#getting to use terminology for characters my beloved <3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

duckprintspress · 4 years

Text

Our Top 3 Tips for Writing Unreliable Narrators!

Unreliable narrators are a wonderful way to create an immersive, compelling story full of surprises for a reader, but they can be very difficult to write. Fortunately, we’re here to help! Here are our top three tips for writing an unreliable narrator - read on!

Have a writing-related question? Want some advice on a writing topic? Feel free to send us an ask! The only thing we love as much as writing is writing about writing!

On to our tips...

Tip 1. Everything, literally e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g, has to be seen through the lens of the narrator's unreliability. It's not just their inner monologue. It's how they perceive the entire world, and their challenges or delusions will and should color the entire story - what they notice, how they describe things, how they engage, what they choose to say, how they interpret what they hear, what decisions they make, etc. It's not enough to express their unreliability through inner monologue or relation of their thoughts. Especially if you're writing from a first person or third person limited point of view, if you want an unreliable narrator to work, you’ve gotta go “all in.”

(read more!)

Take depression as an example. If the character is depressed, they’re not going to look out on a sunny day and describe it as lovely and bright - unless to contrast it with their own unhappiness.

Or, suppose your character has hallucinations. Odds are, they’re not going to know they’re hallucinations, especially as they’re happening. In order to “sell” the events to a reader, it’s essential that there not be any obvious tells in the narration or descriptions...at least until it’s time for the character to realize they’ve been hallucinating. The first time it happens, especially, there’s absolutely no reason that a reader should realize it’s a hallucination - and after the first time, the way the first was written should have been immersive enough that the reader will always have to wonder, in the back of their head, “is this another hallucination?”

If the character believes something, your reader should believe it, until evidence starts to stack up that maybe something is off.

If the character sees something, your reader should be reading a description of that thing as the character sees it, until something changes that affects that perception.

In first person and third person limited PoV, your character is the reader’s avatar in the world, and the world should be seen through that character’s PoV...even if that character’s PoV is a card castle of lies about to be blown over. Write what your character experiences, sees, feels, interprets - not what’s actually around them.

Tip 2. Even as you sink the reader into the narrator’s headspace by writing through that lens, you have to keep track of what's actually happening. In my opinion the hardest part of writing an unreliable narrator is making it clear to the reader that the narrator is unreliable, and clueing readers in to what is actually happening, without breaking out of the unreliable narration. Have a plan for how you're going to do this going in, and be aware that no matter how careful you are a minority of readers will likely completely miss the point and your work will just not be for them.

There are a lot of ways to get that across. Some will be very subtle (for example, a character believes in magic, but reading between the lines will make it clear there are normal explanations for everything), some easily misunderstood and heavily reliant on metaphor (for example, nightmares, PTSD or flashbacks, that show another angle on the character’s situation), and some are obvious (for example, switching PoV to someone who sees things differently).

In some stories, you may never want to make it clear. The entire point may be to keep the reader unsure - to maintain the uncertainty of what was real and what wasn’t. Or maybe you’ll make it clear just by the preponderance of events that don’t make sense - people saying one thing while the unreliable narrator consistently reacts as if they’re saying another, for example. Like, if your unreliable narrator has a rival, and that rival is constantly saying things like, “hey, do you want a hand with that? I’d love your advice on this! Maybe we could work together!” it’s going to be clear to the reader fairly quickly that no matter how negatively the unreliable narrator is interpreting these statements, something isn’t matching up.

Use whatever tools you've got in your toolkit to leave a little trail of breadcrumbs about what is real and what is delusion/misperception...but don’t be afraid to leave a little mystery, either.

Tip 3. Every narrator is an unreliable narrator. All aspects of a person’s personality and background will contribute to their view of the world not matching objective reality (is there such a thing?) and will help the reader to learn about that character. As an author, if you’re writing from a narrow or limited point of view, it’s essential to keep in mind that the PoV character sees everything through the lens of their life experiences. This can and should be communicated through phrasing, word choice, description, inner monologue, dialog - everything. A doctor will know terminology that a mechanic won't, and vice versa. Some characters will step into a room designed for a specific function and recognize everything in it. Others will be clueless and recognize nothing. This should be in the back of your mind with everything you write.

Of course there is a question of degrees. A character with severe depression who thinks they are worthless is going to be a much less reliable narrator than, say, a patient who doesn't remember what a stethoscope is called. The more unreliable your narrator, the more their viewpoint will skew, but everyone is shaped by their world and everything they experience will be described through the lens of their personal experience and knowledge.

Take education level as an example. A character with a low level of educational attainment isn’t going to bust out thesaurus words when they’re looking at the world around them. They’re not going to look at their beloved’s eyes and think, “oh wow they’re viridian.” What they will think, exactly, will depend on who they are and on their background. If they’re a farmer, maybe those green eyes will remind them of fresh sprouts in spring. If they’re an alien, maybe those green eyes will remind them of the color of the atmosphere on their home planet. If they’re ancient China, maybe those green eyes will remind them of jade.

If you aren’t changing your narrative approach based on whose PoV you’re writing from, you’re missing out on a huge number of options available for fleshing out a character and helping immerse your reader in the story.

Know your character.

Imagine how they perceive the world.

And write your story through their eyes and knowledge level.

And your reader will see the world exactly as they do, and man, will they be in for one heck of a story!

#duck prints press #writing advice #mod post #original content

244 notes · View notes

ruby-rambling · 3 years

Note

i can't believe you found another connor "anti" (you guys are not antis cmon, have you SEEN the c!dream antis,,,, pleeeease) amongst the c!dream apologists xD

"you know that scene after hank kills him where he’s just. visibly shaken and hank will very sarcastically dismiss his hurt because he failed to lie enough to make him think he was the perfect partner and didn’t try to become friends with him." AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA RUBY I AM IN PAAAAIN /POS 'HE FAILED TO LIE ENOUGH TO MAKE HIM THINK HE WAS THE PERFECT PARTNER' *CLENCHES FIST* WHY DOES THIS HURT SO. FUCKING. MUCH.

28?!!! ("twenty. eight. stab wounds" echoes in the distance) what's the minimum then? also, what are the deleted scenes about? :D

"he’s representing / the main threat to the actual protagonists the entire game and just watching how terrified the deviants are of him. the “last chance” scene with the fricking dead bodies on the wall and him just proudly standing over his work because he collected 'evidence'. oh my God." ... i think i'm turning into a "connor anti"-

omg. ruby. how could you not be a c!dream apologist, c!dream is basically kinning connor

the parallel with c!dream proudly displaying his vault... obviously it's not the same thing! but there's something about how they both thought it was a good thing that would "solve the problem". fuck. idk, i view c!dream in a very specific way and that is just. IT

don't mind me... i just love seeing how favourite characters may differ or be similar in terms of personality/general vibe.

also, thoughts on Markus, North, Simon and Josh? (jericrew my beloved <3) ^-^ tell me anything you want! your personal opinion on them, how the fandom treats them, your thoughts on the romance (or lack thereof)...

hi this is late askfh my ask box is a mess, anyway-

yeah i guess it's just us cool people! i found a bunch of unrelated analysts at some point and then saw them interact and agree with the connor anti group as well ksahd might just be being good at understanding the story maybe

i mean what else to call us?? the connor army would eat us alive. the others don't call themselves that, but it's the closest it gets to the terminology we use on this side of fandoms. it's more like connor enthusiast tbh but we don't even use the "enjoy him as a villain" excuse the enjoyers/"enthusiasts" use to bash on c!drem we just don't woobify him or dumb him down for shipping skdhdfd-

I KNOW IT HURTS. AAKDSH THEY ARE. THEY JUST. HM MMMM

i saw someone do a playthrough where connor was honest to god doing his best and choosing all the compassionate choices when it came to actions, but didn't constantly suck up to hank (Did You Know: spilling his drink makes his relationship stat go down as much as killing two people!) and hank shot him as a result and it was the most painful description i've ever read. IT'S SO FAKE BUT IT BECOMES REAL AND IT HURTS. WHY CAN'T THEY JUST AAAA

well, as we say, "the furthest you can play connor from being a villain, is making him a bad villain". if you purposefully fail all the qtes and waste all your time and make the character absolutely useless, you don't kill anyone! the average person kills at least a couple though.

deleted scenes are like, alternate dialogues, there was a whole different option for the hank scene at the cyberlife tower, for the rk900 ending, don't really remember rn! but it was v cool

SEE I AM DOING GOOD WORK HERE AKSH JOIN THE DARK SIDE MY FRIEND-

true connor and c!dream are so similar and the fandom response being so overbearingly different is just funny to me.

i love parallels too. ruthless bastards who secretly have strong emotional attachments to people my beloveds i will die for you <3

jericrew!!! i love north a lot. josh and simon get horribly mischaracterized by fanon and just. completely different from canon, which does have slightly compelling characters but they are tragically underdeveloped, they were done so dirty by the writers.

markus is a great character. i wasn't really that attached to them before but Coincidentally all of the connor antis are markus/north fans who make wonderful analysis of the in-canon moments and i just. the two of them mean a lot to me whether together or not (i don't care for romance in every sense of the word sfjd) and yeah i love the jericrew part of the storyline i'd love it more if david cage didn't push his horrible tonedeaf allegory through it but welp

there's a lot more i could say but this is already long and all of the people who came here from my dsmp posts are probably very confused, feel free to send more asks tho i enjoy this :D

10 notes · View notes

just0nemorepage · 3 years

Photo

The Rise of Kyoshi || F.C. Yee & Michael Dante DiMartino || The Kyoshi Novels #1 || 442 pages ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top 3 Genres: Fantasy / Young Adult / GLBTQIA

Synopsis: After years of searching for the next Avatar, the four nations have found peace with Avatar Yun--until Kyoshi, Yun's friend and servant, demonstrates remarkable bending abilities herself. With the identity of the true Avatar at stake and the growing unrest among her allies turning into violence, Kyoshi is forced to flee the Avatar mansion with her fiery friend Rangi, taking little more than the metal war fans and headdress her parents left behind.

It isn't easy finding Avatar training on the run, but Kyoshi and Rangi find unlikely supporters in the daofei: ragtag criminals and outlaws living in the shadows of the Earth Kingdom. Torn between following the traditional path of an Avatar and seeking vengeance for those she has lost, Kyoshi struggles to accept her newfound power as she trains in secret. But while Kyoshi, Rangi, and her daofei friends face off against brutal underworld rivals, those who seek to control the Avatar draw ever closer to her, leaving trails of the dead in their wake.

The story behind the longest-living Avatar in the history of this beloved world, The Rise of Kyoshi maps Kyoshi's journey from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice still feared and admired centuries after becoming the Avatar.

Finished: April 24th, 2021.

Progress: 2 / 10. 20% complete.

My Rating: ★★★★★. [5/5]

My Review: [Under the read more - NOT SPOILER FREE]

Oh my god. Oh, my god. OH MY GOD. That book was SO GOOD.

I haven’t read a book I loved that much in a LONG time. I was deliberately taking my time with it, even. I did not want it to end.

So, obviously, no one will be reading this book unless you’re already a fan of the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe. Hence, I will be using references and terminology here that fans will understand, but non-fans may not.

The best way I can sum up this book is: ATLA for adults. The show is obviously meant for kids – this book IS NOT. Holy shit, it gets dark sometimes.

My god though, I am utterly in love with Kyoshi. I already was a massive fan BEFORE I read this book, and now I feel totally obsessed. And she’s CANONICALLY BI. HOLY WOW.

Her character development and badassery FLOORED ME.

IDK, I’m just in love with everything about this book. How much deeper it delves into ATLA worldbuilding and politics and cultural customs; MUCH more deadly forms of bending; properly represented class consciousness and intersectionality; accurately portraying fear and what seemed like PTSD; the first time Kyoshi used the avatar state (!!!!!!!!); her attitude towards justice (fuck YEAH violence IS THE ANSWER A LOT OF THE TIME); shit I’m just like halishdliuhfliughd.

I’m SO HAPPY there’s another book that follows this one. It’s a shame there’s only two – I’d read an entire encyclopedia series about Kyoshi – BUT, alas. I’ll get to it soon I hope. I feel like I’m missing out on so much more I wanted to talk about, or at least any criticisms I may have had, but I finished the book a couple days ago and I don’t really remember anything other than SCREAMING LOVE for it.

This did SO MUCH GOOD for my angry revolutionary leftist heart. Avatar “Comrade” “Only justice can bring peace” Kyoshi. FUCK yeah.

#book reviews #the rise of kyoshi #f.c. yee #michael dante dimartino #the kyoshi novels #★★★★★#fantasy #young adult #glbtqia #adventure #high fantasy #romance #favorites #stunning covers #owned #print book #series book #jomp original

18 notes · View notes

pendragyn · 3 years

Text

20 Questions For Fanfic Writers

Thanks to @meteormemoirs for tagging me! Uh… I always feel a little weird tagging people but um, @rachywritessomething @faejilly @fenrir-kin @theloversthedreamersandme82 (and anybody else who'd like to join in – yes this means you!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

11 (though two of them ended up partially incorporated into a much bigger fic.)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

388,370

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

“In The Garden” (252) “Ineffable Bastards” (160) “Serpents & Ladders” (122) “The Key” (96) “Nature vs Nurture” (95)

4. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No hate, but a few comments that felt disparaging about the complexity of my biggest fic. And I have received unsolicited “suggestions” for my word choices because they didn’t know the definitions of the words I used. And instead of asking me if I meant that word first, they just jumped right to the assumption that I was *wrong* and decided to “correct” me. -_- So I corrected them and left the comments up as a warning for others.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I love responding to (most) comments, even if it’s just with a <3 to let people know I’ve seen it. I really love seeing people get excited about something I’ve made and then I get to be excited about it with them. It’s the best. <3

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh, that’s “Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls (It Tolls For They)” for absolute sure. It made me sob when I wrote it (and it was going to be angstier! but I couldn’t bear to do it) and it makes me blubber any time I reread it.

7. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Weeeeell, technically it’s not finished yet but "Ineffable Bastards" will have a happy ending!

8. Do you write crossovers?

I’m not 100% certain about the terminology but "Ineffable Bastards" and the rest of the fics in that universe are probably crossovers? Or a fusion? It’s between Good Omens and Discworld, with the Discworld characters living on Earth in the GO universe.

9. Do you write smut?

I have but I haven’t ever gotten it to a point that I’m willing to publish it. Maybe one day.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? Or turned into podfic?

Not yet, but @fenrir-kin did read a couple of my short works on their Twitch channel, that was really awesome!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I haven’t but it sounds like fun.

13. What’s your all-time favorite relationship (doesn’t have to be romantic)?

Right now, it’s 100% Aziraphale and Crowley both as friends and as eventual romantic partners.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

(lego batman no no no gif from https://thumbs.gfycat.com/WatchfulPartialIguanodon-size_restricted.gif)

15. What are your writing strengths?

Thinking about all the little details of worldbuilding to keep the internal logic ticking. I think I’m pretty good with dialogue and description, and I try my damnedest to keep them in character.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Mostly getting in a bad place and not writing. I also tend to reveal too much and have to go back and trim things down to keep the story flowing. Overthinking things and waffling about what to keep and what to trim.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don’t know any other languages so I just write it in english (derogatory) and imply they’re using another language and add in if others can understand them or not. I’m getting myself out of the habit of italicising to imply foreign language since it feels outdated, and it can be confusing since I use italics to denote internal thoughts.

18. What’s the first fandom you wrote for?

Good Omens (sprinkled liberally with Discworld references) ...in 2019. Since smashing Valdemar Companions and Pern dragons together like playdoh and reforming them into my own creations as a teenager doesn’t legally count as fanfic :}

19. What are your favorite tropes/scenarios to read or write?

Oh ho ho! Friends To Lovers, Starcrossed Lovers, Pining (whole forests worth), Found Family, Gentle One Goes Librarian Poo For Their Beloved (x2 if it’s unacknowledged love) – I’m sure there are more but those are my top five lol

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

“Ineffable Bastards” is definitely my baby but I am also really proud of how “The Key” came out and they’re all part of the same universe so, are they really separate if they’re in a series?

#fanfic ask game #ask game #writing ask game #twenty questions #20 questions #very long post #long post #tumblr web is giving me fits because it randomly won’t recognize keystrokes #tHis Is A FuckTionAl WeBSitE #good thing I wrote this in libreoffice because I’d go librarian poo if this got oopsied

5 notes · View notes

orionsangel86 · 5 years

Text

“I Think It’s Time For Me To Move On”

...And Other Things That Have Destroyed Me This Weekend...

So there is this common trope within love stories which generally happens at the end of the second act in which everything goes wrong and we all think that the lovers are doomed to failure. Its pretty much standard in every Jane Austen novel, every romantic film every made, every single bloody love story. Go ahead, name one. I guarantee you the break up moment is there.

Within the epic love story of Dean and Cas, there have been many break up moments, and all have had their emotionally devastating impact on the relationship and the show...

But THIS was a different level.

(For a nice summary of Destiel break up moments and understanding of this trope, @tinkdw wrote about it here.)

I didn’t think that there would be another moment within Dean and Cas’s relationship that could hit me this hard. The mixtape in 12x19, the wrapping of Cas’s body in 13x01, and the return of Cas in 13x05 are moments that I consider to be the very top of the scale in making this pairing undeniably romantic. Moments that pushed it beyond a platonic interpretation. These three moments have been the things I cling to when the show has otherwise made me doubt any conclusion to the DeanCas story, and since there hasn’t been another one of those moments since 13x05, until now I have been somewhat nervous that the story was dropped, or being forced back behind a platonic screen.

15x03 has ripped that screen away.

Emotional meta under cut...

This entire episode was an emotion fuelled dramatic roller-coaster that killed off three characters including our beloved witch queen in a scene that almost stole the show and practically canonised the SamWitch ship. Rowena’s death should have been by far the most torturous moment for viewers to endure, and it was extremely torturous and had me sobbing on a plane 3 hours into a 7 hour flight. That incredibly heartfelt moment between Sam and Rowena will probably go down as one of the top tear-jerking moments on this show. It was tragic in the best way - the way Supernatural is famous for.

But lets not gloss over the fact that in an episode where THAT should have been the climax, where THAT should have been the emotional highlight and end point, instead we get a further MORE dramatic stand off between Dean and Cas that pulled focus and ripped all of our hearts out just as violently as poor Ketch in the first act (a very clever and smug piece of meta foreshadowing there Mr Berens).

On a meta level, this is HUGE as a writing choice because they MUST know how this looks. This was the climax of the third episode of the finale season. The way Supernatural has always structured itself since Carver era is that the first three mytharc episodes of each season establish the direction of the story and set the foundations for the character level focal points and dramatic key notes to come.

That the writers have chosen to end the foundation episodes with a DeanCas break up moment that was more dramatic than a Spanish Telenovela has just stunned me and left me reeling because I just can’t see how else this can go. This break up scene absolutely DEMANDS a huge reconciliation of the sort that will be part of the A plot of the season - the FINAL SEASON. Guys. Part of the reason I have been so quiet and so disillusioned with the show during late season 13 and season 14 was because they pushed any Destiel plot into non existent territory - it became kinda irrelevant and Dean and Cas just acted like friends (homoerotic friends yes, and sometimes like an old married couple, but it was mostly played as an afterthought imo), so for this to suddenly be brought to the forefront of the emotional story again is excellent news for us.

The thing is, like with those huge moments I listed above, the break up scene is basically undeniably romantic when you break it down to its components:

1. It’s only Dean and Cas.

Once again we have another scene of high stake emotions that excludes Sam. In a platonic reading of the show, it makes zero sense for there to be such a hugely disjointed relationship between Cas and Dean and Cas and Sam given he has known them both for so long now that if they were all “just friends” then surely Sam would also feel the impact of Cas’s choices as heavily as Dean. In a platonic reading, Dean comes across as an asshole, Sam comes across as being weirdly uncaring about his friend of 10 years, and Cas comes across as not even bothering to get Sam’s opinion before leaving. A romantic reading makes sense because quite literally THIS IS A ROMANTIC BREAK UP.

2. The words spoken.

“Well I don’t think there is anything left to say.”

“I think it’s time for me to move on”

From Cas’s perspective at least, name one time in a piece of media where such language has been used for a platonic breakup sincerely? There have been heartfelt break up songs that use these exact words. (I should know I’ve spent the last 24 hours listening to them all).

That last line in particular is so heavy. It’s the last line of the episode and nothing about it is platonic. This is relationship terminology my dudes. “I need to move on, and get over you.” This is Cas’s bloody Adele song. My heart breaks for him, but if I was his sassy and fabulous best girlfriend right now I’d be sitting him down, sipping a cocktail, flipping my hair and telling him “Babe, you’re too good for him. Good Riddance. Let’s go out, have some cocktails, something pink and fruity. No dive bars for us darling. I’ll take you to Heaven... the fun one in London.”

In all seriousness though, from Cas’s perspective, this was him admitting defeat and giving up the fight for love. How anyone can possibly say Cas isn’t in love with Dean after this, well I just don’t know what show you are watching. This is the face of a heartbroken man who has just accepted that his love is unrequited.

3. The many faces of Dean Winchester

On the other end of the scale, Dean was mostly silent after his poisonous words “And why does that something always seem to be you?”

Forgive the terrible gif quality I’ve no time for fancy gif work!

Look at his face here. He knows what he said was fucked up and he immediately regrets it. The way he swallows around that regret and then turns away.

and after Cas says that devastating final line and walks away? We get THIS reaction from him:

The jaw clench as he looks down. The sorrow on his face as he realises he has well and truly fucked this up. LOOK

Finally, he looks up, makes himself look up and watch Cas leave. If that isn’t the face of a broken man I dunno what to tell you. Anyone who thinks Dean is totally heartless and uncaring right now needs to reassess because this is NOT the face of someone uncaring. This is the face of someone who has just lost everything. Again.

4. The FUCKING MUSIC

Seriously. The sweeping heavy drama of the low strings that come in right after Dean says that horrid line, that carry the weight of the look of horror and heartbreak on Cas’s face as they amplify the emotion there. As they blend seamlessly into the slow and subtle version of the Winchester family theme behind Cas’s heartbreaking speech and Dean’s stubborn stoic face hiding a multitude of emotion, until the violin dominates as Cas says “I think it’s time for me to move on” and the Winchester Theme swells to its climax, ripping all our hearts out just like poor Ketch as Dean watches Cas walk out of his life surrounded by darkness.

I MEAN.

A friend on Twitter reminded us all of this point about the importance of this theme via @justanotheridijiton here which is essentially:

“The Winchester theme is not simply an aural marker to let the audience know when and how Sam and Dean love each other (any Supernatural fan knows that is the baseline of their relationship), but to provide narrative information, especially when the image and dialogue are incomplete or inconsistent with the true situation... Seasoned fans will recognize the theme and its history of being paired with images indicating deep emotional bonding and a desire to do the right thing by the Winchester code. Here we trust our ears over our eyes to reveal the truth.”

So here is yet another key indicator that any surface read that this is actually an ending between Dean and Cas and that Dean really is just an angry asshole is utter bullshit.

Honestly, this was PAINFUL, but it was painful in the best way. It was 13x01 levels of pain, but this time it was Cas choosing to walk away which makes all the difference. Dean’s greatest fear isn’t his loved ones dying on him after all, but of his loved ones choosing to leave him. This was exactly the kick up the ass Dean needs in order to win Cas back, classic love trope style.

Hence my excitement at what is to come. Yes we won’t see Cas again until 15x06, but in the meantime I fully expect a good helping of angst and wallowing from a depressed Dean who has to deal with the fact that he has just lost the love of his life and it is all his fault. That he just pushed away the one person who promised they would always stay by his side. That has got to hurt.

So yeah, this episode emotionally destroyed me, and I’ve only really covered the primary reason, let alone all my feels over SamWitch, Rowena’s death, Belphegor’s taunting of Cas over his deepest fears and then having to suffer through smiting a creature wearing the face of his son until his body was nothing but a burnt corpse... I wonder if Bobo had a bet going in the office over how much he could hurt us all? He was certainly enjoying scrolling through the Supernatural tag on Twitter and liking everyone’s reaction tweets including some brilliant Destiel related ones. I do love Bobo. Our Angst Goblin King.

If anyone had asked me a few weeks ago what my thoughts were on the chances of getting explicit canon Destiel by series end, I would have said somewhere in the realms of 30-40%, considering it a battle of wills between DabbBerens and CW studio execs who I still feel are against it in general. I would have considered everything that happened after 13x06 as the writers getting a big NO on Destiel from the network and therefore having to pull back on any Destiel related plot points (purely my own speculation on BTS matters of course).

Now I am wondering if Dabb kept fighting the network? If he managed to wear them down into begrudging acceptance? I’m currently up to around an 80% chance of textual canon DeanCas if we continue on this path. If Dean is clearly shown to be mourning and hating himself over Cas next episode, and if this DeanCas dramatic plot line continues to be a focal point of the emotional story arcs... well...

I’m side eyeing 15x07 a lot right now. Only in my wildest dreams would I think that they might actually introduce an old boyfriend for Dean in a “coming out” episode, but the placement, timing, and potential is all there and I’m kind of once again donning the clown mask because I’m just in awe at everything that they are doing. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime, I’m gonna paint my face in red and white and wear my rainbow wig and listen to break up songs on Spotify whilst trying to shove my heart back into my chest where Bobo Beren’s gleefully ripped it out with his hands like the demonic angst goblin he is. Wish me luck, I’m not sure I’m gonna get through this season with my emotions intact.

#destiel #supernatural #spn meta #destiel meta #spn speculation #season 15 #15x03 #castiel #dean winchester #spn spoilers #my meta #destiel dreaming #destiel break up

877 notes · View notes

mediaeval-muse · 4 years

Text

Book Review

Descendant of the Crane. By Joan He. New York: Albert Whitman & Company, 2019.

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: YA fantasy

Part of a Series? Not yet?

Summary: Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina does something desperate: she engages the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death... because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago. Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

***Full review under the cut.***

SPOILERS in the last paragraph of the “Plot” section.

Content/Trigger Warnings: violence, blood, references to torture, slavery

Overview: I really wanted to like this book. I really did. The premise seemed promising, and I loved the idea of a Chinese-inspired fantasy world with a touch of courtroom drama. Unfortunately, there seemed to be too much going on, so much that I couldn’t connect with this book’s characters and the narrative didn’t flow in a way that drew me into the intrigue and mystery. I would have given this book 3 stars on premise alone, but because I didn’t feel like the scenes built on one another, this book only gets 2 stars from me.

Writing: He’s prose is fine for a YA novel in that it is fairly straightforward with a few poetic images sprinkled in here and there to evoke emotion. It’s very similar to a lot of other YA prose I’ve read, and I don’t personally think anything sets it apart. I did notice, however, that would sometimes use imagery or metaphors that I found more confusing than illuminating. For example, He describes a character as taking to the shadows “like a knife in a sheath,” which would have been ok, but the character was supposed to be more dangerous in the shadows - and a sheathed knife isn’t a threat.

I also found that He would reference bits of lore, backstory, or worldbuilding at odd moments, and sometimes, this info wouldn’t be especially relevant. It felt like she was trying to make references to her worldbuilding without infodumping, which is all well and good, but these references would sometimes distract from the main action.

I also thought He’s pacing and focus was off; the trial/mystery plot would sometimes fade to the background, while the tensions with neighboring kingdoms wasn’t really felt until a certain point in the novel, then it disappeared again. Some events received more attention than I think was warranted, while others received less. For example, we get a lot of scenes of Hesina doing paperwork, but then the ending felt rushed and a lot of information was dumped on us after several plot twists. There were times when things would be summarized rather than played out “on screen,” which is ok sometimes, but it often felt like He used summary so she shock the reader rather than lead them on a journey.

