The Brooklyn Project: Writing Anger, Part Two

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bbc sherlock, captain america, captain america: the first avenger, captain america: the winter soldier, character development, character types, characters, doctor who, marvel, star wars, story dynamics, writing, writing about emotion

Welcome back to this Brooklyn Project special on Writing Anger!

In the previous post, I explained why anger (and other emotions) is important to your novel and the different tendencies of character types in anger. In this post, I will give specific examples, explain how backstory can influence a character’s emotions, and give some advice and handy tools for writing it into your novels.

Anger tends to vary drastically within types as well as within genders. Take Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Doctor, for example. I have them both classed as Type Fives because they’re both extremely complex characters who use a lot of misdirection and subtlety (as a side note, I watched part of David Tennant playing Hamlet and I’d have to say, Hamlet is Type Five as well.) Obi-Wan and the Doctor are both a bit more emotional than the stereotypical Type Five (Sherlock Holmes, for instance), but they have tendencies towards different emotions. Obi-Wan, while he’s a generally optimistic person with a mostly-happy childhood, is also a realist (see? really complex!) and slides toward sadness as an adult (as a child, he had a very quick temper), and I’d imagine that of all the Star Wars characters he’s probably the one hiding the fact that he has to take antidepressants. Obi-Wan has a tendency to switch topics without warning (non sequitur to the Rest Of The World), but has come to manage that in his adult life so he acts more like an INFJ than an INTJ (which I’m pretty sure he is.) The Doctor is much more bipolar. He sometimes has dramatic mood swings, jumps from idea to idea without consistency and gets depressed when he loses Rose in his tenth incarnation. (The Ninth and Twelfth Doctors were both much more focused, while Eleven just seems a bit aimless and underdeveloped to me.)

As a child, Obi-Wan was under a lot of stress much of the time–his teachers had high expectations, he routinely exceeded them, which in turn made his teachers set their standards for him even higher. No one ever particularly told him that he was clever, which certainly helped him to become the humble character we all love, but it didn’t do much to help him cope with his workload–being observant, he knew that most of his age-mates weren’t working this hard. Either he didn’t know the reason, or he simply rationalized it that he was stupid, because he was working so much harder than everyone else. Because he was stressed, he tended to flare up in anger when bullied, which made people perceive him as an angry person when he really was a compassionate and thoughtful one under a lot of stress. (He was probably also dealing with depression, but it went unnoticed because he didn’t fit the stereotype.) This was dramatically exacerbated when he came closer to the cut-off date for apprenticeship. It was a self-fueling cycle that pushed him down, but fortunately Yoda observed what was going on, realized that he was caught in a cycle and they weren’t seeing his true self, and used the fact that he’d recently gotten into a fight with another Jedi hopeful to get him out of the Temple and away from the cycle. (“The Rising Force” by Dave Wolverton. What makes me think he was dealing with depression? The hopeless way he responded to being taken away from the Temple and his difficulty in finding the will to fight back when attacked on the transport. I may be wrong about depression, but that seems to fit the facts.)

As an adult, Obi-Wan was not as likely to flare up, even when provoked. It took a major provocation (oftentimes aimed at his loved ones rather than himself) to get him angry. While he was outwardly a model of serenity, he was really a visionary, passionate and idealistic, and had an innate ability to read other people and respond to them in a disarming way. (Oh, sorry, did I say Obi-Wan was INTJ? It’s really hard to tell if that big letter is a T or an F, especially with him.) Obi-Wan was both a traditionalist and a reformer, and given enough time he might have been able to get the entire Jedi Order back on track. Obi-Wan always had a sarcastic and often dark sense of humor with a love of wordplay and a cutting wit that he used as a smokescreen to hide any internal trepidation. However, his sarcasm was more often a part of his humor than of his anger.

As an adult, Obi-Wan responded to anger in one of two ways. One was a sudden burst of anger (in response to sudden provocation), followed quickly by calm, rational thought, and the other was a cold, distant, controlled and calculated wrath that was completely terrifying, even if you were not the target of it at the time. Obi-Wan was not an angry person, however. His anger was aroused and then when it was over, it was completely gone.

The Doctor, while he had a similar upbringing (taught at an academy with little to no familial contact after his induction), was always more of a rebel. While Obi-Wan had an intuitive understanding of the world and the people around him, the Doctor, while brilliant, would often find himself confronted by situations and things he didn’t understand. The Doctor never particularly cared about other people’s opinions and was often more sassy than sarcastic. Sarcasm was not often a part of his anger, either. The Doctor didn’t often have those rapid flare-ups of temper as an adult–his anger was a constant, a perpetual and constantly controlled presence and as such it was always tightly controlled. When openly angry, the Doctor’s anger was similar to Obi-Wan’s calculated cold fury. He would often be verbally cutting (though not sarcastic,) whittling people down (often to tears) with words. His word choice, posture, and expression would all become menacing. For me, the most effective thing about David Tennant’s performance as the Doctor was the way he could play a character who is sweet, charming, frankly adorable and a little bit ditzy but who is at the same time an intensely driven individual, with an ever-present and deep-rooted anger–especially the way Tennant is able to jump so quickly between the two.

There was another image I was going to use, but it’s the most terrifying expression you are ever likely to see, so I’m going to refrain. This blog is mostly G-rated, after all.

