NaNoWriMo - Week One

If you have never heard of National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo), don't feel bad. Here are some quick and dirty stats: It's a non-profit event held every November where participants are encouraged to write 50,000 words in 30 days (comes out to about 1700 words per day). The event started in 1999, in San Francisco. The first ever NaNoWriMo had 21 participants, but by 2010, there were 10,000 times as many. This years event has over 300,000 people working towards the same goal of writing a "Novel"'.

Although I have been aware of NaNoWriMo since about 2005, this is the first year I have decided to take part of it. I decided if nothing else, it would provide good encouragement for me to write a certain amount every day. The site is neat, and allows you to keep track of the number of words you have written, as well as rewarding you with badges for completing certain tasks. The dashboard is easy to use, and shows graphs about your progress. The best part is the regional sections, which connect you to other participants in your area. You can converse with, encourage, share ideas, and even have meet-ups with people in your neighborhood. Or not, depending on your willingness to socialize.

 So far though, I am far behind my daily goals. Where I should have been putting down about 1700 words per day, I have done less than 1000. Sure, a lot of this comes from the fact that my schedule is a bit busy to allow for my writing, but I have never even tried to do this sort of output before, and I am quickly finding that I just don't have the skill for it. Yet. It seems that writing is like weight lifting; your goal may be to bench 300 pounds, but at first you can only do 50. And you have to lift 50 pounds repeatedly until you can do 60, then 70, then 80 and so on. Eventually you will get to that 300 pounds, but it takes a while. Similarly, my goal was for 2000 words a day, but I have discovered I can only do about 750. I'm sure I can eventually reach my goal, but it probably wont be for this years event.

For me, this has already been a great experience, because its teaching me how to set aside time for me to write. It's easy to get distracted, and hard to find quiet time, or a quiet place. Roommates, pets, and the all powerful television have the ability to pull me away fro my task, or annoy me to the point that I can not concentrate on it. It should not be surprising then that my most productive time seems to be in the middle of the night.

So as I start week two of the National Novel Writing Month, I have some good ideas to help me hit that goal. Even if I don't though, I will not regret doing this.

Mixed Media Storytelling

Recently, my mother was moving. As she cleaned out the house, she found many remnants of my childhood. One such item was a book my grandmother gave me. Not just any book mind you, a fully illustrated book that was accompanied with text and music! It was Peter and the Wolf, a fairy tale by Sergei Prokofiev. Sergei was a composer, but wrote this story as a way to introduce children to music. It was actually commissioned by a Moscow theater in 1936, and Sergei was so excited by the idea that he wrote the story in just four days. The original composition was meant to be narrated by a single actor, and accompanied by an orchestra. All the parts were arranged so that certain instruments would represent characters in the story. Peter has a grand theme played by the whole string section, the Wolf has sinister french horns playing behind him.

The version I had was a Knopf book, illustrated by Jorg Müller, and narrated by Loriot accompanied by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. When I was eight, I didn't know who any of these people were, and I'm not sure I cared. But I did love listening to the tape and looking at the pictures. I enjoyed being completely immersed in the story, the images and sounds coming together and transporting me to another place.

Reading is a wonderful experience, but there is also something to be said for other forms of media. Liturature, music, graphic arts, and even cinema can be equally entertaining. Its also good to cultivate appreciation of all these forms. In 1936, when Sergei penned this story, it was a revolutionary idea to combine storytelling and the modern orchestra. These days it may not seem as much, because we are so inundated with the different types of media that we expect a certain amount of overlap. I am intrigued by the idea of combining medias to create a singular work, and it makes me wonder what the future could hold for storytelling.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the crew of the enterprise often partake in stories told on the holodeck. There were even episodes where they mentioned famous holo-authors. The idea that there were guys who created interactive stories on a mind-blowing computer platforms, which allowed people to actually take part of the story is awesome. If the technology existed, I would probably be a holo-addict. I'm not so sure that the holodeck is as fantastical as it seems though; in a hundred years or so, who knows what technologies might assist us in telling stories to one another?

This is something that I will probably give quite a bit of thought to. I would love to find new ways of telling stories, mixing medias and creating new experiences. What do you think about mixing media? What are some multimedia stories that you love?

