Meanwhile…

Whoa, someone has pointed out to me that “Aftershocks” has managed to crack the Top 10 over at EDF. I’m blushing! I doubt it’ll be there long, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.

As NaNo looms, research becomes more and more important. With a daily word count of almost 2,000 pressing in, we simply don’t have time to scour the library for every little question we have. In fact, I wouldn’t blame someone for giving up on research entirely during November, and saving all that nitty gritty for later revisions.

But I thought I’d post a few more sites I like to consult for ideas and definitions, pictures and history (these in addition to the World Building post I made a short time back). These are sites that make an internet connection a valuable tool rather than a distraction while you’re trying to write.

Fashion! If you’re like me, you know next to nothing about fashion. I don’t even do my own clothes shopping anymore. My wife just buys stuff and sticks in my closet, and I may or may not notice that what I’m wearing is new.

http://www.fashion-era.com/index.htm

Names! Some people just flip open the phone book. I like to use this site, which allows you to search or browse by ethnicity, popularity, and definition. And there’s a great random name generator. And they have a sister site dedicated to surnames. Make your names mean something! You’re a writer! Be pretentious! There are of course many random name generators out there, and even more general name sites, I just happen to like these.

http://www.behindthename.com/

http://surnames.behindthename.com/

Units of measure! I’m not even sure how to describe this site. But it has a ton of information on, well, measuring things. And converting measurements, and all the history and science behind all that stuff. Can be very handy. The home page has tons of general science info. You will no longer have any excuse for not knowing exactly how long a jiffy is.

http://home.att.net/~numericana/answer/units.htm

Quotes! Can’t remember who said what? Search here!

http://www.politicalquotes.org/default.aspx

Planning for NaNo is going pretty well, I think. I’ve got several sections of the book plotted, enough to last me a couple of weeks, I think. I still have some large, troubling problems, but I’m hoping I’ll get those resolved, if not in the next few days then during the writing. Things always change when you actually sit down to write anyway.

I’ll be setting up a new page of the blog for this year, and I’ll set it to fall in chronological order. Each day I’ll post an excerpt of what I wrote that day, just a couple hundred words. Posting here on the main page will probably be sparse. I doubt I’ll have much energy for it.

Just a couple of days to go!

Edit: Oh, hmm. Apparently I can’t make posts to Pages. I’ll have to give this a little thought.

Friend Erin has a new story up over at Every Day Fiction. Read!

There is a ton of information of the Chicago of the 1930s. Sadly, this is forty years before our stalwart hero is alive. There doesn’t seem to be all that much info about ’70s Chicago. I guess I could just take the ’60s, subtract some repression and add some polyester and I would more or less have it.

I’ve obtained so far, a few books for NaNo:

Chicago:  A Historical Guide to the Neighborhoods, produced by the Chicago Historical Society in 1979. This was written right around when a lot of the novel is taking place, so that should be very helpful. I know absolutely nothing about how Chicago is laid out or where people live or anything. It seems like a lot of films, for example, of Chicago focus a lot of the architecture and what not, but don’t really talk about the geography or neighborhoods. It’s very different from stories set in New York, where the burroughs are very well known.

New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America’s Global Cities, by Janet Abu-Lughod. This is kind of a sociologist’s view of these big cities. It’s looking at the big picture and large events. Looks like it’s a good mix of history, politics, and cultural demographic information.

I have a third book about Chicago that’s a history book (don’t have it handy at the moment).

Startlingly handy little tidbit I discovered: Chicago’s first and only female mayor was elected during this era. That dovetails very nicely with some of my themes. I’ll need to look up some more stuff on this lady.

Needed still: Greek gods, women in police history, Chicago public school system

The more I’m looking at all this, the longer I think I’m going to spend on Kelly’s childhood.

My light, funny flash piece, Apotheosis Cake, is live over at Every Day Fiction. Check it out! There are already several excellent comments! Don’t these people sleep?

http://www.everydayfiction.com/apotheosis-cake-by-alexander-burns/

Oh, I just noticed the EDF Authors page is down. If you’re interested in my previous stories there, they can be found here and here.

Over the past couple of years I’ve become more and more interested in crime fiction. Not really mysteries, necessarily, but stories about crime and perpetration thereof. Not really mob fiction, either – I appreciate material like The Godfather and The Sopranos as much as anyone else, but they don’t interest me as much as small-time criminals. I’m not really sure why that is. Maybe I’m more interested in why and how relatively normal people would commit crimes, out of desperation or passion or psychosis or whatever. I also have a weakness for stories about detectives, both private and official.