Their angry expressions vary, too: Obi-Wan presses his lips together tightly, the Doctor tends to display his teeth (which is slightly unnerving in its own right–Ten’s teeth are sort of angled-in, which prompted him to comment “That’s weird” immediately after his regeneration.) Obi-Wan’s anger is all in the way he looks calculatedly at people, while the Doctor’s anger is all in the eyes and mouth–eyebrows draw together, lips curl back, and his nose wrinkles a little. The Doctor looms over people, while Obi-Wan tenses up in his core and has to remind himself to breathe. That last one could be more because Obi-Wan’s training was a little more martial in style, so he’s preparing to leap into action at any second. The Doctor’s anger intimidates, while Obi-Wan prepares to fight.

(Bottom line, fangirls: The Doctor is scary. He does have a fluffy side but he also has quite the dark side. Do not occasion David Tennant giving you The Eyebrow… if he did it to me I’d probably burst into tears.)

Let’s talk about Steve Rogers, a typical Type One. Steve doesn’t get angry often, but when he does, you do not want to get on his bad side. Captain America: The Winter Soldier has several prime examples. In the first fifteen or so minutes of the movie, he tells Fury off for not giving him the whole story about the opening mission. Rather than verbally attacking Fury or using sarcasm, though, he lets Fury know he’s angry and then tells him why in plain language that’s not calculated to make Fury angry in turn. As a result, we find out how much Fury really respects Steve–in response to Steve’s accusation, he shows us that he values Steve’s respect by showing Steve SHIELD’s latest top-secret project: Project Insight. You wouldn’t think that Fury would let something like Steve’s respect be that important to him, but it is.

The other notable anger we see Steve display in The Winter Soldier is his anger following the shock of discovering that his best friend is still alive and has been brainwashed into a Soviet superweapon. “Would you have compartmentalized that too?” he asks Fury, the most biting his language to Fury has gotten thus far. He’s being a little bit irrational, which is not really typical for Steve at all. I think that in the scene on the bridge when Sam Wilson says “He’s the kind you stop,” Steve is still angry about it but keeps himself from lashing out viciously at Sam because it is not Sam’s fault.

You can’t really see it on his face when Steve is angry because his angry look is more “calculating” than “angry.” You have to listen to him to know he’s angry. Also, Steve’s sarcasm is rarely connected with his anger–it’s more self-deprecating. We generally only see him use sarcasm when he’s angry with himself or trying to work with people, and then he uses his sarcasm the same way–to defuse the situation through self-deprecating humor. It’s very rare for us to see Steve use anything but plain language–which would seem to be a fairly common trait for Type Ones. They can get technical, but most of the time they whittle things down to the barest meaning they can.

Bucky Barnes is different from most Type Twos. He’s brave, funny, active, adventurous, and a people person. Cool factor was harder to figure out, but he’s the Winter Soldier. However, he isn’t as much of a planner as Steve is and as a result we never see him planning anything in particular. Rather than acting or taking the initiative, we see him reacting (which is probably because his supposed death is the “Mirror Moment” of The First Avenger–the moment the main character goes from reacting to initiating the action.) Bucky is more of what I’d call a mature Type Two–a Type Two who is aware of their own character flaws and dark side, making it more of a character strength for him than a weakness. He’s less existential than Type Ones or Fives though, so he doesn’t deal with such deep self-hate as, for instance, the Doctor, Obi-Wan, or Steve.

When Bucky gets angry, it’s normally because someone has attacked Steve (verbally or physically.) I’d imagine that when someone badmouths Steve, Bucky attacks them personally with his words and tears them down completely. He is quietly angry about the injustice of people constantly taking it out on Steve, but doesn’t quite know what to do about it (because he’s more based in social norms than a Type Five like Sherlock, who would not be held back in going after the wrongdoers simply because it wasn’t “okay.”)

Wow. This post turned out long. I’ll have to split it into three, rather than two as I had planned… Stay tuned for the final installment of this series!

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

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More frustration.

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captain america: the first avenger, emile zola, history, history is cool, history stuff, mix-ups, small rants

Your attention please.

This, is Arnim Zola.

He’s Swiss.

And this is Emile Zola.

He is French.

He is a novelist.

He famously wrote the “J’accuse” letter in the Dreyfuss case.

He…. looks a bit like Dr. Erskine, actually.

Please, please, PLEASE, internet.

Get your facts straight.

STOP CALLING FREAKING ARNIM ZOLA EMILE ZOLA OR I WILL COME AFTER YOU WITH A MOP AND A FRYING PAN.

*goes off into a corner and sulks*

This was completely unplanned…

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captain america, captain america: the first avenger, dan slott, haters can get off at the first stop, i believe in heroes, marvel, or i will gladly throw you overboard, peggy carter, steve rogers, stories, this is my ship, why heroes are important, writing

I was looking at Pinterest this morning, and I found something…

(TruthWillWin1, thought you might be interested!)

It appears that Dan Slott is just trying to be funny, but this struck me as deadly serious. (I have heard that Mr. Slott has a track record of trying to be funny, failing, and also failing to take the good of the story seriously.)

Yes, Steve Rogers would agree. Because that is Steve Rogers. Truly humble, because he knows all his own failings. He knows, deep down inside, that he is not perfect. He doesn’t try to be perfect. He just tries to be a good man, and sometimes, he finds himself lacking.

And, I would argue, that is why he’s the super soldier, and not Peggy.

