Should I Show or Should I Tell?

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Darrick Dean

This is the dilemma that most all fiction writers face. Many readers, unless they are writers or editors, probably wonder what the big fuss is all about. “Why are writers always arguing over this?” they ask. What is the big deal, anyway? James Scott Bell defines the issue for us:

Showing is like watching a scene in a movie. All you have is what’s on the screen before you. What the characters do or say reveals who they are and what they’re feeling. Telling, on the other hand, is just like you are recounting the movie to a friend. Which renders a more memorable experience?

Easy enough. Sort of. Some telling is obvious, such as when you describe a character in a grocery list fashion:

Kelly was 5’2″, had long blond hair, blue eyes and always wore black boots.

Try this instead:

When Kelly sat to pull on her black boots, her blond hair fell around her. What a mess it is today. She loved her boots, they made it easy for her to pretend she wasn’t short. Hopefully, she would run into Kane again at work. Yeah, that comment about her blue eyes was a little corny, but hey, at least he noticed.

Both are grammatically correct (though not necessarily high literature), but which sounds more interesting? Which is more like something you would write in second grade? And maybe the second attempt isn’t perfect showing, but it gets you into the head of the character and tells the reader a thing or two about her.

That is one of the keys to show vs. tell: Is the author intruding into the story? Whereas brief telling can transition you quickly from one scene to the next, or can be used to describe a new world, does the latter sound like the author is launching into a documentary? Or does it sound like you are seeing, or possibly seeing, everything through the character’s eyes?

You may have a lot of cool things to tell your reader, but make sure it doesn’t sound like a PBS special. Your character (or the author), even if he is (or you are) a professor, shouldn’t suddenly launch into a chapter length discussion on whales. Wait, didn’t Melville do that in Moby Dick? Telling wasn’t always so taboo, but there is a reason why the whale chapter is the most skipped in that otherwise classic tome. And then there is they way Edgar Rice Burroughs ended his last Pellucidar novel. After all that adventure, we’re going to end it like that?

Here’s something that will help writers: Jeff Gerke has a handy tool for determining if your writing is telling too much. Ask yourself if a camera can see the scene. Could this appear on the screen? If the answers are no, then you have too much telling.

There are writers who argue telling is fine. Others say it’s all a matter of when, where, why and how. Certain genres tend to have more exposition than others. Some telling certainly can come off as poor or lazy writing, especially once you learn to spot it. You’ll be surprised how often you notice it.

One should always try to hone what ever their craft may be, but part of being is writer is deciding what you want to write and how to do it. Not every one will like your work — and you shouldn’t set out to make everyone happy — but immersive books are the ones that stay with people long after the cover is closed.

They’re also ones that readers don’t skip or skim chapters.

Categories: Writing | 1 Comment

Shadowlight Saga

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Darrick Dean

I recently started reading two fantasy series. The first was decent, but wasn’t holding my interest. At least not enough to go on to book two. The second series, the Shadowlight Saga by Mande Matthews, is another story.

In Bonded, we begin with Hallad and his friends as they happen upon the mysterious mute woman Swan. The encounter in the woods might not have been all that remarkable had not his sister Emma then vanished into the Blackness.

Readers quickly find themselves immersed in a Norse-inspired fantasy world as the quest begins to discover who Swan is, what happened to Emma and Hallad’s family history is not quite what he thought it was. Once you reach the end, you realize this is only Act 1, and there is more to come. To get to the end, of course, will involve encounters with many peoples, beings and obstacles.

While this book is labeled as a “YA fantasy,” I think it’s written with depth and detail that all adults will enjoy. I have found that some authors try to impress us by over-complicating their books with plots, sub-plots, schemes and such that ultimately only bog down their story’s pace and destroy its realism. This isn’t one of those books. Matthews also has a short prequel to Bonded, The Light Keepers, which you don’t have to read first, but I did (and you’ll want to to read it one way or another). So now I look forward to reading part 2 of the trilogy, in what has established itself as a compelling Good vs. Evil fantasy series.

And it’s those kind of stories that are at the heart of the fantasy genre.

mm

Categories: Books, Fiction | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Warnings From the Third Reich

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Darrick Dean

During the 1990s, as 50th year anniversaries of World War II began to come around, accounts of the war filled bookstores, television and film. Veterans who had said little for decades were now telling their stories. Some have wondered why in the years since so much attention has focused on studying Hitler. His motivations. His past. Attempt after attempt to figure out why and how he rose to power. Some think the attention is overdone.

