Damned Listar. Here it is again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Well, here we are again, little boys and girls. 

I know I've been quiet for awhile but I've finally 
woken up. I've been a bit forgetful with my duties 
but I promise everything will be back on track.

And well, I'm a bit late but better late than never.

So take my hand and we'll start down a little path that
I've gone up and down for the past four years. 

It doesn't matter if this is your first time, kiddo.

Well, kiddies, its time to dance the dance.

Please note that the following was worked on for over
the past weeks, in this lonely, oh so lonely, December 
of mine. So, this is going to be a bit like I've pieced 
together various pieces into one big jigsaw puzzle. 

Pardon the missteps and give me the pleasure of the
dance.

As always comments are welcome from you, my friends 
and enemies all. ^_-


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

               A Long Strange Walk 2001
    
                        or
  
    My Version of the "Go Rin No Sho" for Fanfiction
          and Writing in General    

                         by 
   
                     Elsa Bibat        

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Introduction

 I've been writing for almost my entire life. The 
only other pastime that has lasted longer is my hunger
for the printed word of other individuals and martial
arts, though the martial arts have been an off and on
thing.

 After a decade and a half of writing commercially, 
non-commercially, recreatively, for the school paper, 
for friends who needed filler articles, for people 
who needed rather creative reports and for myself, I 
end up here in front of the computer in the freaking 
cold of the morning after a sleepless night asking 
myself why I'm so alone in the most festive season
of the year and finally remembering I haven't even 
done a scrap of work on this year's essay for the 
FFML.

 I had been lurking on the list for months after 
recovering from my bout with illness. I was writing 
fiction and screenplays and scripts and essays on an
almost daily basis, while pecking at my fanfiction 
since, hey, I get paid for the other stuff and keeping
a roof over my head and feeding me and paying for 
medicine is my priority. As it is, I'm currently redoing
a graduate student's thesis, fixing it up for grammar 
and format errors for which I will be paid the equivalent 
of one hundred US dollars, five thousand smackers in the 
local dinero. 

 So while I rest my brain from intellectual stuff,
I pull up a window of my favored piece of fanfic writing
software, Cetus Wordpad, and started slamming this down.

 That was when it hit.

 It was what Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Pulp
Fiction" called a moment of clarity. Religious people 
would call it an epiphany, you know the one with choirs 
of angels. I think the Buddhists call it "Satori". 

 Whatever it was, that moment of illumination was 
sparked by my eyes falling on my well-thumbed and heavily 
coke-and-coffee-and-occasionally-blood-splattered copy
of Musashi Miyamoto's Go Rin No Sho, right there by Sun 
Tzu, Confucius and Pratchett. To those ignorant of classical 
Japanese philosophical literature, that's The Book of the 
Five Rings, a treatise on swordsmanship written by Japan's 
legendary samurai. 

 Musashi wrote it as a primer to his way of life and 
sword style Niten Ichi Ryu, his Heiho. So why the fuck not
do one of my own? 

 I mean, I'm conceited enough to think I've learned 
something from all those years of writing. ^_- Besides, 
are we not practitioners of an Art? 
   
 There are several parallels with art of writing that
can be drawn with the martial arts and writers could be 
compared to martial artists, in a way. All martial arts 
have an essential goal, to enable the practitioner to
defend himself and others. The Art of writing has a goal,
to tell a story, to entertain, to get a point across,
to be able to reach across the printed word and affect 
the reader. There are many martial art styles, almost 
as many as there are styles of writing. All martial 
arts have the basic building blocks in common: there's 
always a punch, a kick, a block, a dodge and several 
other things that I forget right now, basic things that 
form the complex styles. When we write, we all use the 
same components, words, plots, etc., but as in martial 
arts it's how you use them that counts. A sentence 
written in a certain way and placed in a certain place 
can be more powerful than an entire chapter of 
scribbling, the same way a properly thrown punch to a 
vulnerable spot can down an opponent while a wrong punch 
can leave you with broken fingers.

 Thus armed with these assumptions, I, Elsa Bibat,
in the fourth hour of the fifteenth day of the twelfth 
month of this, the first year of the second millennium
since the birth of the Christ, set down my Way in the 
Art of Writing.

 This is my Way. The "my" part should be 
emphasized but you're free to do it anyway. It's 
actually pretty basic stuff for me, but I don't know 
for you. This is my Way of doing things. It is not 
the only Way. I am absolutely sure that John Biles 
has his Way, Chris Davies has his Way, those Eyrie 
guys have their own Way, Brian Randall, who by the 
way should be in the FFML Author's Encyclopedia, has 
his Way. Every writer has his or her Way. 

 I'm just the only one arrogant enough to write 
it down and release it to the great unwashed. ^_^

 So, let us begin.


   - Elsa Bibat, 4:09 AM, December 15, 
     2001


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                   The Earth Book

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 This is the Book of Earth. 

 Musashi divided his classic in five books, each 
corresponding with the Western elements of Earth, 
Wind, Fire, Water and the one non-Western, the Void or 
"Ku". And since I owe Musashi a lot by inspiring this 
particular piece of madness, I'll follow his order and 
format. Next year, I'll probably do this like the Tao 
Te Ching, just to be cool. 

 Anyway, as in Musashi's book, this Earth book
will set the foundations and introduce you to the 
basic principles of my Way. Earth is solid and hard,
immovable and dependable. In the Earth is found the 
foundations of all things, from the lowest sapling 
to the highest skyscraper.

 And as Musashi often said, do not just read 
this just once. I mean, I may have hidden some grain 
of immense knowledge somewhere. ^_^


"On the Art of Writing"

 The Art of Writing is an extension of something
we do everyday, that day-to-day writing you and 
everyone else does, like writing down notes, the 
grocery list, typing up a report. There is a 
difference, of course. A grocery list never receives 
the Nobel Prize or even reaches the New York Times 
Bestseller list.

 The difference is spirit, it is the soul. Very
few who don't Write nowadays ever invest their
writing with that passion and emotion, that mysterious
element that gives a written work life. Sadly, this 
is also true for some who purport to Write. Just 
about anyone "commerciable" can be published nowadays, 
the thing the un-"commerciable" is usually the work 
with enough soul to affect the reader. 

 But that sense of life is not enough. Like a 
neophyte boxer who knows, feels, he can do it, a 
person who has enough fighting spirit to fill an 
auditorium but lacks the skill to take down his 
opponent, a work which lacks the technical legs 
cannot achieve the goal of every Written work. 
Sometimes yeah, on pure emotion alone a work succeeds 
or in special circumstances where the work echoes 
real life or directly affects it, like that touching 
love letter between your parents that gives you that 
warm and fuzzy feeling inside. But all works must 
have that part of them in logic and technique.

 Like martial arts, the Art of Writing combines
the heart and soul with the mind and cold logic. In 
the middle of hand-to-hand combat, the instinctive 
fall back on tactics and skills learned in practice
sessions is useful and devastating to an opponent
unprepared. The same it is with Writing. It should
be instinctive, since Writing must come from the soul,
and go directly on paper. But unlike martial artists,
we writers have an advantage of retakes, the editing
of drafts by friends and critics. You can go back 
and re-execute the attack. I've lost count of how many
works I've redone after I've done a Reading of them.
It's like stopping a fight to sharpen the sword and
resuming the attack.
 
 It should be noted that I've always believed
that the act of Writing and Reading, not just reading 
but Reading, as a fight, a pitched battle. Your 
objective is to reach the Reader's soul, to touch his
heart and being in the way you want, to tug the heart's
string to play your tune. Writing is your attack, your
weapons: words, sentences, paragraphs, similes, 
metaphors, images and the story. The Act of Reading is
an invitation to a fight, a challenge. Your opponent is
not Reader himself, it is his/her conscious mind. An
inexperienced Reader can have himself overwhelmed by 
a Writer's style because he isn't used to the cliches,
the tricks that a Writer may employ. Sometimes, a 
Writer's attack fails because the Reader's conscious
mind questions the work, it is not believable or it 
is too boring, never letting it reach the Reader's soul.
That is also the reason why experienced Readers are also
harder to please. 

