The three basic crimes for fiction writers

Posted on May 24, 2012 by James Ashman

Of course they are for non-fiction as well, though that’s a moot point since I’m talking about writing new creative stories, not rehashing something real.

I was thinking about some of the trials my characters have faced, and which ones they should face in the future. And since I love adventures and such, that means some adventures will encounter bad people. But I had to stop for a second and wonder. I had somewhat noticed this in my first book, but have only really delved into the thought of crimes more recently. When I was first writing TLP, I had thought about making one character be misunderstood, and his misunderstood actions would be parallels to “the seven deadly sins.” I decided to shorten it later on when I realized that seven events would be too long for that section of the book, and the way I had been writing was good at the time, adding my extra ideas would have brought the section down in quality.

But as I write more stuff, I begin thinking about what a bad guy should do. And then I came upon a clear realization. Across human history there have always been three basic crimes. Now, I’m not talking about motives or methods. I’m talking about the basics that everything ends up boiling down to when you ask: what was the crime?

So keep it in mind when writing! The three basic crimes are Lying, Stealing, and Murder.

I could go on and explain each, but it’s better to think about it for a while and ask yourself whether you think you can dilute a crime into one of these three basic building blocks. So, when you need your bad criminal to do something to get in the way of the hero, don’t delve into the specifics until you clarify the usage of lies, thefts, and murder.

This goes into a second point about bad characters and good characters. How do you know a good guy is good and a bad guy is bad? You think you know? What about when both desire the same, exact same, overall end result? That’s used pretty commonly in much of the stuff I’ve seen over the years. Take the Gundam anime series for example. There’s always a war involved and humans (key point: it’s always humans) fighting. But several times both sides just want peace. Sure, one side usually wants to be the rulers, but the end result is peace. Every so often there’s a show that had a bad guy that just wants everyone else to die, but in most cases it’s something different, or it’s spun as the result of some great tragedy in the bad character’s past, or they are from another universe and want to kill off everyone in this universe and make it habitable for their people. You still, rarely, get pure carnage.

So, when the end result is the same, or even in both cases good, who’s bad and who’s good? For your simplified answer: the bad character uses the three crimes to get their way. The good guy does not.

How often is the good guy the one that lies, steals, and murders? Oh, quite often enough (faced any hordes of random innocent birds/mountain lions/bears/three-headed beasts to kill in the open field in an RPG, or how about stealing a crystal from a deep labyrinth, or tricking a guard to gain access to needed places), but you’ll notice the severity is always something different. Not just that, but even when the “hero” does increase in severity, the bad character has always also been doing things far more over the top. There’s this need to rationalize we have, that says that as long as you aren’t worse than the bad guy, you can still be counted as good.

So that’s part of the dilemma you need to clarify in your fiction. What crimes does the bad character do, how they are accomplished, and to what extent is your good character actually good? This affects the reader’s perception of your characters as well, of course. And sometimes the usage of only one of the crimes, solely, rather than mixing all of them, lends a sort of purity to the character. There are heroic thieves who refuse to murder, liars who wouldn’t dare steal, and so on, with various examples (plenty in both fiction and real history) for each case, severity, etc.

This expanded into more than expected, but it doesn’t change the fact that regardless of the method, the next time I need my bad character to do something bad, I’ll have to think of whether he’ll be lying, stealing, or murdering next time, and the severity and circumstances.

And of course, whether my good guy can stay good and refuse to use the lesser versions of the basic crimes as tools to combat a greater evil. It seems like more recently, modern fictitious good characters lie and steal more and more often. Though it’s not usually as bad as the bad characters, it’s still there, the basic building blocks of all criminal activity. It’s fortunate that motive plays a large part in determining crime… right?