And lastly, I noticed that He has the tendency to use constructions where things other than the characters have agency. For example, “fear creeped into her” or “hope fluttered through her” and the like; it wasn’t bad, per se, but it was noticeable, as if He didn’t want her characters to have as much agency.

Plot: Describing this plot is fairly difficult, since, in my opinion, none of the scenes seem to flow or build upon each other to create a structured narrative. It seemed like He wanted to write a courtroom drama, a high fantasy novel, and a political saga, all of which came together to meditate on things like truth, history, and oppression. It was a lot to cram together, so much so that instead of an action-packed saga, I got a narrative that I couldn’t focus on because there wasn’t the time to explore themes or events in detail. In other words, because a lot happened, all events were rushed and felt shallow. The murder trial plot, for example, didn’t feel very developed; all of the courtroom drama felt pretty standard (this suspect couldn’t have done X because she’s left handed and the cut had to have been made by a right handed person) and most of the people who are trying to fabricate evidence are pretty bad at it. The political conflict, too, seems to be an afterthought, as the people’s desperation for salt isn’t really felt (just told to us) and no one seems too bothered about the raids along the border. I think the novel would have worked better if it focused primarily on the trial and following characters as they uncovered evidence that would be important for that trial. Not only would the narrative structure have felt tighter, but I think the courtroom drama could have been a good vehicle to explore the themes that He seemed interested in (things like oppression and truth can definitely come up with the right focus).

I also found myself to be frustrated by the plot twists because many of them felt random. There wasn’t a lot of groundwork that was laid to make them seem plausible, and I personally don’t like twists that I can’t see coming on some level. Don’t get me wrong - I think a little shock is good here and there, but I think plot twists work best when there is some hint that something is awry. The twist with Hesina’s father, for example, felt earned, whereas the ones involving her brother Caiyan and Lilian, felt random. I especially did not like that the whole epilogue was devoted to explaining how one of the plot twists was made possible; the behind-the-scenes action was dumped on us all at once, and I don’t really like it when I read a whole book and am then told “actually, this was happening the whole time” without some hints during the narrative that there is a bigger picture.

Also, just a quick note: while the plot twist with the Tenets is interesting, I feel like it has the possibility to be a scapegoat in the vein of “prejudice is due to a magical curse rather than something real and ingrained that we have to do hard, continuous work to remove.”

Characters: Hesina, our protagonist, is a Princess who becomes Queen for the purposes of having control over her father’s murder investigation. Personally, I found Hesina to be somewhat bland. She’s not really a ruthless ruler or cunning strategist; most of her decisions are driven by emotion, which can be a good character flaw, but it wasn’t really balanced out by a trait that I found particularly defining. The most she has going for her is that she’s pretty brave and is sympathetic to people who are oppressed, but I don’t think Hesina developed enough for me to really see her character as having an arc. I did sympathize with her dilemmas, especially when she had to make difficult political decisions, but I wanted a little more from her.

Akira, the convict-turned-lawyer who is tasked with solving the case, is a ho-hum love interest who Hesina chooses to represent the crown in her father’s murder case because a Sooth vaguely tells her to “find the convict with the rod.” Akira is written as somewhat mysterious, with skills that seem to come out of nowhere: he is good at fighting, knows some languages, and seems to be good at understanding chemical compounds. All these seemed to be laid as breadcrumbs toward figuring out his tumultuous past; however, I didn’t feel like I was dying to know more because Akira is so aloof and fades in and out of the background. We also don’t really see him putting together clues or explaining how he figured things out; most of the time, we get a summary of what he said (”Akira explained this chemical reaction”), so he doesn’t feel like a major player in the plot. Even his background is dumped on us all at once in summary, which made it less emotional to read. The romance between Akira and Hesina also felt a little forced. While it doesn’t take up a lot of space in the story, it did feel a little random. I didn’t really understand why Hesina decided she wanted to kiss Akira, and the emotional moments they exchanged didn’t really feel genuine.

Supporting characters also felt a little one-dimensional, such as Hesina’s mother, who doesn’t get along with her daughter (because of mental illness? other reasons?) but does get along with her son. Civil servants also weave in and out of the story at convenient moments, and commoners are fairly faceless. I did, however, enjoy the family dynamics between Hessina, her brother Sanjing, and their half-siblings, as it created some complicated personal and official court tensions, while also showing some family affection that transcended “legitimate” bloodlines. The dynamics between Hessina, Caiyan, and Lilian were especially well-done, as they seemed to balance each other out. I would have liked to see more instances where Caiyan’s and Lilian’s experience living on the street affected how the plot went; He tells us this detail, but I think it only comes in handy once.

Other: I don’t think every fantasy novel needs a lot of world-building, but more support in this book would have been helpful. I might have missed some details because a lot was going on, but I constantly found myself asking questions like “What are the limits of Hesina’s powers as queen? Why can’t she command this person to do this thing? Why bargain with her main enemy, Xia Zhong, instead of expose him right away?” I also think some of He’s terminology needed to be reworked, as she used phrases like “sticks of black powder,” “Investigation Bureau,” and “pillow log” - terms that got the main idea across, but felt a little clunky.

I did, however, like the idea of the Eleven and the Tenets, especially their role as historical people/documents that are idolized and not challenged. There’s a real opportunity in there for some exploration of how history is sanitized or how bad things are overlooked in the attempt to present the current state of a nation in the best possible light - it reminds me of the ways in which America idolizes the Founding Fathers yet glosses over aspects like slave ownership.

TL;DR: Descendant of the Crane suffers from a shallow exploration of too many plot threads, plot twists which feel in service to shock value, and a forgettable main character and love interest. While it does have some interesting themes, such as the idolization of historical figures, there was ultimately too much going on that I found it hard to focus on any one thing for long.

#book reviews

2 notes · View notes

hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years

Text

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (semi-stream of consciousness) Thoughts Part 3: Spider-Miles and his Amazing Friends/Foes

Apologies for not getting this out sooner. I’ve been/still am unwell so I was physically too energy drained to crank it out.

For this outing we’re going to discuss the characters not named Miles Morales. Spoilers ahead.

As I have said before, Miles might be the primary protagonist but he is not the sole one.

Alongside him we have the Peter Parker who died (who, in what is surely a Clone Saga reference, is blonde), the older washed up Peter Parker, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir and Peni Parker with her SP//dr mech...with a cameo by Spider-Man 2099 and 1960s Spider-Man.

Going up against them are Kingpin, Prowler/Aaron Davis, Doctor Octopus/Olivia Octavius, Tombstone, Scorpion and Green Goblin with cameos by the Lizard/Spider-Gwen’s Peter Parker and some versions of Doc Ock and a reference to Electro. Honestly there were probably more villains too I just missed them because this movie is such a feast for the eyes that you need to see it more than once to take everything in. For example my friend caught a Ditko reference I missed.

I already gushed about how impressive it is that the movie balanced so many characters so lets not go over that again beyond saying that it is honestly mind blowing that us Spidey fans got all THOSE villains (some of whom have never been on film before) in this movie and what is essentially a Carolin Trainer Doc Ock reference rendered as a really cool villainess.

For real Olivia ‘Liv’ Octavius was bad ass. If Kingpin was the Big Bad she was his ‘Dragon’ to use TV Tropes terminology. Her design was unique to Molina’s Doc Ock and her unveiling was one of the movies best twists that I really didn’t see coming. Also Aunt May seemed to know her which means in my headcanon they were like old friends and had tea together sometimes. It is also worth of note she is technically one of the relatively few Marvel movie villainesses.

Sticking with the villains for now Tombstone and Green Goblin were the least interesting. Goblin here existed essentially to serve as reference and honour to the Death of Spider-Man arc from the Ultimate comics as he is very much involved in Blonde Peter’s death and dies himself. Tombstone was just...Tombstone. He was just Fisk’s bodyguard and nothing else. Still the fact that there even exists a Spider-Man movie WITH Tombstone in it is something of a marvel. Scorpion is elevated somewhat beyond Tombstone and Goblin by virtue of his interesting redesign and the quirk that he speaks Spanish, thus connecting him to Miles. Whilst the movie doesn’t use it’s relatively even hero and villain count to just pair the characters off, it should be said that Tombstone and Scorpion do exist specifically to give Noir, Ham and Peni something to do in the second and third act climaxes.

This is not a detriment to the movie though. Although this is an ensemble movie, it is Miles movie primarily, Peter and Gwen’s secondarily and the other Spider-Heroes’ behind them. This point is accentuated when we are given their origins simultaneously in a three panel sequence. It is understood that these three characters are to be regarded somewhat collectively, sort of like the Warriors Three from Thor.

Getting back to the villains though, I have little to say on Prowler I didn’t cover last time. All I will add is that his visuals are very cool. Even though he is based upon Ultimate Prowler his look is more 616 Prowler influenced, but imagine if instead of a misguided antagonist he was a scary slightly Spawn inspired villain. So he was totally bad ass.

However hats must go off to Kingpin. He was the main and best villain of this story. It is funny this year has been oddly Kingpin focused in terms of Marvel content.

He was brought back superbly for Daredevil season 3. He was a notable figure in the PS4 Spidey game. He was the main villain of the PS4 prequel novel. He got a lot of play in Daredevil and Spider-Man comics where he was the mayor and he is now serving as a Marvel movie villain for the second time. For me personally I complimented all this by checking out Daredevil Born Again and Last Rites, two very Kingpin centric stories.

As far as his portrayal here is concerned, the central conceit of the movie again creates a potential get out of jail scenario for any direction the writers want to take with the characters. This is an AU version of Kingpin and so is at liberty to deviate wildly from the 616 version as Liv Octavius did.

How interestingly what we wind up with is an interesting rendition of Kingpin who’s deviations from his canon counterpart’s personality are relatively minor and his overall portrayal is different more in where it places the emphasis as opposed to what the specific traits of his personality are.

Comics Kingpin is defined by his cold controlled and sophisticated demeanour hiding a thuggish, cruel and raging temper beneath the surface. He is the boss of bosses, the biggest criminal ever in more way than one.

Spider-Verse Kingpin is a little more ‘street’ in his dialogue and vocal performance than we might be used to with classic Kingpin and ever so slightly more prone to making jokes, but beyond that his personality is very similar. Essentially he is Kingpin with a bit more Tony Soprano injected into him. The idea of his calm exterior hiding a cruel raging monster beneath is very well realized though via his gimmick of clicking his pen as a kind of stress ball to maintain his temper and his beating Spider-Man to death with his bare hands. Not to mention his flying into raging bull mode at the climax of the movie when things go all wrong.

Where the key deviation lies for this rendition of Wilson Fisk though lies in his motivation for the movie. Whilst various stories in comics and other media depict Kingpin’s motivation to simply rid his criminal empire of one superhero or another, or else further expand and secure that empire, Spider-Verse Kingpin is all about his family. The entire reason he is investigating parallel universes is in order to find alternate living versions of his dead wife Vanessa and son Richard. They died fleeing him in horror upon witnessing him fighting Blonde Spidey, so Wilson feels guilty and heartbroken over their deaths.

What is ingenious about this take upon Kingpin is that you could entirely see his canon counterpart doing something like this and it serves to add a note of sympathy to him in spite of his directly murdering Spider-Man and Miles’ uncle. Whilst it is perhaps not as nuanced or multilayered as the Netflix Kingpin, it still serves to make him more than a two-dimensional, black and white gangster. So as a villain he is simple, yet effective.

Kingpin, like all the Spider-Heroes sans Miles, also has a backstory flashback sequence that explains his history with his family. These are strategically placed throughout the movie and are reminiscent of the origin sequences from the Suicide Squad movie. However what worked so poorly there works magnificently here.

These origin sequences do much more than simply drop exposition for each character. Putting aside how the movie does enough to build up and endear us to most of the characters who get such sequences, the sequences are actually in aid of conveying to the audience the primary conceit of the film, that of alternate realities.

And the best way to convey this idea is to prevent the familiar with deliberate changes.

What I mean by this is that the movie sets up these origin sequences in deliberate contrast to one another and signposts this fact with repeated dialogue and visual cues in each sequence. This even applies for Kingpin as the visuals of his origin sequence are evoked for the climax wherein he briefly does see flashes of his wife and son from other realities.

As far as the Spider-Heroes are concerned though, the first of these sequences is at the top of the movie with the background information for Blonde Spidey.

This helps immediately hint that the world we are watching is both similar to yet different to the ones we might be familiar with, noticeably the world of this Spider-Man is more similar to our own as Blonde Spidey (surely a Ben Reilly reference unto himself) is a beloved and highly merchandised celebrity. Even the iconic upside down kiss with Mary Jane occurs for him with MJ upside down. A fun little in joke for the audience, or sly easing in of the idea that this Spider-Man is not the one we know?

A little of both probably, but that one scene illustrates what I mean because the second origin sequence we get is about the older Spider-Man. Like I said it plays itself in deliberate contrast to the Blonde Spider-Man, retaining the same narrative/dialogue structure within the short vignette to convey for us how this Spidey is different and thus develop his character. E.g. he is older and yet less successful, he is underappreciated and in bad shape and his marriage to MJ (whom he shares a more traditional upside down kiss with, see what I mean, it slyly hints this Spidey is more like the ones we recognize) has ended in sad divorce and he is a wreck.

Further origin sequences repeat for Spider-Gwen (she is similar to her comic counterpart, but her hang up is distancing herself from her friends), Noir, Peni and Ham.

As I said before Noir, Peni and Ham have their origin sequences play out simultaneously on the screen. This cements their lesser status within the movie compared to the other protagonists.