 I distinctly remember my early days of reading 
Ranma fanfiction. Everything seemed to great, since I 
purposefully read them shallowly, "skin-reading" some 
people call it, but once I applied my critical analysis 
and started to really Read, some of those works I 
thought were great fell flat against the standards set 
by other fics. They were shallow and unable to make me 
feel that sense of wonder and empathy that I have always
loved in works of fiction. They didn't have that passion 
to make me feel them in my soul.

 That is the goal of the Art. To reach the soul.
To enable empathy between the Reader and the Writer. I
remember Isaac Asimov describing the book as the perfect
entertainment system, better than television, radio or 
movie. "Telepathy via the written word" that's what he 
called it. To perfect that channel between yourself and
the Reader should be the goal of every Writer.
 

"On the Act of Writing"

 The Act of Writing is just more than sitting 
down and scribbling with a pen. My earlier analogy of 
a battle is appropriate. You're going to go to a war 
and you damn well be ready for a war. 

 To attack an opponent without focus is like 
smashing yourself against a rock wall. Sun Tzu said 
the same thing as Clausewitz and dozens of other 
military tacticians agreed with them. In personal 
combat, you go for objectives: limiting an opponent's 
movement by breaking his knees or legs, disabling his 
ability to detect attacks by attacking the eyes, 
distracting him with feints, or disabling him quickly 
with a ridge hand to the throat or a punch to the 
solar plexus. 

 Focus should always be the beginning of any Act 
of Writing. You need to know what you are supposed to 
be doing. Are you evoking an emotion? Are you sending 
a message? Do you have a story to tell? What are you 
aiming to do to the Reader?

 If you cannot answer these questions before you 
start Writing, back off now. It's like playing chess 
without a battle plan. You'll get slaughtered.

 Now, get a piece of paper and a pen. Go! 

 If you have an idea for a story right now, write 
it down. Also, write down what it should be able to 
accomplish. If you can't do that right, keep that pen 
and paper around till you have that flash of inspiration 
then write it down.

 When you look at that paper, you see your general 
objective, your goal. That's your beginning, that first 
step down the road of creation, of the Art of Writing.  

 After the idea, you sit down and actually Write.

 The Act of Writing is a weirdly exciting, 
frustrating, damning, hair-raising, heart-wrenching, 
gut-busting experience you will ever have. It is a 
roller coaster of emotions at best, a tedious duty at 
worst. It can be comparable to sexual intercourse in 
its capability to satisfy or disappoint.
 
 When you Write, your mind is doing a lot of 
things. Imagining scenes that must be transcribed into 
language. Choosing words, fitting them into sentences. 
Fabricating dialogue, conceptualizing and 
hypothesizing situations. It's a steam engine on crack, 
a hypersonic computer doing the most godlike thing it 
can possibly do: creating. All of it mainly on instinct. 

 Instinctive Writing is the way you write initially,
your reflex action. In the martial arts, people train 
themselves to react instinctively in the manner 
appropriate to the situation. Martial artists do this 
by repeating a procedure or technique repeatedly until 
the body remembers what to do. People not trained in 
martial arts can brawl pretty well, but nothing is more 
frightening than a martial artist who can react 
reflexively to a threat. This should be the same way with 
Writers. They should be able to Write on instinct: knowing 
the right word, feeling that sentence construct, welding 
a paragraph together. Imagine a story as a clock, a 
machine with a thousand moving parts. A Writer should be 
able to construct that clock by reflex. Martial Arts 
Clock-Making. Ranma Saotome, eat your heart out!

 Of course, you aren't expected to do it perfect on 
the first try. There is always space for a little 
tinkering or an overhaul at times. But your basic piece 
should be in that first try, at least it should be, to 
make things a lot easier.
    

"On the Basics of the Art"

 There are several basic things a Writer should 
be able to do. A Writer is like a master carpenter. 
He/she has a plan for a house, he can already see it 
in his mind. A Castilian villa or a Gothic manor, 
he's got it in his sights and he's going to build it.

 What does he need?  Tools and materials. He'll 
also need workmen, but that's another matter. So what 
do we have? Tools, the carpenter uses them every time. 
Measuring tape, saws, hammers, scrapers; tools that 
get used every time. Materials are specific to the 
house. Stone, wood, metal are used for the particular 
design that is desired. Also materials aren't just set 
willy-nilly. Sometimes a specific piece of material is 
placed in a certain place to enhance its function: 
strong foundations of reinforced steel, stone for walls, 
wood for supports or decorations. A master carpenter 
should know what each tool can do and where every 
material must go.

 It's the same with a Writer. You have your tools 
and materials. Your mind is a storehouse for the 
implements of our particular trade: an imagination, a 
sense of logic, a sense of wonder and a skill for words. 
Your materials are spread all over the place: the 
language of your story, the plot, the ideas, the world 
around you, the characters and the other components of 
the story. 

 It is your responsibility as a Writer to know 
your tools and materials. You have to be able to know 
the words to use, to smooth out scenes, to carve out 
characters, to have that innate feel that creates, for 
carpenters and Writers alike, a masterpiece.

 So remember: be master carpenters. 


"On the Tools of the Art"

 There is actually just one tool in the Art.

 Your mind. Your consciousness. Your soul.

 But to truly achieve your goal you must forge 
that mind into a multipurpose tool. The demands of 
creation are great. If you ever find the art of Writing 
effortless, then you are not trying hard enough. All 
you're producing is nothing compared to what you could 
truly do. For a true masterpiece must have birth pains 
for it to truly live. Personally, I think you should be 
bleeding or expelling other bodily fluids by the 
time you've finished your work.

 Never be satisfied with your current capabilities.
Always strive for something better, forever honing the 
blade that is your mind.

 I've been raving about that tool for some time now, 
but I never seem to tell what it is supposed to do.

 Simply put: that tool is hammer, saw, measuring 
tape all rolled into one. It hammers words together to 
form those sentences. It is the saw that cuts down the 
plot into manageable bits. It measures the entire thing 
so that it may be exact. Or as in my earlier motif of war 
and battle: it is a weapon that should do everything. It 
has to shoot, cut, slash, bash, the ability to deliver 
the sort of damage required to defeat the opponent. This 
can be pared down into the following functions:

 1) Your mind must know the language it will be 
using. It should know what words to pick and use to 
deliver maximum effect.  

 2) Your mind should be able to imagine the work. 
The ability to literally see what is happening is a great 
boon to any writer. Everything from characters to events 
must be imagined and the mind's eye should be able to 
see them clearly in the light of day.

 3) Your mind should know what the characters are 
going to do next, within reason. The ability to reasonably 
sequence scene and acts is integral to telling the story.

 4) Your mind should be able to create believable 
dialogue and interaction. Believe it when I say a story 
without dialogue or at least a sense of communication 
and realistic interaction between characters will always 
be a failure.

 5) It should be able to breathe life into the 
story. Characters shouldn't just be wooden set pieces. 
Places shouldn't be painted backdrops. Make them breathe 
with language and imagination. 


"On the Materials of the Art"

 The materials of the art are many, very many. 
But in the end these materials aren't the true 
materials. Characters and settings and events are 
drawn from a much deeper well.

 The mind is that well. If you've noticed the 
mind is all where it goes back to.

 If your well is shallow, you're not exactly 
gonna get prime material. That well should be filled 
with everything you've read, you've learned, you've 
felt, you've experienced.

 Back in the early part of the twentieth century, 
journeymen novelists walked the lands. Financed by 
universities and foundations, they went all over the 
world to soak up experiences for the novels they would 
be writing once they returned.

 You don't have to have traveled the world to 
write great works. John Biles and Douglas Helm 
obviously haven't been to Crystal Tokyo (or at least 
I haven't seen them around ^_^), Richard Lawson and 
RpM have never been to the Tendo Dojo. They got it all 
in their heads. Which is what's important. What's 
inside that pile of gray matter protected by less than 
an inch of bone inside your cranium is all that matters 
when you write. 

 Because some things are universal: love, hate, 
anger, pain. No matter what the place, no matter what 
the time, everybody feels them. In the end, all stories 
are about emotion. That's why I haven't blown my brains
out yet. Because I Write and I Read and for that I 
still feel human, even when I think I'm not.   

 Human experience is just one half of the pieces 
floating in that deep well. Knowledge of the language, 
of the real world, of how the world works is bundled 
up in there and it should help, too. You're trying to 
make the Reader see the story in his head and the right 
word can punch through his defenses like a armor-
piercing round.