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The Adventures of Var and Ruby – 01

Posted on May 8, 2012 by James Ashman

((Real, real, author’s note, you’ll understand why soon enough. In The Lupine Prince I have a break of 3 years in between part 1 and part 2. Now, a few bits and pieces of what happened in those years is alluded to in TLP, and a couple more tidbits will be in another book, but the events themselves aren’t full book material, even though some of them are integral to the series. Though, probably none are as important as the casual conversations and adventures that happen with Var and Ruby, so far as I’ve currently planned. Of course, book two of the series has another time lapse or two, with another couple years where although things happen, they don’t really move the current major plots forward. Well, parts of book two should, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Anyways, I’ll be writing additional bits and short stories and such, and putting them in The Adventures of Var and Ruby. There will probably be other character stories, but I haven’t planned those that much. And Var and Ruby only have a couple that are actually integral to the plot in the Together with Silver series, so the rest is just fun and fluff. Though there is one thing of importance to notice. And that’s who is writing, a soon-revealed surprise! The plot thickens! Oh, and a # is a scene break.))

*In between the events of when we first met Va’il, and the second real time, several events happened. There was a three-year gap between those times, and it’d be a foolish mistake to think nothing had happened. In fact, without several things happening in those years, things of utmost importance, the rest of the story wouldn’t have gone the way they did! Of course, not every event need be spoken about, and it appears my colleague has left that out of his musings. Then again, I don’t think he knows all of the stories, considering not all of them were shared, or at least they weren’t shared with him. But I know. My precious Ruby and her silliness must not be underestimated! Though the Mistress may become annoyed at my revelations of her past, she’ll just laugh about them. Maybe I’m just writing them for my own benefit. But thinking back, it’d be a shame to lose these memories. I may be a sentimental bird, but oh well.* – Shiroi, vivid proclaimer, writer, and grandest fan of The Adventures of Var and Ruby. And I may just throw in some other things I’ve found out as well! Oh, to avoid interfering with the story, I’ll be referring to myself in the third person from now on.

Ruby meets the Massive One – wherein, the miss, Ruby Melonscone, the golden-haired human daughter of Jane Lucrene Melonscone, a high-noble, and her new guard meet. A day of many surprises.

“I’m bored!”

But Var just stood silently instead of replying to the young miss. She tried pouting, but the bearan just stood silently this day, just as he had the previous day. Her lessons were done for the day, but her newly appointed bodyguard was doing his job far too well, in her opinion.

#

Some days beforehand, Ruby had arrived home after an act of defiance against her mother. Previously, annoyed by all her restrictions, she decided to run away for a short while. In the midst of one night she left her room, left the mansion, and escaped the walls. She probably just slipped past the guards somehow, though she still just gives a smile when asked how she escaped that day. Shiroi was the first to notice the escape, as she had just brought some dishes to Ruby’s room for a midnight snack, knowing the miss liked to read late into the night.

When Shiroi didn’t get a response after a few knocks, she entered the room. It wasn’t all that unusual for the miss to be outside her room, but she had been in quite a depressed mood lately. It didn’t seem all that right to Shiroi. She placed a silver platter on the study table in the room, and then walked to the window, which was all the way open. Thinking the worst, she stuck her head out the window and looked around.

Then she spotted in the dim light a figure just outside the walls, moving northward. It was obvious from her direction she was headed towards the north gate. Shiroi rushed out of the room and into the study where the master of the manor, Jane Melonscone, was biding her time. Shiroi made her entrance, and politely notified Jane of what she spotted, never raising an eye to meet the woman. A moment later Jane commanded her to follow as fast as possible to bring Ruby back.

Shiroi did as she was commanded, and was soon rushing through the streets. She arrived at the north gate, waved at the city guards as she left, and continued her pursuit. It should also be mentioned that guards in Rising kept the wrong people out, rather than anyone in. Of course, Ruby’s status meant nothing she asked of was to be questioned by anyone below her, so leaving the city by casually strolling through the gates wasn’t much of a problem.

After a bit Shiroi caught up to Ruby, who smiled at her servant, piled her with two bags to carry, and continued trudging forward, her servant in tow with a constant string of protests. The next few days concern the events surrounding Lake Tershi and the first encounter with Va’il, so continuing on to when Ruby returned we have another development.

#

When Ruby returned a while later, Darius himself escorted her home. He had been around several times before, and he was always a pleasant man to be around. Jane had always been dragging Ruby to various get-togethers, or dragging Darius to their home to make various demands of him and the guard. His wife was also quite pretty and nice, and the two of them had made a large impression on Ruby from early on. Of course, more events with him will have to wait till later on.