This Is Only A Test

I was listening to a movie podcast recently where the hosts were talking about a movie made in the early nineties. Instead of talking about the story, setting, acting, cinematography, or any other number of metrics that you could use to discuss a film, they instead opted to talk about how racist one of its characters was. Then they talked about how another character was homophobic. Then they talked about how the racist character was also a male chauvinist. They were genuinely upset that these fictional characters had flaws- and more specifically- politically incorrect views. They did not just bemoan the characters though, they actually went as far as to say that the creators of the movie must hold the same beliefs! This seems to be something that is taking over the culture at large, and it makes me worry a bit for the future of fiction.
In 2013 a Scandinavian cable company started to add the Bechdel test to its metrics for rating films and shows. For anyone who does not know what the bechdel test is, it is a test designed to find out whether a work of fiction is gender biased or not, and asks three questions:

1. Does the story have two named women?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. About something other than a man?

If your work of fiction can answer yes to all three of those questions, then it is supposedly portraying women in a positive light. The test has its flaws, and a work of fiction can pass the test and yet still portray women in a bad way. But I'm less concerned about the specifics of the Bechdel test, and more concerned about the fact that such a test is taken seriously at all. There are websites and forums that rate movies based on their female friendliness by applying various versions of the test, but does not passing the test mean that your work of fiction is bad? No, all it means is that people who use this test to determine the worth of a fictional work will probably not like it.

The Bechdel test isn't alone either. In 2013, the Russo test was invented, and is gaining popularity. The Russo test determines whether a work is biased against LGBT groups by asking questions similar to those of the Bechdel test.

What is the next test? Will it be taken as seriously as the other two I have mentioned? Any number of tests could be created to represent a category of political correctness. There could be tests that point out racism, ageism, unequal portrayal of social classes, or people with disabilities. And if these tests were to all be valid for every work of fiction, then the stories that pass the tests would be nothing more than propaganda that accommodates the culture that conceived them!

And as a culture, we start judging works of fiction based on these tests- and then what? Do we decry works that do not pass, and shame the creators for daring to tell a story that is not politically correct? Like the example of the podcast I gave, some people are not above demonizing a work for its characters views or actions, and then attributing the same to the creator of that work. In this way, they are trying to pressure storytellers into telling a story that fits neatly into their own worldview, and does not offend in any way. Basically, censorship through peer pressure.

Obviously, I am not a fan of these tests, nor will I be of any future ones. Even if the test is for something that I think is good, I would never expect a work of fiction to pass such tests in order to be valid. Giving into these can only serve to make your story more accommodating to the culture at large, not a better story.

What do you think? Should a work of fiction be required to pass a test like the Bechdel and Russo tests?

Bad People, Great Character

People are horrible. We may not always be willing to admit it, but its true. Left to our own devices, we are capable of the most atrocious acts. Don't let it get you down though, that's what makes us interesting. 

Recently I read M.J. Engh's excellent book Arslan, and I was at once entertained and disgusted. The eponymous main character is an Asian dictator who has recently taken over the majority of the world. Imagine for a second that Hitler and Stalin raised a child to be worse than both of them, and you will have a good idea of what Arslan brings to the table.

Now you may be asking why anyone would want to read a book about such a horrible person, but Arslan is a great character study of a very flawed person. And if the celebrity magazines and Tabloids are any indication, then people love to see flawed humanity.

One of my favorite characters of all time is Rodney McKay form Stargate: Atlantis. True, hes not a character from literature, but he is a character with a whole bunch of-well, character. He is the most arrogant and condescending person on the show (and that's saying something considering some of the villains), always putting others down and never owning up to his own mistakes. Throughout the show he was portrayed as a hypochondriac, a coward, a bigot, and all around sleazeball. Would it surprise you then to know that he had the most screen time of anyone on the show? It doesn't surprise me.

The fact is that we are drawn to people who are most like us. Yes, I just went there. If we are going to be honest with ourselves, we are all flawed in some way, and its these things that make us interesting. I have read books before with characters in them that seem to be too perfect. Charles Dickens had some sickeningly perfect characters, take a look at Tiny Tim. He may have some physical defects, but he has absolutely no character defects. To be perfectly honest, the whole story could have been told without even including Tim. Or at least give Tim some sort of human characteristic. I would have loved to read the scene where Tim derides his father for not standing up to Mr. Scrooge, or maybe curses Scrooge for what hes done. Any human reaction would have been preferable to the Pollyanna attitude that we get from Tim.

