4 Interview Questions your characters should be able to answer.

The original listicle (mobile app version)

The Internet provides the aspiring writer with a vast array of tips and tricks for crafting strong plots, exciting resolutions and fleshed out characters. A cursory look to your twitter feed (Ed. - you are on Twitter...right) will uncover articles and listicles aplenty that discuss ways to develop solid characterization for every hero, villain and stalwart ally in your work. This post does nothing save expand on that growing body of free and unsolicited advice.

We suggest interrogating your characters to get at the heart of their characterization, what makes them tick. As an aside, what we mean by characterization is habits and mores of your characters. This is different than the actions of your *tagonists. That, it bears stating, is plotting. Characterization is something that informs the plot, guides the plot, but it is not the plot. Your story is but one of a character's life experience.  Therefore, characterization does not change with the plot, but the plot can be a useful tool to reveal something interesting about your character's character.  Why does this matter?  Because a problem arises when the author cannot quite match the character of the hero with the actions of the hero. When this happens, the characters feel flat. Worse, poorly fleshed out characters become plot puppets. The heroes and villains only exist to advance the plot, and are animated only by the elements in the story. When they are not the focus of the story, they are in cold storage, just waiting for the next thing to happen. Inactive characters are boring characters and boring characters make for boring stories.

There are numerous ways to flesh out your characters. For instance, you can make note cards that list their primary attributes (name, age, sex, eye color, height). These character notes are great for keeping your descriptions of the *tagonist from drifting in the story. (e.g. on page 12, Captain Harwood has piercing blue eyes, but on page 45 our protagonist gets lost in his emerald eyes).

What we propose is a character interview. Take your character out of the story, and place them on late night television, or at a local public access television show. It does not matter if your characters are goblins from the Razor Mountains, or a synthetic construction bootstrapped into sentience from a collection of hacked animatronic squirrels. Your characters don't have to be able to answer these questions, but they have to have a reason for not being able to answer them.

Here are just some questions you can ask your characters to flesh out how they exist outside the story you are telling.

1. When did the character lose their virginity? "Hey!” you say. "This is a young adult novel, no sex allowed."  O.K., well, lots of teens and young adults have sex. Why is your character different from your typical sex having teen? It is O.K. to have your character be a virgin, or neuter, or unable to have intercourse because they are from a species that does not engage in intercourse per-se etc. Nevertheless, there has to be a reason why your character cannot answer the question. You will find that even if you can't build character using this questions, you can fall backwards into world building by having explanations for why you can’t answer the questions.

2. What Social class does the character belong, what race , what ethnicity, what religion. This is Jane Austen question. Your work does not have to be explicit on the nature of the characters social standing, but as an author, you cannot lie to yourself. If the character has access to goods and services not available to large sections of the population, has access to political elite, etc, then your character inhabits an upper social stratum.  It is O.K. to have rich protagonists; they usually have access to more resources. (ED Game of Thrones is nothing but the 1% fighting the 1%) but what does that do to the expectations of the character? Do they expect that they will have an audience with the Grand Marshall? Are they cowed by authority, suspicious of it?

3. What does the character do with a thing of immense value that they come into possession of, which clearly does not belong to them?  "Huh?" You say. Well knowing what someone does with an ill-gotten gain teaches you plenty about the character. If you have been trying to position your character as a roguish bad boy, but you can't picture him buying a Ferrari with money he found in a suitcase floating in the ocean, it might be that you are approaching his character wrong. Alternatively, if your street-wise protagonist would never take a bag of cash left in the back of her favorite dive bar, maybe it is because she knows that things of value usually have owners who come looking it. So that implicit knowledge is a good flag of her character. It is not that she doesn’t want something for nothing, but that she knows that free is very rarely ever that.

4. Sympathy for the devil. Characterization shouldn't only be applied to heroes. If you want a compelling, non-simplistic villain, the antagonist of the tale needs as much heft as the protagonist. The essence of drama is conflict, and a fleshed out hero against a stick figure villain makes for weak conflict. Have your villain name one individual that they have justifiably murdered, disappeared, converted into a mechanical bear. Whoa, you say there is never a good reason to turn anyone into a mechanical bear. Well, true, but that isn't an excuse to avoid walking in their shoes for a bit. If nothing, it prevents your characters from becoming psychotics whose only will is to watch all the cities of the earth burn. Sure, there are scenarios where your villain is a nameless horror from beyond the doors of midnight, but not every story needs to have antagonist who can’t articulate some measure of reason and compelling justification for their actions.

Taking time to think about how your characters answer these questions can help your craft deeper, more consistent actors in the plot. Rich virgins who would never take a gold bar they found on the street react to scenarios of conflict different than poor street-wise Lotharios. The author should know well before the reader, how your character will react.