Waiting for Ruby was her mother, who spared no time in reprimanding Ruby. Before she did too much, however, she imposed on Darius, who had yet to leave, demanding he make arrangements so Ruby’s safety would no longer come into question. Darius, despite his personal yet unvoiced objections, knew he had to give in to Jane immediately on this one. He promised he’d assign one of, no, he struck that, the best, guard he had. Jane agreed and asked Darius to have the guard start in a week. The look on Jane’s face made it obvious that a guard in a week from now was just the right time for Jane, and a week too long for Ruby.

Darius left, Jane went back to her work and sometimes her punishments, and the best guard Darius had was escorting Va’il home.

#

“He’s massive,” Ruby couldn’t help but say as she looked at the individual occupying the house’s doorway.

“Greetings Madam Melonscone,” Var said, and then he bent down onto one knee and bowed slightly. He was still taller than Jane.

“You’re the one Darius sent?” Jane asked, a tinge of surprise in her voice. It was one of the very few times in her life she’d ever be surprised and almost at a loss for words.

“Yes Ma’am, commander’s orders. Watch and guard, for a miss,” Var said. The bearan was respectful, but his size was unexpected. Jane had to stop and think for a moment. On one hand, she didn’t care for non-humans. But on the other, the bearan in front of her was an elite, a member of the royal guard. He had the privilege of guarding royalty. Obviously he had shown valor in the past. And Darius wasn’t one to fool with Jane; she knew that Darius would send his best. And considering Var looked like he could even stop a charging rhinos or rampaging bovine, it was doubtful any harm could come to her child if this individual was there. Jane did have issues with trusting Var, being a bearan, but in the end she relaxed, realizing that above all, the strongest was on her side.

“Fine. Show up early, do not leave till late. You will watch after my daughter carefully. You will keep her safe, keep her confined as I see fit, and you will restrain both yourself and others from laying a hand on her in any way. None others may, but you may stop her from proceeding somewhere if it conflicts with my other orders. I’ll meet with you again later on to clarify a few other matters. Understood, guard?” Jane asked.

“Yes, Ma’am, I do as you say,” Var said.

“One more thing. She is more important than you, your family, and anyone else save the king, in this world. Do not tread lightly on that importance.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Var nodded slightly, still on his knee. Her task done, Jane left the room.

Var got up and looked around the room. As he followed the stairs up he noticed a flash of gold and white hide behind a corner shortly after the stairs. He took a step once and waited for a moment, staring at the corner. For a brief moment a girl stuck her head out slightly, and Var could see a wave of golden hair, one eye going wide, a hand slightly gripping the edge, and the flutter of a white gown that disappeared just as fast. He walked up the stairs and rounded the corner, following the sounds and smell of the girl who ran every so often, eventually stopping at a large closed door.

He turned around to see a white-feathered avian girl behind him, someone he hadn’t noticed till now. She had been silent but swift in her approach.

“I don’t suppose you’re the bodyguard?” Shiroi asked.

“Yes miss. Supposing the miss ran in here?” Var asked.

“That’s her room,” Shiroi said. Var nodded, and then took a step back. He folded his arms and stood silently, slightly leaning against the wall behind him. Shiroi, not entirely sure of what to do, opened the door and walked inside the room. She smiled slightly and left the door all the way open. “Ruby.”

“Shiroi. There’s a bearan,” Ruby said, while sitting in a chair to the left of the door, out of the sight of any onlookers. She was wide-eyed, but her voice was a mix of both curiosity and fear.

“Yes, Madam did get you a personal guard, after all, as she had said before,” Shiroi said.

“Yeah, but he’s huge! Huge! I don’t know. Just, incredible,” Ruby said.

“And just outside the door,” Shiroi said, a smile turning up her lips. Ruby paled a bit, then stood up, and walked up to the door’s entrance. She stood there, without hiding, her arms at her side, as she looked up.

“Yes miss?” Var asked upon seeing the figure in front of him. It wasn’t obvious to most onlookers, but for the first time, of all the ironic things possible, Var was surprised at the sight of the girl in front of him. He felt himself opening his eyes a bit more to try and take in the sight before him. She was a pretty human girl, he knew that much, but she exceeded all his prior experiences with humans. It was more than just admiration for how she looked, as there was something about her specific look that surprised him. She looked at him clearly, without fear, as her curiosity had taken over. And after looking at him for a short while, a small smile came to her face, completing the portrait of the young girl with golden hair and a white gown.