 So try to fill that well. Watch the world and 
feel it. Learn from it. 

 You'll need it when you start making your own 
world.


"On Planning and Not-planning"

 I have mentioned earlier that planning is often
advisable when you begin writing. 

 One should also remember that there are no true 
absolutes. ^_^

 Sometimes, not planning a work is beneficial. 
Plans are there to make it easy. I still plan my work
but I give allowances for the accidental moments of 
inspiration. It's like driving a stagecoach. A too-
tight hold on the reins and those horses will buck. 
Being too free with the reins, however, will make you 
lose control.

 Personally I find it easier to write with a
simple outline of where I'm going. Faster, too. But
the occasional free writing does help free up the 
kinks you might have in your literary muscles. As
Aristotle put it all things in moderation.

 Remember: there are no absolutes and a bit of 
chaos and a bit of order go a long way. 


"On Training in the Art"

 The Art, I have said earlier, is like a martial
art. This analogy holds true in the training department
also. In the fighting arts of any culture, the only 
way you'll ever get better is by practicing your 
particular martial art and the occasional free 
sparring.

 In the Art of Writing, this also holds true.
Constant practice and constant learning are the only
way you're ever going to get better. 

 You practice the Art by Writing, using your 
mind and talents so as to affect a goal. But like
martial arts, you can only do so much by this rather
broad exercise. In martial arts, the preceding 
exercise would be like sparring and you do not 
proceed to sparring immediately. You practice first
in kata and single practice. My opinion says that 
this is the same for Writing. This will be expanded
on in the following sections and the Book of Water.
   
 You learn in the Art by Reading. For a martial
artist, it is like watching other people fight and
perform techniques. You learn tactical and technical 
knowledge by watching the fight before you, what went
wrong and what went right. This will be discussed in
the Book of Fire. 

 Remember: practice makes errors. You practice 
anyway so as to see these errors and remove them.

 Also: look before you leap. Look at the other 
fellow's footsteps so as to avoid his pitfalls and 
to forge your own path.
 

"On Exercises For the Soul"

 One of the things I appreciate out of my going 
to a convent is the cool stuff that the Catholic 
Church sometimes teaches. Latin is a fine sounding
dead language and some saints did some very fine 
work in the intellectual department like Augustine's
Civitas Dei and Aquinas' Summa Theologica.

 My favorite is, and always will be, Ignatius 
of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. They have helped me 
through hell and back, after a few 'modifications' 
since I'm more or less an agnostic nowadays, but that's 
not what I'm gonna share with you today.

 I mentioned earlier that one of the elements that
are important for the Writer is his soul, his spirit.
In St. Ignatius' tradition, I've crafted a few exercises
to help a Writer achieve a better sense of creativeness.
You could say these are creative exercises, their 
objective being to develop the creative soul.

 Not all of them may work for you, but I think 
one or two should work. If none work, try to cook up 
some of your own by following the basic pattern as 
set by the following. As for frequency, I do them almost
instinctively now, every scrap of quiet time I get: the
bus, the chair, moments before sleep, that silent space
in the early morning after I open my eyes. It's up to
you to decide when and how many times. Complete silence
and isolation is never necessary, and actually the 
sound is quite helpful.

Persona 

 Sitting down or lying down anywhere, Find a 
point in front of you and focus your eyes on a 
distant spot according to your reference point. Then 
go back into your mind.

 If this is your first exercise, your goal for 
this exercise is to create your ideal person. Think 
of the physical features: face, body, hands and feet.
Eye color and hair color should come next. Clothes
will follow. Pick out clothes that you find cool or
attractive for the Persona's gender. Imagine this 
person before you at the reference point.
 
 Remember the Persona. End the exercise now.
As it is the Persona is just a mannequin, the next 
exercise will fill it out.

 The next time, follow the usual procedure and
call up the Persona in your mind. Give him/her a 
name. Endow him/her with a personality: traits that 
you like and skills that you think should go with
the Persona. 

 Then have a conversation with him/her in your
head. Think of this as the first time you met him/her.
Introduce yourselves to each other. Have a friendly
chat. End the conversation and exercise with a promise
to talk to each other again. Always remember your 
Persona and think of him/her on spare occasions but
do not always call him/her up for an exercise.

 Now, every time you call up your Persona, ask 
him/her a personal question that he or she should be
able to answer on the fly. Ask him/her where she went
to school, what were her experiences, what happened
since the last time you met.

 You're doing it right if he/she starts to talk
back with reasonable answers. This should be a 
subconscious thing or at least you don't actively 
think of the Persona's background. As the Persona
exercise goes on longer, the Persona will achieve
his/her own personality, with quirks and traits you
didn't plan for. He/she is not a static individual.
He/she must be a living person. In the end, you'll
probably have the best imaginary friend you'll ever
have. ^_^

 My Persona has been with me since college and 
I know most of his life story and what's currently 
happening to him.

 Sheesh. No wonder I'm so alone. ^_^
   
Speculation

 Speculation is more of a game than an exercise,
but it helps strengthen your imagination a lot.

 It's actually very simple. If in a crowded place,
pick a target at random. If alone, try to remember the 
most memorable person you met that day.

 Focus on a distinctive trait about the individual.
It may be the dyed hair, the nose ring, that Satanic
Bible he/she is toting around. 

 Then ask why? 

 Answer it. Then proceed to ask for elaborations 
and details. Answer them. All the answers must be 
supported by data and evidence from observation of the
individual via your own logic.  

 I've been doing this ever since I went into a 
Sherlock Holmes kick when I was a kid and it's an
extension of an old logic exercise I picked up from
an old book. It's always been a nice game for relaxing 
my brain.

Breathe

 This is a breathing exercise to refresh the mind
and encourage a bit of creativity and speculation.

 Very simply, you take deep relaxing breaths. 
Feel that breath of air go into you. Feel the energy
inside it as it enters your lungs and diffuses all 
over your body. Exhale. 

 Do this a few times. Then think of the where 
that breath of air has been before entering you: 
people just like you, living and breathing. Do this 
when inhaling. Feel them like you feel yourself. 
Think of who they are and who they could be, united
to you by a simple breath of air.

 When you exhale, think of where that breath of 
air is going to go next. Follow it to the person in
your mind's eye and feel that breath of air give him/
her the breath of life.

 I use this when I feel particularly stressed and
feel isolated. It makes me feel a lot better knowing
that I'm connected to something larger than myself. 

Association

 This exercise helps in visualization and coming
up with ideas. I got this Asimov and I always find it a
nice source of ideas for original works.

 Pick up a book, any book, then turn to a random
page and read. Or if you're visually inclined, look
out the window and focus on an object or image.

 What image do you get? What does it say to you?
Let it churn in your head for awhile. Then ask yourself
what does it bring up, what sort of whisper in the back 
of your head does it bring up? Memories? A story?

 Write it down.

 Do this again. 

 I usually do this when I'm bored, in the bus or
in the bath. An hour or so of this and you'll probably 
have several ideas for a story.

Chaos Music

 This is a difficult exercise. My cousin says you 
have to be slightly crazy to be able to do the other 
exercises, for this one, he says you have to be half
crazy. ^_^ I think that it just needs a focused mind.

 Find a noisy spot. I prefer a mall or I take a
walk into the city. Sit down or get as relaxed as 
possible.

 Then you listen. Just focus on listening. Listen
for that slight something. You don't know what it is.
But it's there. 

 Just listen

 A pattern will always emerge. Kinda Chaos Theory
like, yeah. A pattern in chaos. Listen to that pattern.

 There's a tune to it. Listen to the tune. Sometimes
it's rock and roll, sometimes it's a march, sometimes a
dirge. 

 Feel the rhythm. Feel the emotions you get. Finally
_see_ the images you get.
     
 It could work with ordinary music, but I've always 
preferred tapping feet, screaming children and sound of
breathing. If done properly, it's quite enlightening. I 
remember the tunes myself and hum them when I'm feeling 
down and uncreative.


"On Exercises For the Mind"

 It is also possible to exercise the mind. It is 
like a muscle and constant exercise of the mental 
faculties will also mean that they develop.

