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)

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

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

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

    

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.

Modern Rosetta Stones

The resetting of the yearly clock (regardless of the particular clock with which you subscribe) is a great time to evaluate the course of history and how modern society fits into that unbroken chain.

The original Rosetta Stone was created in 196 BC to memorialize a debt relief program instituted by the Ptolemy Kings of Egypt.


(The Ptolemy Kings were not Egyptian, but Macedonian. They were the descendants of Ptolemy who was one of Alexander the Great's generals, Cleopatra would be the last of his line).

The practice of erecting large documents stones was a ancient tradition in the second century BC. There is archaeological evidence that "stele" had been erected discussing tax relief for at least 2000 years prior, at the dawn of the Old Kingdom.

Until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, researchers had no way of understanding the content of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone provides nearly identical statements in Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic script (a kind of Egyptian document script) and important ancient Greek.  From ancient Greek, Roman scholars transcribed many ancient philosophies and histories. These Latin and Greek texts were then translated by Arabic scholars and eventually were deposited into the libraries of the great European institutions of higher learning.   Thus, a writing system 4000 years old, with no living practitioners was resurrected.

Without this stele and others of its kind, we would never have been able to decipher, as quickly or as easily, the complex Egyptian hieroglyphic system.

Of course, one's thoughts necessarily turn to our own languages and how easy or difficult, it would be

revive our own written language 4000 years in the future. We make few, if any, multilingual stone monuments.

One exception is the Georgia Guide Stones. This immense granite block, commissioned by unnamed individuals, contains the same inscription written in 8 different languages, including English, Chinese, and Spanish - the most common languages used in the modern world.

However, one stone structure in the Georgia woods is not something that humanity should rely on to ensure that the vast corpus of accumulated knowledge written in modern English is preserved for generations.  Researchers from the Principality of Zhang-Sanchez in the year 6014 might not have access to this single granite monument. (Why? Because Aliens stole all our granite in the great Granite Caper of 5679 /Global Warming /Zombies / Fear of stones?). 

What people of the future will have access to is our trash. Our rubbish might make all the difference in deciphering any number of languages. For example, the picture below was taken of a crib being thrown out in NYC. Where it will end up is anyone's guess. However, within the steel and plastic confines, is a plastic sheet written in Spanish, English and French. Carted off and buried in a landfill it will wait with its precious knowledge codex until someone digs it up, and realizes ancient man (us) had instructions for everything, including how babies should sleep.

If you have examples of modern day Rosetta stones, leave them in the comments.

Moorsgate Media (c) 2014.

Antagonist frequency in Fiction

During the discussion of high-quality and low quality fiction, an argument is usually made concerning antagonistic frequency rates. Simplified, this argument goes something like this:

Book proponent: "Sexy Vampires IV is the best Historical Slash-Vamp Dom Fiction out there!" 

Book Detractor: "Man! Slash-Vamp fiction is totally played, everyone is doing that these days." 

Insert you proposed antagonist into that conversation and you will get someone who will tell you that the Genre is over done, played out, or no longer interesting.  Additionally, any conversation of reasonable length with agents, publishers and marketers will eventually result in them telling you which particular genera of fiction they are tired of seeing.

The rise of self-publishing has pushed this situation into overdrive. Where originally there were maybe a half-dozen entries in a particular genera per year from major and minor publishers, you now have hundreds, if not thousands, of attempts to tell a particular story. But does that mean that you should abandon your attempt at telling the greatest Vampire Zombie Love Story?

What is lacking is historical perspective. Google's Ngram viewer gives some imperfect, but interesting, historical context to the antagonistic frequency debate.

As shown above, the frequency of various antagonist (this is current through 2009) in English fiction is charted. Generally, in current fiction debates, Vampires and Zombies are singled out as being over-done in terms of genera.  However, Aliens as a concept has held a pretty consistent lead, and it currently, even though there has been some decline, is at a historically above average position.  Interestingly, the concept of plagues, which can be related to Zombies, has been on a historical downward slop ever since a peak some time in the 1810's.

Robots, the term being unknown prior to Capek's seminal work, takes off after the publication of R.U.R., and hits a peak in the mid eighties (think original Terminator, transformers, etc.) that surpasses the popularity of vampires today. Sadly, we appear to be living in a world of "Peak Robot", due possibility in part to the rise of non-fictional robots in our everyday lives (e.g murderous drones, vacuum cleaners).

As a point of comparison, the next chart looks at the frequency of some events in fiction (we use aliens as the cross reference to the above chart)


As shown, the concept of the Rapture is down from its historical heights, but has recently made a resurgence, and appears to be on track to overtake Aliens in frequency.  However, from a Genera standpoint, no one argues if Rapture based fiction has reached "peak rapture". [ed. This chart only goes to 2009, if goes to 2012, it might be that there was a serious crash after the Mayan Calendar failed to turn us into orbs of pure something.]

The point here is that antagonist come and go, but without data, it is difficult to determine if present, or short term historical bias is altering peoples' perception of what is or is not a popular genera. Having some data is always a good rule of thumb changing behavior, concepts or positions.

Vampires are terrible

By the title of this post you can probably guess that that I am about to rant about sparkly vampires or loving vampires or generally any sort of vampire that would not feature predominantly as a villain in a Blade reboot (ed:  Blade Reboot? awesome sauce!). 