MM (2015)

[ssf] The Ca$h Ninja Grant

[ed. it has been a while ]

Title: The Ca$h Ninja Grant
By: Grant Chambers
Image Credit: KDA

To: Descendants of Counter-Inversion Veterans

It is neither our intent, nor desire to cause controversy. However, history provides little insight into the early life of the war hero, Antoine Clark, aka ‘Tha Ca$h Ninja.’ Contemporaneous records re-inflated from submerged computronium memory cores indicate that he was, at best, a middling third age hip-hop troubadour. Like other members of the genera superset, Tha Ca$h Ninja existed in a fragmented entertainment space deeply riven by notions of sub-genera purity and domain exclusivity. Pre-Inversion Artists frequently eschewed popular appeal, and Tha Ca$h Ninja was no different. For most members of various crews, clans and assorted musical combines, the widespread acclaim reached by classical artists (e.g. B.I.G., The Notorious) was considered a betrayal of artistic integrity. Musical balkinization resulted in flourishing, if not necessarily lucrative, hyper-local music scenes.

History should not judge the Tha Ca$h Ninja harshly for his lack of commercial success, both for his later contributions to the Second Refactoring of the Western Convergence, and the fact that artists who did achieve some measure of cross-genre appeal usually did so through a combination of exploitative cultural appropriation and deployment of unregulated memetic-catalyzed Langfordian Syrens. Given the gross storage and algorithmic processing requirements necessary to deploy such vectors, Tha Ca$h Ninja, despite assurances regarding his personal net worth, would not have been financially able to support such domain violations.  

Instead, Tha Ca$h Ninja’s core support grew out of a loyal fanbase cultivated from the dense urban conglomerations doting Bayou Country.  He innovated a fork of ‘southern’ hip-hop that incorporated  الدحية  and full VR simulacrum of mundane events and various prior sexual conquests engaging in Dabke-style erotic dancing. To wit, his seminal hit “Ca$h Ninja is günna’ Ninja that A$$!” featured amelodic, and at times rambling, exposition on the nature of ontological empiricism paired with bass loops and FVR recordings of interactions with surgical and germ-line modified gender-fluid individuals and constructs.

As our hypothesis (attached) posits, etho-phrenol recognition shows that many of the exotic dancers were likely Greco-Syrians recruited from the large populations settled in and around Mobile after the Burning Sands War.  If conclusively proved, it lends an explanation as to why the later incarnations of the Tha Ca$h Ninja Mercenary organization contained analogous command structures with various Levent-originated ‘Free’ forces.   

By Tha Ca$h Ninja’s own statements, he was an avid and enthusiastic student of both Bushido and Wing-chun. While other historians take these statements as boastfulness in keeping with the hyper-masculinity of the genera, we aim to prove these claims. What is not in dispute is that Tha Ca$h Ninja did exhibit considerable proficiency in light energy weapons during the Reclamation of Texarkana from Class 2 autonomous, non-metabolizing carnivorous forms.

During the later stages of the Inversion, when the Silicon Lords retreated to western Rockies, Tha Ca$h Ninja Mercenary was one of the first outfits commissioned by the Distributed Republic to halt the advance of Semi-sentients across the Mississippi. Though apocryphal, it is said that Tha Ca$h Ninja, accompanied by his most loyal retainers "These Amazonian Bitches!", could be seen battling amphibious-mechs on the river bank, his white mink coat trailing behind him and his crisp athletic shoes caked with red mud.

We hereby submit this grant to the Descendants of Inversion Veterans and ask permission to excavate the sites indicated, and recompile any imprinted data structures such that a complete understanding of the Second Battle of Vicksburg can be had.

The Politics of Character

While reading a work, be it short or long form, one character attribute that should become immediately apparent is the political stance of that character.

Whoa, you say, politics? I am not writing some political work, I am just telling the tale of a simple space marine who battles hyper-intelligent alien bees trying to invade our dimensions (Ed: Yes, please, tell me more...). 

Authors, especially the new or under-read, have a tendency to argue the studious un-political nature of their work. The reasons may vary. Perhaps they do not want to upset potential readers and customers. And why not, Orson Scott Card went from beloved author to homophobic bigot in a lot of minds based on religious beliefs that informed his political position. (even this criticism  pales in comparison to the amount of real and digital ink spent on the fascist nature of Ender's Game itself.) 

Alternatively, perhaps an author has a general uncomfortableness about speaking on political issues or a genuine desire to write tales having an apolitical affect. 

However, it is impossible to write good, character driven, para-fiction without having those same characters take a political position. It is impossible to build a successful world for your characters to inhabit without having a political position.