 As it is, I will not be telling all the mental 
exercises I occasionally put myself under. These
exercises mentioned here are focused on the literary
set.

  Also note like the exercises for the soul, they
may or may not work for you. Just cook up something 
that works for you. Note that two of these exercises
may take days or weeks to complete if done in their
primary form. Discipline is required for the 
difficult stuff, that's why it's an exercise. But 
you can shorten them if you like. ^_^

Order

 This is more like a flowcharting exercise than
anything else. 

 You just review your day using a flow chart, 
following all the decisions, inputs and outputs of 
your day. It kind of puts the world in perspective and
shows the causality of events in your day. 

 After finishing the flow chart, study it. Do you
see actions or input that would have or should have 
influenced you decisions? List them down. Decisions 
that should have been better? List them down. Go 
along in this vein and explore the motivations for 
the actions of the day.

 The exercise should give you an insight into 
the motivation of characters and their dynamics in a
world that is supposed to be real. 

Unspeakable

 This is an exercise for your vocabulary.

 Simply choose a word you commonly use and try to
not use it for a day. You'll find that by the end of 
the day, consulting the dictionary or a thesaurus 
would be required. 

 As you get better, up the period to days and 
then a week. The difficulty of the exercise is also 
upped by choosing a set of word, not just one.

 If you're a real masochist, try letters. When 
you do this, I advise never using "e" as the letter 
of the day or you won't be able to talk, except in 
stilted language. ^_^
 
Facts

 This is an exercise in viewpoint and the 
difference between fact and opinion.

 For a period of a week or a month, never make a
statement unless you have direct physical evidence for 
that statement. An example of this behavior can be 
this: when asked what a color a house is and you see
only one side of the house, your answer should be 
"The house is white on this side." Never make an 
assumption about the other side, unless it is in your 
field of vision.

 Watch your speech carefully for the first few 
days. People are so used to making assumptions that 
they sometimes jump to conclusions immediately after
receiving information and consider them facts.

 It's a pain in the ass for the first few days
but soon your mind will get used to it. Heck, I 
had to try at it for a year before I finally got 
the hang of it.

 The exercise focuses on the fact that what 
sometimes people call facts are just opinions 
formulated by their mind. Very soon, you'll realize 
how assumptions are formed because of the way you 
guard your thoughts. This helps when you're working 
on a character's narrow information feed. 

Conflict

 Conflict is a very simple exercise. 

 Postulate a simple proposition. Then try to 
logically defeat the proposition.

 While trying to defeat the proposition, also 
simultaneously defend it. It's an exercise at dual 
pros and cons. It's almost like playing chess with 
yourself at the higher levels of skill.

 If you want to make it more complicated use 
makeshift Personas: create two or more Personas with 
wildly differing belief systems and have them debate 
a particular point. Or if you couldn't handle the 
Persona exercise or if you find it too tedious, use 
a particular character that you know about. I had a 
great time putting Niccollo Machiavelli, Neo-Queen
Serenity, St. Thomas Aquinas and Gendou Ikari in a 
debate on the use of power and how to rule.

 If you can do it, try to write the proceedings
down. They make great reading at times. ^_^

Viewpoint

 Viewpoint is similar to conflict but much
narrower in focus. 

 You pick a particular person in history and 
try to understand his motivations for doing what 
he/she did or what he/she felt at a particular moment 
in time. To do this usually requires a bit of 
historical research, but it's worth it in the end 
when you're in Julius Ceaser's head as he crosses the 
Rubicon or in Joan of Arc's as she leads her men. 

 To make it complicated, try to enter an obscure 
character's head or a bystander. This also entails a 
bit of research but it will help a lot if you want to 
imagine marching into France during the Liberation, 
being in the trenches of Somme, being in the crowd for
an execution on the guillotine, or living the 
nightmare of the Holocaust. 

 An hour of this every week, after a bout of 
heavy research should be enough for our purposes. 
Remember that empathy is what the Writer aims for and 
the Writer can only achieve this by feeling empathy 
him/herself 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                The Water Book  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 This is the Book of Water. 

 This book will expand on the things mentioned 
in the Earth Book and will examine them in greater 
detail. It will also focus on specific writing 
exercises I've found useful in most of my writing.
 
 Unlike the earlier exercises, the exercises 
associated with some of the sections is specific to 
a certain purpose. Again, some may not work. If they 
do not then make your own. Improvisation has always 
been the Writer's friend.


"On The Choice of Words"

 Choosing the particular word to use for a 
particular statement is one of the more important 
things that the Writer should know about.

 A word is never just a word. The principle
of language is that the word has a corresponding 
image attached to it. The Reader is never just
hit by a word. He/she is hit by the image associated
with the word.

 For example, what resonates just plain "white"
or "alabaster". Maybe "ivory" evokes a more real image.
What is most important is the impact.

 Remember that the Writer's goal is to penetrate 
the Reader's soul. The word "white" is sometimes too 
plain for you to evoke an image. To use the cooking 
parlance, there is no spice, no flavor.

 But also remember that simple words are also
important and that sometimes those large words get 
unwieldy. If you need speed, simplicity then use
the "small" words. If you need an image imprinted
into the Reader's mind, slam him a big one. But never
too complicated. Some words are too jargon-specific or
obscure. To check if the words are right, Read the 
work. Feel the rightness of it.

 To exercise the choice of words for a particular
situation, do this simple writing exercise:

 Choose a particular focus. This can be person,
an object, a place. For a true challenge, pick a 
scene in your mind or a memory. 

 Then, like a painter, try to "paint" your focus
with words. When "painting" your focus, you should 
also have a particular objective on how you wish to
present the focus, emphasizing a particular facet of 
your focus.

 Do not do this just once. Try doing your focus 
in different "angles" or perspectives, each bringing
out a particular facet of the focus.


"On Building Your Vocabulary"

 Obviously, you cannot have a big choice of words
if you have a small vocabulary. It's been said that 
a normal person usually has an active vocabulary of 
five to ten thousand words. A Writer, in my humble 
opinion, should have at least two or three times that 
much verbiage stuck in his brain. Of course, all of 
this is not conscious. For me, the words just come 
from the Stygian abyss that is my subconscious.

 You can also cheat by using the Writer best 
friend: Mr. Webster's twin creations of dictionary and 
thesaurus. But nothing disturbs the creative momentum
that is so often part of the birthing process that 
is Writing than stopping and looking up a word in the 
Thick Books(TM). 

 It is better to have that large vocabulary 
stored inside your head. 

 A vocabulary exercise is something that almost
everyone has gone through in school. Heck, in First 
Grade I had fifteen vocabulary words a day, even on
weekends. That's roughly five thousand four hundred 
seventy five words a year and I still use most of 
those words. Normally, people forget their vocabulary.
Only through constant use and addition can you have
a large active vocabulary. Try to at least add one 
word a day and to give those words good mileage or 
they'll just fall by the wayside.
   
 Like a samurai's sword, your vocabulary will 
just rust away in its sheath without use. 


"On Narrating and Points of View"

 The Art of Writing is descended from the Art 
of Storytelling. It's actually a pretty active 
branch of that primary Art. We are just given the 
advantage of not parching our throats talking to 
the crowd. We are crippled by not bringing our 
personal touch to the story. Narration must be done
via the Written word and those words must have 
power.

 Writing a story, one must remember, that there
must always be the perch for the storyteller. This
is the point of view. Without a point of view all 
you have is a jumbled bunch of information. Even 
Brian Randall's experimental work "I Am Become"
has a point of view, no matter how weird, to filter
information to the perceptive reader. The point of 
view enables the story to be focused like a stage 
light, concentrating on a particular part of the 
tale. The point of view can also be like a telescope 
where the view of is narrowed down for the
Reader's consumption.

 There are several types of POV. Primarily,
they are:

First-person

 The "I" character is the narrator. A favorite
of Japanese writers and mystery writers, this is 
probably one of the easiest and hardest POV. Highly
limited in presentation of information, it can also
be very flexible for a skilled writer who delights 
in backstage tricks.

Third-person, limited

 There is a godlike narrator, but he/she is 
limited from all the information. This is like 
watching a movie.

Third-person, omniscient

 The favored POV, this is the usual POV used
for any piece of fiction. A godlike narrator that 
is privy to the thoughts of  the characters and 
privy to all events. 