The focus on Hitler isn’t entirely about him. It is also very much about the place. In 1945, as the Germans looked around them at their destroyed nation, more than one had to ask, “How did it come to this?”

Indeed, that is why Hitler and his Reich are studied so much. It all unfolded in nation made up of people very much like us.

Sure World War I, social chaos and the wild economies of the 1930s set the stage for Hitler’s rise. But Germany wasn’t a backwater, tribal nation ripe for a dictator. Germany was a sophisticated western nation with a deep history and a society of technology, intellect and culture.

Yet Hitler still led them down a path of ruin where tens of millions would die. He led a Reich that excelled in horror, destruction and death.

This is why the story of Hitler must be studied and remembered. Evil just doesn’t rise in nations of radicals and extremists. Do yourself a favor and check out the course, History of Hitler’s Empire or this classic volume.

And here look at the philosophies that gave rise to the Reich, which are growing again in our world:

More on those troubling times can be read here. Be vigilant, because wherever you live in this world, do not think evil cannot arise there and take hold. Make sure you don’t ever find yourself in the position to ask, “How did it come to this?”

Categories: History, Modern History | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Will You Let Society Define your Humantity?

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Darrick Dean

Exponentially growth in allergies. ADD. Autism. A very short time ago, these conditions were rare. No, they weren’t going completely undiagnosed. They were rare compared to now. Add to that other chronic conditions which make up the bulk of our healthcare costs and it seems our increasing lifespan may head in the other direction (if it hasn’t already, hidden by the science that heals many of these issues that would otherwise be deadly).

Sadly, many of our health problems are preventable or, at the very least, reducible in severity and frequency.

Worse, in spite of all the angst spent on health and disease, it doesn’t seem many want to change.

Or has there been a slowly growing movement in which many are taking their health in the own hands?

Based on my own observations (growth in healthy food options, availability of information, more people abandoning fad diets for healthy lifestyles…), I think there is, but what percentage of the population this involves, I do not know. I do known, more are waking up to the reality that the government is not going to do it for them. They work for whomever flashes the most money in front of them. Companies produce what you want: Prefer junk food? That’s what they will make.

This is Important Point #1: Every cent spent is like a vote. Want better food? Buy it and support it.

This is Important Point #2: Knowledge is power. Knowing what’s in foods, what they do to your body (good and bad), what the difference is between dieting and a healthy lifestyle and so on is half the battle. So is knowing the shady ways many ingredients have been declared safe. Knowledge lets you walk past the junk and know that you are responsible for yourself.

This is Important Point #3: You have time for fitness. It’s not a fad. It’s part of your life. Don’t have time? You made time for hours of television, surfing the internet and other things you can live without. Priorities. Don’t let others define you. That’s a do-it-yourself job.

This is Important Point #4: Nutrition is the other side of the fitness coin. Go back to #2.

This is Important Point #5 and the Most Important Point: Our bodies aren’t design to be inactive, couch potatoes. They aren’t designed to process frankenfood or run on it in any optimal manner. They are designed for movement and action. Adventure and work. The world is full of custom-made food for our bodies.

Perhaps one of the many reasons people have such trouble finding their part of the Story in life — what they are meant to be — is because the very biology they are born with has been ignored, abused and refashioned.

The next time someone tells, “It’s okay to have that once in awhile,” or tries to convince bad food is a “treat” or to keep your “health stuff” to yourself or it’s all “good in moderation” or “I’ll do whatever I want,” say to them this:

“I’d rather live to the full potential that my humanity has innately endowed me with. I won’t let society define for me, or redefine, what humanity is or should be. I was designed for something better than they want for me.”

Be unshackled. Find your Story. Be human again.

hlt

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The Fire of Exploration

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Darrick Dean

Exploring the final frontier has never been easy. For decades, in fits an spurts, we have explored the Solar System and established manned outposts in orbit. We even reached the Moon, which has been so long ago now, that it seems a dream.  We can probably blame the tortoise pace of space exploration on it being largely controlled by the government and their ever changing, and short-sighted, whims. In recent years, private companies have taken up the torch. As witnessed by this week’s crash of the spacecraft Galactic, exploration on the edge of frontiers is still fraught with danger.

