like that. She studies for her witch license, but it's a part-time thing.

Compare that to the world of Harry Potter, where children spend seven years in full-time magic classes learning charms, potions, transfiguration, and a dozen other topics. Most magic requires a wand and a Latin spell, and the more advanced work also requires disciplined concentration.

I appreciate magic as a story element in the Harry Potter books because the characters earn their skills. But for Sabrina, magic felt easy, and the complications came from non-magic sources such as friends, high school social norms, and her own desires.

Dresden and Thomas: when two characters trust each other

In movies and TV shows, we can see what two characters are like when they're together. It doesn't matter if they're siblings, friends, a romantic couple, or enemies. Their interactions are on the screen. They have dialogue and body language. We have a lot of information to help us figure out what their relationship is like.

Relationships can be more difficult to convey in novels because we don't have all of those visual clues. The small details are in words, like the rest of the story, instead of in facial expressions and tone of voice. And yet, in the Dresden Files series, author Jim Butcher gives us a clear understanding of relationships between characters.

For example, take Harry Dresden and his brother Thomas. Going by the conversations Harry and Thomas have and the insight we gain from Harry's point of view, we have a pretty good understanding of their relationship. But we gain an even better understanding during scenes when Thomas and Harry face a threat together. That's when we see the high level of trust between Harry and Thomas.

I noticed this in White Night's fight scenes, but there are probably examples in earlier books too. Harry yells at Thomas to duck out of the way, and Thomas immediately drops to the ground. No hesitation and no doubt. Vice versa, Harry follows whatever instruction Thomas gives him. Communicating like that during dangerous situations works only with immediate responses, and immediate responses require a high level of trust. Otherwise, a delay on either Thomas's or Harry's part could mean death for one or both of them.

The way those moments are written, it feels natural that Harry and Thomas would trust each other like that, to the point that I didn't realize their high level of trust until I read past those scenes.

Part of the reason for the delayed realization is that we don't have visual cues. If I were watching that fight scene on a screen, I would have seen how quickly one man responded to the other, and it would have been obvious that they are used to fighting together and trust each other. But reading the scene in a book, we have to meet the author halfway. He gives us the details and we have to make connections to figure out what's happening.

Skyfall: A Bond Intro, Shakespeare Style

If you've read Romeo and Juliet, then you know that Shakespeare outlines the story in the prologue. Before the first scene even starts, you know the play is about two star-crossed lovers who die. Skyfall does something similar in its opening credits.

Spoilers for the movie below. Here's a video of the opening credits, for reference.

The opening titles give the audience a glimpse of what's coming in the movie, including plot points, locations, and themes.

Here a few examples, and you could analyze and dissect the opening titles to even greater detail.

Time - Image in opening credits - Connection to story
0:30 - Bond continues sinking in the water - Bond presumably drowns and MI6 pronounces him dead
1:00 - Fallen knives and guns form cemetery gravestones - The death of "the old ways" in espionage
1:15 - Zoom in on Bond's eye - Bond returns to London
1:31 - Shooting the shadows - Bond's tests before returning to fieldwork, M's idea about "working in the shadows"
2:18 - Dragon dance - Shanghai
2:47 - Black skull - The black skull image that flashed on M's hacked computer
2:50 - Cemetery - Exposed MI6 agents who were assassinated, the graves of Bond's parents at Skyfall estate
2:52 - Fall into a grave and then Bond is walking on the ground - Bond's "resurrection"
3:05 - Shooting at mirrors - Scene in the Shanghai skyscraper, mirrors in Skyfall house to distract Silva's men
3:21 - Blood stain on Bond's suit jacket - M lets Bond go back into the field even though he didn't pass the tests (he's a damaged/injured agent)
3:28 - Blood and fire falling over a large house - The final fight at the Skyfall estate where most of Silva's men die, M dies, and the house blows up

The opening titles do not obviously tell you what is going to happen in the story, but the imagery gives you a general sense of what's coming. I noticed how connected the opening credits were only after I finished watching the movie.

Blog Every Day (in) April snuck up on me again

Blog Every Day in April (BEDA) is here again! I keep forgetting it's a Thing, but then I saw Rohan's post.

The idea is simple: write a blog post every day in April, no matter what. I'll be sticking the my usual areas: TV, movies, novels, and storytelling in general.

If there are any specific topics you'd like me to write about, please leave them in the comments.

Who is Clara Oswald?

Since Clara appeared in "Asylum of the Daleks," people have been posting online with possible about who she is. Here are my theories and speculations about Clara. (Spoilers for "The Bells of St. John.")

1. We are seeing Clara out of order, as we did with River. 

"The Bells of St. John" is the first episode in Clara's timeline, from her point of view. She becomes an expert computer hacker. Then at some point in her future (but the Doctor's past), she ends up in the the Dalek Asylum. I'm not sure where "The Snowmen" and the little girl in the prequel fit in yet. Moffat is giving us jigsaw puzzle pieces and we have to figure out how they fit together.

2. Clara isn't real. 

The Doctor is traveling alone and having hallucinations. Clara appears in each one. In "The Wedding of River Song" (6.13), the Doctor says "My friends have always been the best of me." Clara embodies memorable qualities from previous companions:

• a mystery girl, like Amy
• flirts with the Doctor, like River
• dies and lives again, like Rory
• wrongly assumes the Doctor is looking for romance, like Donna—Clara calls the TARDIS a "snog box" and Donna's reaction to the Doctor asking her to travel with him was, "You're not mating with me, sunshine!"

Maybe we'll see elements adapted from Jack, Martha, and Rose in the coming episodes.

3. Clara is a Bizarro version of the Doctor, a Timelord gone wrong. 

She shares some characteristics with the Doctor, but through a distorted lens. Clara regenerates but always into the same body. She maintains a similar personality but has no memory of her past incarnations. She wants to travel but can't make herself leave.

4. Clara is one person, fragmented throughout time and space. 

We see multiple versions of the same person, all from the same source code (a computer analogy, for Clara's hacking skills). The bad guys in "The Bells of St. John" are in The Shard and they separated Clara's mind from her body. We've had scattering and fragmenting before—the cracks in series 5 and the Bad Wolf messages in series 1. This time, it's a scattered person.

Each version of Clara can live on her own, disconnected from the other Claras. That's why the Doctor remembers encounters with her, but she doesn't have any history with him. That's why she can keep dying and living. Different Claras, all human, and similar enough that the Doctor thinks she is the same person that he has met before.

What are your theories about Clara?