Stories about corrupt cops? Oh boy, look out.

It’s a bit at odds with my general philosophy concerning heroes vs villains. Usually I find heroes more compelling, because villainy is so easy and natural. I’ll have to think about it some more.

Really, though, this is just an excuse to post this nifty link I found a week or two ago. It’s a website set up by the Los Angeles Times, charting all the homocides that have happened this year. There’s a map with all the locations marked, and the story to each crime, along with tons of statistics. They even allow (moderated!) comments, so you get to see messages left by friends and family and other members of the community. It’s pretty interesting, and may prove to be a valuable tool for those of us looking to write about crimes, especially in a large urban area like LA.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/homicidemap/

So everyone knows the story of David and Goliath, right? Little David, runt of the Isrealite army, stands up to Goliath, renowned Philistine warrior, with nothing but a sling. David proceeds to kill the overconfident Goliath and then takes his head on a Holy Land tour. It’s a pretty amazing story of bravery and works well as a parable about standing up to bullies (I imagine Biblical scholars would have a great deal more to say about what the story means, but I’m keeping it simple).To me what’s interesting about the story is that it perfectly illustrates a basic storytelling technique concerning heroes and villains: they should, ideally, be completely unevenly matched.

We typically remember three kinds of battles throughout history: the complete and utter blunders (Gettysburg, Little Big Horn), the engagements where a force was completely outnumbered, but still made a valiant effort (the Alamo, Thermopylae), and the battles in which someone came up with a strategy so clever and unexpected that it overwhelmed the opponents through sheer balls (Nazi Germany’s Blitzkrieg, Hannibal’s crossing the Pyrenees). These kinds of fights are notable because they engage us on an intellectual or emotional level and aren’t just two equal sides smashing against each other.

Our hero/villain conflicts in fiction should, ideally, be the same way. While it’s certainly fun to pit two equals against each other (every Godzilla vs Monster X movie), it’s a lot more interesting when you’ve got one side completely outgunned. The Davids of your stories have to really work to overcome the odds, through skill or smarts or whatever.

The David and Goliath match-up is a physical difference – Goliath is a powerful, seasoned soldier, David a young man who could barely be considered a squire. I’ve been reading a lot of old Captain Marvel comics from the ‘70s lately, and every other issue has noble Mar’vell of the Kree fighting some 80-foot tall science-spawned monstrosity. Sometimes, the opposite happens; Hal Jordan, as Green Lantern, is physically far superior (even without the ring) to enemy Hector Hammond, but Hammond’s mental abilities pose a huge threat. The same could be said of the Lex Luthor/Superman rivalry, or Loki’s constant attempts to conquer Asgard. The fun is in watching to see how the various parties overcome their deficiencies and exploit their enemy’s weaknesses.  I’m also reminded of the classic Infinity Gauntlet moment when Captain America, his friends all dead, stands up to the near-omnipotent Thanos. Cap dies shortly thereafter, of course, but that’s not the point. Even when they fail, we get great character moments.

But there are other ways to make the sides uneven. General Zod is physically more or less a match for Superman, so any combat between them is a wash. What makes their conflict interesting is that Zod represents everything Superman stands against – he’s a fascist and megalomaniacal dictator wannabe. Zod is willing to commit casual acts of brutality that Superman never would, and in many ways that gives him a leg up. Any villain with absolutely no moral or ethical restraints is a great danger to heroes who live by any sort of lawful code. We see this a lot; often, it forces the hero (and audience) to examine their own methods and motivations, or at least to show how their way is better.

There are probably other ways to make the matches uneven, feel free to chip in.

Edit: Oh, I forgot sheer skill. Sometimes the bad guy or good guy is simply better. Kyuzo, the master swordsman of The Seven Samurai, meets no equal in battle throughout the whole film and provides a great role model for several of the other samurai. It makes his death, shot from a distance by an unseen coward, all the more tragic and heartbreaking.

So the NaNo site appears to be up and running again. A minor miracle has occurred and I actually remembered my old username and password, so if you’re playing along at home feel free to friend me there: flakbait. Even if you’re not participating, you can peek there to see my progress. If all goes as planned, I should be updating here daily throughout November with excerpts and word counts.

I have a set of characters I love and a general idea of how I want the story (or stories, probably) to go, so I have a lot of hope for this year’s effort. I really need to get to work on a solid outline, though.

If anyone in the Fort Worth area wants to join us for write-ins, let me know and I’ll post the relevant info. We’ll be meeting at least once a week.

Friend Meng will be on Jeopardy today! Crazy! Check it out!