It always has been and always will be.

When the New World was being rediscovered by Europeans from 1492 on, it was much the same. Driven by politics, economics and the innate desire of humans to explore, not all went well. The early voyages were often about finding wealth and conquering lands. Later, though, it would be about building a better life, improving the human condition. The powerful desire to improve the existence of one’s family and future descendents has long been entwined with that frontier spirit. It’s often difficult to tell them apart. Interestingly enough, we would later learn that 1492 wasn’t the first rediscovery of what would later be named the Americas.

In 1000 A.D., the Vikings arrived in North America. It seemed almost inevitable that these quintessential seafarers and explorers would do just that. For centuries the sagas and rumors attesting to their arrival was largely discarded as myth. Then archaeological remains of a settlement were found in Canada in 1960.  Still, the idea of pre-Columbus explorers was seen as unlikely and supposed accounts quickly dismissed.

This was for two reasons: One, the level of required verified evidence is high. Is it too high? The Viking sagas told of exploring America, but were dismissed as legend. Even now, the extent of their exploration is unknown, but it is admitted that they voyaged to the coast for decades, if not longer. Only one settlement? These legendary warriors never ventured far from the beaches?

Two, early attempts to dismiss all natives as not much more than primitive cavemen saw many people ascribe anything of sophistication to foreign visitors. We now know the New World was replete with civilization and we know they arrived here longer ago than originally thought, through multiple paths. That paradigm shift has led many to wonder: Is it reasonable to think that people here for so long remained isolated from the rest world? A world that had many accomplished seafarers?  After all, didn’t the natives make it here at one point? Does any civilization live in isolation for over 10,000 years?

Of course, there are those who consider any suggestion of diffusion racist. They are driven by those who have, or still do, see natives as inferior. The other side of the coin are those who believe it did happen, repeatedly, and assert that it’s racist to say it couldn’t have happened.

So much for academic inquiry.

To be certain, the field has been full of fringe writers pushing many a bizarre theory or those motivated by ideology. Not all are so driven. Many are simply looking for the facts, some of which have always hidden in plain sight.

Sometimes it was intention, other times apparent chance, but in either case exploration burned in the souls of many men and women. What resulted wasn’t always good, but the overall condition of man usually improved. Does the fire of exploration still kindle? Are we too busy to see past tomorrow, buried in our televisions and self-created busyness?

Time will tell if humans will quit ignoring the calls to be something greater than what is pushed upon them. Modern steps into space are part of a long legacy that reaches back millennia. The crash of the Galactic won’t extinguish the flame.

It reminds us there are still those in which the fire still burns.

naex spcex

Categories: Ancient America, Ancient Sites, Books, History, Native Americans | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Jesus, Real and Imagined

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Darrick Dean

There’s seems to be a wave of folks of redefining Jesus: Some wandering hippie, a good guy, hobo, this-or-that-retinterpreted-through-modern-cause or just someone that someone else made up. No, I’m not getting into a religious discussion here, but a historical one. This is also a case study in rooting out bias and agenda. In today’s 24/7 Internet, there’s a demand for a constant flow of articles. We should keep our baloney detector on, no matter what the topic we are reading (whether we like the author’s overall position or not).

Take the article by Chris Sosa, journalist, entitled “Historical Jesus, Not so Fast.” It starts out as if he is going to do what journalists do: A careful examination of an important subject. Very quickly, however, it becomes apparent we have nothing of the sort. Rather it is a repeating of common skeptical claims, not really new to anyone versed in such studies. An agenda emerges quickly.

Especially to anyone who spends 5 minutes looking up the author’s claims.

Claim 1: The Quirinius census (Luke 2:2) was too late to coincide with Herod the Great’s reign (Mathew 2:1) (thus Jesus birth story all out of whack). A couple things Sosa leaves out: Some serious; scholars believe Quirinius was twice governor as implied in Lapis Tiburtinus; inscription.  Others have suggested the translation should be, “this census was before the census which Quirinius, governor of Syria, made.” Not all issues have clear cut answers, but nor is there lack of answers, as implied by the article.