Collectively the sequences not only use the individual Spider-Heroes to mutually develop and build up each character on the most basic level to the audience (Spider-Man but a Looney Tune pig, Spider-Man but if he was a drummer Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man but if he was Humphrey Bogart, Spider-Man but if he was an anime girl from a mech anime, etc) but also serves to hold the audiences hand as it gets them to accept the conceit of parallel universes.

Of course the concept is first broached at the start of the movie where Blonde Spider-Man’s origin sequence concludes with him declaring himself the one and only Spider-Man (a sentiment echoed in other origin sequences too) and is then immediately followed by Miles’ introduction. We also have the topic raised in Miles classroom.

When combined with the other origin sequences, this opening obviously challenges the audiences idea that there could only ever be one Spider-Man and that it would have to be Peter Parker (a fair presumption, most audience members would be unaware of any other Spider-Heroes). This I think is part of the ingeniousness (forgive my repetition of the term but it is true) of featuring the two Peters in this movie.

See both Peter Parkers are as much positioned as deliberate deviations from the norm general audiences would expect as Spider-Ham or Spider-Gwen. Whilst one Peter is blonde and a successful married celebrity with essentially his own Spider-Cave, another is the oldest on screen Peter Parker we’ve ever had, pot-bellied and a divorcee. Outside of some video games and two 20 year old cartoons general audiences have never even seen a married Spider-Man so presenting not just one but two, and one of whom is post-marriage to boot, is a brilliant way to sell ‘this isn’t the Spider-Man you know’.

But these Spider-Men ARE Peter Parker. So if there can be versions of the Parker Spidey audiences are familiar with that are so different to what they know, the idea of Peter Parker but an anime girl or a 1930s noir character or a cartoon pig becomes easier to accept as does Gwen Stacy (whom audiences ARE familiar with from the recent Marc Webb movies) as ‘Spider-Man’ becomes yet easier to accept.

All of which build to what is second half of the question the start of the movie raises.

The question is partially ‘Does Peter Parker have to be the one and only Spider-Man’ (obviously not there are alternate versions of him as well as Gwen Stacy in the role) and, perhaps more poignantly, partially ‘Can Miles be Spider-Man’.

And this is the the most important purpose that the origin sequences serve. They are all building towards the climax of the movie which bookeneds the start wherein it is at last Miles turn to relay his own origin, allowing the movie to put to rest the question it raised at the start and cement in the audience’s minds that YES, this kid can and now IS Spider-Man.

As Stan Lee said, part of the appeal of Spider-Man is that under that costume anyone can imagine themselves to be Spider-Man. This movie embodies that message, embeds it into itself and in that sense serves the fundamental ethos of Spider-Man or him being the relatable everyman, even whilst Peter himself is not the heart of this movie.

And it did all that via having comic book style flashback exposition dumps!!!!!!!

I might have said this before or elsewhere but this is the most ‘comic book’ comic book movie I’ve ever seen! As in it is a movie that looks like and plays out like a comic book!

And just like the best comic books and comic book movies it always remembers that these stories are someone’s first so whilst it presumes a certain amount of foreknowledge (like you know who Spider-Man is) it leaves nothing to chance and organically walks you through everything you need to know. Again, those origin sequences by being placed in contrast to one another walks audiences gently through the massive concept of multiverses which no other theatrical comic book film before this to my knowledge has ever touched (sorry DC..).

Sticking with the Spider-Heroes for a moment, what should be understood is that the characterization of them is all geared towards the needs of the specific story being told, which obviously has Miles at the heart of it.

What I mean by this is that whilst the movie doesn’t give you the most detailed or faithful rendition of Spider-Gwen or Spider-Man: Noir ever they are the right takes for the movie’s story, for selling the concept of parallel universes and Miles development.

Blonde Spidey is not just hyper successful in order to contrast with Old Spidey. His success and competency (his brief action scene is incredibly impressive) is designed to also contrast to Miles inexperience and to sell him as almost a Superman/Captain America figure within Miles’ world. His death is mourned as the passing of a great and revered hero, a national day of mourning and even made me tear up a bit. This is done to accentuate the guilt Miles feels and the burden Miles feels to live up to his dying wish and shadow, the latter of which could fuel a potential sequel. His specific death scene itself is played as very different from the Ultimate comics. There his death was the grand finale (we thought) to the saga of a hero we’d been following and gave him a fittingly grand death. In the movie since his death is primarily the launch pad for Miles’ journey it is less grand, even cruel in how quick, blunt and undignified it is.

Old Spidey’s failure is not undertaken because the filmmakers believe Spider-Man is or should be some abject loser or failure, as I and others have feared. It is a direction taken because it gives him an arc for the movie. His hang up is wrapped up with his divorce from Mary Jane. But refreshingly for comic fans their separation occurred because MJ wanted children and he couldn’t bring himself to go there. It is through his tutelage of Miles (and hilarious confession to Blonde Spidey’s widow, a reflection of his student’s poor attempt to woo Gwen earlier) that he works through his issues and gets his happy ending of reuniting with his MJ. He thus has an arc intertwined with Miles even as he serves as his reluctant and somewhat haphazard mentor. If you think about it, having a version of Spider-Man more akin to the ‘default’ version would have made for a boring and underwhelming movie as far as Miles and Peter’s relationship is concerned. In this dynamic though master and student mutually grow.

Moreover his arc is interesting on a meta level as his pot belly somewhat resembled Tobey Maguire in some infamous and unflattering post-Spider-Man 3 images and Peter and MJ having a child and divorcing were in fact concepts toyed with for the aborted Spider-Man 4. All of which lends credence to the idea that Old Spider-man could very well be the actual Maguire Spider-Man. Indeed Maguire was apparently considered to be cast for this Spider-Man.

Between them Blonde and Old Peter represent something of the best and worst case scenarios for the ‘standard’ Spider-Man that broadly exists in the popular consciousness of general audiences.

Also one of these two Peter Parkers is explicitly Jewish. They have a Jewish wedding with Mary Jane which is a lovely touch as both his creators were Jewish and it has often been said the character embodies certain characteristics that recognizable within Jewish culture.

Spider-Gwen is changed into being more snarky than her earliest comics depicted her mostly because she has to be a more in control and experienced counterpoint to the in experienced Miles, serving as the subtextual second-in-command of the team. Her character’s conceit of being distant from her friends was something sort of present in her comics but is played as her central emotional problem in this movie that is also worked out through the course of teaming up with others. Additionally the film, seeking to connect her and Miles romantically (perhaps unnecessarily, but it is a sweet enough young romance nevertheless, helped by their similar age for a change) draws a parallel between how both her and Miles lost a Peter Parker. Parker in her universe was the Lizard as in the comics which further helps sell the idea of ‘Spider-Man’ being flexible.

The other Spider-Heroes are again, bodies to pad out the team and all of them are geared towards comic relief which helps balance out the team and movie over all, even if it goes against how Peni and Noir were originally characterized in their solo outings. But again this isn’t a solo outing, it is a team outing centred around Miles.

And the key thing to note here, as I noted in previous instalments is that all these other Spider-Heroes NEEDED to be in here and (to a lesser or greater extent) needed their own arcs because Miles was not going to hold the movie all on his own.

As for the other characters not much to say really. Miles parents are done well though his Dad gets more focus, a biproduct think of the movie focussing upon his brother Aaron. Aunt May has a small but lovely role as the keeper of Blonde Peter’s legacy. There is a touching scene which adapted Spider-Men better than the actual story. In the comic book 616 Peter meets Ultimate May in the relatively recent aftermath of Ultimate Peter’s death. In the movie, apart from Blonde Peter being older (meaning more years with Peter), Old Peter has also lost his Aunt May meaning the moment is much more emotionally packed as bereaved aunt and nephew reunite.

Then there is Mary Jane. Again a small role and she is somewhat relegated to a motivator than her own character but in a movie this packed where the heart isn’t Peter Parker you can understand why. You do feel bad that every (good) character in this movie got a happy ending or at least a happy final scene except her...well sort of. She is just left as the widow of Blonde Spidey but she gets a nice scene where she reunites with Old Peter. So ONE version of MJ has a happy last scene.

I will say this, the movie treated the character with respect. It is MJ who delivers her husband’s eulogy that prompts Miles into action and sums up the message of anyone being Spider-Man. It is made clear MJ was not the root of her split with Peter because ‘she couldn’t handle it’ or some shit like that. So whilst the movie didn’t give her much to do it also didn’t punch down on her or disrespect her legacy the way Homecoming did. And if nothing else how cool was it that we got not one but TWO Peter/MJ marriages on screen in a major motion picture. Take that Marvel!

But I cannot talk about the characters in this movie without talking about the three best cameos in any comic book movie.

The first was the surprise post-credits sequence where Spider-Man 2099 showed up! Of all Spider-Heroes he was the one I wanted most to show up. I love Mayday of course but I never deluded myself she could show up and in fact Old Peter’s story opens up that possibility for her more down the line.

2099 shocked me (how appropriate) and I thought we were going to get some nice sequel bait. That was until that was subverted for the second cameo that made me and my friend split our sides with laugher.

1960s cartoon Spider-Man, specifically with him and 2099 recalling the ‘Spider-Man pointing at himself meme’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is how you integrate a meme right!!!!!!

They even paid the 1960s show homage by referring to it as going back to the beginning since the 1960s show was in fact the first time Spider-Man was ever adapted into animation.

The third and best cameo goes to the Stan Lee appearance.

I am not ashamed to tell you dear readers that when I saw Stan Lee, even a cartoon version of him, saying in his own voice that he was friends with Spider-Man and will miss him I genuinely cried a little.

Even seeing the grave of Blonde Spider-Man shortly afterwards, a scene I’d already seen as the after credits scene for Venom, hit me hard and felt very different in a post-Stan Lee world.

And of course there was that ending title card crediting Lee and Ditko. Beautiful, no other word for it.

And given the movie’s fundamental message I can think of no more fitting way to honour the fathers of Spider-Man.

175 notes · View notes

faeerrie · 2 years

Text

Whumpmas In July 2022 - Day 1

(Re)introduce Yourself

Oh my gosh, I know I'm several days late with this one, but I am FINALLY catching up with all of it. Thankfully, I'm not too far behind.

Hi!! I'm Fae!! I'm a Tumblr veteran who started using Tumblr under a few different names for fandom stuff when I was 15ish and abandoned it when I was around 20ish. I then decided to give it another try a few months ago (I am now 24), but I really wanted to put more emphasis on creating my own content (fanfiction, cosplays, gaming journalism, etc.) and developing my own brand instead of only reblogging everything and keeping up with all the Hetalia Cosplay RP Blog Community Drama.

I've never actually participated in a fanfic event, so I'm going to use the helpful template provided by @whumpmasinjuly

Name: Fae

Gender: Non-Binary

Favorite Season: Summer

Average Amount of Sleep: Roughly 3 hours- I have really horrible insomnia and Adderall is prescribed to me, which is a stimulant.

Dream Job: Content Creator for the Achievement Hunter Team or for G4TV

Blog Established: For this particular one, about half a year ago

Reason for URL: It's my online persona- the name I go by on all of my platforms. In old terminology, my "internet name." I do not want anyone in my family I was born into connected to me via the internet.

Fave Whump Tropes: The "baby" or "innocent" one of the group getting grievously injured or attacked and everyone else just losing it. Alternatively, someone close to the seemingly harmless/innocent/baby person of the group getting grievously injured or attacked and that unassuming person loses it, scaring everyone, including their friends, that they weren't harmless. They were just peaceful. Kinda enemies, kinda frenemies who are on opposite sides who are forced to fight each other on the regular, but it's obvious their heart isn't into it anymore, and it's more playful than anything. The more "good-aligned" one has something super bad happen to them, and the other one realizes they always knew they loved them and goes on a rampage to save them, fuck what their own team has to say about it! The normally super poised, altruistic, practically-an-angel-on-earth character absolutely losing all sense of morals or standards when a loved one has something bad happen to him. Kinda just snaps. An absolute badass (think assassin, spy, etc.) has their beloved kidnapped by a really stupid enemy. They go all-out tactical war mode to get them back. Everything is meticulously planned and they are basically in "professional" mode until they finally find them, when emotion finally returns to their face and they hold them close and try not to cry from relief. However, this is when the captured beloved person finally sees the true extent of the badass's scary abilities. Bonus points if friends/old, trusted colleagues are recruited into helping and are high-key scared of them. I'm going to stop here, lol.

Projects I'm Working On: Rewriting my first fanfic posted on Ao3, a Dragon Age: Inquisition Lavellan/Dorian oneshot, Finishing up my Mass Effect Andromeda Whump (Male Ryder/Reyes), Finishing up my APEX Legends whump (Mirage/Protective!Bloodhound), there's also been this Grown-Up!PPGxRRB(Blossom/Brick) whump drabble that's been stuck in my head for the past like 3 months. I have to write it out sooner or later, lol!

Favorite Color: This is extremely super specific, but it's the exact color in the middle of the gradient that you see, if you visit any beach on Emerald Coast in Florida, where the water starts out a beautiful, clear emerald, but slowly turns into a brilliant deep sapphire color.

Anything else you'd like to add: It's super late as I am typing this, but I am super hopeful to have all of the prompts caught up and posted by the end of my day tomorrow!! I really look forward to experiencing this event for the first time, and sharing my writing with y'all!!

#whumpmasinjuly #my stuff #whump #fanfiction #ppg #rrb #blossick #apex legends #miragehound #wij2022

1 note · View note

motownfiction · 2 years

Note

sam + sadie: 34, 59, 67, 55, 61, 13

for ✨sam✨

13. how do they react to feelings of guilt?

my beloved sam ... this might sound strange, given how kind and generous we know him to be, but i don't think he experiences guilt all that often. that's not to say he never does anything wrong. he does. he breaks commitments, he closes himself off to love and affection, and he's often a little lazy. but he's the kind of person who tries to let things go as they happen. he doesn't like to dwell. he likes to move onto the next best thing. if he dwells, then he'll feel gross, and sam doesn't like to feel gross. he likes to feel happy. he likes to feel light. unfortunately, it doesn't always work, and he ends up alone.