 There are, of course, several other forms. But
they are rather difficult to discuss and I advise 
that you study them on your own. Read experimental
works like the aforementioned Brian Randall work,
"I Am Become", Stefan Gagne's HTML/POV experiment,
"Sailor Nothing", and the old work by Matthew Lewis,
"Shell Games".

 To practice POV is the simplest thing in the 
world. Just write using them. You'll eventually 
get the hang of it if you keep doing POV exercises,
especially in the trio mentioned above. Adding one
or two more POVs under your belt would be nice, too. 


"On the Use of Metaphors"

 This is a corollary of using the proper words.
Metaphors and analogies are another part of a Writer's
stock and trade. Overused metaphors and analogies 
become cliches and will make the Reader yawn. 

 Originality or, at the very least, a twist is 
needed to keep that metaphor fresh. But, there should 
be limits to originality. Use appropriate and non-
ridiculous metaphors and analogies that are appropriate
to the situation. An example of a pathetic metaphor 
would be like calling something as white as mother's
milk. Now that's pathetic. Read the metaphor before 
you use it. Listen to it in the context of the story.

 Learn to judge the quality of words.


"On Practicing Dialogue"

 Dialogue is important in any work. Rarely has 
there been a literary work without a dialogue or a
conversation in its entirety. The ability to 
realistically portray dialogue is one of the greatest
skills a Writer can cultivate.

 Not.

 You should never _realistically_ construct a
dialogue. Real conversations are boring affairs and
in Writing, "boring" is a death sentence. What a 
Writer should be able to do is to craft a talk that 
_sounds_ real. This can be done by leaving out 
needless details. Focus on details important to the
story.

 Which brings up the prickly subject of 
exposition-via-dialogue. It's fine to do a long 
speech or an uninterrupted rambling monologue for a 
character as long as it serves a purpose. But also
remember that exposition can be spread out in the 
prose, through other characters or plot devices. 
There are other ways to characterize than letting 
the characters tell their family histories. If you 
want to do that, do a prose flashback.

 Also remember never to let your characters
speak like each other. Give them a voice, and not
just through a cheap device like a dialect, which 
I advise you also try to avoid. There are speech
patterns for everybody. Listen to a conversation
between professionals, between giggling school
girls and those guys at the diner. Get the rhythm
and try to give your characters their own rhythm.

 And always remember to play it by ear when
dialogue's concerned. Read it aloud. Does it sound
real? That's the final test for any dialogue.

 Note that unlike plays, our conversations are
set on paper. So try to have the characters doing
something while they're talking. Nature abhors a
vacuum and so do Readers.

 Also, there is a wrong idea running around 
that the word "said" is to be avoided at all costs.
In the end, it is sometimes the simple words that 
are needed and "said" is a fine simple word.

 A simple dialogue exercise would be to 
postulate a pair of characters and their quarrel.
Try to make it a real yet not real conversation
between angry individuals. Read it aloud after you
finish.


"On Visualizing Scenes"

 To be able to describe a scene with words, the
Writer must see it first. To do this requires a good
amount of imagination. 

 A good Writer has that scene in his/her head
before finger touches keyboard, sometimes the 
difficulty is that it is sometimes too hazy or too
splintered to make sense.

 A good trick for visualizing is to just lie
back on a bed and focus on the characters and the 
setting of the scene. Just concentrate on them like
a mantra and soon you'll feel the world go away and
the scene just comes. Remember to first see the 
characters in your mind and the place of the scene.
Keep on repeating theses mental images and try to 
will the scene into action.

 Your ability to visualize is very simply 
exercised. Read a good book or remember a favorite
one. Then try to visualize a favorite scene in your 
head. I have several favorite scenes from several 
novels that I always visualize and they rival any
movie ever made. I also routinely read new stuff 
and visualize them in my head. This works for 
fanfics especially well, since we already have a
visual representation in our head of the 
characters. All we need now is the scene.


"On Creating Characters"

 Characters are the life-blood of the story.
A story would never exist without a character. A
cast of likable characters that the Reader can 
empathize with will always enable you to create 
a work that reaches into the Reader and pulls 
his/her heartstrings.

 Actually, if you've ever role-played in an
RPG you can probably make a decent character. I've
always found that reading RPG source books as an 
incredible font of ideas on the Art. Most of the 
better Writers on the FFML have experienced role-
playing to one degree or another and I think this 
has helped them greatly in their achieving their
proficiency in the Art.

 A character is given by the Writer's 
characterization. This is composed of:

 -name 
 -physical appearance
 -personal history
 -what they say
 -what others say about them
 -how they act in response to specific 
 situations
 -how they act habitually
 -their thoughts

 All of these combine to create a mental picture 
of the character in the Reader's head. To fully 
understand this let's dissect Bob Schroek's Colonel 
Douglas Sangnoir from his "Drunkard's Walk" series 
using the above criteria.

 A character's name usually has to be a name 
that reflect his or her character or identifies 
the character to the reader immediately. The name
Douglas Sangnoir is rather distinctive and you 
immediately get a mental picture of some Cajun
from Louisiana. ^_^ There are of course limits to
distinctiveness. Fanny Assingham is not exactly 
the sort of name you'd give to a lead character or
at  the very least a serious character. Once again,
learn to balance.

 Physical appearance is a touchy topic. Some
Writer's over describe their characters physical 
appearance, leaving nothing to the imagination of
the Reader. It is not necessary to tell every 
small detail about him or her. Just an overall
view of the character focusing on his particularly
defining characteristic. Mr. Schroek's descriptions
of Doug are usually one-sentence, or phrases, which
is good. When I think of Doug I get a blonde guy 
who faintly looks French-American, whatever that is.
A character should only be described with one or two 
sentences. You could describe using an entire 
paragraph, but that is if you have a particular goal 
in mind, like in my description of the first Serenity 
and Endymion in my fanfic "An End and A Beginning". 
I was giving out hints at the backstory and trying 
to evoke an epic mood with the descriptions, along 
with producing a scenic tableau for the opening of 
the fic.

 Personal history is an important part of
characterization because this is where your 
characters are coming from. We know of Colonel 
Sangnoir's personal history and background and from
this we get a hint at what sort of person he was and
is. A real person is the sum of all his experiences
in life. A fictional character should be no less.

 What a character says gives a hint at a 
person's personality. Every person has an idiolect-
a personal speech pattern that acts like a verbal 
fingerprint. Also what a person focuses on in a 
conversation or how he/she acts inside it shows the
personality of the individual. Colonel Sangnoir's
speech patterns reflect his upbringing. He also 
often points out his personal beliefs in a rather 
forceful manner, showing himself to be a very 
passionate individual whose values systems are highly
moral.  

 What others say about the character also reflect
on the character. The public perception of an 
individual and his relationship with other individuals
give an indication on his personal beliefs and 
actions. Look at how the Knight Sabers and Lisa 
Vannette react to him gives us an added emphasis on 
Colonel Sangnoir's character traits and gives us a 
fuller, more well-rounded picture of him.

 How a character acts both habitually and in
reaction to a situation. Colonel Sangnoir's military 
training and his discipline show in the way he follows
procedures and acts tactically in his current situation.
His reaction to the fact that boomers are sentient is a
classic example of how a reaction defines a character
and reinforced our image of him as an individual with 
high moral standards. 

 Finally, a character's thoughts are probably the
final source for characterization of a character. Colonel
Sangnoir's thought reveal his personal beliefs in a 
more open manner and also what he _doesn't_ think about 
or what he only thinks about later, after the fact, shows
us some more of his character and where his priorities
lie.  

 Remember the criteria. One or two may be skipped 
or ignored. Never all of them.

 Apply them to _all_ characters. Sometimes secondary
characters are left static. This is, I believe, a mistake
made by many a Writer. Reality does not have any static
individuals. Your artificial reality should also not have
any static characters. Sometimes, those background 
characters may surprise even you, as in Eric Hallstrom's
case with Sayuri in his opus "Ranma and Akane: A Love 
Story" or, in returning to Bob Schroek's work, Katherine
Madigan. 

 Remember, characters are people, too.


"On Sequencing and Plotting"

 The sequence of events for a story is the most 
integral component a story, for what is a story but a
string of interesting events that happen to a character.

