Writing From Scratch #2:

There is already considerable speculation about how Congress would react to a replay of the Saturday Night Massacre, when President Richard Nixon ordered his attorney general to fire the Watergate special prosecutor. Senators of both parties have warned the president against dismissing Mueller, some in very strong language (dismissal would cross a “red line” or be “explosive”). Members of Congress would no doubt demand an immediate, serious congressional inquiry into the matters the special counsel is investigating, if not impeachment proceedings based on the dismissal itself.

Trump Can Fire Mueller, But Not a Grand Jury 

One of the reasons Trump keeps getting away with his lawlessness and his lies, is that reporters and pundits keep acting like this craven, Vichy Congress will do ANYTHING of meaningful consequence when he steps up his obstruction of justice to firing Mueller.

We have been in a Constitutional Crisis since McConnell blocked President Obama’s Constitutional right and duty to nominate to SCOTUS, and nobody in Congress or the punditocracy seemed to give a fuck about THAT, so it’s laughable to think that Congress – especially a Congress that allows Trump Toady Devin Nunes to oversee an investigation into anything involving the administration he’s protecting – will do anything more meaningful than wring their hands and make some speeches.

The only way to do anything about any of this is to DESTROY the GOP in the election this year, in a wave election of historical proportions.

(via wilwheaton)

Disney Princesses at their Current Ages

I always find it kind of weird that matriarchal cultures in fiction are always “women fight and hunt, men stay home and care for the babies” because world-building-wise, it makes no sense

think about it. like, assuming that gender even works the same in this fantasy culture as it does in ours, with gender conflated with sex (because let’s be real, all of these stories assume that), men wouldn’t be the ones to make the babies, so why would they be the ones to care for the babies? why is fighting and hunting necessary for leadership?

writing a matriarchy this way is just lazy, because you’re just taking the patriarchy and just swapping the people in it, rather than actually swapping the culture. especially when there are so many other cool things you could explore. like, what if it’s not a swap of roles but of what society deems important?

maybe a matriarchy would have hunting and fighting be part of the man’s job, but undervalued. like taking the trash out or cleaning toilets: necessary, but gross, and not noble or interesting. maybe farming is now the most important thing, and is given a lot of spiritual and cultural weight.

how would law work? what crimes would exist, and what things would be considered too trivial to make illegal? who gets what property? why?

how would religion work? how would you mark time or the passage into adulthood? what would marriage look like? if bloodlines are through the mother, bastardy wouldn’t even be a concept - how does that work?

what qualities would be most important in a person? how would you define strength or leadership? what knowledge would be the most coveted and protected? what acts or roles are considered useless or degrading?

like, you can’t just take our current society and say you’re turning it on its head when you’re just regurgitating it wholesale. you have to really think about why things are the way they are and change that. 

Structuring a Series: Part I

Structuring a Series: Part I

Last Tuesday, my writing group did a mini-workshop of Dan Wells’s 7 Point Plot Structure, which is awesome and everyone not familiar with it should go check it out (if you don’t have time to watch the whole thing just now, I’ll go over the basics in this post, but I still suggest seeing his presentation for more details). Anyway, Two is trying to plot a trilogy, which got me thinking about how…

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Writing from Scratch #8

Now that we have gone over the four simple plot-problems (1, 2, 3, 4) and how they are solved through try-fail cycles, we’ll take a look at how to make complex, compound, and compound-complex plots through the same devices as sentence creation.

The first way we’ll try complicating a plot is by making the solution of the first noted plot-problem dependent on the solution of a second plot-problem, which stands in for easy solution prevention. We’re typically going to use dependent plots to strengthen audience satisfaction when the character is finally able to succeed. Or, like in the case-study we’ll look at today, they can be used to draw what appeared to be disparate plots together in longer works.

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Are you a “can’t write dialogue” writer or a “can’t describe anything” writer

Reactions

I have a list of topics that I want to get to on this blog.  But while I love talking about my feelings on pop culture and the creative process and feminism, this is also a personal blog.  So, I’ve been trying to put my thoughts on Baghdad, Beirut, and Paris into words, and it’s left me with a distinct weariness.  I’m going to use “we” a lot in this post; mostly, I am referring to the Western…

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To Nap or Not to Nap

To Nap or Not to Nap

I’m literally writing this just trying to keep myself from napping. I love naps.  Like I really love naps. I used to be good at napping.  In the sense that I could power nap.  In college, I was constantly running around, so every time I could, I would grab 10 minutes and some couch space in the formal lounge of my dorm and nap.  And then off I’d go.  Sometimes, those few naps, occasionally taken…

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Writing from Scratch #5

The Inquiry Plot

The problem of an inquiry plot involves a question that needs answering for its solution. The classic is Whodunnit? But any who, what, where, when, why, or how style questions can provide the problem for an inquiry plot. Traditionally, try-fail cycles in an inquiry plot come in the form of following clues which can lead to more clues (or questions) or end up being red-herrings that have caused a set back in solving the riddle.

Let’s look at the classic mystery “A Night of Fright is No Delight,” Scooby Doo! Where Are You? Season 1, episode 16. (I went a little overboard on this one, but it’s just too fun!)

If you haven’t seen this classic episode, then a quick background is that the gang has been invited to spend the night in an allegedly haunted house for the chance to receive a part of an inheritance along with four other possible heirs.

The Question: Who is the Phantom Shadow?

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Note to self

Stop thinking: “I’m not talented enough to execute this concept.” Start thinking: “I’m going to be a stronger artist when I’ve finished this piece.”