34. least favorite food?

you know what? i'm going to say that sam's least favorite food is broccoli. he's like the little girl from inside out who gets disgusted when she sees broccoli on her pizza in san francisco. he doesn't want it there. he wants it to go away.

55. what is their zodiac sign?

this is boring because it's the same answer for pretty much all the main characters, but sam is a pisces (3/4/1967). that they're all pisces is the reason they're friends. their first grade teacher arranged the desks not alphabetically, but by astrological sign. it was the early seventies. sam's most pisces trait is that he is open-minded. he doesn't judge people, and he'll never be set in his ways. he's looking for new possibilities and new things to love all the time.

59. what are their views on death?

fucking ouch. ok. sam dies young, and i think somewhere in the back of his mind, he always knew this was going to happen. so he's never been afraid of death. he understands its inevitability, but he also believes in an afterlife. so he's not scared. he thinks that no matter what happens, and no matter how long (or short) he's allowed to live, he'll still find a way to kick up his heels and dance. sam knows he should have been a dancer. maybe once he's dead, he'll find the time.

61. when bored, how do they pass time?

we know sam listens to music. if he can't get his hands on any music to listen to, he tries to list the entire beatles discography in chronological/track order, just in his head. this is calming for him. perhaps even fun. i love him

67. what is their sexuality?

as officially dropped today, sam is bisexual. i don't know if he ever has the terminology to describe it, and he certainly doesn't have it at the age of eighteen in 1985. i know he could have, but i'm not sure someone in his exact position (the only non-straight person in his suburban middle-class life that he's aware of, since his girlfriend is also bi and unaware of it) would have had access to the literature and vocabulary he both wanted and needed. i think he's fallen for more women than men, but as we know, his first crush was will. and that's hilarious -- because it's will. i don't blame him, though. will is taller than fridge.

for ✨sadie✨

13. how do they react to feelings of guilt?

sadie is a mess when she feels guilty. she also feels guilty all the time. she's so concerned with whether or not she's really helping people, and if she doesn't absolutely break her back trying to assist others, she questions whether or not her effort was even a little bit worth it. so, she ends up giving more and more effort until she just can't anymore. her guilt comes from a feeling that she's never doing enough, even when that's not true. so she works herself into exhaustion trying to make up for a "sin" that might not even exist.

34. least favorite food?

i think sadie's least favorite food is pistachios. i'm really just inventing that on the spot, but it's what i'm going to go with. let's say she really used to like them because they're green, and she loves green. but people kept buying her bags upon bags of pistachios because they knew she liked them. with time, she got really tired of them, and now, she can hardly even think about a pistachio without feeling a little green herself.

55. what is their zodiac sign?

like her twin brother and all of her friends, sadie is a pisces (3/4/1967, five minutes before sam, which i did because it makes absolutely no sense to me that luke was born before leia). i know it makes absolutely no sense that an american school would have placed twins in the same classroom, but it's a parochial school. maybe they didn't even have two classes! also, they're a boy and a girl, so it was pretty easy to tell them apart. i think sadie's most pisces trait is that she's unselfish, perhaps to a fault.

59. what are their views on death?

so, also like sam, sadie believes in an afterlife. but because her twin brother dies so young and so tragically, she is very afraid of death. but rather than avoid risk, sadie indulges risk and quasi-reckless behavior (primarily driving for hours in the middle of the night on little sleep). she's afraid of death, but at the same time, she knows it'll be OK when she finally meets it. she's dying -- literally -- to be reunited with sam.

61. when bored, how do they pass time?

sadie is the type to read when she's bored. she'll read anything. novels, magazines, the back of a shampoo bottle or the ingredients on a bag of chips. that's how she engages the world -- reading about it.

67. what is their sexuality?

sadie is straight. i wondered for a little while if sadie was also bi, but i'm not sure that's the case for her character. she's pretty much exclusively in love with daniel, too. i haven't thought about other men she might be attracted to. she probably is, but i know daniel was her serious crush for all of her life (more parallels with will ... love that this happened without me even realizing it). but yeah, unless i find something different when i'm closely reading her in the future, i'll say she's straight.

#ask games #ch: sam doyle #ch: sadie doyle #ponyboyatreides #'will is taller than fridge' is absolutely incomprehensible to all but maybe 5 people on the planet #thank you

1 note · View note

sparda3g · 7 years

Text

My Hero Academia Chapter 134 Review

youtube

A hero is born or made when the recognition begins to set in. It's not the matter of money or even fame. It's the principle of protecting the people. The chapter begins with a fun action set piece with a rewarding outcome, and yet ends with a larger task in mind that will put all recruited heroes to the test.

Kirishima continues to shine as someone he wanted to be: a hero. As a fan of his character, this suits me well to watch him to shine as well as get the recognition he deserved. If not a fan, it's hard not to appreciate his accomplishment. The first half of the chapter does a really good job to show gratitude towards his character.

The action is fun to watch as Kirishima goes maximum harden in his unbreakable form. He could only last in that form for 30 to 40 seconds, which raises stakes on his behalf. It's smart for him to distract and provoke his enemy, alas in game terminology, tanking those damages. Then he starts striking those blades down and give him a good old punch of a lifetime. It was fun and satisfying to handle the problem alone.

Sadly, the enemy takes advantage of Kirishima's kindness, so he manages to escape until he literally bumps to Fatgum, which his quirk is fat absorption; it's self-explanatory but fun use of his design. That said it does establish that Kirishima is still a rookie, even if he did stop him from attacking the citizens. He got that part down, but need to make an arrest rather than letting personal feeling get the best of you. One thing is certain: talk no jutsu don't work in this universe. That's a relief.

The most satisfying part is when the citizens arrive to thank Kirishima for saving them. If you're one that felt a bit bummed that he didn't manage to stop the enemy entirely, then this one would lift your spirit up. It's true that he didn't arrest the man, but he did save everyone and that alone makes him a hero. That cheerful look on his face is good enough for me.

It's even nice to know that he made into headline news for his heroism. The students know about it and now he's acknowledged and beloved by his friends more so than ever. Well, except for Bakugou, but you know how he is. Same can be said for Ochako and Tsuyu, which is a hint for their upcoming developments.

The visual is solid as usual. It did start with an action set piece and I still like Kirishima's design in his harden state. He comes across like a monster and that one punch look like it really hurt. I can imagine bone crushing sound effect and all. I can see anime making it look heavily effective. That said the calm moments when he received gratitude is satisfying. All in all, it's a nicely done development for him.

After spending the first half of the chapter giving Kirishima a shining moment that he deserved, it was time to build up for a climatic arc, which has a lot of potentials. It's still unclear if Tamaki can’t use his quirk anymore, but the fact he is with Big 3, perhaps it's not permanent. It could be like reverse boost, like it will wear out eventually. If that's the case, it is a relief but it does pose a huge threat. The main threat to it is how long does the effect last.

It does seem like they got enough evidences to persuade the Eight Precepts. From strange behaviors of Overhaul to broken pieces of a weapon as well as taking a shot resulting in no quirk is all they need. Once I saw Deku, Kirishima, Ochako, and Tsuyu altogether and going to the same location, I knew we were in for something intense yet exciting.

This would mean they all will be the focus characters of the arc, meaning they will receive a good amount of developments. Deku continues to feel upset that he couldn't save someone, so I can see potential to use that notion in play. As for the other three, it's hard to say for now, especially since Kirishima just got his, but I believe Kohei has something in store. The heroines have been getting personal developments and tidbits of action, which is good, but now, it's time to make a standout performance, and this arc has room for them.

It's more exciting to see other heroes, including Gran Torino, in the mix. It finally caught on that they're ready to perform a raid against the Eight Precepts of Death. It may not happen in the next chapter, but we are definitely gearing up for epic proportion. If we go by the same way that the last eventful arc went, that we are in for a hell of a ride.

#my hero academia #boku no hero academia #chapter 134 #review

4 notes · View notes

stevensavage · 5 years

Text

A Thought On Scrum And Story Plotting

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve's Tumblr. Find out more at my newsletter.)

As you are painfully aware, unless you have never heard of me, I'm big into applying Agile to creative methods. Writing nonfiction, however, has eluded me - but I may have had a useful breakthrough.

First, assuming you somehow didn't know anything about me beyond my name, an explainer. Agile is an approach to projects that emphasizes adaptability, adjustment, communication, and not-overdoing. It's most common variant is Scrum, which I practice in my career as a Scrum Master - which surprisingly is not a minor He-Man villain, but a kind of process improvement enabler.

Second, if you wonder who I am, I'm obsessed with creative improvements and development. I kinda write on it a lot - so I like reconciling creativity and Agile.

But as for taking Agile, specifically my beloved Scrum, and applying it to fiction? I've been challenged. First, let's take a look at Scrum.

Scrum at its very basics is this:

A backlog of stuff ranked in order of importance - these are called Stories.

One takes a timeframe (called a Sprint), takes a certain amount of stuff from the backlog, and does it. Sprints are usually the same size, and usually have themes - they produce deliverable results. You focus just on the Sprint.

At the end of the Sprint, you re-evaluate your work, apply lessons, and do it again.

Scrum sometimes is extended in various ways. One of my favorites is "Epics" - groups of related Stories. There are also various scaling methods and so on.

On one level, you can see how Scrum may help a writer. A story is orderly sets of distinct things - events (organized into scenes). But writing is also very unpredictable; it's certainly not a simple 2D backlog as things change. Plotting is challenging as well - with so many arcs, etc. a simple list of "write this in order" doesn't seem to work.

This has troubled me over and over because I like writing, I like Agile, and I'm too hard-headed to give up reconciling writing and Scrum. I also want to plan my book - but I overplan it and have to back away - something Scrum could help with.

Then it hit me - this can be done. Here's how - grab some notecards or spreadsheets.

Write down your major story arcs. There will probably be about 10-30 of them if you go into fine detail (I usually assume each character has 1-3). These are your "Features" - big bundles of events that are kind of their own tale. Think of it this way - your story "Features" several story arcs - but I'll call them "Arcs."

In each Arc, write down the main things that need to happen in order. Remember order - not chronology. This isn't a timeline of "X happens in Y month," this is a sequence. In Scrum, these are called "stories," but for the sake of clarity, I'll call them "Events."

Now you have major story Arcs. In each are major Events that need to happen, which will probably either be scenes or part of a scene. Now how do you plot this out?

Simple - we use Sprints. Sprints become Chapters.

Now we have a way through.

Create one Sprint for each Chapter. If you have no chapters, perhaps pick an arbitrary number (I recommend ten or twenty, easy to get a percent complete). I'll just call these Chapters.

Take the Arc that spans the entire tale, and sequence out its Events spread among Chapters - take your best shot and when they would happen when. Make notes as you do so.

Now, take another Arc and do the same - choose one of the larger ones. As you do this, you may start switching around some Events from your first effort - that's fine.

Next, take one smaller Arc and place out the Events in the various Chapters - it probably won't span the entire set of Chapters, of course. While you do this, re-sequence the Events - figure what order they happen in.

Finally, just do this for all of your Arcs until, adding and adjusting and rethinking. Take plenty of notes as well, scenes and inspirations and ideas are going to come to you. Also, remember, everything should be in the order of occurrence.

Eventually, you have a set of Chapters, containing Events, that fulfill Arcs.

You've just created an outline for your book using Agile - in a kind of mutant Scrum using different terminology, and slightly violating the idea all Sprints are the same duration (hopefully they won't be).

By the way, note how easy it is to switch things around if you change your mind? Move one event up or down to different Chapters? Yes, very easy - because you have a rough idea of what order things happen in, but you're not locked in - it's all still pieces.

When you write the Chapter, then you can plot out the specific scenes. Take the particular Events, recheck their order, group them in scenes, and go. Why plot it in fine detail until you're ready?

I used some similar ideas when plotting my current novel - but then overdid it - and as soon as I did, things felt less fun and fluid. The reason? I thought too far ahead. When I "Deplotted" it, it worked much better. Novel after this one, I'm going to try this system (unless I invent another).

Know where you're going and in what order. But decide on the specifics when you're ready to write them. That way, you can react to what has to be done, not have your mind three chapters ahead, and two chapters behind.

Steven Savage

www.StevenSavage.com

www.InformoTron.com

#scrum #agile #writing #plotting

0 notes

harolddetective · 7 years

Text

APB Email Archive Update

November 5, 2017

Now, I am happy to announce that I am ready to get back to our regularly scheduled programming…and just in time for NaNoWriMo! I hope the time change allowed you to sneak an extra hour of writing time in, even if you aren’t participating in National Novel Writing Month.

CHARACTER: OLD SCHOOL BEAT COPS The LA Times ran an article yesterday on a pair of LAPD Officers that have been partners for an unbelievable twenty-nine years! The guys seem to be right out of a Joseph Wambaugh novel. Like any good marriage, the key to their resiliency is that they operate like a well tuned machine. Each partner has his own strengths (and I’m sure weaknesses as well) and they know which part to play and when. If you are writing a Cop/Buddy Story, you will enjoy this article.

WRITING TIP OF THE WEEK: LEVEL UP YOUR DIALOGUE I am a fan of both Reddit and Quora. If you’ve been living under a boulder of old AOL Installation CDs, they are websites every author should add to his or her research toolbox. While Reddit and Quora are quite different sites, they are both great places to learn about nearly any topic you can dream up. This week, I was reading the Quora thread: What one tip changed your writing forever? Christopher Kingery shared a tip for writing dialogue that is a must-read. It is so simple and it’s something that all of my favorite authors do…yet I never really thought about it. (Are you a Redditor or Quora User? Add me as a friend on Reddit and Quora!)

SOME OTHER COP’S BLOG: The Salty Sarge I discovered thesaltysarge.com blog this week and the post “Why Cops Retire Before You” is absolutely spot on. To gain even more insight into the lives of cops in the later stages or their careers, scroll through the comments at the bottom of the post. This is good background on the mentality of any Mentor type characters you might write about.