 People usually misinterpret this statement. Events
happen to a character as if by coincidence in some 
works. But never forget that every component of a tale 
depends on one another to create a coherent whole. When 
plotting and arranging sequence take into consideration
the characters, the setting, the time, the place, the 
background.

 The most basic and easiest way to plot is this:
set up the characters and the setting, introduce the 
defining event into the milieu. The defining event is 
usually not just an event, but can also be a person or
an object, something that disrupts the natural order. 
Then extrapolate the reaction of the characters and 
the setting. Instead of the question of "What should 
happen next?", we have the question "What will -----
do next?". If you created your characters properly,
if they are living breathing individuals, then they 
should react and react according to their character.
Their reactions touch off a set of reactions from 
other characters that will, eventually, create another
crisis/event. The world you have created becomes an
unstable system and thus as all unstable systems must
try to revert back to an orderly system, events and
characters cascade, until the system is stabilized. 
The end results however are highly different from the 
original pattern. If you have ever played Conway's Game
of Life, you would be able to understand what I mean.
 
 All of this follows the one truly universal
rule of plot: events should arise convincingly from 
their premises. There are certain givens in the setting 
and the milieu that should be consistent and followed:
characterization, universal laws and, sometimes, the 
targeted goal of the work.

 Another thing about plot and sequencing is this:
the plot should always be moving forward. Imagine the
plot as a string of firecrackers. Some of those pieces
may explode stronger, some weaker. But it's moving 
forward, the chain reaction moving, keeping your 
attention with each bang. Which is the key to moving 
the plot forward. Suspense is that bang. You have to 
keep the Reader coming back, by giving them unanswered
questions and giving clues to the answers. The Reader
tries to guess and he/she comes back to test his 
answer. That's been the key to the success of serials 
since the beginning of storytelling. 

 Another aspect of sequencing is the technical 
aspect. Sentences, paragraphs, chapters should be 
sequenced in logical order. There should be a link 
between each successive part of a work. Jumping a
round like a frog is not good sequencing. If you 
have to segue to another scene, have a link that 
connects that scene to the preceding one.   

 Order is the key to plotting and sequencing; 
logical progression that follows the rules as set
forth by the story.


"On Believing and Disbelieving"

 Belief plays an important role in trying to
touch the Reader in the way you want to. To draw
the Reader into your creation, for him to "suspend
his disbelief", is the aim of every Written work.

 There is only way to make him believe. Make
your work as realistically non-real as possible. 
The Reader never wants total reality. The reader
wants a suitable facsimile, with rules that are
similar to the real world, with almost-real people
with real reactions, with events that verge on the
impossible but have their basis in reality. Realistic
details and touches can go a long way to giving 
a realistic depth to your story but you need not 
make it into a thesis of clockmaking.

 That is the most basic of it. The Reader wants 
an escape, but not an escape that far. Familiar 
things must still be there, the universal things 
should be there: emotions of loss, pain, love, 
happiness. That's how I view most of my favorite
characters in fantasy and science fiction: real 
people who do unreal things and face unbelievably
believable events with real emotions.
 
 Remember: Be realistically fantastic and 
fantastically real.


"On Flexibility and Control"

 Musashi often stressed in his own book the need
for flexibility in combat. Combat situations required
the skill of improvising and adapting. This is the 
same with Writing a story. Many a Writer has 
experienced one of the characters coming up to them 
and asking to do things. Some relent, some do not.

 Once again, this is a matter of control and a
decision of the Writer. Sometimes characters given
freedom to do the things they want surprise the 
Writer by doing incredibly appropriate things and 
developing on their own. Sometimes they railroad the 
story their way and utterly ruin it. The key is once 
again, a balance.

 A story is like a six-horse stagecoach. Be
too free with those reins and you end up way off
track. Too tight, you end up with the horses getting 
ornery and bucking. Give them a little slack but 
always remember to remind them whose boss when they
get too bossy.


"On Exercising Your Skills"

 The exercises I mentioned in this book should be 
done religiously. Make a schedule and reserve at least 
an hour a day for occasional scribbling. Try to meet 
that schedule. Discipline had always been my enemy in 
early days of writing.

 You can also do them weekly and some exercises 
can be done in your head, while riding the bus or 
taking a nice rest. 

 Diligence is the key in perfecting the Art.

 Note also that daily practice is for technical
skills alone. Sometimes, you cannot force yourself
to write creatively. This means a rest from stories
for awhile. But continue with the technical exercises.
They will help when the spirit comes back in full
force.

 In creating, go at your own pace. But for honing
skills, a steady pace that presses you hard is often 
better than your own.

 Remember Musashi : diligence is practicing for 
a thousand days. It is refining when you practice ten 
thousand days.

  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    
                The Fire Book

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 This is the Book of Fire.

 Fire burns. This is a rather appropriate element
for what this book is about: comments, criticisms,
revisions and the act of trying to reach the final 
draft.

 Fire burns. If used properly, it will burn the 
useless pieces away and leaving only the purified 
object, scoured by the purifying flame. If used in a 
wrong manner, all it will leave is a barren wasteland.


"On Criticism on the FFML" 

 Unlike the normal Writer, the Writers of the 
FFML have a highly accesible and sometimes vocal
group of critics ready to pounce on a work. Which
is both rather frightening and reassuring.

 Frightening in the fact that whatever you send 
may easily be ripped apart by people, reassuring in 
the fact that you'll most likely find out what you 
need to improve in your writing.

 The thing is, if you've been on the FFML for
awhile, you will eventually end up commenting on a
work. The pat-on-the-back congratulatory messages are
nice and all, but some Writers want something more.
Which leads me to telling you about criticism.

  Academically speaking, most of the criticism 
that comes out on the FFML is a mix of Formalist and
Reader-response type. The Reader just responds to the 
work, a response that is sometimes flawed by the fact 
that it is his/her interpretation of the work. I 
haven't seen any other type to come out on the FFML. 
No Feminist, Marxist, Archetypal, Classical, Neo-
historical and all that other claptrap, though I am 
tempted to do some of them for the sheer heck of it.
That's for another time however.

 Most of the C&C on the FFML is to be trusted but
as a general rule, you should take all C&C with a 
grain of salt.   
 

"On the Art of Reading"

 To Read a Written work is different from just 
reading it. I occasionally just read a work, but my
academic training always comes back to haunt me. To
read a work is simple. Just sit back and relax, enjoy
the story, no questions asked. Most of the works that 
are horrible on a simple reading are even more 
horrible in a Reading, but quite a few get to be a lot
more beautiful if scrutinized under the critical eye
of a Reading, like Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, but those
are rare and far between.

 Anyway, to Read is to ask questions. Why did the
character do that? Why did that happen? What is going 
on? To Read requires an analytical mind and the will 
to go back and Read it again. A Reading for me usually
consists of three repeats, which may sound rather over
long but I have a faster reading speed than most people
because of my educational background and personal 
regimen.   
 
 When Reading, tally up the questions and then 
seek the answers. If the answers cannot be found in the 
text, I usually assume that it is a hidden fact and try
to deduce it out of context and clues in the work. If
I finally can't figure it out, I end up adding it to my
critique. I also try not to forget to enjoy the work on
its artistic/imaginative merit. It isn't as boring when
you dissect it while you play with it.

 It may sound tedious and abit too much work but 
once you get finish it, you will realize that you 
understand the text better than you normally would.

 To Read requires a spirit of wonder and curious
mind.
 

"On the Difference Between Constructive Criticism and
Rudeness"

 Every once in awhile I find a work that truly 
deserves a lambasting nuclear firestorm. I can't help
be a bit of an elitist bitch at times, but I try to 
keep myself at control. I always feel the urge to be 
a bitch when the work either disagrees with my world 
view or is a piece of techical crap. I think most 
Readers on the FFML have felt this at one point or the 
other.

 If the work is bad because of technical reasons, 
I simply point out the mistakes in a simple, direct 
manner. I tell him his fic is bad then I follow up 
that proposition with my proofs: bad grammar, stilted 
dialogue, cardboard characters, messy plotting, 
unbelievable creation, whatever it is his mistake is. 
Then I supply the means for him to fix them: reference
to books, fics that would help him/her see how it's 
done. It's up to him/her to decide to act on my 
critique. Note that there isn't any mention of 
personal insult, though I admit I've occasionally 
called an aspiring Writer and idiot who shouldn't be 
allowed near a word processor, but that's on rare 
occasions and I try to aplogize when I've cooled down.