Claim 2: Sosa claims the Gospel of Mark “does not say that Jesus resurrected” stating this was “added at a later date.” Actually, as the translation he references clearly marks, the disputed portion starts at Mark 16:9. The resurrection is mentioned before this in Mark 16:6. The author hasn’t followed his own advice of, “Grab a bible and read along.”

Claim 3: Then there this old stand-by, “…not a single [gospel] agrees with the others on who actually saw [the resurrection].” A cursory review of the gospels reveals that none claim who first saw the empty tomb. That’s an important point (or omission on Sosa’s part). All of the gospels choose different details to focus on of the same events, which is clearly not the same as disagreeing.

Claim 4: Okay, he doesn’t claim anything, only defaults to quoting Bart Ehrman, (infamous) New Testament scholar. Ehrman is a fave among Jesus-debunkers and their go-to guy. Problem is that those who actually test his claims find that he isn’t all that scholarly. In fact, his arguments fail quite spectacularly. That all is beyond the scope of this essay, but finding someone who affirms your view and not testing their claims is not the same as actually proving it. (And Ehrman, scholar he may be, likes to sell his books under tabloidish titled books like Forged).

Claim 5: Sosa then discounts extrabiblical mentions of Jesus, which, obviously, “disintegrate under close examination” when consulting only scholars that agree with predetermined view. Interestingly, though, he doesn’t list all the known references, only ones some people debate.

I’m sure Sosa can “go on for hundreds of pages about the contradictions and historical problems of the Jesus narrative” just as Ehrman has by ignoring thousands of pages — and years — of contrary scholarship. Among other things, they neglect the eyewitness issues and rapid spread of Christianity in face of persecution. Or, very importantly, few Jews ever denied Christ’s existence. By history’s standards, there is far more documentation for Christ than most others we accept as real in the ancient world.

Note here that I didn’t resort to “faith” or talking points or emotion, only history and looking at the documents. Sure, I haven’t gone into a lengthy scholarly dissertation here either, but that wasn’t the point. The point is that we shouldn’t get mad reading an article, or automatically agree with it, without basic verification. Tone can indicate an agenda. A brief article claiming to unseat two millennia of scholarship needs some scrutiny, to say the least.

Regardless of what you think of the New Testament, it is arguably one of the most important documents to come down from antiquity. We have more ancient copies of it than any other document from the ancient world. Even the most revisionist of skeptics and Jesus-debunkers see no reason to claim Jesus was a “myth.”

Earth is flat. Jesus wasn’t real. Aliens traveling light-years in little saucers to abduct humans and make circles in corn fields.

Sometimes we just need to think. Just a little.

jbk

Categories: Ancient Documents, Bible, Critical Thinking | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Can Your Book Entertain and be Thoughtful?

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Darrick Dean

Robert Bidinotto recently wrote:

…one cardinal rule, taught by many fiction instructors, is: Avoid expressing your personal views about politics, religion, and other controversial issues in your fiction. Your job as a novelist, they say, is solely to entertain—not to “preach.” If you get up on your soap box, you’ll only alienate many potential fans. To attract a broad readership, you should suppress the desire to push divisive “agendas.”

True art, which writing is, doesn’t shy away from controversy. How it is presented, however, is what sets apart good writers from the not so good. The not so good come off as preachy, overbearing or use drive-by attacks. You know the scenes, Robert does too:

In static scenes on porches, in drawing rooms, and around dinner tables, characters don’t converse; they deliver speeches and soliloquies. Too often, these wooden, one-dimensional “characters” are little more than premises with feet.

It doesn’t have to be way. The trick is to incorporate issues and ideas organically into the story:

I rejected the belief that there’s an inherent contradiction between entertaining fiction and thought-provoking fiction…I think many opinionated writers fail to entertain because they engage in extraneous pontificating, rather than make their ideas integral to the stories themselves. The trick is to weave a provocative theme or premise into the very fabric of your story, making it the thread that connects your characters to each other and to the events of the plot.

So when writing your stories, look for the characters who start speaking like a professor or some sort of activist. Sure, you have stuff rattling in your head you want to tell people. Everyone does. We all have strong beliefs. No one is going to listen if we lecture them. However, if you explore it thoughtfully, making it integral to your story, then even those who disagree with you will not be turned away. Most of them anyway.

You can’t make everyone happy, but you shouldn’t sacrifice your integrity either.

Categories: Books, Fiction, Writing | Tags: | 1 Comment

Where’s Your Money Going?