Good luck hitting your NaNoWriMo word counts and remember that any questions you have can be posted in the WRITERSDETECTIVE Q&A group on Facebook…even if you aren’t a NaNo’er. It’s a very supportive group and I try to answer your questions as quickly as I can.

October 3, 2017

Thank you for continuing to open my emails, even though it’s been awhile. I buried my best friend today. He was only 46. Last month, I lost my uncle. A few weeks before that, my beloved 12-year old German Shepherd passed away peacefully with his head resting on my foot. The month before that, my Mentor died in a car wreck.

Right now, I am grieving.

But I will get through this. I will be back to publishing my weekly APBs soon. Thank you for your understanding and support. In the meantime, keep writing and do not hesitate to email me with any crime-writing questions you think I can help you with.

Write well and love one another, Adam

June 17, 2017

First, thanks to those of you that offered your condolences regarding my mentor passing away. I really appreciate your kind thoughts. It’s another reminder that whatever time we get is luck and we should all tell our loved ones how we feel…often.

If you choose to go this route, the American Board of Forensic Odontology created a Bitemark Methodology Standards and Guidelines document that you may find incredibly helpful. This guide covers bitemark analytical methods, related terminology, collecting Bite Site evidence, collecting a suspect’s dentition, preferred formatting for the Odontologist’s analytical reports, exemplar comparison methods, the best practices for describing whether a suspect’s teeth could have made the bitemark in question, and even a sample layout of what the final investigative report should look like.

It’s easy to read and it’s only eleven pages long. I have no doubt you’ll be able to use this document to create believable dialog for your Forensic Odontologist, whether it’s explaining facts to an investigator or testifying as a witness in court. While you’re on the ABFO.org page, you might take a quick look at the Member Directory to see if any Members work near you. I’d be willing to bet any one of these Forensic Odontologists would be willing to talk shop to a writer interested in this fascinating niche.

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK: DEAD BODY STUFF…BUT FUNNY A good friend of mine, who also happens to be a super smart and talented Psychologist that works with my agency, recommended the book I am reading this week:

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers* by Mary Roach.

I’m not sure if the Doc profiled me as being psychologically disturbed or that we share the same skewed sense of humor. Either way, it was a brilliant recommendation.

Just like cops, most crime writers seem to share a certain degree of gallows humor. If this describes you, you will LOVE this book. It is packed full of answers to your dead body questions, peppered with hilarious observations that make this a quick, funny, and useful reference tome that every serious crime writer should read.

If you need answers to serious plot quandaries, such as the stages of a body’s biological and chemical decomposition phases or the timelines associated with each…but you’d prefer it explained in a way that sounds like you’re listening to a friend telling stories over drinks (rather than a dry medical school textbook,) then this is the book for you.

Here’s a sample passage from the Stiff*: [Context: Mary is visiting the University of Tennessee’s Anthropological Research Facility in Knoxville where human decomposition is studied.] “So the gas builds up and the belly bloats. He explains that the small intestine has pretty much collapsed and sealed itself off…Though he allows, with some prodding, that a little bad air often does, in fact, slip out, and so, as a matter of record, it can be said that dead people fart. It needn’t be, but it can.”

Mary also writes about the mental techniques first-year medical students use to get over the natural tendency to get grossed out by their cadavers. Any character of yours that routinely attends or partakes in autopsies will have developed “objectification techniques” like what is mentioned in this book.

If the mere thought of dead bodies and decay gets you squeamish, you might want to reconsider my suggestion, but I really do think you should give it a try. There are ZERO gross pictures, so you don’t need to worry about seeing any gore.

I will be traveling through various parts of England and Scotland in the upcoming weeks. If you want to keep tabs on what I’m up to, follow me on Instagram: @writersdetctive (DISCLAIMER: It is entirely possible the photos will be nothing but the pubs, ales, and wee drams of whisky I find. So no promises that the photos will be any good.

June 12, 2017

It’s been a rough weekend. One of my mentors died in a car crash this weekend. He was incredibly sharp and an A-Type through-and-through. He always demanded the best work out of his detectives, but he also made sure we had fun on and off duty. I blame him for my love of Rum & Cokes. Regrettably, we lost touch after his retirement a few years ago. Rest in Peace.

If there is one writing-related thing I can share about this, its the way cops have a tendency to detach using an out-of-sight-out-of-mind coping mechanism. It’s not that we don’t care or that we aren’t thinking about our former Brothers and Sisters in Blue; we just spend our emotional effort on those that we are working with (and watching the backs of) currently. We are also notoriously bad at acknowledging and dealing with negative emotions, other than to lock them away for another day.

It starts at the beginning. When a Recruit is fired from the Police Academy, the Academy Class does not get to say goodbye. The Recruit is called to the office and that’s the last you see or hear of the Recruit. When the class comes back into the classroom after PT or a defensive tactics course, the fired Recruit’s belongings are gone and his name placard has been removed from his seat and pinned upside down to the wall at the back of the classroom (along with the name placards of other former classmates.)

The lesson is clear: You’re either in or out. The work still goes on. That persists through the rest of a cop’s career. There is a saying “SWAT-OR-NOT.” Many officers will be part of a SWAT team at some point in their career. SWAT is for the young and motivated. Which means there are a ton of former-SWAT operators full of “When I was on the Team…” war stories. SWAT-or-NOT means if you aren’t on the team now, you aren’t SWAT anymore (so shut it.) In or out. So when an officer retires from the Department, it can feel like going through an amicable divorce. Sure, we all say we’ll still be friends and keep in touch…but only your closest friends will actually follow through. It’s a weird and sad phenomena. So if your characters are “ex-cops” that have turned into a P.I., expect that they may be forgotten rather quickly no matter how awesome they were. In or out.

CHARACTER: THE SPOUSE There is no tougher rock than the spouse of a cop. “10 Tips for a Police Spouse” was written by the wife of an Australian Police Officer. Every single bullet point translates to police work anywhere in the world. This brief glimpse into a Police Family’s life is worth the read, as it may give you insight into an often overlooked character in your story. It may also offer you a chance to skew the way your detective character is viewed and/or add additional conflict and chaos to the detective’s life. Regardless of whether the cop catches the murderer or saves the kidnap victim, the spouse may be seeing that same cop as the absentee-parent or an aloof workaholic who fails to prioritize his or her marriage.

STORY: CASE COORDINATION? If your Detective is undercover as an arms dealer trying to lure in potential lone-wolf terrorists, how will s/he make sure the “clients” aren’t also undercover cops trying to run their own arms-dealing investigation? Or drug dealing? Or murder-for-hire? The answer is to have a deconfliction clearinghouse. RISS.net is exactly that. Each area of the U.S. has a RISS Clearinghouse. If I am on a surveillance (or some other sort of covert op, like buying drugs or guns), I will call my local clearinghouse and be “put on the war board” so any other police agencies working covert operations (that also call into the clearinghouse) will be made aware of what we’re doing. NOTE: In my own experience, Federal Agencies are notoriously HORRIBLE at notifying RISS of their operations. So if you want some part of your investigation to go awry or for Federal Feathers to get ruffled, this is a real-life way of it happening. The Feds definitely use RISS, they just tend to enter their info after the fact.

Each RISS affiliated Clearinghouse has it’s own name, often a bland acronym that we turn into a weird sounding word. For example, in California we have WSIN (Western States Information Network) which everyone pronounces as Whizzin’ and the Clearinghouse for the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area is creatively named LAClear. Or how about MAGLOCLEN? Yep. Just like it sounds, Maglow-Clen. Sounds like the Glow in the Dark brother of Kylo Ren to me.

In addition to deconflicting covert operations in the field, RISS also deconflicts entire investigations. If I am working a homicide and I’ve identified a suspect or person of interest, I will call WSIN and run that suspect’s name in their database. If that name is a match for being related to another investigation (say a drug investigation), the Clearinghouse will put the detectives in contact with each other. Wouldn’t it be nice to know that your homicide suspect was also identified by the DEA as a member of a drug cartel? This is often how those investigative links are made.

The RISS Clearinghouses also offer other support as well, which are mentioned after the 3:28 minute mark in this video. If there is one thing I’ve discovered in government work, the more bland the title or description, the more important and bad-ass the work they actually do.

June 6, 2017

CHARACTER: NEW DETECTIVES Writers often ask me about how their characters can realistically become detectives in their stories. While federal agencies in the U.S. hire directly into investigator roles (usually called Special Agents), local police agencies almost always require officers to promote to the rank of detective after serving some years working the street in uniform. This week, I discovered a BBC story announcing Scotland Yard’s decision to hire Detective Trainees. The Met has a shortage of investigators, so the new hiring program is aimed at recruiting new hires directly into the detective ranks without requiring the trainees to work in uniform. While I don’t see this program becoming too likely in the U.S., it could certainly lead to some interesting crime stories and character bios.

THE BUSINESS SIDE OF WRITING: FEAR LESS (NOT FEARLESS) I have made reference to Tim Ferriss’ podcast before, but this week he sits down with Vince Vaughn. Vince talks about how his teenage job as a telemarketer helped him overcome any fear of asking for things from strangers. Some of the stories in this interview are hilarious, but I really appreciated the message of not being afraid to go beyond what you find comfortable to accomplish your goals. Writers being introverts maybe a stereotype, but I think most of us find it uncomfortable to make the Big Ask. This is especially true when it feels like a possible rejection will be too tortuous to endure. This interview speaks to that and I think you will enjoy it. I am contemplating running a contest based on an idea presented in this interview. Check out the interview and you may get a head start on the contest!

MOTIVE: WOMEN WHO KILL We tend to think of men as the killers in our society. A&E aired a special documentary focused on the phenomenon of women being more likely to kill family members than men. You can still catch the documentary on aetv.com, you just need to login using your TV provider’s account credentials. Just remember me when your next story idea sells to Lifetime TV.

May 27, 2017

CHARACTER: FOUR MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERS This isn’t my first link from an APB to K.M. Weiland’s writing website, helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com but this week’s post about a story’s Four Most Important Characters is fantastic. She writes about the roles the Protagonist, Antagonist, Reflection, and Love Interest should play in fulfilling their unique thematic roles and guiding your Protagonist toward (or away from) your story’s Thematic Truth. This is a must read for any author, regardless of genre. If you’re a fan of Poldark, you’ll really appreciate K.M.’s examples.

GENRE: DANGEROUS WORK One reason Detective Stories and Cop Shows are so popular is that the stakes are often life and death. Nothing will remind you more of those stakes than the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks every Law Enforcement line-of-duty death. The FBI tracks officer deaths and assaults, through the Annual LEOKA Report. LEOKA is an acronym for Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted. LEOKA statistics are reported by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to the FBI as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program.

RESEARCH: ASK THE EXPERTS! Sue Coletta is an award winning crime fiction author; murder blogger; co-host of the monthly Partners In Crime #BlogTalkRadio; and host/founder of #ACrimeChat, the bi-weekly Twitter Q&A for crime writers. Both the Partners In Crime streaming audio program and #ACrimeChat Twitter Q&A are regular opportunities for you to ask a cadre of experienced cops and writers questions specific to your craft. I jump into the #ACrimeChat Q&A as often as I can. It’s always a fun set of questions that don’t always get the same answers from the experts. Search #ACrimeChat on Twitter to see past Questions and Answers. #ACrimeChat occurs every other Wednesday from 3pm-4pm EDT/12pm-1pm PST. Submit your questions by tweeting @SueColetta1. Don’t be shy; we’d love to have you join us!

WRITING: FOR YOURSELF In addition to my law enforcement career and helping authors and screenwriters through writersdetective.com, I also teach at the collegiate level. One of my favorite classes to teach is a Criminal Justice Ethics course that includes the topics of mindfulness and wholesight. I am far from becoming some kind of New Age hippy, but I believe practicing mindfulness and wholesight leads to being a better person and a happier life. One tool I love to accomplish this is The Five Minute Journal*. Writing in my journal is the one daily New Year’s Resolution I have kept since 1/1/2017, and I urge you to consider checking it out. I read the daily quote and write in my journal when I first wake up, which helps me frame my day as one of possibility. Then before bed, I reflect back on how my day went and what I took notice of as being amazing. Knowing that I will write about “Three Amazing Things That Happened” each day has given me reason to seek out the amazing little things daily. It takes me LESS than five minutes each day. For those of us who don’t make the time to meditate or keep a diary, The Five Minute Journal* is perfect for cultivating a few minutes of good thoughts at the beginning and end of your day.

May 21, 2017

COMMUNICATIONS: Every cop has a story for what led them to this career. A Commander I worked for shared his story, which was a simple one. When he was a kid, he happened upon some sort of emergency in his town. There were flashing lights, sirens, police cars everywhere, and a crime scene cordoned off. He remembered watching an officer arrive in a police car and then walk past him into the crime scene. As a kid, my Commander desperately wanted to know what was going on. It dawned on him that the uniformed officer knew what was going on. That was the seed that grew into a police career: Knowing What Was Going On. Despite newer technologies like cellphones and computers in the patrol cars, the primary communication tool is still the police radio. Thanks to modern technology, you can know what’s going on by listening in on police radio traffic from around the world for free, on your smartphone. While I don’t recommend filling your writing or dialogue with police radio codes and jargon, listening to the communications around where your story is set can be enlightening. Is your story set in an area where a dedicated dispatch center is responsible for tracking dozens of officers at a time, or is the dispatching handled by the one civilian employee back at the office who is also the records clerk? To listen in using iPhone/Apple iOS Devices: Download the free 5-0 Radio App in the App Store. For Android Devices: Download the free Scanner Radio App in the Google Play Store. If you navigate to your story’s location and don’t get much to listen to, navigate to “LAPD Aero and Special Unit Dispatch” (LAPD calls this frequency “Air / K9”) to hear the most serious emergencies in the City of Los Angeles in near realtime.