 As for disagreeing with my world view, I always 
try to read a fic through. Even if it suddenly goes 
about trashing my favorites. For example, Brian 
Randall's "Process of Elimination" and Carrotglace's
various fics almost always end up pissing me off by
their overboard portrayals of the Senshi as paranoid
nuts. But you don't see me running around complaining,
well, except for now. If I were someone else I'd be 
lambasting the above two author's for writing OOC. 

 My simple way to deal with that is repeating to
myself that they're human beings with their own 
viewpoints. Normally, like all human beings, I have 
the hubris of believing that I'm always right. Not 
discounting the fact that I usually am, I also 
realize that I can be wrong. I also accept the fact 
that with an infinite number of humans their will 
inevitably be a divergence of beliefs. Logically, 
they have every right to their beliefs as I have to 
my own. So, I try to accept that as the paradigm of
the story and assume it as part of the premise. If the
authors suddenly violate their own premise, then I
have every right to slam them. Other than that I 
criticize in the objective and logical manner I always
prefer. And remember that I love both Brian Randall's
work and Carrotglace's for the imaginative and 
realistic plotting in PoE and exuberant energy found 
in the various Carrotglace series.

 Note that I almost never cross the line into
insulting the Writer, which is a logical fallacy,
namely Ad Hominem. When doing a critique always 
think of it as a debate and you have to substantiate 
your propositions with logical proofs. 


"On Receiving Criticism"

 When you receive criticism, almost always respond.
When positive and constructive, a good critic should 
always be thanked. I've slipped occasionally but I try
to thank them and return them the favor by doing C&C on
their works. Reciprocity and gratitude, as in all social 
systems, is always a good way to get a good friend.

 What you shouldn't respond to is personal insults.
Just shut up and it will go away. 

"On Revising Your Work and On Whether You Should 
Listen To The Critics"

 Revising a work is always the next logical step
after receiving a good amount of critical input from 
the Reader's. 

 But as I mentioned earlier, all critiques 
should be taken with a grain of salt. A critique is 
colored by the critic's opinions and personal beliefs.
These opinions and beliefs sometimes contradict with
your own. 

 The thing is, in my humble opinion, that most 
critics have this inherent wish that they were 
writing instead of you. This is both good and bad.
Good in the sense that you can broaden your a bit
with a little advice, bad in the sense that some 
critics like to bully Writers into doing what they
want. Criticism from an established writer, 
specially a writer you admire, should be respected 
and given additional thought since this could help 
a lot in making your writing better. But remember 
that this is your story not theirs and you have 
every right to ignore advice, though you should only 
do that after careful consideration.

 I almost always follow grammar and syntax 
corrections given to me. Everyone makes these 
mistakes and the only reason I leave some of these
grammatical mistakes alone is the fact that 
sometimes they are better sounding and more poetic 
than the correct ones.

 In revising you shouldn't just listen to the
critics. Read your work yourself. Examine it for
needless words, overdrawn descriptions, questionable
characterizations. Whittle away the dead wood and 
then Read it again.

 I prefer doing two or three revisions before 
the final draft. A Writer sometimes doesn't revise
enough, leaving in parts that should be removed. It
is better to be on the safe side and revise 
constantly than not revising at all.

 
"On Reaching The Final Draft"

 Though it may be tempting to just revise and 
revise, you will eventually reach the point in time
where you cannot revise anymore. You may receive 
more comments or complaints but after you have 
decided that you have reached the final draft that 
is it. Personally, I'd send it to the RAAC and the 
dependable fanfic archives or setting up a website
for them.

 The final draft, if you're the sort that writes
original stuff and sends them off to get published, 
might not be the last time you tinker with your 
work, of course. Some Writers occasionally go back 
and totally redo a work, doing another approach,
either under advisement from an editor or as an 
exercise of skill. I still occasionally go back and
redo a scene of one of my fics, though I don't mess
with the original one, just writing a variation on
the theme.  

 The important thing to remember about the final
draft is to release it as the definite version of the
work. Some fanfics out there have different versions
and some fans get confused. 


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                   The Wind Book
    
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 This is the Book of the Wind.

 The Wind is everywhere, yet no one can see it,
only feel it. This Book I will discuss some of the 
stuff that I noticed in my writing and the writings
of other people. I will also discuss my opinions on
some items concerning the Art.

 You could say, I'm shooting the breeze. ^_^


"On The Use of Foreign Languages"

 One of the things about fanfics is their liberal
use of foreign languages at times. I mean, I've seen
fics with Japanese, German, French, Spanish mixed in 
with nary a translation. That's not a problem for a
polyglot like myself, but really some Readers are not
so well-informed. 

 Not that I disagree with the use of foreign 
languages. Words are symbols for physical and abstract
objects and words resonate with meaning. A skilled 
linguist doesn't translate the word into his/her base 
language, he/she _thinks_ the language. When he/she
hears "tsukue", he/she doesn't think "table". No all
he/she gets is "tsukue" with the mental image of a
table. Several words especially associated with images
resonate the image into a person's thoughts. That's 
why, for all my years of trying the only words in 
Japanese that I can reliably _think_ in are baka, 
kawaiikunee otemba, kuso, shimatta, hentai and the 
usual run of anime one-liners. I don't interpret "baka"
as "idiot" in my brain. All I see is Ranma Saotome or
any anime character doing something stupid. That's 
why it's alright to use some foreign words, as long 
as you're sure about your target audience. Even then 
you'll most likely be needing a glossary for the 
newbies.  

 Language resonates and, if the target audience is
right, it delivers a punch. But that punch sometimes
does miss. So be careful and err on the side of 
caution.
  

"On English Grammar and Syntax"

 I have been known for being a grammar watcher
in my critiques. So sue my training as an English 
teacher. But still fluency and a good grasp of the 
lingua franca of the Art is necessary skill when 
you wish to practice it. It is not a slur on other
people's tongues, but if your skills in English are
lacking, either develop them first or post your 
works somewhere they may be appreciated. I faintly
remember someone posting to the FFML a work in
Spanish, which I distinctly enjoyed for the sheer 
fact that it gave me occasion to practice one of
my country's mother tongues, but I am of the opinion
that it should have been posted somewhere else.

 Anyway, grammar rules are supposed to be 
strictly enforced but I've come to occasionally
break them and several other Writers I known 
agree with me. A general familiarity with some 
grammar rules is good in a text, but sometimes a
work becomes more poetic or more effective if you 
break those rules. My personal take on this is to
play it by ear. Say the statement out loud and if 
it _sounds_ right, even if grammatically incorrect,
it can be allowed into the work.

  However, syntax and proper punctuations should
still be enforced. Unless, of course, your work is
an experimental one like some of the few new fics 
that are popping up like "I Am Become" and "Sailor
Nothing". 


"On Fanfiction in General"

 Fanfiction is a bit different from the normal
fiction that's available. First of all, your 
characters, your setting, your world, is already 
there. It's comparable to a big sandbox, just 
waiting for you to play with. So, obviously some 
of the earlier mentioned advise in the preceding 
books don't apply. 

 But, the general things still apply. It's 
like having cardboard cutouts and a stage. The
Writer is the one who has to make that stage come 
alive and make those cutouts color and life. 

 Much has been made about being "in character"
or "following canon". I say this, and I will 
probably say this again, no one has the right to 
say such things, except for the creators themselves.
You could make these characters act the way you need
them to as long as you give them reason to and back 
it up with logical proof. You can tinker with a 
world as much as you like. 

 It's your fanfic and, for the moment, it's your
world. Play with it.




"On Original Fiction on the FFML"

 Original fiction on the FFML has always been a 
prickly topic. I mean, it's the _Anime_ _Fanfiction_
Mailing List after all. 

 But that doesn't mean that original fics don't 
have a place in the FFML. Some of the best works on 
the FFML have been original fics or as Rob Barba 
calls it metafiction: Kumiko the Demon Girl, Missy
Foxglove (which I desire to see finished), Terrible
Swift Sword and several others are right up on the 
list of classics released on the FFML.