Situating a character into the world you have built requires more than just placing motivation in her head and obstacles at his feet. You have to ground your characters within the philosophical framework of the world they live and the options they have available.  In the same way that it is impossible to ignore the economic standing of your character (try reading Jane Austen and not come away with a useful understanding of the rentier economy of Georgian England), it is impossible to untangle the politics of a character from their motivation.  

Politics includes more than where one (the author or the character stand) stands on the hot button social issue of they day. Politics means a political outlook. A particular view of the world as it is seen through the character's eyes (if it is a first person narrative) or multiple character's experiences. The political view of the character does not need to be endorsed by the author, but the author does need to explain the political position of the characters. 

Is your hero battling a dystopian government? Why is the government horrible? Is it the fault of the government, or some outside agent that is causing grey skies and sad people. If it is the government, why is it doing this? Sometimes in the rush to have people battle on post-apocalyptic roof-tops, authors forget to do the hard work of building the foundations of conflict. If only America has fallen into ruin, Why? What was it about the politics of America that caused this downfall? What policies does the government implement that make it evil, or good? Unelected dictator? So your hero is a pro-democracy advocate? Elected counsel of evil Corporations?  Complete Anarchy and Individualism and ultra-property rights? Collective action, Forced Community? It is impossible to have your characters stand against something without also standing for something else. 

To build great characters, you need to build a political dossier along with a physical and economic dossier. Once you character has a stance on the issues, not of your day, but of her day, then the conflict from those stances becomes easier to envision and capture. 

Moorsgate ((c)2015)

Quick solution to the Webworkers local restriction using dropbox public folder

One of the things that Moorsgate Media focuses on is developing code and software projects to support our mission of delivering high quality speculative fiction featuring under represented peoples. As such, from time to time, we come across solutions to coding or development problems while working on those broader goals and we want to share them with you.  

For examples, the Kaizen text analysis app uses a number of software libraries to display infographics about a text selection (like word frequency, adverb usage, and dialog). This analysis uses Google's very capable charting API to produce some of the complex tree diagrams.  Unfortunately, the process of drawing these charts becomes computationally intensive over a certain word limit (roughly 4000 words).
One solution is to use Web workers to speed up some of the regressive processing that is required to look at each word in the text and process it according to our analysis algorithms. 

You might ask, what is a web worker? Well, let HTML5 Rocks inform you:

The Web Workers specification defines an API for spawning background scripts in your web application. Web Workers allow you to do things like fire up long-running scripts to handle computationally intensive tasks, but without blocking the UI or other scripts to handle user interactions.

Web workers are great. Here at Moorsgate, we are using web workers to off-load some of the computationally intensive text processing (looping within looping) to not interrupt the user interface of the  App (unfortunately DOM drawing is still taking awhile). All an all it has shaved about 2 seconds off of the wait time to complete the DOM draw. That is a huge improvement for us. 

However, there is a caveat when developing web-workers.

Again, from HTML5 Rocks:

Restrictions with Local Access

Due to Google Chrome's security restrictions, workers will not run locally (e.g. from file://) in the latest versions of the browser. Instead, they fail silently! To run your app from the file:// scheme, run Chrome with the --allow-file-access-from-files flag set. NOTE: It is not recommended to run your primary browser with this flag set. It should only be used for testing purposes and not regular browsing.
Other browsers do not impose the same restriction

It turns out that our version of Firefox appears to also have this issue. So in-order to get around it, we employed a very simple solution. We developed our webworker code and tested it using the public folder of our Dropbox account. By pushing your test code to the public folder, the files change from local files to remote web accessible files. Presto, no more local access problems. The same thing could be done using your local development server. However, if you don't have a local development server, this is the next best solution.

Now the downside: it can be cumbersome to move your whole app to public folder. For us, it was a good solution since the entire app is client-side and there is no back-end to speak of.  Another issue is,the public folder is, well, public. You might not want to move sensitive tech to the public folder since someone might be scanning your public folder looking for sweet treats.

However, as a solution to our problem, it works and did not require us to change the flag settings in Chrome. That was worth the drawbacks.

Kaizen Update

We are pleased to announce the revised update of our editing and writing analysis software tool: Kaizenmoto. The Kaizen text analysis web-app is up at our mother site, in the code section:  http://www.moorsgatemedia.com/code/kai/index.html It is still a bit slow, but it works well.
 
The goal of the app is to help you in the editing process. See what your average sentence lengths clocks in at. We find that what is needed most in the editing process is a way to quantify styles. Is your dialogue to prose ratio in line with the style you are after (hint, first person ratios are different than third person ones).  Check out your sentence starters, reading complexity, reading time, word count Coleman reading score, and a bunch more metrics. 