But is there a limit? Going back to Arslan, I wonder if a character can be too flawed. I have often heard people talk about saving the cat. Every bad character is supposed to have a save-the-cat moment (like rescuing a kitten from a tree) where we see that they are not so bad after all. Our favorite example would be Darth Vader. Sure he was a really bad guy, but he did sacrifice himself to kill the emperor and restore balance to the galaxy-so there was a glimmer of hope there. Even Darth Vader had a save-the-cat moment! Arslan never had this moment. In fact, I hated him even more at the end of the book than at the start-something I didn't even know would be possible! But despite my disdain for the character, I understand him. Maybe I understand him more than I really wanted to, but that seems to be the whole point of the story. And even worse yet; I can relate to him. Not that I have conquered nations, executed millions, or set up a oppressive dictatorship in my time-but given the chance, I might. Because we are all human-and suffer from the human condition-we are all susceptible to the same follies. We may stand in judgement of others at times, but who is to say we wouldn't make the same
mistakes given the opportunity?

This is (in my opinion) what make truly great speculative fiction though; showing the human condition in all of its glory. When I read a book, I want to see flaws in the characters whether protagonist or antagonist. Maybe showing flaws of the protagonist is actually more important, because we want to see them overcome the odds- and what odds could be greater than your own human nature? So here's a toast to the worst of humanity; may you forever entertain us with the worst you have to offer!

Cinderella Revisited... Again

Many of us are familiar with the story of Cinderella, or at least the sanitized Disney version. But this wasn't the original version. Before Walt made his millions, Charles Perrault adapted a story called Cenerentola and gave us many of the elements of the story that are familiar to us. The fairy godmother, pumpkin carriage, and glass slippers were all his idea.

Later the Brothers Grimm came along and made the story more- well, grim. In the Grimm version, Aschenputtel (the Cinderella character) was told by her dying mother to remain good and kind. She was buried, and a "wishing tree" grew on her grave which became this versions fairy godmother. Also, when Prince Charming comes to find the owner of the slipper, the stepsisters mutilate their feet so they can fit. The Prince realized the treachery when the blood started pouring out. And if that weren't enough, Cinderella's father seemed to be okay with her abuse.

There are many other versions of this story, and small details are always changed to suit. As a creative exercise, let's make a version of our own. And let's make it ridiculous, because that's my style.

Yo, Cinderella!

In this version, Cinderella lives in New Jersey. She works at a diner during the day, and in the evenings she goes to beautician school.

She still has the stepmother, only this time she is a jet-setting hedonist. Often off on a vacation to some idyllic island, she only shows up at the most unexpected times to make Cinderella miserable. Oh, and speaking of miserable, the evil stepsisters are also here. This time however, the stepsisters are some Guido-loving party animals. They often have parties at the house, which Cinderella is usually made to clean up after.

After a really big house party one night, Cinderella is cleaning the house when her stepmother shows up and freaks out. Of course, Cindy is blamed for the mess. After a huge argument, Cinderella flees the house and goes for a walk to cool off.

This is the part of the story where she meets the fairy godmother. I think it would be fun to make the godmother much like the godfather, and add some gangster cred to the story. The godmother takes pity on Cinderella and makes her an offer she cant refuse. Of course- much like the disney version- this character might only exist to move the story along without much logical reasoning behind her arrival. So another possibility is that the godmother is an enemy of the stepmother, this way it makes sense that she would curry favor with Cinderella. Possibly she is Cinderella's actual godmother, and was specifially called upon by the protagonist.

So however it happens, they meet up and they do what most New Jersey women do in times of trouble: go on a shopping spree. The godmother buys her a fabulous dress, and a pair of really expensive shoes.

At the godmothers urging, Cinderella goes to a party that night in a rented limousine. Of course the limo driver is only paid for until midnight to keep in line with the story.  Cinderella meets prince charming, and they have their magical moment together, after which she leaves in a hurry.

The next day, Prince Charming and his goombahs are out scouring the jersey shore for the girl he met the night before. He was a bit inebriated, so he cant remember exactly what she looks like, but he does remember the shoes. When the stepsisters become hip to the Prince's search, they go steal Cinderella's shoes out of her room and put them on to try and trick the guy. But they are so annoying (because they have high pitched Jersey accents and the IQ's of fish), that the Prince decides a romance is not worth pursuing with them.

Cinderella finds out about her stepsisters treachery and liberates her precious shoes. She then goes to work at her diner while wearing the shoes. Of course the Prince comes into the diner, and is so depressed that he only stares at the floor. Cinderella comes over to take his order, and he sees her shoes! He realizes that this is the woman hes been searching for and confesses his love to her.

Re-imagining stories like this can be a great way to get ideas, and it can just be a fun exercise. Try it yourself sometime, and live happily ever after!