Peggy Carter is, on a fundamental level, very different from Cap. (My sister and I actually discovered this fact by asking “What if Captain America was Cecelia “Celia” Rogers and what if Celia Rogers ‘survived’ the plane crash and was found and was present during the events of Agent Carter?” We realized that Peggy and the girl version of Cap are very different. Peggy is a woman in an man’s world who is proud of who she is and makes her way in that world without losing her femininity. On the other hand, Celia is not sure of who she is as a woman. She’s a good person, but does not know how to be ladylike, or how to be an adult woman, for that matter. She’s shy, and self-erasing, and wears blouses and skirts that don’t fit very well, and she isn’t really classically “pretty”–the effect the super soldier serum has on a woman’s body isn’t exactly what a lot of people would consider attractive. She doesn’t look like the Black Widow. She has a lot of defined muscle, and a larger rib cage but a smaller bust. Despite their different backstories, a lot of that does transfer across to Steve.)

Steve Rogers doesn’t go picking fights. He might “ask for it”, but he doesn’t start them. He speaks up, but when he’s not speaking up, he’s not noticed a lot. He’s not self-assured. He tends to question his own motives and actions–which is why Erskine picked him, because he is careful about what he’s contributing to. On the other hand, Peggy can be a bit rash at times, and she’s very self-assured, and while she sometimes questions, she doesn’t second-guess herself nearly as much as Steve does (to be just, I don’t think of them either really needs to second-guess themselves often, because they normally get it right the first time.) Steve doesn’t play up to anyone’s expectations, while Peggy acts up to those expectations so that people will underestimate her quite a bit. Steve is always completely honest and open, and while Peggy admires that, it’s not something that she can be in her line of work.

The world needs people like Steve Rogers to be themselves. (It also needs Bucky Barneses and Peggy Carters, filling their capacities, but right now, let’s focus on Steve.)

The whole reason that Erskine chose Steve was because Steve was already a hero in a small way. He was just giving Steve the ability to do it on another scale.

Also, I feel that when we suggest that Peggy could have ended the war so much sooner if she had been a super soldier, we are devaluing Peggy as she is!

She is a strong woman. She’s strong when Steve can’t be. Peggy doesn’t need the super soldier serum to make a change. She takes charge and steps in and doesn’t let them keep her out, and she’s way more successful at it than Steve.

In so many ways, while Steve is the hero the world looks to, Peggy is the hero Steve looks to. Peggy is smarter about her emotions than he is. He gets lost; she puts him back on track.

On the other hand, Peggy is aggressive, certainly much more aggressive than Steve is, and the serum tends to take your emotions and personality and past choices and push that into overdrive, so Peggy the super soldier might not be the same person that we know and love now. And maybe the war would have been over in half the time, but the ending might have been very different–and that might not have been a good thing. (Though, to be honest, if they could have found some way of stopping Hiroshima and Nagasaki from being bombed, I would get behind it–if it were ethical. The ends do NOT justify the means.)

In short, Peggy doesn’t need the serum. In a similar way that Steve Rogers doesn’t need the serum, true, except he isn’t as strong as she is, emotionally or possibly even physically. She’s just better at going far than he is, and that’s why he is the supersoldier and she is not–because he’s humble and will back out when they’re done with the fight, while she will go on to build SHIELD.

The world needs both Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter, in the roles they find themselves filling. The love story is perfect when each person can be truthfully said to be the other’s “better half.”

In closing, I can only say that I’m glad they did it the way they did. (Also, Mr. Slott, please pay more attention to the good of the story you are trying to tell. Maybe the fans would thank you then. And maybe reading a history book or two wouldn’t hurt, either!)

 

You Know You Are An Author When…

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authors, captain america: the first avenger, cyanide poisoning, forensic science, poison, science, toxicology, writing, you know you're an author when

…you pause a movie which you love to research if the way they portray a chemical poisoning is accurate. (True story–I just did it.)

I was watching Captain America: The First Avenger and paused it to look up cyanide poisoning and how it kills. The answer: Oxygen deprivation, which literally kills you because, while you may be able to keep breathing, it keeps your cells from performing oxygen intake, or something like that. (Please forgive the grossly inaccurate medical terminology.) It basically causes brain damage and cease of discernible activity in a very short space, via oxygen deprivation, and then “true” death shortly afterward.

Basically, the way they killed off the spy in The First Avenger is inaccurate.

I think they just hammed it up and threw in some instant rigor mortis to make the audience realize what was happening. Medical realism: Under the bus.

(On a side note, I also just spent a few minutes reading about cases of cyanide poisoning. And that is infinitely morbid, but I have an excuse–I’m a science geek fascinated by forensic science and toxicology. I am not likely to kill anyone. Ever. Unless you count killing off the nasties and bad guys in my novels. -_- In which case, I reserve the right to get creative, because I’ve been hating them and by extension myself for most of the book.)

#107 on the You Know You’re An Author When list. (See what I just did there? ;-P)

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

[EDIT: I was just looking at the toxicity for strychnine and it seems that Hydra may have been mixing it with the cyanide in their false-tooth L-pills, because those cause muscle spasms. Still looks a bit unlikely to me, though.]

Ummm… a little help here? Please?

Tags

alex/connor, c.s. forester, captain america: the first avenger, catholic culture, christian fiction, christianity, colorblind, dee henderson, horatio hornblower, irene hannon, john flanagan, louisa may alcott, marvel, novels, ranger's apprentice, romance, star wars, the clone wars

I just realized that I’m in deep, probably in over my head, in hotter water than I guessed before, probably because they turned the temperature up while I was in it.

I’ve been a shipper ever since I picked up one of my mom’s romance novels. Marcus/Shari. Dave/Kate. I could go on (thank you, Dee Henderson!)