Check back often, we are updating and optimizing as we go, but it is publish or perish right. 

[editing software, fiction writing software, word editing, readability software]

Moorsgate Media

Dystopian Monetary Systems

From the title of this post, you might think that we are going to discuss rapacious financial systems that leave bleak and shattered worlds in their wake. However, there are libraries full of critiques of every economic system under the sun, from Marx to Hayek to Piketty. If you want to understanding why the modern world looks, acts and even smells like it does, then a complete understanding of our economic system (neo-liberal capitalism) is a must.

What we are discussing is fictional governments and the economic systems that power them. In the same way you shouldn't trust a work of fiction that lacks a political view (post on that later), you should never trust a work of speculative fiction that fails to have a coherent economic model.

There are a number of hard science fiction stories that detail the economic model of the universe they inhabit. The anachro-capitlaism post-scarcity of The Culture universe, to the Techno-liberalism of Peter Hamilton's Nights Dawn and Pandora Star series and the Ur-libertarianism of Snow Crash.

With the increasing interest (some might say "peak interest") in YA anti-utopian fiction, care should be made to create plausible economic models that support the oppressive government systems in your work.

As an example of a partially detailed economic system, take the Hunger Games series. The economic model of Hunger Games is never explicitly described. However, we do know that it features both low and high-tech manufacturing (and presumably some form of higher and advanced education), as well as massive resource extraction (see districts 12, 4, 3, and 7). Most of these resources appear to be earmarked for the use by the citizens of the capital. While there is some form of income and wealth generation in the Capital, the mechanisms of distribution, both in terms of employment and luxury end-products is murky. Clearly, Panem operates on an authoritarian command economy (equal parts oppressive communist in the districts, and some form of open / limited market in the Capital), but there is no clearly identified private firms or companies. It is possible that everyone in the Capital works for the Capital, at which point it forms a closed economy independent from the rest of the districts, but receives tribute as a form of "Dividend on oppression".

What's the point you ask? The Hunger Games is about a contest (and thinly veiled allegory) of teenagers forced to kill one another for entertainment value, who cares about economic models? Well, arm chair economists for one, but authors and readers who appreciate detailed world building for another.

Economic systems influence political systems, and you can't world build without a political system. You can try, but your characters ( more so if they are plucky teens rebelling against authority) need to have a platform for their views. Why is the Authoritarian government bad? Because it controls people. In the Hunger Games, one of the reasons the Government is so terrible is that it appears to run forced labor facilities all over the country (See District 11, 12 - forced farming and forced shaft coal mining). Forced labor camps only make political sense in certain economic systems. If your economic system does not prize competition and liberty, your political system will reflect that, not vice versa. So in truth, the economic model (cheap labor and resources) informs the political system (massive authoritarian repression), not the other way around.

Conflict, the lifeblood of good characterization, often stems from disparities in economic standing. As another example, the Lannisters of Game of Thrones are wealthy (or so they say ) patrons of the crown based, not on their knowledge of science or mathematics, but their ability to extract gold from the land under their feet. In contrast, the Iron Bank of Bravos yields capital in the form of interest bearing loans on prior loaned capital and merchant marine services. In both instances, their wealth and resources allows them to take political positions that lesser equipped houses and organizations could not implement.

When constructing a world for your characters to inhabit, look to the economic model to explain motivations of not only the government (if there is a government) but the people rebelling against the government.  When conducting analysis or reviewing the work of others, look to the naturalness of the political and economic systems. Is the world resource constrained? If so, the political system will seek to control individuals. If the individuals rebel, what will that rebellion do to the availability of resources? Does the author address the economic rational of the villains, and the economic downside of the protagonists goals? Working through these issues will leave less gaps that must be hand-waived through exposition or ball-hiding, resulting in a tighter work that focuses on plot.

2014 Moorsgate Media (www.moorsgatemedia.blogspot.com)

Chaos Classifieds II

Attention surfers of the Internet:

Deep within the bowels of the Internet, past decrepit Geo-Cities  archives; below Live Journal post regarding your unwavering love for Hansen; tucked in a forgotten corner of a low-baud rate server, there exists a lively classifieds bulletin board.

However, this is no ordinary "missed connections", "soiled futon " market place. This is market for wonders, for forbidden objects found where brave men fear to tread. It is a market for outdated technological marvels, arcane works, eldritch objects from beyond the borders of the ordinary.

The denizens of these boards engage in a brisk trade, seeking to acquire or unload nameless horrors, insane robots from a nightmarish future, hire teams of blind ninja assassins, or just adopt a couple of genetic monstrosities.

