Creative Writing 101 :: Poetry Exercise

Short post tonight.

I haven’t touched on poetry much in this blog so far, and I would like to remedy that. One of my favorite ways to write a poem is what I like to call The “Olds Exercise” named from the Author Sharon Olds. In one of her books she describes a very unique way of writing poetry. Not only as an exercise but those poems that you write could be tweaked into some pretty cool stuff.

The basic idea of this way of writing is to think outside the box. Take 7-12 random words; you can randomly flip through a dictionary or thesaurus or ask a friend (or multiple friends) to give you words. You must include EVERY word in the poem, and make it mean something. You don’t have to use all of the words in the order they were given, either.

For example

Words given: vivacious, fossa, nuzzling, wink, diminish, monomorphic , inflection, Morgan le Fay, quibble, sotto voce, osmotic, yowl

Result:

Sotto Voce

There’s a little place on the back of your neck

that you keep hidden behind tangles,

golden curtains of soft, lucid tresses

an inflection where you carry all your secrets

In that spot you won’t let anyone touch

(A fossa only lovers will know)

I can see a whisper nuzzling its way

sotto voce

through the cooling pours of your skin

and tiny streams of sweat wink

at strands of hair in their way

as if to say, “we know this cryptic code;

but we swore

we wouldn’t tell”

The voices mock the wind—even it can’t stroke the nape of your neck

despite its osmotic tendencies

Soon it, too, will diminish itself, give in

and return to the hand of Morgan le Fay

where it will quibble

and yowl

and force the curtain of fibers back from their shadow

in a monomorphic snapshot of purity—

away from a vivacious laugh

because you know the enigma still stands

Still, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear your hair up.

---

I started back in High School to write ALL of my poetry like this. It gives it a little more edge, makes you take that extra step to reach for a metaphor or simile, or forces you to wrap your idea around something in a way you never would have before. Try it! It’s easy and surprisingly a LOT of fun. Feel free to post your results here or shoot them to me in an email!

Cheers!

~Hoshi

The Writer Becomes the Character

My secret (not so much anymore) dream is to break into voice acting. Though I like to stay behind the scenes, be the one pulling the strings, I have always wanted to play on my favorite anime, or something silly like that. I have never gotten paid for any acting work, and quite honestly, I probably never will when it comes to either stage or on-screen production. Radio and animation, however, is what I would really love to try. I got my first opportunity to do so last night.

We were supposed to have a Vampire: Requiem game last night. At the last minute, Matt received a phone call from our dear friend, Scott Johnson. The only thing that I could hear was Matt’s voice saying “ooohhh,” and “oh!” and “ahhh, that sounds fun!” and watch his face light up at whatever prospect Scott was throwing out to him. I could barely contain myself when Matt got off the phone. My immediate reaction was something along the lines of “What was that about? Scott got something going on?”

Turns out, Scott is working with Dread Central to create a series of short radio dramas based off of scary stories. He wrote four already, and needed a cast. The long and short of it—ok, the SHORT of it is that Matt and I jumped at the chance. So last night we went out to Scott's, had some rum and went hog wild with voices for this series of podcasts. Scott will probably be the writer of the majority of them, but I may actually try to tackle one or two myself to see how I could do with the concepts. Even if they don’t get aired or if we don’t wind up doing my scripts, I am still honored to be included in the cast of these. They are called Dreadtime Stories, and will begin to air a week before Halloween (the end of this week, I believe). There will continue to be a new release of these twice every month for at least the next year. Perhaps I can continue to build on my portfolio as an artist, mingle with some people, and progress from there.

I am very excited for the next recording session!

Additional images:

The Girls | The Guys | Scott | Tabby | Me | Matt |Clint | Heather | Becca | Derek

Cheers!

~Hoshi

Creative Writing 101 :: Critical Success

Describing combat in any story can be difficult. It’s hard to stay away from the usual things that you would say in describing the situation like “He swung his sword and cut his opponent’s arm” Or “He raised his gun and fired a shot”. The reason I mention this is because with the new D&D campaign that I am running, the first few juicy sessions will be very much combat oriented. I have my players all investigating a series of caves, in which, of course, there is plenty of bloodshed to be had. I want to try to encourage them as players and as characters to play up the violence. I’m trying to keep them away from the simple aspects of “I attack this orc with this spell” or “I throw my dagger at him”. Juicy combat only works when there is juicy description involved.