Then I went through a stage where I didn’t like romance at all. I think I was just bored with sexual tension, whatever they call it these days… anyway, I thought everyone was just being stupid. I didn’t have time for that sort of thing. I was in high school.

And now… I’m shipping again. I think it started slow, with Obi-Wan/Siri–Siriwan, as it’s often called. I thought I was a Obitine (Obi-Wan/Satine) shipper, but then I realized, nope, Siriwan to the core. They’re a better contrast and they fit together better. (Though I think the whole arc with Satine back in Season Two was excellently done and very much in character for Obi-Wan, which is sadly a thing–there’s a whole subgenre of Out-Of-Character Syndrome dedicated to Obi-Wan shippings.) And then came Steve and Peggy (how could I not love these two?! His crush on her was just so precious.), and Pepperony (I probably love that ship name way too much…) I also ship Halt/Pauline and Horace/Evanlyn. Though for some reason, I don’t ship Will/Alyss much, but that’s probably because I haven’t finished reading the series yet. (I think the Will/Alyss angle was a bit rushed in the first book, to be honest.)

I also (maybe?) ship Horatio/duty or Horatio/his ship.

(That was a very sad attempt at a joke. I’m sorry. I will refrain from joking again throughout the rest of this post.)

And now, for the first time, I’m trying to write a ship of my own.

What am I getting myself into?!

I know I can’t write romance. I am no good at writing romance. I could not write romance to save my life. Apart from the casual background Pepperony, I always end up writing Siriwan more platonic. (Which works well, because as well as being the adorable lovebirds we know they are, they’re also BFFs 4 life!)

It’ll be fun, I said. Back it up with suspense and action and you’ll be fine, I said. What are you so worried about?! I said.

I. Am. Toast.

I’m so scared I’m going to mess it up. I love these two, I really do, but… I don’t know if I can write them in a relationship. I’ve tried writing background romance before and it never felt right. I can write about two people who are already in love, who love each other very much–that’s easy. But two people falling in love?

That’s outside my experience. And I frankly don’t know where to start. (No, stop thinking about setting me up on dates. And, for that matter, please do not diagnose me, even in the privacy of your minds, as asexual–I think that I’m just waiting for the right partner. In fact, please don’t diagnose me at all. I don’t like being diagnosed. Even if having a legit ADHD diagnosis would make college easier–much easier… Or anything, really. I don’t need it, honestly. I can handle this. Let’s save it for people who actually need it, please.)

I know how my parents show that they love each other. That’s easy. But I’m not sure how to show people falling in love.

I guess that, looking back, it’s all up to Louisa May Alcott: writing romantic love is nearly impossible if you’ve been single all your life, and either totally understated or overstated, depending on who is doing the reading.

I noticed a few things about my romance reading habits, too:

1. It had to be by one of a specific few authors (mostly Dee Henderson and Irene Hannon.)
2. I couldn’t sit through a novel that was all romance, either. It had to have suspense or action/adventure in it, too.
3. Never could stand so-called “sexual tension”, for some reason. If there was physical attraction, it couldn’t be just lust. And I much preferred the people who fell in love with others because of their personalities.

I suppose I just need help. Even if I knew the answer to this riddle, I’d need help.

So this is a shoutout: Can I get a couple of beta readers to help me write the scenes with Alex/Connor in them? Because if you’d read those scenes for me and help me out, I’d be in your debt forever.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless.

P.S. Umm, I probably don’t have to say this, but… CHRISTIAN FICTION FOREVER!!! (Sorry, just felt like shouting it from the rooftops… and yes, this is Christian near-future sci-fi/action/psychological thriller/suspense. It’s not preachy, though. Christian in atmosphere, no reading between the lines required 🙂 )

TCWT: Dear Lovers

Tags

captain america: the first avenger, captain america: the winter soldier, couples, marvel, novels, shipping, star wars, teens can write too blog chain, whatever, writing

Okay, this snowballed.

I can’t remember which couple I was going to write to at first, so I ended up just writing to several of my favorite ships. And I’m supposed to be working on a novel! Um… oops?

(Yes, my college-and-work schedule is majorly breaking up my writing schedule. *sigh*)

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Dear Pepperony,

You two are just the sweetest thing! You have the best romance I can think of right now, and you’re even realistic–you both have problems holding up your ends of the relationship, it’s sympathetically portrayed, and you keep on going despite the odds.

Pepper, I don’t know how else to say this: You. Are. Awesome. Somehow you put up with Tony, who could try the patience of a pantheon. Greek or otherwise. In my book, you outdo just about everyone at being awesome, despite not-really-having-superpowers (unless you count the latter part of your third movie.) And even when you panic, you tie us all down back to earth–you’re more than just fiction–you’re a person too.

Tony… I don’t even know what to say to you. We have major differences, sure, but I think that you certainly overcame them with your convincingly and enjoyably told story. I was sort of surprised that I loved your character as much as I did. Your story is certainly a great one about overcoming adversity. (I’d love to work at your Stark Industries, too.)

Your devoted fan,

Erin

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Dear Siri and Obi-Wan,

You two…

I know you spent much of your lives simply as friends and never really had a chance at romance, but I still ship you two. (Even though I’ve never really written the two of you romantically, except by hinting very vaguely at it.)

Also, I think it’s pretty funny (and so sweet!) that Siri is pretty much the only one who can consistently take Obi-Wan down a couple of notches. Without even a hair out of place. (Girls rule!)

And Siri, I’m still in denial of your death.

Your ever-loyal fan,

Erin

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Dear Peggy and Steve,

I don’t even know where to begin.