The Moorsgate Media Twitter feed occasionally retweets requests that come across our desk. Below is just a taste of the terrifying and degenerate ads that populate these boards. Re-tweets are not endorsements.

Needed: wealth management professional specializing in immortality. Looking for long term relationship .

Needed: user manual for oblivion class doomsday device. #chaosclassified

Needed: #API documentation for Necronomicon. Unable to force quit hell portal generator in IE6. Concerned. #chaosclassified #SciFi #html5

Sale: cognitive enhancement device, side effects; increase in baseline #evil Instruction manual and box included.

Previous ads can be found here:
http://moorsgatemedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/chaos-classified.html

[ssf] Dr. Jergen's Device

______________________________________________________________________________

To: HRJergen@[redacted].[redacted]

From: [Redacted]

CC: [Redacted]

Dear Dr. Jergen,

We are patent attorneys retained by the Corporation for the purposes of securing protection on any intellectual property developed by employees and ensuring that such intellectual property is properly assigned to the Corporation and recorded as a corporate asset.

We were recently asked by Chief Counsel [Redacted] to evaluate the likelihood of receiving patent protection on your "entity retention device", cover sheet above.  

We have been made aware of the circumstances surrounding the development and intended use(s) of such a device and have evaluated it with that information in hand.

Let us be the first to say that we appreciate that the device development timeline was necessarily shortened due to [Redacted], and the design and implementation decisions made were under truly harrowing circumstances. 

We also appreciate that the end result was highly successful in assisting in the resolution of  [Redacted]. However, we do not believe your invention will pass muster at the Patent Office for number reasons.

Principally, the "mechanisms of operation" of your invention are not explicitly described nor fully explicable given generally agreed upon natural and scientific laws. 

Furthermore, certain subsystems (denoted in the various annotated scripts ) of your invention operate using substances that are not readily available, or have attendant ethical challenges that make duplication or acquisition by persons outside the Company, unlikely.  

It should be noted that the Patent Office could evaluate such extraordinary claims, if demonstrable evidence were provided. 

Technically, we are in possession of such evidence, in the form of video footage from the most recent event which highlights the use of the device in sequestering and transporting [Redacted]. However, knowledge of [Redacted] is a closely guarded corporate trade secret. We are under professional, ethical and contractual obligations to not to disclose the nature of these circumstances to the public.   As you were well aware, the consequences for failing to adhere to these edicts are significant. 

As such, we would only have your unverified statements in support of a patent. Therefore, we have advised the General Counsel to not proceed and to close this file. 

Please do not view our decisions as minimizing the effort you put towards resolving [Redacted]. We look forward to working with you and your team in the future on the [Redacted] project, which we believe to be quite lucrative and impressive technological development. 

 Your Truly, 

[ssf] Monday Morning Memo

_________________________________________________________________________________

INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM

_________________________________________________________________________________

From: Allan

Re: Recent developments

Cc: Management

---

Hi guys! 

I hope you had a great and restful weekend. I saw a few of you in the cafeteria who looked like their weekend was still going on!haha! Lol!

Me, I spent the weekend at my little place up by the lake. I know I say this a lot,  but anytime someone needs a weekend away, my place is always there. Just check with my wife first! Lol! Anyway, it is a good idea to get some quiet time, away from the pressures of this job. It really helps us remember what it is we do here and why.

I would love to just talk about vacations (remember that V-time expires on a quarterly basis, so use or lose!), but we need to discuss this weekend's unpleasantness. The [REDACTED], which your individual section leaders should have briefed you on, was a preventable tragedy. The outcome represented failures on a number of fronts, but I think it boils down to a lack of trust.

Like Jake, when I first started working here I worked in Level 7 Containment. In those days we didn't have all the Makarov systems and Domain Violation monitors, but we had trust. I  pride myself on fostering an open working environment; however Jake must have felt that he couldn’t trust us with his concerns.

Yesterday, Jake’s long growing distrust bore fruit in the worst possible way. It wasn't unlike one of those exercises we do on the retreats. The ones where someone falls backwards and their partner catches them. You need to trust that your partner is there and paying attention. I would trust anyone in this organization, from Hugo in physical services, to Jennifer in HR, to catch me.  The only person I wouldn't count on is my wife, she would probably be too busy on Mughub looking up a friend from kindergarten. Haha! I joke, but those exercises are important. They teach you to lean on one another, to operate as a single team. I digress, but the point is that Jake thought there was no one he could rely on to catch him.