“You seem like fun,” Ruby said. A short sigh was heard from Shiroi in the background. Var could only give the much shorter girl a bearan smile in return. Ruby laughed and then walked back to the table to converse with Shiroi a while.

Var was expecting this job to be straightforward, maybe even simple. Regardless of what threat came about, he had no doubts as to what to do. Every situation and plotter that could come about didn’t worry him in the least, when it came to military matters. But somehow that sweet smile of Ruby’s caused him to feel the slightest bit of trepidation. He disregarded that instinct and resumed his duty, standing stoic yet alert for hours on end. The first day, the first encounter of the bearan and the girl, came to a finish.

Next time: Bear on Ice

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Even fictional punches have to have Force

Posted on May 3, 2012 by James Ashman

I looked around online and found that there is about 150 joules of force in a punch. And could go up to almost 1000 or so, for a strong boxer (see wikipedia link later on). That’d end up being 737 foot-pounds of force. Seems like a big but reasonable number.

I’m also a pretty big fan of manga, anime, and comics, so there are plenty of times where characters hit something. There was one thing in one particular one that annoyed me though. There was some foe trashing an area, and our protagonist for this work was not a super-powered character, nor was this something where things were super-exaggerated (comedy works usually have girls whose tiniest slap can send a man flying, those works are obvious exclusions), the protagonist was just a human who boxed or something, I forget now. But the point was, he was not superpowered, and the foe was in some ways, though I believe he didn’t have any energy fields or stuff like that which would negate projectiles.

Anyways, here’s what happened. A tank fired a round that hit the foe, but it had “no effect.” Lets just assume it was a Kinetic Energy Penetrator, which is pretty much a 5kg rod flying at 1750 m/s, the work done is quite a bit more than… oh a punch (from the link, we get an estimate here… Impacts of up to 130 joules have already been measured with hockey pucks and lacrosse balls, 450 joules in karate punches and 1028 joules in boxer Rocky Marciano’s punch), after all a 5-10kg arm flying at even record breaking speeds would still not be going nearly 2000 meters each second.

And yet, the protagonist hits the foe, which knocks him back. His human-powered punch, without any super-powered explanation, was more powerful than a tank shell, which didn’t budge the foe at all?

I’m sorry, but I like my fiction to be reasonable. Reasonable in the fiction world, not our own. If somehow they had said, our hero’s punch is inhuman, voila, case closed. Don’t even need to explain it! I’m fine without having explanations that must be believable. But in this case there was nothing to suggest our hero could hit harder than any normal human, and yet he did. They didn’t have him break through a shield or anything that made the foe immune to most weaponry, it was a simple kinetic energy case in both the response to the tank shell and the punch. That’s bad writing. At that point switch genres to comedy, where a tiny girl can hit a regular human boy with 2 million joules of energy, send him flying, and think nothing of it, and the boy just gets up and smiles, not paying any heed to the fact that he had just been smacked with enough energy to kill him a thousand times over. That doesn’t need explaining.

So, when considering force (or having your hero hit something), don’t forget about the natural laws and mechanics (especially since all of fiction is a different universe anyways, establish a few ground rules). Breaking them is fine, as long as it’s implicitly understood in some way, even if it’s a ridiculous method. However when you have an impossible juxtaposition without explanation, you’ve done wrong.

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Twice in four days

Posted on May 2, 2012 by James Ashman

Well it’s been almost 4 years since I first started writing my first book, The Lupine Prince. Its been almost 3 years since I finished editing and publishing it. And it’s been about 2 years since I last seriously worked on the series. Things happen, and it takes a while to realize that the things you are so busy with are really unimportant compared to what you should be doing for all those years. It seems like bills and work and the stresses of life are important, but really, they aren’t. What they are, is distractions, from what I’ve needed to do.

So I’ve decided to pick things up, and continue my work on book 2 of Va’il’s life (my third book written in total), which I had left at about… 70k written words almost 2 years ago.

In order to do that I’ve had to go back to the first book and reread it. Twice. In four days, I’ve read it twice. All the characters, names, motivations, thoughts, and progress, from that book, have resurfaced. It’s surprising how much you can forget in time, something of your own creation. But it all comes back quite easily, since it’s something of your own prior creation.