Your story is just so tragic–about as tragic as it gets without someone turning entirely evil and madly murdering everyone else in the family like Darth Vader.

The temporal displacement is certainly the saddest part–a long-distance relationship has nothing on the pair of you.

Still, I think it’s important to remember that, even while you were separated by time, the polar ice caps, and death itself, you still drew strength from your memories of each other.

Stay strong.

Sincerely,

Erin

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BONUS ROUND!

Dear Connor and Alex,

Your ship is very new. In fact, it’s not even been published yet. And I did not even see it coming.

Alex, you just walked into the story and stole the stage in your cameo, so of course I had to continue writing about you. But the part where you become Connor’s possible potential love interest? That came out of the blue.

Still, I think you two actually fit pretty well together. I just hope I don’t ruin it–to warn you in advance, I couldn’t write just romance pure and simple to save my life.

I should probably go to someone else for tips…

Your affectionate author,

Erin

P.S. Next time, just don’t spring it on me like this! GAH! *throws a punching bag at the wall*

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5^th – http://www.adventuringthroughpages.wordpress.com/

6^th – http://www.theworldofthewriter.wordpress.com/ (hi Saxon!)

7^th – http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/

8^th – http://freeasagirlwithwings.wordpress.com/

9^th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

10^th – https://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/ (thanks for dropping by! :-D)

11^th – https://introspectioncreative.wordpress.com/

12^th – http://whileishouldbedoingprecal.weebly.com/

13^th – http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/ (hi Rosalie! Are you going to tell Anakin he’s an idiot about how he conducts his love life? Because it’s true… even if he is really a sweetie most of the time.)

14^th – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

15^th – http://ramblingsofaravis.wordpress.com/

16^th – http://www.juliathewritergirl.wordpress.com/

17^th – https://clockworkdesires.wordpress.com/

18^th – http://horsfeathersblog.wordpress.com/

19^th – http://from-stacy.blogspot.com/

20^th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/

21^st – http://themagicviolinist.blogspot.com/

22^nd – http://www.pamelanicolewrites.com/

23^rd – http://arielkalati.blogspot.com/

24^th – http://irisbloomsblog.wordpress.com/ (take cover, men! Major shipper alert!)

25^th – http://theboardingblogger.wordpress.com/

26^th – http://allisonthewriter.wordpress.com/

27^th – http://stayandwatchthestars.wordpress.com/

28^th – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/

and http://abookishflower.wordpress.com/

29^th – http://gallopingfree.wordpress.com/ andhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Book-Gap/603228309718111

30^th – http://hautehealthhails.blogspot.co.uk/

and https://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for next month’s chain.)

It Comes Down To One

Tags

captain america: the first avenger, characters, completed stories, fanfiction, marvel, short stories, story dynamics

Because there is a distinct lack of good Dr. Erskine fic out there. Also, I thought he was an awesome sort of mentor-figure, like a combination of Gaius and… um… maybe Uncle Iroh. (I wouldn’t know. I have not seen Avatar: The Last Airbender.) I am not ashamed to say this: I cried when they killed him off.

Okay, here we go.

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It Comes Down To One

                Out of all the hundred recruits who were brought into Camp Lehigh, Abraham knew it really only came down to one.

He knew it when he crossed out the names of the first two platoons that had been on the list. Their names were sorted the next day. Two weeks later, they were all gone, shipped out for other camps, to different divisions.

The third platoon—technically, now a half-platoon—two squads—twenty men. Out of those two squads, only one was informed of their true reason for being here.

To a man, all of that squad volunteered of their free will for the project.

However, only one man’s eyes lacked the eagerness, holding solemnity instead, with a deep determination underlying it.

(“Go ahead,” he said. “I’ll do it.”)

Ten.

Forner was crossed off the list when he sat down and refused to go any further on a march. He wasn’t going to be a supersoldier—but he was going to have his backside whipped into shape, one way or another. (The man, to Erskine’s total irritation, was a draftee—had Abraham had his way, the camp would have contained only volunteers.)

Nine.

Bensley did not understand the reality of war. When Rogers tried to set him straight and told him that war was not glorious and death wasn’t funny, he flipped Rogers and shoved him under his bunk.

Rogers showed up to morning roll-call with bruises. Bensley did not show up at all.

Eight.

By now, all of the remaining candidates couldn’t help but look a little nervous whenever Abraham, Agent Carter, or one of the other specialists walked by. (They had always been wary of Carter, and all of them always snapped anxiously to attention for Philips.)

Collough was probably Scottish, naturalized American; he spoke with a brogue and looked his commanding officers in the eye, calmly, when he told them that he believed he could serve his country better elsewhere. Phillips grunted noncommittally, but he sent Collough off to receive further training as a radioman, among the best in the country.

(Collough was probably the only man in the camp who had seen what Erskine saw in Rogers.)

Seven.

Clay was the next to go. (He took the last apple so that Marley would have to eat the syrupy, disgusting canned fruit instead, at lunch.)

Six.

Marley went right along with Clay. (He’d taken the apple from Rogers, who didn’t finish his meal anyway, but it was rude all the same.)

(“Are you sure you want this?” he asked silently.

(Rogers’ earnest face looked back at him, saying quite clearly without the necessity of speech, “I know the risks, the dangers. I just want to help people.”)

Five.

Samson was out next, for being too good at his job. They couldn’t afford to lose a sniper that good on a mere science experiment.

(“Good riddance,” Phillips grumbled as Hodge’s crony was sent off. Somehow, he had managed to annoy even the colonel.)