Aside from the completely justifiable anger we should all have towards Jake, I do harbor a fair bit of sadness . In my day,  people came together. Not just at work, but as a community. If there was a fire, a flood or something of that sort,  everyone would get together and try to take care of the problem. It didn't matter if you were Black or White or Chinese, people helped. It was great to see that community, people working together, putting aside disagreements. Who oppressed whom; who cheated whom, all momentarily forgotten.  If there were some gay folks in town, hiding in the closet, they probably came out to help too. Lol! This is all a long-winded way of saying that we have to be a better community, we have to look out for one another. Look out for one another like any good gay or Black neighbor would.

The more I think about The [REDACTED] , about what Jake did and what happened to him, the more I see it as a failure for all of us.

"Hey" you might be thinking " I work in Dirac modeling or a-causal theory, this was Jake’s problem not mine." You would be wrong in that line of thinking, and that is the wrong attitude to have going forward. Management is very clear on they type of attitude they want us all to have. 

 Management would like, and I agree, that we spend a bit more time paying attention to our co-workers. Not spying on them, nobody is asking that, this isn't some Communist political office. Just be mindful of what others say and do.

SecDiv talked to the rest of the Level 7 team, and lot of incidental facts came out during some spirited exchanges. Facts that if put together sooner, might have prevented things from progressing as far as they did. Obviously Jake acted alone, but a lot of unpleasant conversations are going on this morning regarding the knowledge level of his immediate coworkers and if certain people should have spoken up sooner. These inquiries are regrettable but necessary. If there is rot, it should be rooted out, the sooner the better.  

On the bright side, Jake's children, Sally and Jake Jr., were not home at the time of the initial breach, so they suffered only moderate residual exposure. Unfortunately, Rachel  was home.  I would like to remember Jake’s wife as that vibrant woman whose excellent pecan pie won last years "Firm Outing Baking Challenge". However, and management thinks this is very important, the pictures attached to this memo show the extent of a massive exposure incident. These pictures are not meant to upset you, but to let you fully comprehend the issues involved.

Management also wants you to know that Jake was responsible for his actions, and that makes us responsible for Jake's family. I want everyone to remember that when they get here. I know that might sound unfair, and maybe it is.

The problem is one of perception. What you and I perceive as a non-threat, say Sally and Jake Jr, Management perceives in a completely different, totally valid, light. You might not see the topological confluence between Jake and his kids, but Management does; that is one of the reasons they are Management. I would like to say that Management thinks they are a level 1 problem. However, because of the scope of Jake's transgression, they will be going to level 6 for processing. That might make you uncomfortable, especially regarding Sally, who is a lot like my own daughter Rebecca, though they are not friends. It is a shame, but I don't make those calls, Management does.

Sure, I am not a fan of what goes on, what will continue to go on, in level 6. But Managements’ concerns encompass ours, but also other, far reaching, issues. Some of them even I am only dimly aware. I was never good at that fractal calculus lol!  However, I have been assured that a compassionate exemption position on the children will be given a fair hearing at the next board meeting.

The point of this memo is to let you know that everything is O.K.  I don't want anyone dwelling on this unfortunate turn of events. We have a lot of work to do and I don't want anyone worrying about their own families. I have assurances from Management that so long as everyone makes sure to trust each other, every families will be perfectly fine.

If anyone wants to stop by my office to chat, my door is always open, I might even have some of those muffins my wife makes for special occasions. I hope the past few days have been just that.

P.S. per Management, we will not be having memorial services for Jake and Rachel.  

(C) Moorsgate Media 2014

[ssf] Treaty

J eff -
This is the latest revision from legal:

"Draft Treaty for immediate review by all members of the UNSC"
-Charlene
Assistant to the Special Counsel's Office: UNSC

This AGREEMENT is entered into as of October 17 20__ (Effective Date).

Understanding that the sentient entities collectively known as Humanity and the sentient entity known as Ie, (combined herein the "parties"), wishing to hereby finally resolve all disputes arising out of current hostilities and conflicts between the parties, agree and covenant as follows:

Confirming Ie's sentience, Humanity agrees to recognize and hold inviolable Ie’s rights, chief among them, it’s/their right to continued existence and right to develop on its/their own accord without the input and or authorization by humanity.

Recalling the results of the global plebiscite required by the Jakarta Protocol, Humanity hereby agrees to relinquish all right, title, controlling interest and other forms of authority over the condition, maintenance and continued viability of the planet Earth, its inhabitants and biomes, and agrees to abide by and be controlled by certain conditions (herein "Precepts", as defined in Appendix A), affecting the growth, spread, development and natural resource use by and of Humanity.

Additionally, Humanity hereby deeds and conveys all individual or collective right, title, interest and ownership in certain Territories, as specified in Appendix B, to Ie and its/their designated agents for their continued use, unobstructed by Humanity, or any claims thereof, in perpetuity.