STORY: In March, I shared a link to the policeone.com website that several of you said was extremely helpful. I’ve got another one for you! Similar to PoliceOne is a website called LEO Affairs. (No, it’s not Ashley Madison for Cops.) In addition to having a ton of incredible dashcam/bodycam footage, you can be a fly on the wall in the Forums to learn how cops honestly feel about various topics and possibly get some insight to what is going on inside the agency you might be writing about.

DEATH [Squeamish Alert] If you only write Cozy Mysteries or get squeamish, feel free to skip these links. One writer asked “does a body decompose any faster/slower if it doesn’t have any blood in it?” My reply: “It could. It would also depend on how the body lost its blood. Putrefaction may be slowed if the bacteria doesn’t have a blood filled circulatory system to move through easily. That said, if the blood loss occurred due to a significant wound, that wound would also allow for outside insects and bacteria to enter the cadaver to speed up the decomp. Depending on how you want your story to go, you can speed up decomp by elevating the ambient temperature and have the cadaver exposed. If you want the decomp slowed, cooling the temp and having the cadaver unexposed to air and outside elements (buried, bundled in clothing/sleeping bag, etc.) may help.” To learn more, check out AboutForensics and ExploreForensics (both links to U.K. sites.)

May 14, 2017

CHARACTER: MOTHER’S DAY Imagine being a single-mom to five kids, attending college, and being a Baltimore City Police Officer during last year’s riots. Meet BPD Officer Karyn Crisafulli. If you’re looking for a real Mother’s Day Hero, she is definitely it. I hope she inspires you to go for your dreams!

PROPS: FLIR On Saturday morning (by that I mean 0230 in the morning), my helicopter pilot partner and I were called to search a remote area for a suspect that fled on foot from a vehicle pursuit after he crashed his car. I was operating the helicopter’s Forward-Looking-InfraRed (FLIR) and using it to look for heat sources ahead of where our canine team was searching. I spotted the suspect about fifty yards ahead of the canine team just as he began running away from the officers. I radioed the K9 Officer who released his German Shepherd partner from his leash. The bad guy tried fighting the canine and quickly became a bloody chew-toy. Once the dummy was in handcuffs, we landed the helicopter and delivered a First Aid kit for bandaging his wounds. Being able to visually “see” heat through a thermograph has been an invaluable tool for law enforcement. Which leads me to this week’s second link: Understanding the scientific principles of how FLIR works. Oh how far we’ve come since the Year 1800 and Sir Frederick William Herschel’s discovery of infrared! At the very least, your kids might enjoy the science project of using a prism and a handful of thermometers. To find out what I’m talking about, watch this YouTube video.

STORY: EXTRADITION When bad guys are on the run, they are usually wanted because an arrest warrant was issued demanding their arrest. So what happens when a wanted person is arrested in another state? This short video explains the process of Interstate Extradition.. I have personally traveled out of state for dozens of extraditions, usually bringing the defendant back via a commercial airliner. In this video, you’ll see that the process becomes a little more complicated with International Extraditions. As I mentioned in a previous APB regarding the FBI and Interpol, international extraditions involve partner nations that have agreed to reciprocity in a treaty.

May 6, 2017

SETTING: LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN Insight Crime is a great researching resource for crimes relating to Latin America, the Caribbean, and its ties to the US. Insight Crime is a foundation dedicated to the study of Organized Crime in those areas. Their website offers timely reporting and analysis on organized crime in the region. For adventurous bilingual students, they offer unpaid internships on a semester schedule.

PLOT: FBI and FISA Last week, FBI Director Comey testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the FBI oversight. I am sure you’re as sick of the news as I am, but this testimony is worth reviewing from a research perspective. Near the 2 hour 57 minute mark (scroll down to that clip), Dir. Comey offers a pretty concise explanation of Section 702 of FISA. For my research gluttons out there, here is NSA’s more detailed white paper on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702. (A big shout out to my Mom for sharing the C-SPAN coverage with all of us!) Most Detectives do not get involved in FISA “wire taps” when investigating homicides. However, all it takes is a terror motive and your Detective may get sucked into the shadowy world of the Intelligence Community. It’s important to understand that the FBI acts as both a criminal investigation agency and as a domestic intelligence agency. Generally, the FBI Special Agents in each office will be assigned to one or the other as a primary job duty. In smaller FBI RA’s (Resident Agency offices –think satellite offices in smaller communities), an agent assigned to IT (International Terrorism) or DT (Domestic Terrorism) may still be required to roll out to a bank robbery. It just won’t be their primary duty. As a Detective, I have personally worked with both sides of the FBI office. When you are working with the Intel side, you are generally dealing with classified information that will not be used in court. If it does make it to court, it’s gone through some heavy legal review and it’s usually years after the arrest.

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK: “The Six Month Novel Writing Plan” Caitlin and Jacob Jans are the editors of Authors Publish Magazine, a free weekly email magazine for writers. Caitlin recently published “The Six Month Novel Writing Plan” and it’s available for free for a limited time. She offers some really practical advice for actually getting that novel finished (hint: writing time is not facebook time), edited, and published. If you find it worthwhile, consider giving it a review on Amazon.

April 29, 2017

Story: Dialogue – “Know Your Why” – Self Publishing Podcast Last year, the amazing folks at Sterling & Stone were crazy enough to feature me on an episode of their Self Publishing Podcast. (I’d like to offer a huge shout out and thank you to fellow Tribe Writer, Christine Niles, for making the podcast happen! Y’all are even nuttier for including me in the 2016 Year in Review episode.) On the podcast, I spoke about writing Interview & Interrogation dialogue and how “knowing the why” of each character will shape what is said…and [PUN ALERT] why it’s a cop out to use a suspect interrogation to summarize the investigation for the reader. So, what would a Detective actually say in an interview or interrogation? One of the most successful (and sometimes controversial) interview and interrogation methods is called The Reid Technique. This link to John E. Reid’s website includes some worthwhile presentations covering the stages of interview and interrogation. The Reid Investigator Tip page has a drop-down list of I&I questions that may help you craft dialog for your own interrogation scenes. If you pay attention to the way most Reid questions are formatted, you’ll notice that they are designed to elicit expository answers, not just a Yes/No response…which always help keep the dialogue and story moving!

PLOT: “All the pieces matter.” –Det. Lester Freamon, The Wire Your investigation is stalled. You can’t identify your victim, or maybe you only have part of a victim. Perhaps there is a signature to this killing and you want to see if any other homicide investigations have a similar trademark. ViCAP (the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) is an FBI administered database dedicated to accomplishing exactly that. It was created in the early 1980s, but has since morphed into a secure web-based database that all US law enforcement agencies can access. If your serial killer uses a specific technique or you are looking to identify a Jane/John Doe, then ViCAP is likely the database where the analytical linking to other homicide, kidnapping, or missing person cases will occur. Click here to see the Public’s version of current investigations currently seeking leads or information.

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK*: “DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us“ I know. “Writing is hard.” Many traditionally published authors argue that writing Is even harder once you’ve obtained that ever elusive “Publishing Contract.” This book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us* sheds light on the illogical human tendency to lose motivation whenever something that was implicitly rewarding (like writing for the love of it) becomes something you’re compensated for (a Big 5 Publishing contract perhaps.) This book is a interesting read and the author does a great job making the scientific evidence an easy read. It is definitely thought provoking. I am still in the middle of the book, so I will update you on whether there are any motivation hacks worth pursuing.

APB Email Archive Update syndicated from http://ift.tt/2k7p7z2

0 notes

shadowfollowweb · 7 years

Text

APB Email Archive Update

November 5, 2017

I want to start by thanking those of you that offered such kind words of encouragement and understanding during my bereavement hiatus from the APB emails. I apologize for not replying to your emails...I was overwhelmed by how many thoughtful messages I received, but please know that I appreciate you greatly and that helped immensely. I have been overwhelmed by how kind, caring, and understanding my followers are. Thank you!!! Now, I am happy to announce that I am ready to get back to our regularly scheduled programming...and just in time for NaNoWriMo! I hope the time change allowed you to sneak an extra hour of writing time in, even if you aren't participating in National Novel Writing Month.

CHARACTER: OLD SCHOOL BEAT COPS The LA Times ran an article yesterday on a pair of LAPD Officers that have been partners for an unbelievable twenty-nine years! The guys seem to be right out of a Joseph Wambaugh novel. Like any good marriage, the key to their resiliency is that they operate like a well tuned machine. Each partner has his own strengths (and I'm sure weaknesses as well) and they know which part to play and when. If you are writing a Cop/Buddy Story, you will enjoy this article.

WRITING TIP OF THE WEEK: LEVEL UP YOUR DIALOGUE I am a fan of both Reddit and Quora. If you've been living under a boulder of old AOL Installation CDs, they are websites every author should add to his or her research toolbox. While Reddit and Quora are quite different sites, they are both great places to learn about nearly any topic you can dream up. This week, I was reading the Quora thread: What one tip changed your writing forever? Christopher Kingery shared a tip for writing dialogue that is a must-read. It is so simple and it's something that all of my favorite authors do...yet I never really thought about it. (Are you a Redditor or Quora User? Add me as a friend on Reddit and Quora!)

SOME OTHER COP'S BLOG: The Salty Sarge I discovered thesaltysarge.com blog this week and the post "Why Cops Retire Before You" is absolutely spot on. To gain even more insight into the lives of cops in the later stages or their careers, scroll through the comments at the bottom of the post. This is good background on the mentality of any Mentor type characters you might write about.

Good luck hitting your NaNoWriMo word counts and remember that any questions you have can be posted in the WRITERSDETECTIVE Q&A group on Facebook...even if you aren't a NaNo'er. It's a very supportive group and I try to answer your questions as quickly as I can.

October 3, 2017

Thank you for continuing to open my emails, even though it's been awhile. I buried my best friend today. He was only 46. Last month, I lost my uncle. A few weeks before that, my beloved 12-year old German Shepherd passed away peacefully with his head resting on my foot. The month before that, my Mentor died in a car wreck. Right now, I am grieving. But I will get through this. I will be back to publishing my weekly APBs soon. Thank you for your understanding and support. In the meantime, keep writing and do not hesitate to email me with any crime-writing questions you think I can help you with. Write well and love one another, Adam

June 17, 2017

First, thanks to those of you that offered your condolences regarding my mentor passing away. I really appreciate your kind thoughts. It's another reminder that whatever time we get is luck and we should all tell our loved ones how we feel...often.

CHARACTER: FORENSIC ODONTOLOGIST Crime fighting Dentists. Wait-What? One of the more esoteric fields of Forensic Science is Forensic Odontology. Bitemark analysis can play an important role in cases ranging from Domestic Violence to Murder. If you are writing about a killer with a sexual deviance or one that uses torture, bitemarks might make an interesting literary device. I'm sure you can come up with all sorts of deeper symbology or an intense psychological profile with a biter as the perpetrator. If you choose to go this route, the American Board of Forensic Odontology created a Bitemark Methodology Standards and Guidelines document that you may find incredibly helpful. This guide covers bitemark analytical methods, related terminology, collecting Bite Site evidence, collecting a suspect’s dentition, preferred formatting for the Odontologist’s analytical reports, exemplar comparison methods, the best practices for describing whether a suspect’s teeth could have made the bitemark in question, and even a sample layout of what the final investigative report should look like. It’s easy to read and it's only eleven pages long. I have no doubt you’ll be able to use this document to create believable dialog for your Forensic Odontologist, whether it's explaining facts to an investigator or testifying as a witness in court. While you’re on the ABFO.org page, you might take a quick look at the Member Directory to see if any Members work near you. I’d be willing to bet any one of these Forensic Odontologists would be willing to talk shop to a writer interested in this fascinating niche.

WHAT I'M READING THIS WEEK: DEAD BODY STUFF...BUT FUNNY A good friend of mine, who also happens to be a super smart and talented Psychologist that works with my agency, recommended the book I am reading this week: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers* by Mary Roach. I'm not sure if the Doc profiled me as being psychologically disturbed or that we share the same skewed sense of humor. Either way, it was a brilliant recommendation. Just like cops, most crime writers seem to share a certain degree of gallows humor. If this describes you, you will LOVE this book. It is packed full of answers to your dead body questions, peppered with hilarious observations that make this a quick, funny, and useful reference tome that every serious crime writer should read. If you need answers to serious plot quandaries, such as the stages of a body’s biological and chemical decomposition phases or the timelines associated with each...but you'd prefer it explained in a way that sounds like you're listening to a friend telling stories over drinks (rather than a dry medical school textbook,) then this is the book for you. Here’s a sample passage from the Stiff*: [Context: Mary is visiting the University of Tennessee's Anthropological Research Facility in Knoxville where human decomposition is studied.] “So the gas builds up and the belly bloats. He explains that the small intestine has pretty much collapsed and sealed itself off…Though he allows, with some prodding, that a little bad air often does, in fact, slip out, and so, as a matter of record, it can be said that dead people fart. It needn’t be, but it can.” Mary also writes about the mental techniques first-year medical students use to get over the natural tendency to get grossed out by their cadavers. Any character of yours that routinely attends or partakes in autopsies will have developed “objectification techniques” like what is mentioned in this book. If the mere thought of dead bodies and decay gets you squeamish, you might want to reconsider my suggestion, but I really do think you should give it a try. There are ZERO gross pictures, so you don’t need to worry about seeing any gore.