Four.

When they were down to nine, he’d already discounted Hodge, but he did not have a good reason to send Hodge off, until the experiment was done.

Elliot was next to go. He hadn’t stopped firing when ordered on a training exercise. Not even when the sergeant had tried to take the rifle from him. He went to a desk job—“psychologically unfit” for front-line duty.

Three.

Coleman started a brawl with staff, then tried to pass it off on another man.

(“Are all the men in the camp this bad?” Erskine asked himself, in a moment of uncharacteristic cynicality.)

Two.

Hodge had never put a foot wrong.

But when it came down to the choice, there really had only been ever one choice.

One.

Rogers did understand the risks, the danger, the possibility of failure.

Abraham feared that the younger man did not realize that the risk to him, personally, was greater if there should be success. He had seen heroes before—they had come back from the Great War, often broken men.

He knew the mark of true greatness well, and he saw it on the scrawny, unpromising recruit. Should the process succeed, it would mean difficult things would be asked of Rogers, and Abraham wished he could spare the young man that.

However, he could not pass this up. He could not deny the world the hero it so gravely needed, nor could he deny the chance to Rogers. (The chance that would give him the ability to do all he could with his big heart, to give him the physical strength to match his mental and spiritual strength.)

But Rogers did know what would be asked of him, the burden of this truly double-edged gift. And still, he volunteered.

(“Do you really want this?” Erskine asked silently. The young soldier’s grave expression was answer enough.

(“Do it.” the silent reply said, steely. “If I don’t try, then who else will?”)

 

From the beginning to the end, there really had been only one candidate.

It all came down to one.

 

The Brooklyn Project: Protagonist-Centered Morality and Why it’s Bad

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accountability, baroness orczy, bbc merlin, bbc sherlock, captain america, captain america: the first avenger, captain america: the winter soldier, character development, characters, dynamic characters, editing, harry potter, heroes, marvel, marvel superheroes, star wars, story dynamics, the brooklyn project, the scarlet pimpernel, undo the sue, writing

Sometimes, an author will become so preoccupied with his or her hero or heroine that they can do no wrong–even when they are. The rules bend for these protagonists. And people in the stories (and occasionally the reader as well) see nothing wrong with this.

This can potentially lead to the creation of a Mary Sue.

Protagonist-centered morality is bad because it takes away the possibility of accountability as well. If your hero does something wrong, you want it to have repercussions. They can’t just get away with a slap on the hand! It reinforces to the reader that the hero has done something wrong, and it also makes for deeper characters. If the hero has slipped up once, they have to fight harder to even be allowed to do it right the next time..

On the other hand, if you don’t add responsibility, your protagonist can become spoiled and obnoxious (as in real life) or unrealistically angelic (sickening.) The latter would make him/her a Mary Sue, no matter how many de-Sue-ifiers you threw in to try and balance it (without removing the lack of accountability.)

Apart from the message that it sends, that it’s okay to do bad things, it’s bad for the story at large.

I’m trying to think of a few examples, but all I can think of is that, though in the final cut, we never see the response to Steve’s failed attempts to enlist, falsifying information, I think there was actually a scene planned where someone found out and didn’t trust Steve for a while. They just didn’t officially tell anyone because if they did he’d be court-martialed and they couldn’t have that. In the planned Howling Commandos fanfic that I’m writing, I was going to have one of the people in the USO show tour find out and hold it over Steve. There are, however, strong consequences when Steve fails to predict that the train is a trap and save Bucky, even if it’s not technically his fault.

Another example would be the BBC show Merlin. While, all around, this is generally a good show, the BBC slipped up a bit (for once); this show displays a bit of protagonist-centered morality. Though, later on, they add more consequences, even to past actions, early in the show there are a few episodes where Merlin slips up and gets away with it. However, for the show’s other protagonist, Arthur, there are always consequences to his actions. Inconsistent much? Or just waiting around? *sigh* I wish they’d done it earlier on.

In the BBC show Sherlock, we’re actually hoping to see protagonist-centered morality blown out of the water; at the very end of the last season, Sherlock killed someone, point-blank, in cold blood (attempting not to give spoilers here); we want to see how people react to this. There’s always mistrust, and rightly so, after something like that.

In Star Wars, Obi-Wan’s attempt to distance himself, to not become emotionally involved, backfires when Anakin turns to the dark side; Obi-Wan’s aloof affection was simultaneously too much and not enough.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes with a thorough message about accountability (where Civil War is essentially about people’s Constitutional rights, from what I’ve heard). This is especially true for Natasha, who risks, in a selfless action that proves she is capable, no matter what she (and incidentally, Hydra) thinks, of heroism, she spills all her dirty secrets across the Internet in order to bring Hydra down (again, trying to avoid spoilers.) Ironically, this bypasses the same failsafe that Hydra thought would protect them; they insist that Natasha (or anyone, really) wouldn’t incriminate herself like that.

From what I’ve heard, Harry Potter is really bad about this–it sounds like he consistently breaks rules of both the magician and human world without any consequences.

One very good book that could make better use of accountability (without outright protagonist-centered morality) that I love is “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” Except for Marguerite, the book doesn’t use it quite as well as it could…

Accountability. Use it for deeper character.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

Setting the Stage: Color and Mood

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captain america: the first avenger, captain america: the winter soldier, color, j.r.r. tolkien, lighting, marvel, movies, peter jackson, setting a scene, story dynamics, the avengers, the lord of the rings, tricks and tips, worldbuilding, writing

Color is a tool.