A few things that make a difference in the kind of combat that you are writing have to do with the following:
• Is it a comedy? Will there be bantering back and forth from the combatants?
• Is it a dark scene? Maybe it should be night out.
• It could be raining
• Snow is a great background to emphasize blood
• Maybe it’s a bright and sunny day and you kill off a character when the sun is shining
• High noon duel?
• Who/what is the character fighting? Zombie? Ailien? Lion? Antagonist?
• Does the character have remorse for doing harm to who/what he’s fighting?

A LOT of factors such as the ones above make a difference here. I have noticed in my own personal writing that I do tend to have quite a few of my fight scenes in the rain. For me it makes it more dramatic sometimes (other times it may have been raining all day anyway and my characters just decided that enough was enough and they were going to settle a score right then and there).

I do have quite a bit to say on the topic of fights in stories, but I am not nearly as prepared to sufficiently cover that subject as I would like to be. So, for your reading pleasure (if you so desire) below is an excerpt from my Novel-in-progress, Ethereal Heart, where Valantis takes on the remnants of an zombie-like man.

Another growl surfaced in the vampire's throat. He reared back and with a shaking fist made contact with the creature's flesh. Its face contorted backwards with the blow, pieces of loose tissue sticking to Valantis' knuckles when his hand separated from its jaw line.

Ari took an uncertain step back at Valantis' yell but made no move to flee the scene and find safety. The creature gave another eerie pain induced howl and then snarled at Valantis, pushing at him with a burst of inhuman force. His boots skidded across the snow as he struggled again to find his footing and his attention was now focused solely on his opponent's strength. An uppercut was the Vampire's next strike, the blow hitting right where a human's trachea would have been.

The creature finally tore its gaze away from Ari and regarded Valantis with a slightly tilted head. It seemed to decide that the vampire was more important at the moment than getting the girl and that, perhaps, if he destroyed the former he could attain the latter. The creature howled and dove at Valantis, all of its fury now directed towards the vampire.

Valantis snorted, "About time," and crouched low to the ground, locking his legs as they were ready to spring upward towards his challenger. His fist uncoiled, now stretched with claws out sharp. He released his power and jumped straight at the creature, poised to strike when the moment came.

The monster met him head on lashing out with its fists, its strength and speed surprising. The vampire winced as the creature clashed with him, its fist striking him in the gut. Valantis' breath was thrown from him but not before his own blow was felt on the monster. His nails scraped against flesh, tearing muscle from bone with unexpected ease.

Though the monster seemed obviously pained, the loss of flesh did not seem to hinder it much and it held up its arm, muscle dangling. It sent its next hit towards Valantis' face, aiming to claw at the vampires eyes.

He lifted his chin in time, the blow caught only the corner of his eye as its claws ripped downward, leaving a long gash that trailed to his jaw line. Valantis cursed and reared back, shaking his head and trying to get his bearings before he lashed out again. The creature, snarling, moved in once more, this time intending to take a bite out of Valantis' shoulder.

Instead of his shoulder It received his hand in Its face. Valantis' palm pressed roughly into what was left of the creature’s nose, his long fingers compressing ever so quickly against Its temples and forehead. With a roar the monster struggled against him, falling to its knees. Above the little skirmish the skies raged a battle of their own as hail began to pelt the sidewalks and the wind whipped furiously, carrying off the continued cries of Ari calling for an end to the fight.

Ice shot sharply against them both, Valantis' rage blocking out any pain that the large pellets may have caused when they scraped against his body. He snarled and narrowed his eyes, his grip becoming ever tighter on the monster as he aimed to crush its skull with all the force left in him.

Ari gave a final screech and, when neither Valantis nor the creature heeded her, she brought down a bolt from the sky to strike between them. The stunned creature lurched backwards, reeking of burnt flesh. The bolt had hit closer to it than it had to Valantis.

The vampire slid backwards, catching himself on the icy concrete with one hand as he kneeled to not lose his balance. The creature gave a final sneer then, feeling that both of his evening's battles were futile, he turned and disappeared into the night.

Cheers!

~Hoshi

What Has Invoked the Wrath of the Wizard? ~ Patton Oswalt

*Sits down and dusts off the old Blog* . . . *coughs through the dirt that was kicked up and finally is able to wave most of it out the window*

Ahem. Writing and creativity can come in all forms. This post proves it. The previous post (posted 7 months ago—SORRY!) had to do with a gaming session that we did for the Firefly Tabletop Roleplaying Game. Since then I have gotten to know the players of that campaign and we have jumped from game to game—roleplaying. I LOVE roleplaying. Remember my character creation schpeel way back when? Roleplaying games take the cake on character development and plot momentum.