And more than that, it’s gotten me to read a large amount of words for hours on end, something I’ve been in need of doing. Too much watching and playing, not enough reading. I’ve cast off some other distractions that’ve been holding me back the last year, and finally live in a way that means I don’t need to delve into the world of gaming to make it through day to day.

And I’ve spotted a ton of typos and stuff I need to fix in my original book! So I’m finally going back to the original docs and updating the physical copies and the Kindle version! Yes, in just a few days from now (for the physical, not Kindle), my book’ll be updated with a few minor typo fixes, and a long-needed fix to a couple thoughts.

Now… I’ll need to read what I’ve written of book two twice, before continuing work on it. After I finished the first read through of the first book, I thought maybe I could move on to the second. But I knew it’d be better to doubly familiarize myself with my own work, any my writing style. The same will hold true for the second book. Read it over twice, then continue writing it. Even if I feel like I could after the first read-through. Though I doubt I could, because to be honest, I’ve read the first book over a dozen times. The second… maybe twice, since the majority of the “reading” was done when I was still writing it.

Oh so much work to do.

A big thing I noticed though, from reading the first book: the relationships! There is much missing from the first book that takes place in the second, and it actually made the first something I wanted to rush through so I could see the progress and relationships in the second. After all, the major characters of the second book don’t spend as much time together in the first book! Ah, I want to see it progress!

And even with that, I still recall how even book two only goes so far! To write again would indeed be good.

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Sometimes, the best is the ridiculous one

Posted on December 27, 2011 by James Ashman

There’s a funny show called Chuck that I’m sure more than enough people watch.

It’s not very realistic.
The humor is quirky.
The stories swing between melodramatic and silly.

And it’s fantastic as such. In all the years it’s been on it’s dabbled in being different than it started, yet hasn’t ever strayed too far.

Granted, the main character has gone from skittish geek to super nerd who can fight, but it was never a show titled: The man with the Supercomputer Brain. It’s called, simply: Chuck. The boy who’s a genius, but not always confident. The guy who can be confident, only to get shot down. The guy who’s plans are sometimes brilliant but ruined. And as always, things end up working out. Even if it does require a character appearing out of nowhere to knock out a bad guy. Hey, nothing earlier said it couldn’t happen, so it’ll happen.

For such a silly show, I’m impressed. A while ago I was worried maybe they were going to get too serious and dramatic. And they have strong, serious episodes like that. And then they alternate that with something out of left field.

And most importantly: it stays enjoyable to watch if you keep your expectations in line. It’ll throw twists and turns, but if you have the basic ideas of the show down, you’ll always enjoy it. So many shows, books, etc., forget this. Or think that they need to completely 180 the makeup of their entertainment to somehow revitalize it. Wrong. Add flair, add plot twists, add drama. But all as seasonings. Don’t change out your wheat bread for white, that’s entirely different. Instead, keep the wheat toast, just change from the “I can’t believe it’s not butter!” and honey to real butter and jam. Essence is the same, but this weeks plot is filled with “such and such” instead of “this and that.”

All in all, it’s a show that doesn’t actually take itself seriously, even though the episodes themselves can seem quite serious. That’s a wonderful thing. They don’t care if a certain technology could feasibly exist, they just want to do a story/plot and roll with it.

And I’m all for that. I love it when entertainment blatantly throws reality out the window, but never claims to have left earth. Where plot devices can be anything, as long as it gets the job done.

I think this runs contrary to a trend of “explain it so it seems real somehow” that’s plagued some games and movies I’ve seen. I don’t need to hear that the reason the spaceship can travel faster than light is because the alpha decay of a proton has a resonance effect on element number 132 that is stable when held at 0.0000000001 kelvin, and as a result can tear through the fabric of spacetime. I need to hear: FTL engines engaged, we’ll be there in two hours.

That’s why I find myself going: “Hah, no way” when watching Chuck. The HAH is much more important. I think someone over there knows that. And though it’s still a quirky show, I can sit back, not care, and be pleasantly surprised with a relatively happy ending and follow that up with the usual / possible cliffhanger. I know it’s coming. It’s still fun.

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