Watch any well-made movie, and you’ll see what I mean. Some movies (such as Star Wars) use color to define a character’s alignment and/or leanings towards another side. Aladdin notably uses color to hint at danger, greed, or corruption. Military units use color as an identifier.

Color is a hint to character. Humble, soft-spoken characters will often prefer muted colors; browns, dark reds, navy, royal blue, gray, forest green. Vivid, vibrant characters love the jewel tones. And if you have a sweet little girl, princess or otherwise, she’s almost certain to like pastels.

However, color isn’t just useful in reminding the reader what sort of character he or she is dealing with at the moment. It’s also handy in setting a scene, adding to a mood. (Watch “The War Was In Color” if you don’t believe me. Then again, listen to it anyway. Even if you’re not a fan of the movie-from-which-the-fanvid-was-made. I could’ve found another one that would have also worked, but this is more fun.)

If you have not watched The Lord of the Rings, then you won’t be able to relate, but Peter Jackson masterfully uses color saturation and lighting to set the scenes, highlighting a progression through the story in a way that characterization might be able to convey, but never in the exact same way as Tolkien’s words do. However, Jackson is able to reasonably emulate Tolkien’s literary style through an art style, visual cues, and lighting.

In the Shire, the light is warm; the most common colors are green and bright yellow, and the lighting feels natural, like bright summer sunlight. As the travelers leave the Shire, the lighting moves towards grays and blues; still natural, but more like the light of a cloudy day. Rivendell is fittingly full of fall colors, as a refuge of the Elves that may be compared to their eternal autumn; the lighting is, again, natural, warm, but softer, full of memory; “sunbeams” and avenues shot with frequent lights are commonly seen in Rivendell. Upon leaving Rivendell, we are again exposed to a similar winter light. Moria’s strategically placed beams of white light against the overall dimness create a greater impression than mere blackness could, and Lothlorien is filled with a soft silver radiance, colder and purer than any other light in the whole set of movies, symbolizing the eternal refuge of the Elves in which the world is forever young.

However, it is not until The Two Towers that the lighting really takes on a role all its own. The blue, pale lights of Frodo’s journey, washing out the hobbits’ faces and making them seem paler, almost sickly, contrasting Frodo’s hair still more strongly with his skin and eyes, the drab, gooey look of the Dead Marshes, and the sickly, greasy light of the Morgul Vale reflect the growing darkness and danger of Frodo’s quest, and the poisonous lure of the Ring. Of course, it leads to the pass at Cirith Ungol and Shelob’s lair, which was nearly impossible to convey through film as written; with the dirty gray-and-white look in the movie, Jackson did a fair job. The journey culminates in the red-and-yellow-saturated Sammath Naur on Orodruin, the lighting underscoring the crux of the quest. The remaining scenes of The Return of the King have a soft, distant, dream-like quality, which is best summed up by Frodo’s quote: “We set out to save the Shire, and it has been saved; but not for me.”

The two Captain America movies and The Avengers use a similar progression of color, though more subtly than Jackson’s use in The Lord of the Rings. In The First Avenger, many of the scenes are cast in warm sepia tones, like a haven from the horrors of war; the entire film has a charming vintage-yet-unexpected look. The Avengers expertly uses shadow and light to convey a mood, while many of the scenes from The Winter Soldier (which I still have not yet seen) appear to be cast in a bluish, cloudy winter light, similar to some scenes from The Two Towers.

However, these colors are not all mutually exclusive. The First Avenger uses the chilly, cloudy natural light to hint at forebodings of ill-fortune, while certain deleted scenes from The Avengers make use of a similar sepia cast, and the forest confrontation scene uses a nighttime moonlight that is reminiscent of the blue cast from The First Avenger. While I can not say much about The Winter Soldier, I think it is safe to assume that it follows the same trend, using sepia to highlight memory or safety, pale blue light for foreboding or the realization of a horrible fate, and a chiaroscuro theme for the uncomfortable truths that will come to light (no pun intended.)

So should it be with your stories.

Not that you can pick a color scheme to symbolize every last thing in your story, but you can at least use a color scheme to evoke an emotional response in the reader, and reusing those color schemes is just a bonus to help keep the reader interested. (Readers like repeated imagery and symbolism, because it makes them feel good because they’ve been paying enough attention to notice it when it first appeared.)

Think of yourself as a filmmaker. Pick a color palette and stick with it. Use color effectively.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

Flash Fiction: “Helpless” and A Few Tools (Avengers edition)

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captain america: the first avenger, captain america: the winter soldier, characters, completed stories, fanfiction, iron man, short stories, story dynamics, the avengers

First things first: the Flash Fiction of the day (and then everyone who’s only here for Story Hour can just skip to the comments, if they want. ;-P) Warning: Dark. References to suicide. Continue at your own risk.

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Steve reached into his mouth.

Gripping the capsule in his fingernails, he pulled it from the empty space where one of his wisdom teeth had been pulled months before. (He remembered that. He wasn’t supposed to. A patch on the back of his neck had immobilized him, and an IV line fed tranquilizers and painkillers into his bloodstream, but his metabolism had broken them up, burned them out of his blood. It had hurt. It was too strange, to be in pain like that and yet physically incapable of screaming.)

He stared at it, and it seemed to be winking evilly back at him, its glossy coat like a milky, unseeing-yet-aware eye.

He wanted to yell, to scream, to crush it into powder, into fluffy gray ash, but he couldn’t. It was filled with the most virulent substance SHIELD had been able to concoct, and he could not risk it getting into the city’s water supply. Even diluted more than a million times, it would still cause people—living real actual thinking breathing people—to sicken, waste away, fade, die.