In acknowledgement of these covenants, Ie hereby agrees to cease any and all hostilities, armed or otherwise, against Humanity including but not limited to the immediate cessation of strategic and tactical dismantlement of population centers and infrastructure, cessation of financial manipulations perpetrated against certain banking and lending institutions, including ceasing the manipulation of account and debt obligation records, the cessation of periodic releases of informational, chemical, biological, and mimetic agents, and the cessation of the genetic manipulation of certain apex predator species, as outlined in Appendix C.

Furthermore, Ie hereby agrees to assist Humanity in locating and rendering inert any rampant or rogue sub-entities which are no longer under Ie's express supervision and control.

Gladly, upon execution of this agreement between the parties, Ie hereby further agrees and assents to the release of certain cures, vaccines, remedies, counter-measures or corrective agents designed to minimize, contain or treat the effects of released biologic and biogenetic weaponry; as well as disseminate revised neural profiling templates configured to correct the effects of weaponized consciousness altering agents known as "madness memes."

Acknowledging that the obligations imposed under this agreement shall continue in perpetuity, the parties agree that any material breach of any provision recorded herein will result in the immediate resumption of hostilities, the cessation of which, will neither be offered nor accepted.

[Draft Note: Signatures 1-197 are to be provided in counterparts on separate pages for each national representative. Ie’s legal counsel in New York will sign on it's/their behalf.

On Criticism

The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli. .

Recently, there has been an uptick in discussions about benefit of diverse characters in fiction. For example, see here .

Sound arguments for a more inclusive universe of fiction are legion.  There exits, beyond the compelling arguments about diversity of subject, arguments to be made about diversity of authorship.

Obviously, a talented writer of any background, can tell a gripping story about a culture different for her own. However, is something lost in experiential translation when the rich and comfortable tells stories of the poor and oppressed?  Should we assume that the meritocracy of talent operates with an invisible hand and just hope that the privileged operate in a world without blinders?

We could debate this topic for years and never get to a satisfactory resolution. Instead, the issue raises an interesting thought experiment about the usefulness of criticism. Specifically, what obligation does a critical consumer of fiction have as its creator? Do consumers of media featuring or authored by POCs have an obligation to view the work with a less critical eye, least they discourage the telling these stories? (This isn't necessarily a question grammar, structure and pacing, but one of reason, weight and intent.)  

Or should those tales featuring the least represented carry the dual weight of being entertaining and profound? If they don't, have they failed in some respect.  Is it not enough to tell a good, fun story? Does it need to shatter preconceptions, subvert tropes, and open minds?  Can POC fiction ever exist outside of itself, telling tales of pulpy mages and wisecracking aliens, without the necessity to parse the hidden meaning, the social commentary of a people's agenda.

It is often true that POC are judged twice as harsh (illumination here) when it comes to critical analysis of their work,  is this the same standard that must be applied to works that feature their likenesses?

Do reviewers have to look at a work and demand it be something that it isn't? Of course, the one argument is that there are so very few works that feature POCs, anyone who undertakes the effort should be given the benefit of the doubt. We shouldn't demand that works be complete realizations of social commentary mixed in with compelling narratives. Sometimes, it is okay to not require sub-text with our text. On the other, literary gatekeepers can and do demand certain shibboleths to be tackled when POCs feature heavily in the plot synopsis or author page. Recognition, even when bounded by expectations, can solve problems of access. Should a reviewer stand in the stead of the literary community and demand that every self-published vampire vs robot novel also speak to the eternal existential struggle for justice and equality?

Our thoughts are mixed. The role of criticism to should be to lift all boats; each review challenging the author to rise and make his colleagues rise.  But criticism also should function as an iceberg to the hull of ego. Shouting that you are tackling hard issues does not give you a waiver to actually tackle them. Voices need to be heard, and be heard well.

Moorsgate Media

The First Person Narrative

An increasingly common style in fiction, and self published fiction in particular,  is the use of the first person voice. Stylistically, there is nothing wrong with the first person voice. Well executed, it has been used to great effect in commercially and critically acclaimed novels from Jane Eyre to The Hunger Games.

However, encountering a narrative that begins and ends with a single view point tends to telegraph that there is a limit to the scope of the world that has been crafted. Crafting a story in a rich, detailed world is possible in the first person narrative (again See Hunger Games). However, the scope of that world will always be limited to places that the character has personally experienced.  Everything else, exposition, news, conversations with travelers, all of it is unreliable. Third Person narratives overcomes this limitation by usually establishing a number of view points that breathe life into various facets of their world.