I will be traveling through various parts of England and Scotland in the upcoming weeks. If you want to keep tabs on what I'm up to, follow me on Instagram: @writersdetctive (DISCLAIMER: It is entirely possible the photos will be nothing but the pubs, ales, and wee drams of whisky I find. So no promises that the photos will be any good. ;)

June 12, 2017

It's been a rough weekend. One of my mentors died in a car crash this weekend. He was incredibly sharp and an A-Type through-and-through. He always demanded the best work out of his detectives, but he also made sure we had fun on and off duty. I blame him for my love of Rum & Cokes. Regrettably, we lost touch after his retirement a few years ago. Rest in Peace. If there is one writing-related thing I can share about this, its the way cops have a tendency to detach using an out-of-sight-out-of-mind coping mechanism. It's not that we don't care or that we aren't thinking about our former Brothers and Sisters in Blue; we just spend our emotional effort on those that we are working with (and watching the backs of) currently. We are also notoriously bad at acknowledging and dealing with negative emotions, other than to lock them away for another day. It starts at the beginning. When a Recruit is fired from the Police Academy, the Academy Class does not get to say goodbye. The Recruit is called to the office and that's the last you see or hear of the Recruit. When the class comes back into the classroom after PT or a defensive tactics course, the fired Recruit's belongings are gone and his name placard has been removed from his seat and pinned upside down to the wall at the back of the classroom (along with the name placards of other former classmates.) The lesson is clear: You're either in or out. The work still goes on. That persists through the rest of a cop's career. There is a saying "SWAT-OR-NOT." Many officers will be part of a SWAT team at some point in their career. SWAT is for the young and motivated. Which means there are a ton of former-SWAT operators full of "When I was on the Team..." war stories. SWAT-or-NOT means if you aren't on the team now, you aren't SWAT anymore (so shut it.) In or out. So when an officer retires from the Department, it can feel like going through an amicable divorce. Sure, we all say we'll still be friends and keep in touch...but only your closest friends will actually follow through. It's a weird and sad phenomena. So if your characters are "ex-cops" that have turned into a P.I., expect that they may be forgotten rather quickly no matter how awesome they were. In or out.

CHARACTER: THE SPOUSE There is no tougher rock than the spouse of a cop. "10 Tips for a Police Spouse" was written by the wife of an Australian Police Officer. Every single bullet point translates to police work anywhere in the world. This brief glimpse into a Police Family's life is worth the read, as it may give you insight into an often overlooked character in your story. It may also offer you a chance to skew the way your detective character is viewed and/or add additional conflict and chaos to the detective's life. Regardless of whether the cop catches the murderer or saves the kidnap victim, the spouse may be seeing that same cop as the absentee-parent or an aloof workaholic who fails to prioritize his or her marriage.

STORY: CASE COORDINATION? If your Detective is undercover as an arms dealer trying to lure in potential lone-wolf terrorists, how will s/he make sure the "clients" aren't also undercover cops trying to run their own arms-dealing investigation? Or drug dealing? Or murder-for-hire? The answer is to have a deconfliction clearinghouse. RISS.net is exactly that. Each area of the U.S. has a RISS Clearinghouse. If I am on a surveillance (or some other sort of covert op, like buying drugs or guns), I will call my local clearinghouse and be "put on the war board" so any other police agencies working covert operations (that also call into the clearinghouse) will be made aware of what we're doing. NOTE: In my own experience, Federal Agencies are notoriously HORRIBLE at notifying RISS of their operations. So if you want some part of your investigation to go awry or for Federal Feathers to get ruffled, this is a real-life way of it happening. The Feds definitely use RISS, they just tend to enter their info after the fact. Each RISS affiliated Clearinghouse has it's own name, often a bland acronym that we turn into a weird sounding word. For example, in California we have WSIN (Western States Information Network) which everyone pronounces as Whizzin' and the Clearinghouse for the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area is creatively named LAClear. Or how about MAGLOCLEN? Yep. Just like it sounds, Maglow-Clen. Sounds like the Glow in the Dark brother of Kylo Ren to me. In addition to deconflicting covert operations in the field, RISS also deconflicts entire investigations. If I am working a homicide and I've identified a suspect or person of interest, I will call WSIN and run that suspect's name in their database. If that name is a match for being related to another investigation (say a drug investigation), the Clearinghouse will put the detectives in contact with each other. Wouldn't it be nice to know that your homicide suspect was also identified by the DEA as a member of a drug cartel? This is often how those investigative links are made. The RISS Clearinghouses also offer other support as well, which are mentioned after the 3:28 minute mark in this video. If there is one thing I've discovered in government work, the more bland the title or description, the more important and bad-ass the work they actually do.

June 6, 2017

CHARACTER: NEW DETECTIVES Writers often ask me about how their characters can realistically become detectives in their stories. While federal agencies in the U.S. hire directly into investigator roles (usually called Special Agents), local police agencies almost always require officers to promote to the rank of detective after serving some years working the street in uniform. This week, I discovered a BBC story announcing Scotland Yard's decision to hire Detective Trainees. The Met has a shortage of investigators, so the new hiring program is aimed at recruiting new hires directly into the detective ranks without requiring the trainees to work in uniform. While I don't see this program becoming too likely in the U.S., it could certainly lead to some interesting crime stories and character bios.

THE BUSINESS SIDE OF WRITING: FEAR LESS (NOT FEARLESS) I have made reference to Tim Ferriss' podcast before, but this week he sits down with Vince Vaughn. Vince talks about how his teenage job as a telemarketer helped him overcome any fear of asking for things from strangers. Some of the stories in this interview are hilarious, but I really appreciated the message of not being afraid to go beyond what you find comfortable to accomplish your goals. Writers being introverts maybe a stereotype, but I think most of us find it uncomfortable to make the Big Ask. This is especially true when it feels like a possible rejection will be too tortuous to endure. This interview speaks to that and I think you will enjoy it. I am contemplating running a contest based on an idea presented in this interview. Check out the interview and you may get a head start on the contest!

MOTIVE: WOMEN WHO KILL We tend to think of men as the killers in our society. A&E aired a special documentary focused on the phenomenon of women being more likely to kill family members than men. You can still catch the documentary on aetv.com, you just need to login using your TV provider's account credentials. Just remember me when your next story idea sells to Lifetime TV.

May 27, 2017

CHARACTER: FOUR MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERS This isn’t my first link from an APB to K.M. Weiland’s writing website, helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com but this week's post about a story's Four Most Important Characters is fantastic. She writes about the roles the Protagonist, Antagonist, Reflection, and Love Interest should play in fulfilling their unique thematic roles and guiding your Protagonist toward (or away from) your story’s Thematic Truth. This is a must read for any author, regardless of genre. If you’re a fan of Poldark, you’ll really appreciate K.M.’s examples.

May 21, 2017

COMMUNICATIONS: Every cop has a story for what led them to this career. A Commander I worked for shared his story, which was a simple one. When he was a kid, he happened upon some sort of emergency in his town. There were flashing lights, sirens, police cars everywhere, and a crime scene cordoned off. He remembered watching an officer arrive in a police car and then walk past him into the crime scene. As a kid, my Commander desperately wanted to know what was going on. It dawned on him that the uniformed officer knew what was going on. That was the seed that grew into a police career: Knowing What Was Going On. Despite newer technologies like cellphones and computers in the patrol cars, the primary communication tool is still the police radio. Thanks to modern technology, you can know what's going on by listening in on police radio traffic from around the world for free, on your smartphone. While I don't recommend filling your writing or dialogue with police radio codes and jargon, listening to the communications around where your story is set can be enlightening. Is your story set in an area where a dedicated dispatch center is responsible for tracking dozens of officers at a time, or is the dispatching handled by the one civilian employee back at the office who is also the records clerk? To listen in using iPhone/Apple iOS Devices: Download the free 5-0 Radio App in the App Store. For Android Devices: Download the free Scanner Radio App in the Google Play Store. If you navigate to your story's location and don't get much to listen to, navigate to "LAPD Aero and Special Unit Dispatch" (LAPD calls this frequency "Air / K9") to hear the most serious emergencies in the City of Los Angeles in near realtime.

STORY: In March, I shared a link to the policeone.com website that several of you said was extremely helpful. I've got another one for you! Similar to PoliceOne is a website called LEO Affairs. (No, it's not Ashley Madison for Cops.) In addition to having a ton of incredible dashcam/bodycam footage, you can be a fly on the wall in the Forums to learn how cops honestly feel about various topics and possibly get some insight to what is going on inside the agency you might be writing about.

DEATH [Squeamish Alert] If you only write Cozy Mysteries or get squeamish, feel free to skip these links. One writer asked "does a body decompose any faster/slower if it doesn't have any blood in it?" My reply: "It could. It would also depend on how the body lost its blood. Putrefaction may be slowed if the bacteria doesn't have a blood filled circulatory system to move through easily. That said, if the blood loss occurred due to a significant wound, that wound would also allow for outside insects and bacteria to enter the cadaver to speed up the decomp. Depending on how you want your story to go, you can speed up decomp by elevating the ambient temperature and have the cadaver exposed. If you want the decomp slowed, cooling the temp and having the cadaver unexposed to air and outside elements (buried, bundled in clothing/sleeping bag, etc.) may help." To learn more, check out AboutForensics and ExploreForensics (both links to U.K. sites.)

May 14, 2017

CHARACTER: MOTHER'S DAY Imagine being a single-mom to five kids, attending college, and being a Baltimore City Police Officer during last year's riots. Meet BPD Officer Karyn Crisafulli. If you're looking for a real Mother's Day Hero, she is definitely it. I hope she inspires you to go for your dreams!

PROPS: FLIR On Saturday morning (by that I mean 0230 in the morning), my helicopter pilot partner and I were called to search a remote area for a suspect that fled on foot from a vehicle pursuit after he crashed his car. I was operating the helicopter's Forward-Looking-InfraRed (FLIR) and using it to look for heat sources ahead of where our canine team was searching. I spotted the suspect about fifty yards ahead of the canine team just as he began running away from the officers. I radioed the K9 Officer who released his German Shepherd partner from his leash. The bad guy tried fighting the canine and quickly became a bloody chew-toy. Once the dummy was in handcuffs, we landed the helicopter and delivered a First Aid kit for bandaging his wounds. Being able to visually "see" heat through a thermograph has been an invaluable tool for law enforcement. Which leads me to this week's second link: Understanding the scientific principles of how FLIR works. Oh how far we've come since the Year 1800 and Sir Frederick William Herschel's discovery of infrared! At the very least, your kids might enjoy the science project of using a prism and a handful of thermometers. To find out what I'm talking about, watch this YouTube video.

STORY: EXTRADITION When bad guys are on the run, they are usually wanted because an arrest warrant was issued demanding their arrest. So what happens when a wanted person is arrested in another state? This short video explains the process of Interstate Extradition.. I have personally traveled out of state for dozens of extraditions, usually bringing the defendant back via a commercial airliner. In this video, you'll see that the process becomes a little more complicated with International Extraditions. As I mentioned in a previous APB regarding the FBI and Interpol, international extraditions involve partner nations that have agreed to reciprocity in a treaty.

May 6, 2017

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK: "The Six Month Novel Writing Plan" Caitlin and Jacob Jans are the editors of Authors Publish Magazine, a free weekly email magazine for writers. Caitlin recently published “The Six Month Novel Writing Plan” and it’s available for free for a limited time. She offers some really practical advice for actually getting that novel finished (hint: writing time is not facebook time), edited, and published. If you find it worthwhile, consider giving it a review on Amazon.

April 29, 2017

Story: Dialogue - "Know Your Why" - Self Publishing Podcast Last year, the amazing folks at Sterling & Stone were crazy enough to feature me on an episode of their Self Publishing Podcast. (I’d like to offer a huge shout out and thank you to fellow Tribe Writer, Christine Niles, for making the podcast happen! Y'all are even nuttier for including me in the 2016 Year in Review episode.) On the podcast, I spoke about writing Interview & Interrogation dialogue and how “knowing the why” of each character will shape what is said...and [PUN ALERT] why it’s a cop out to use a suspect interrogation to summarize the investigation for the reader. So, what would a Detective actually say in an interview or interrogation? One of the most successful (and sometimes controversial) interview and interrogation methods is called The Reid Technique. This link to John E. Reid’s website includes some worthwhile presentations covering the stages of interview and interrogation. The Reid Investigator Tip page has a drop-down list of I&I questions that may help you craft dialog for your own interrogation scenes. If you pay attention to the way most Reid questions are formatted, you’ll notice that they are designed to elicit expository answers, not just a Yes/No response...which always help keep the dialogue and story moving!

PLOT: “All the pieces matter.” –Det. Lester Freamon, The Wire Your investigation is stalled. You can’t identify your victim, or maybe you only have part of a victim. Perhaps there is a signature to this killing and you want to see if any other homicide investigations have a similar trademark. ViCAP (the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) is an FBI administered database dedicated to accomplishing exactly that. It was created in the early 1980s, but has since morphed into a secure web-based database that all US law enforcement agencies can access. If your serial killer uses a specific technique or you are looking to identify a Jane/John Doe, then ViCAP is likely the database where the analytical linking to other homicide, kidnapping, or missing person cases will occur. Click here to see the Public's version of current investigations currently seeking leads or information.

WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK*: "DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" I know. "Writing is hard." Many traditionally published authors argue that writing Is even harder once you’ve obtained that ever elusive “Publishing Contract.” This book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us* sheds light on the illogical human tendency to lose motivation whenever something that was implicitly rewarding (like writing for the love of it) becomes something you’re compensated for (a Big 5 Publishing contract perhaps.) This book is a interesting read and the author does a great job making the scientific evidence an easy read. It is definitely thought provoking. I am still in the middle of the book, so I will update you on whether there are any motivation hacks worth pursuing. ;)

APB Email Archive Update published first on http://ift.tt/2pFdZxI

0 notes

iseeuseepage · 7 years

Text

APB Email Archive Update

November 5, 2017

October 3, 2017

Right now, I am grieving.

Write well and love one another, Adam

June 17, 2017

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers* by Mary Roach.

I’m not sure if the Doc profiled me as being psychologically disturbed or that we share the same skewed sense of humor. Either way, it was a brilliant recommendation.

June 12, 2017

June 6, 2017

May 27, 2017

May 21, 2017

May 14, 2017

May 6, 2017

April 29, 2017

APB Email Archive Update syndicated from detectiveserviceblog.wordpress.com

0 notes