All he could think was How did it come to this?

All he could do was to slip it back into its space and resolve not to use it.

He was still screaming inside.

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Yup, it’s dark. There are cookies in the comments for anyone who can point out the huge, glaring, obvious main reference in this piece.

Now, on to lighter stuff; a few tools for writing the Avengers in everyday life.

1. Neither Thor, nor Steve Rogers, despite both being blond and muscular, are idiots, not by a long shot. Thor is a warrior, and unabashedly so. He’s probably good at cranking out a couple of battle plans when they need them (after he gets over his arrogant streak in Thor, that is.) Thor has a vocabulary that no other Avenger can rival, and has some operating knowledge of battle tactics, as well as being even more experienced than Cap. Steve is more intuitive than Tony Stark, which may be why people discount him, because sometimes it can be hard to follow, but if you’ll bear with me… Steve is a reader. (Remember that scene in The First Avenger, with all those books?) Steve uses his head. It’s not like he had a choice, since his body was rather lacking for the first 24 years of his life. So maybe he was getting beat up every other day, but he was also probably pretty good at outwitting the bullies. Steve Rogers was probably the SSR’s most valuable tactician, for goodness’ sake! Not only could he come up with an effective battle plan beforehand, he could also modify and adapt it while a bunch of Nazis and HYDRA agents were trying to kill him. Not even sloppy, to tell the truth. And then, in the Avengers, we get to see him strategize on his feet again, and we learn something more about him–Steve is an excellent judge of character and is extremely good at placing his teammates for the optimum effectiveness. Steve is empathetic and compassionate. That’s his edge.

2. Tony Stark is a bit more vulnerable than you’d think. His brash, arrogant front is more bluff than reality. He uses it as a shield to try and keep him from getting close to anyone else, because his experience with Obadiah Stane tells him that caring is a vulnerability. Actually, he and Steve clash not because they are absolute polar opposites, but because they’re different sides of the same coin. They have some personality traits in common, but they have different backgrounds, and their pasts tend to come between them. I think I love these boys so much because anything goes, really. It would be possible to write them as friends, or to have Tony be a supervillain without really wanting to be (can someone please write this with Pepperony instead of that other painfully non-canon ship… the Ship-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named), or whatever. The tensions between them are because they are somewhat similar but with personalities that still clash.

3. All the Avengers (with the possible exception of Thor and Clint) would probably have a preference for organic food, whenever possible. Thor isn’t choosy (though he still would probably like organic, since it’s the only kind of food on Asgard), while Clint is perfectly okay with junk food. However, the others’ reasons for choosing organic are different. Bruce does it because it’s healthy and he wants to support organic farmers, Tony for similar reasons (also partly publicity and elite whatever,) Natasha just because it is a choice she does have and I think with her history she’d like to have the chance to choose for herself, and Steve… well, his senses are enhanced, and nothing tastes familiar to him, with all the artificial flavoring going on these days. If he doesn’t have a choice I suppose he could live with processed or whatever but really, even for normal people, after eating organic for a while, processed foods are disgusting. (The limited-edition sugar-not-corn-syrup Coke would be a godsend for him.)

4. Concerning Steve Rogers: he never actually completed basic training. Thus, his knowledge is all entirely practical, learned on the fly while in the middle of leading the Howling Commandos. (This is why we respect Cap: He was thrown into a battle situation practically unprepared and still owned it.) His military bearing was mostly learned from the Commandos. (Ironically, this makes him a little more like Colonel Phillips, who also strikes me as a bit of an unorthodox commanding officer.) Also due to the fact that he was learning on the job, he knows some unexpected things as well as borderline-legal ones. For instance, due to Hydra’s obsession with Norse mythology, I imagine Steve as being able to read runes, in German, and pronounce anything from that mythology (or anything Asgardian) better than Jane Foster can. Also, apparently he knows how to hotwire a car, and I would expect that he knows how to disable certain types of bombs and IEDs. Not entirely hopeless with technology. After all, with Tony’s help, only a couple of weeks after waking up in the twenty-first century, he is able to help fix this sci-fi helicarrier engine. That’s impressive by any standards.

5. Tony Stark sees more about his teammates than he lets on, and while he struggles with compassion and being a team player, I expect he acts on it.

6. Clint Barton has a sense of humor and enjoys startling people. (No one else, except for Natasha, really intentionally startles people. Mostly it happens because Steve or Bruce is sitting in the background and they’re so quiet people forget they’re there.)

7. Bruce is compassionate, but he hates worrying over others’ problems because he feels helpless to fix them. (Did I mention that I love Bruce Banner? He’s such a sweet guy!) One of Bruce’s flaws is that he tends to be focused to a fault on anything he’s working on… there is room for story development here.

8. Natasha Romanoff is perhaps the most screwed-up of the Avengers. When she’s not on a mission, she doesn’t know exactly how to respond to personal barriers or how to put together any of her own. (This will probably cause her to make Steve uncomfortable; he doesn’t like other people in his personal space, and he doesn’t particularly like to be touched, either; in The First Avenger the only person who he really allowed to touch him was Bucky, who was perhaps the only friend he had had for many years, and he wasn’t used to other people in his space.) She does know to give Bruce space, though.

9. Most of the Avengers have snarky sides, though Tony will probably pretend to be surprised every time Steve snipes right back at him. (They should absolutely have an insult war.)

I think that covers just about everything… Thanks for reading, and God Bless!