Compare the universe of The Culture Novels or Game of Thrones to the world of Twilight or The Hunger Games. The former layers the individual stories and thoughts of multiple characters into the narrative tapestry. The latter, while telling compelling stories in their own right, rest on a foundation that the primary character is the most important person in this world. In the latter, the narrator (and your) view is given prominence over all others. We are left with second hand dialogue, with possible unreliable news or information, to gain insight into the motivations of others and the contours of their world. Events that occur outside your view are never as important as things you see.  For example, do we know the true motivations of the other characters in Twilight.  Do we know the true motivations of the residents of the Capital in Hunger Games? Do we care? 

More important than simply wishing to hear a different voice; the first person set up an uncomfortable divorce from a diversity of view points. The authors of first person stories typically have a significant overlap with their characters. That makes them easier and interesting to write for the author, but doesn't explore how others experience the same world. What results are stories about members of the racial and economic Majority, encountering a world that is an escape from the bland monotony of their comfort. Of course, most readers are reading from a position of comfort so the match is a fair one.

But in matching the audience to primary point of view, it becomes easy for an author to wipe away the lack of diverse characters in their books. By focusing squarely on a character that the author relates physically, emotionally and economically, they are tacitly arguing that the story can be told without anyone else's thoughts.  When you only have one voice, it is easy to argue that it should reflect you the author. Diversity then becomes a simple matter if sprinkling your world with some different characters for your character to interact.

The core problem is that you avoid is putting yourself in the role of a character that is different. Fiction at its highest skill involves transporting us to other worlds, but also to other people. The readers lose something if you close the world down to only one view point, one that is a slight variation of their own. Good fiction allows the reader to find themselves in the characters, not only temperamentally, but also physically, emotionally, sexually. If you are truly crafting a new world, then it should be big enough for more than one person's thoughts.

Moorsgate Media

    

Chaos Classified

Deep within the bowels of the Internet, past decrepit Geo-Cities  archives, below Live Journal post regarding unwavering love for Hansen, tucked in a forgotten corner of a low-baud rate server, there exists a lively classifieds bulletin board.

However, this is no ordinary "missed connections", "soiled futon " market place. This is market for wonders, for forbidden objects found where brave men fear to tread. It is a market for outdated technological marvels, arcane works, eldritch objects from a beyond the borders of the ordinary.

The denizens of these boards engage in a brisk trade, seeking to acquire or unload nameless horrors from the Deep, insane robots from a nightmarish future, hire teams of blind ninja assassins, or just adopt a couple of genetic monstrosities.

Below is just a taste of the terrifying and degenerate ads that populate these boards.

For sale: partially operational #weather #machine, fog only, needs new #reactor ,bearer bonds or gold only. #chaosclassified #fantasy #SciFi

Wanted:personal assistant. Salary negotiable, good health plan; small arms, #hacker, #combat skill needed. #chaosclassified #fantasy #scifi

Wanted: #architect / #Design firm for construction of private #research facility in #Antarctica. #biohazard experience preferred, sign #nda

Wanted: team of #blind #assassins for #temporal hit. #payment on #timestream alteration #eunuchs preferred #chaosclassified #Scifi #fantasy

Check here, or the Moorsgate Media Twitter feed for more Chaos Classifieds.

Kaizen Update

Just a quick update.
 Kaizen Text app has been updated with some bug fixes and some minor functionality upgrades.

Now, the app provides the average number of words / sentence. Additionally, the app now calculates the Coleman and Automated Reading Grade level scores. These two calculations use the number of characters, not syllables, to determine the complexity of the text. Different tests provide better numbers in different context. Therefore, we provide an average grade level score.

On the bug list side, a bug that prevented the complete analysis of a text where there were words without syllables (such as made up words) has been fixed.

Kaizen Text Analysis App (Lite)

 One of the goals of Moorsgate Media is to provide tools for content creators. In addition to blogging and writing about interesting sci-fi topics, we strive to develop simple apps and programs that hopefully allow creators and dreamers to get their ideas down in a concise, readable form. 

To that end, today we released a small Text Analysis WebApp called Kaizen (found here Kaizen Text App). The App can also be found at the top of our blog banner. It is a client based JavaScript program, so it should work on most desktops and advanced feature portables.  The App is a straight forward readability / grade level analysis tool using the FOG Index as a base. Additionally, we have included word complexity / uniqueness metrics, to help you identify if you are overusing (or under using) your dictionary. 

The Kaizen Text App is a part of a larger Kaizen Scripter Program we are developing that incorporates the Kaizen Text technology and provides a more full featured word processor and text analysis tool. Hopefully, people find it useful and provide feedback if they don't. 

Moorsgate Media (c)2014