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Darrick Dean

Apparently convicted war criminals are.

Unfortunately, not really surprised. After all, the U.S. grabbed up quite a few Nazis after the war, scrubbed their past, and put them to work for the military. Even as some were being prosecuted at Nuremberg — in fact, before the war even ended — others were being vetted for the usefulness in the Cold War in what was called Operation Paperclip. And there began a decades-long policy with Nazis that still doesn’t make much sense.

Those not so valuable to the country were kept out or sent home. Some became exemplary rocket scientists, until someone decided certain ones should be prosecuted years after being effectively give a free pass. We still hunt down aged SS guards with a few years to live, yet many jailed after the war were released early in Cold War Europe to join the new cause.

Yet another lesson highlighting the government’s long downward spiral.

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Categories: Books, History, Modern History | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Orwell and Huxley, Who Was Right?

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Darrick Dean

George Orwell and Aldous Huxley wrote two of the most prophetic warnings in fiction, 1984 and A Brave New World, respectively. Orwell foresaw a world where classic government oppression would erode democracy. In Huxley’s vision, he depicted humanity controlled by pleasure and distraction. It would seem that, to our dismay, they both got it right. Orwell’s Big Brother government is increasingly a reality at the same time Huxley’s populace’s lives are controlled by the trivial and consumerism.

They wrote their books as warnings. Most people weren’t paying attention.

If you are someone who wanders through life day-to-day, driven by wherever the winds blow you, these books are for you. If you are someone who thinks the elite few who run the governments are out there upholding your rights and looking out for you, first, where have you been? Second, these books are for you.

And if you are someone who thinks about the legacy we leave to generations yet to come, unlike our rulers who think election to election, these books are for you as well.

There are always those who look truth straight in the eye and ignore or dismiss it. They don’t want to ask questions or be questioned. Otherwise reasonable people who don’t want to upset their life and the cognitive dissonance they have created. It’s just hysteria or a conspiracy. It can’t happen here.

Until it does happen to them or someone they know. Then it’s a shock. A surprise.

Orwell and Huxley asked us to pay attention to signs. Think like adults. They knew what the corruption of men could lead to, right here, not in some far away place.

Their fiction has become fact. That is an inheritance we don’t want to leave the future.

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Is the Horror Genre Evil?

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Darrick Dean

I mentioned a book to someone awhile back that was in the horror genre. They were appalled, because they were under the impression that horror was equivalent to Satan making films. I understand where that idea comes from, given the tendency of uncreative horror books and films to be about gore, shock and attacking religion. To say these things are all of what horror is would be a gross stereotype.

Fans of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and Alfred Hitchcock all know that these authors explored the fears and dread of man in a more cerebral way. Most people find this approach more frightening than Freddy Part 500. Is there anything wrong with exploring the nature of man? The battle between good and evil? No, and the definition of horror is fluid and can cross into fantasy and sci-fi, and supernatural fiction is often just another name for it.

Christian writers, to the surprise of some, haven’t shied away from the field. Dante’s Inferno is quite hellish. There’s some heavy evil beings in The Lord of the Rings. Authors like Frank Peretti were writing supernatural fiction long before anyone came up with a name for it. Most shocking to all is that horror classics Frankenstein and Dracula were written with biblical worldviews. Gasp! Our perceptions of these two quintessential horror books have been colored by unfaithful adaptations reinterpreted through modern eyes. H. G. Ferguson writes:

It is hard cold fact that the horror story’s mother and father are Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) and Bram Stoker (Dracula), both of whom wrote out of a biblical worldview. Modern attempts by critics to discredit Stoker’s research in particular are significant. They don’t want to discredit Stoker so much as they want to discredit his worldview. They want the vampire amputated from the Judeo-Christian outlook Stoker held. They want Stoker’s vampire, but they do not want Stoker’s God. This is why so many — but not all — most recent treatments of vampires throw out the Cross as a means of dealing with them. The critics understand Dracula was written from a Christian worldview. Why don’t evangelicals?

There’s more to the Dracula story that leaves one wondering how modern versions and their offspring have managed to stray so far. That in of itself is not the point here:

Just like you don’t judge a book by its cover, nor should judge an entire genre by what low-budget movies have defined it as.

fd

Categories: Bible, Fiction | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

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