I decided to try it. D&D 4^th edition came out last year and I tried to run a game, tried to GM . . . like you do. I failed. Part of it was due to the players, but most of it was due to me. I failed because I didn’t plan. Same thing with writing; if you don’t plan you don’t get anywhere. Your characters get away from you and they start controlling you and you’re left holding the bag going “W-w-wait wait wait! Come back!”. Players (and characters) will run in a completely different direction than what you thought you wanted. Sometimes, it’s a good thing. But when you are running a game on a weekly basis and you have to continuously come up with new plot devices and scenarios for your PCs and cannot do so because you have no idea where the story is taking you, it’s not such a good thing.

This time, though, I think I’m nailing it. I am taking an old, OLD concept for a story that I had when I was . . . really, too young to admit to. This story and the characters that I originally created have, while not been completely tossed out the window, are in a major need of a makeover. If one thing is for certain, it’s that writers are and always will be their own worst critics (If they don’t have an ego the size of a Semi). So for the past TEN years I have been revamping the novel idea over and over and over in my mind. From its humble beginnings way back when some characters have been cut, some have been added, some got more screen time and others that I thought were important just quite simply aren’t. What does all of this have to do with the game? Well, I’ll tell you. I am using my players as my guinea pigs. Their circumstances are slightly different from my original characters, but I can relate each one of theirs to one of my own, I’ve notice. For Example: Matt (my fiancée) is playing a Tiefling Swordmage. His character, while a different class, reminds me a lot of my Pseudo Dragon character, Zeffie, with his demeanor and all around quizzical nature.

What they don’t know is that they are my rough draft. I have so many options running through my head for this story that I quite literally have too many trains of thought to nail down into one streamline saga. So, my mission with this D&D campaign is to see what path THEY would take. Hey, if I am going to run a game, I may as well get some creative satisfaction in the situation. They will act exactly the way my characters do in regard to running my plans off track, and maybe into an avenue that I hadn’t thought of yet. Does this mean I am using them? That once all of this is over and if, by some minor miracle, I get the novel published and it sells, I will claim it all as my own creation? Absolutely not! First of all, it would be copyright infringement. I can’t use Wizards of the Coast’s (WotC) copy written material in anything I do. Also, I am not a complete asshole. I am not going to nix a dedication page to them to at least acknowledge their efforts in assisting to give me a little creative jump-start. Not only that, but I am really only using the rules of D&D 4.0 loosely. I have my own world completely drawn out, my own continents, cities, lore, the whole nine yards. (So those of you thinking that I would ever take WotC’s stuff and try to sell it for my own profit don’t jump down my throat).

All of that being said, remember . . . I did say that all of this would happen if, by some minor miracle, it happened to get picked up and published. For now, I will try to keep this old dusty blog not so dusty anymore, and start to post some stories and general concepts for everything from my player characters to the plotline as it develops for them.

As always, input is welcome by fellow GMs as well as fellow writers! In fact, PLEASE give feedback.

Cheers!

~Hoshi

Serenity Campaign Quotes

So. I broke my promise. This isn't unusual. It's not that I'm lazy it's that I honestly haven't had time to post anything. However! Now, I do, and it's to lighten the ever darkening mood of, well . . . life. See, recently I have entered myself into a group of gamers from work and we have formed ourselves a little Serenity game. So as said amusement, below are a list of quotes from the Serenity game. Both in character and out of character quotes. Enjoy them, one and all.


::THE CAST::

James // GM
Scott // Rhyder (Captain)
Austin // Neferi (Doctor)
Hoshi // Gizane (Hacker)
EJ // Yuiren (Gun Bunny)
Fred // Wally (Engineer)
Christa // Slick (Pilot)
Peter // Andrew (First Mate)
Chris // Keith (Psychotik)
Ryan // John (Merc)


// OUT OF CHARACTER //

Scott: Honeeyyy!! Here's your Dr. Slushie!

Austin: Where are the guns in here?
Scott: [Points to ranged weapons]
Austin: Those are ranged weapons.
Scott: [Points to pistols] I doubt you'll be throwing this.

James: You could get the Gilgamesh rifle.
EJ: What's a Gilgamesh rifle?
James: [Describes]
EJ: Oooohh!

Hoshi: So . . . Niska Lite?
Austin: Same great taste with half the calories!

Scott: I am PEBKAC!

James: I'll come up with a clan name later.
Austin: The Woo-Tang-Clan!
Hoshi: Never again.

Hoshi: Crossbow bolt won't travel that far in space--
James: It'll travel forever in space!
Hoshi: And not accomplish any damage!