For the most part, you would be wrong. There is nothing wrong with twinkle vampires, sensitive vampires, or any other form of vampire-based fiction that explores wish fulfillment.  True, there is a lot of "my rich boyfriend is a secret badass", to a lot of modern vampire stories. As a result, people think the genera is over. "No more vampire stories!" people (namely book agents) cry!

There is nothing wrong with the genera. It might just be that the current story slate, ( i.e., rich boyfriend), needs to be investigated further. Economic theory says that if nothing else, most vampires should be at least affluent, if not down right uber-wealthy. Figure out a story that explains how your sexy vampire got his cash, and you might have a new angle on an old idea.

ISSUE 1: Vampires are (or should be) rich.

Vampires, without direct violence, can be expected to live anywhere from "A Very Long Time" to "Infinity." While that sounds great in and of itself, it is really great from an economic stand point. Compound interest is wonderful, as is, the stock market. Most vampires lack the need of actual economic inputs (read: food, clothing, shelter, sleep...air). As such, their actual cash outlays are minimal to non-existent. If they possess special powers, such as super speed or flight, then generally they have zero to minimal transportation costs. Think about the cost of an average transatlantic flight. Vampires pocket that for fancy hotels and ebony-wood coffins.

However, most vampires lack a normal occupation (with the exception of the one that was a rock star and that other one that ran a medical clinic in Washington State) and hence a steady income. However, one assumes if you rob your food source (i.e. people); you can make do. In fact, after a few years you probably have acquired some sizable assets.

Now, let's assume that your vampire boyfriend is nice and does not commit regular robbery/homicides every other lunch period. However, lets also not assume that he hails from some degenerate landed gentry or b) employs some sort of glamer on people, thereby hypnotizing them into giving them money.  Assuming he was, in his mortal incarnation, middle class; then by investing some portion of his money (which he really does not need)  in the sock market (say in General Electric stock in 1915) and living solely off the dividends (or reinvestment or diversifying in times of economic struggle), then by the time he hit the 90's tech bubble he would be a millionaire several times over. By not touching the principal, each vampire more than 50 or 60 years old should have a sizable amount of the worlds money locked up in various modern, well-appointed, seaside homes.

So any story that I encounter that does not explain why a) the vampire is or isn't rich; or b) lacks the assistance of a good financial adviser; should be suspect to the tiny Alan Greenspan that lurks within us. Money is part of the world, an essential part. Relative wealth, and how it was acquired, is a necessary component of any fleshed out character.

ISSUE 2: Vampires Are Bad at Science.

Vampires, as stated above, are considerably long lived. Generally, society mourns the loss of great intellects, from Newton to Einstein. One would think that vampires would scoop up these top notch scientist at the bargain basement price of "almost dead".  Why stop there? Why not selectively "convert" the top graduate(s) of  highly prestigious technical universities.

Truth be told, there should be vampire covens of geniuses. Each one, a collection of immortals sitting around creating fantastic works of art, literature, and science. One should assume that the internally produced vampire literature is significantly superior to human literature. Most vampire stories take the position that only good looking people, of an artistic bent, become vampires (see rock star). However, rarely do we get a story about the great and fabulous vampire museums featuring the "post-turned" works of Picasso, Muro et. al.

Most vampires stories paint the species at a significant technological and ecological disadvantage relative to humans. Vampires rely on a slowly reproducing natural resource that is subject to plagues, pandemics, endemic violence, and natural or cosmic disasters. Farmers wouldn't tolerate the level of uncertainty in the long term viability of their stock. Likewise, surveillance technology, networked infrastructure, high-capacity ammunition, and directed energy weapons all level the playing field against the natural gifts of the supernatural. Vampires should be concerned about the technological prowess of their food-stuff in the same way we would be worried if we started seeing pigs collaborating with cows to build catapults.

ISSUE 3: Vampires lack vision.

With unlimited life spans and budgets, individual vampires should be able to privately fund all manner of Manhattan Project-style endeavors.

For example, given their superhuman abilities, vampires are almost specifically designed for Deep Ocean and Deep Space exploration.

A round trip to Proxima Centuri, at 1/10 the speed of light (which is all we could ever be capable of with modern technology) would take 80 years. This is seen as a barrier for humans, but with a steady supply of cryogenically frozen blood (not to mention "Deep Vampire Sleep", it would be a cake walk for vampires.

Assuming ambitions closer to home, one would expect that at least some vampires use their vast wealth and time horizons to devise counter-measures to human extinction (since one prefaces the other), and are ready to deploy them at a moment's notice.

At the very least, you would assume that Vampires operate technology that is several generations ahead of our own. Faster computers, smaller devices, robots . (ed - see Vampire Hunter D series for technologically advanced vampires).

The point here is to note that "Vampire" as a genera, just like any other genera, has room for interpretation or reinvention. Just because there have been a spate of successful, "Vampires are my Boyfriend", books doesn't mean that every story that could be written about them has been written. Now, a book on Vampire Economics might not get turned into a best selling novel series, but it would definitely set the author apart.

@Moorsgate
www.moorsgatemedia.blogspot.com