James: One of the tongs—
Scott: Which one?
James: Just the Tongs.
Scott: We're dealing with good Tongs and bad Tongs.
James: Your Tongs.
Scott: You know I ain't a reader right?

James: He's gonna try and dodge.
Scott: Dodge? I'm not using a sword, I'm using a gorram riffle!


James: Push the little red button!
Scott: Which little red button? This isn't MIB!

James: And the Alliance is going to take a shot at my exposed . . . Tong.

James: The Tongs have it covered though. My Tong is on it . . .
Fred: It's the joke that keeps on giving.

Austin: Who has the grenades?
Christa/Hoshi/Scott [in unison]: EJ!
Austin: We're all gonna die.

Fred: My mission in this game is to make sure he never have to use that skill.
Scott: What is your skill in Heavy Weapons?
Fred: d4.
Scott: [Crestfallen] Oh yeah.

Scott: You're gonna wanna think of a common last name for both your characters
Peter: Jameson!
Chris: The first thing that popped into my mind when you said that was Jenna

James: It's not extortion, it's entrepreneurship!
Hoshi: Tomato, tomato.

Austin: [Tries to take Hoshi's seat] I'll throw in a Mountain Dew!
Hoshi: Die in a fire!

Scott: Tread Farbox has them
Hoshi: Well, get the chips from him
Scott: They're in his lap, if you want to grab them, be my guest.
Hoshi: Aaaww, man!

Ryan: I think we should have a night where we watch movies and play video games. I have a Wii!
Fred: Are you sure this is something you want to be proud of?
Ryan: Hey, didn't say you had to play it.
Fred: Is that why you keep handling your sack?

Christa: We could just brand his forehead!
Hoshi: Come on, he's not a Jafaa!

Ryan: Oh come, on, I look radically different than I did the last time!
Austin: You still smell

Fred: Oh I'll wait and look for my opportunity.
Derek [Guest Cast]: What, to scream like a little girl?


// IN CHARACTER //

Rhyder: So you're giving me a little more than lethal rust bucket?
NPC: that's about it, yes.
Rhyder: Shiny!

Rhyder: [Yui walks up w/ her Gilgamesh] You know I don't gotta tell ya you don't need to me fiddlin' with that on the ship, right?

Neferi: I have a question.
Rhyder: Yes?
Neferi: Are you an idiot?! Anonymous sources? Secret cargo?!
NPC: Didn't stop you from signin' up.

Rhyder: Aaron, Gizzy, check the weapons! Yui, the side cannons! Doc . . . do what you do!
Yui: which isn't much
Neferi: Won't be saying that when you get shot!

Gizane: Oh, Luh Suh--[Realizes there is a beacon going off inside the ship and she scrambles to shut it off] Whew! [Relaxes]
Rhyder: What was that?
Gizane: Uh, nothing. Just a little blip.
[Two Alliance Patrol Boats approach the ship]
Rhyder: Little blip?!
Gizane: I may have exaggerated the the little part.

[Yui shoots a member the opposing Tong multiple times and kicks his dead corpse]
Rhyder: Gorram! You sure he wasn't dead the second time you shot him?
Yui: Positive.
Rhyder: Well then . . . see if I ever give you grenades.

Gizane: And the forecast calls . . . for . . . rain! [Sets off the sprinkler system]

[In a battle just out of of orbit in space, a missile is fired from the ship and detonates early]
Wally: Hey! Thanks for that! Knocked us right back on course!

Elk: [Bad pilot roll from pilot on re-entry] So, this may be the last time we are alive, so do you wanna...
Gizane: We're in a ship that's about to crash. Do you really think now is the best time to be coming onto me?
Elk: I'm just sayin, I mean, in five minutes . . .
Gizane: So you're a minute-man then, eh? [goes back to her work]

Andrew: [After almost crash landing] Well, that was a unique landing . . . as usual
Slick: As usual? Suck my big toe!

Wally: [Rolling trustworthy gut to determine if a repair is screwing us] Dude, fuzzy dice? We don't need to replace our fuzzy dice!

[John is in his prison cell reading a magazine, don't ask me where it came from]
Rid: How'd he get the doc's pornos?
Elk: Hey, leave my pornos alone . . . Hacker Chicks Monthly. . .


Maintenance Tech: [With alliance bullet in his hand] I found this in the ships hull there. I wanted to uh...discuss this with you.
Rid: [Maxes influence roll, maintenance tech freezes, takes the bullet, looks at it] I was doing some target practice [Walks away with it].



More will probably be posted each week. Also, going to try to start up this thing again with some substantial blogging. So Stay Tuned!

Cheers!
~Hoshi