 Still, they are original fics and they are 
technically not part of the anime or fanfic genre,
except for those with anime elements or with the
anime feel, which is another can of worms (_what_
constitutes an anime feel?). 

 To illustrate my point, I've been Reading
"They Walk In Light", an original fic for some
time now. I Read it because of my nasty habit of 
Reading everything that gets posted on the FFML. 
I Read it and I still don't know what the hell 
it's doing here. Not that I'm saying the author 
should pull it out, he is getting better at it,
but he is toeing the line. 

 As it is, my advice to original fic writers
are these three choices: make it startlingly good 
that it makes the denizens of FFML stand up and 
shout in disagreement if the Admin asks you to 
pull it out, douse it with the "trademark/
obligatory" anime elements (don't ask me what they 
are, I just work here ^_^) or find another mailing
list to post those orig fics to. 

 Also note that the occasional original fic
is fine. You know, one-shots like what Rob Barba 
did with his "Modern Kwaidan" cycle and the 
occasional odd series or two. Never have your 
entire posting history to the FFML be composed of 
original fics. That means you're on the wrong 
mailing list.


"On C&C"

 To those who still remember the Synopsis List
Review, don't worry. It's going to be back as soon
as I have my brain fixed and approved for heavy work
(as if I'm not doing that now) in January.

 Anyway, my opinion on C&C is simply this: the
guys and gals who do it regularly like Gary Kleppe,
D.B. Sommer, Vincent Seifert, Brian Randall and all
the others are the real heroes of this ML. If you 
haven't they're the ones who're responsible at helping
develop those writing skills of yours and making the
quality of fanfic here on the ML better. 

 So give them the respect they deserve and thank 
them for their dedication and hard work they do for 
free. 

 Also, try to do some C&C on your own. The FFML
is a community and we should be helping out each 
other. C&C doesn't just compose of telling how the 
great the Writer is, which is great but doesn't help
him any. Tell the Writer what you liked and what 
you didn't like. Zero in on his/her particular 
faults. Take apart one of Gray Kleppe's critiques to 
see how it's done in that nice and detailed manner 
of his. I disagree with some of stuff in Mr. Kleppe's 
critiques but on the overall he's right on the money.
Remember that C&C is not required to be public. You
can sent it privately, too, if you wish that your C&C
not draw attention or feel that your critique was too
harsh and might be humiliating. 


"On Ideas on the FFML"

 This is probably one of the most irritating 
scenes on the FFML, not that I didn't do it at one 
point or the other. I have two points about idea-
posting on the FFML.

 For one thing, there's an old saw about 
originality that I'd like to repeat: some ideas were
never tried because they were totally ridiculous. Not
that ridiculous ideas are totally bad. A good comedy
often result from a ridiculous thought and in the 
hand of a skillful writer any idea can be rendered...
readable. Consider these ideas first before you post
them.

 Another point about idea-posting on the FFML,
is why people are posting it. I would assume some
of these posters think of themselves as somewhat like
Socrates, being the gadfly that goads the stagnant 
horse. But I think quite a few of them are hoping 
some great/recognized Writer picks them up and make
a classic fanfic using the idea given, with the 
idea-giver being in the credits. 

 Idiots. That's the word I'd call these fools.
Most good Writers have an overflowing font of ideas 
in their head. Why get an inferior idea from some 
tainted source, when you can have one from your own 
imagination? 

 To those others who honestly post these ideas
to stir the pot, my advise is this: Write it on your
own. A small spamfic, a vignette using the idea is
a better use of bandwidth than saying it outright.
And yoy get a better chance of people actively 
thinking about it. If you can't Write, then learn.
Who knows, this idea may start you down the path to
being recognized. 

 Remember: ideas are dime-a-dozen. Stories from
those ideas are far rarer. 


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                  The Void

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 This is the Void.

 This is the blank screen every time you start
writing on your word processor.

 This is the white paper before the pen starts 
its journey over it.

 This is the period at the end of a sentence,
infinitely magnified.

 This is the darkness of the stage after the 
actors have gone off it and the play has ended.

 This is the place where it ends and begins.

 The Void is a beautifully terrifying thing,
happy and sad at the same time. 

 Cute place. You could say, I've been here too 
many times. You could also say, that _you_ have been
here too many times. Or maybe not enough.

 Well. This is where I'm supposed to say goodbye.

 But time enough, I think, for a final lesson.

 This is, as I said when I started, my Way. 
Emphasis on _My_. 

 Emptiness is Form and Form is Emptiness. You
have our own Way of Writing, I just gave you a few
directions and a springboard. There is no set path 
and there are true rules.

 Paraphrasing Heinlein, it is neccessary to know
the rules so that you may break them. What you should
emphasize is adaptability, flexibility and the ability 
to keep on changing, Writing the way you see is right.

 Quoting Musashi, when there is wisdom, reason
and the Way, there is the Void.

 Just Write!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Epilogue

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 Now _this_ is the part where I really say 
goodbye. ^_^

 Usually, before I say goodbye on these things I
give a faintly inpirational message with a faint 
morbid taint and a tinge melodramatic. That ain't 
gonna change. ^_^

 So, let me put it this way...

 Beside my bed there's a small dresser. In the 
top drawer, I have three things. A gun, a butterfly 
knife and my medication. The gun and the butterfly 
knife are ostensibly for self-defense. The medication
is there for my little condition.

 Sometimes, when I get really depressed, I think
of pulling out that gun and taking a lead pill. 

 Sometimes, when I feel so lonely, I think of 
taking out that butterfly knife and letting it fly
all over my wrists.

 Sometimes, when the world gets so dark, I think
of taking a handful of those capsules and going to
sleep forever.

 But I don't do that. For some strange reason, I
never ever go through with it. Looking down that dark
hole, I just arch my eyebrow and put it back in. The
knife's edge glinting brightly in the weak light of 
the full moon just makes me smile and I twist my hand
just so, a swift -snick- later the edge is safely 
inside its wings. I look at the medicine spilling all
over my hand and I just shake my head and calmly 
return the pills back into their bottle one at a 
time.

 It's not cowardice. I've seen worse in some of
the places I've been. I just can't contemplate on 
the thought of dying just yet. No matter how shitty
the world is, I hold on.

 I never knew the reasons until a few days ago,
while I was working on this.

 I looked at my Inbox and saw two Christmas 
messages. One was from Greg Sandborn, author of my 
all-time favorite Nabiki fic "New Horizons", and one
from the Wildes, Bridget and Jamie, authors of "Ranma
Monogatari", "Flambe", "Ranma Goes to War" and 
"Chasing The Wind". Usually during the holidays season 
I find myself hating humanity. 

 I mean, I used to be able to understand 
Christmas. I used to go to convent, you know. 
Nowadays, all I see is some insane ritual to 
commemorate some carpenter from Nazareth beaing born. 
Kind of like the same way I feel about the way people 
feel that some tent salesman from Mecca and an idiot 
prince from India are so important. I'm the woman who 
says to the carollers outside I can't give them any 
money because I'm a Satanist and I scare away all the 
children with my "Miss Scrooge" act. My mood wasn't 
exactly helped by the fact that my country and the 
world seemed to be going to proverbial hell. I wasn't 
exactly up to liking humankind in general. The locals 
and the people who I'm acquainted with, knew that and 
they respected my usual disdain for the holidays, 
giving me the token gifts but not wishing me Merry 
Christmas.

 Hence, the surprise factor of those two messages.
I actually laughed aloud when I saw that someone was
greeting me Merry Christmas. But after awhile, I kind
of felt warm all inside. It's nice to know that someone
remembered, even if I had suspicions that I got 
included because Greg and the Wildes just forgot to 
delete me from the Address Book.

 That's one of my reasons. No matter how cynical
I become, I'm a romantic at heart. I'm Usagi Tsukino
underneath all the Ayanami Rei. So a belated Merry 
Christmas to all you folks, and especially to the 
Wildes and Mr. Sandborn, even if I don't theologically
agree with it. Thanks.

 My other reason for not taking Teleute's hand I
realized when working on the Book of Earth and Water. 

 I refuse to die as long as there are stories in 
my head waiting to be Written. I still haven't finished
my fanfic opus, not to mention that I have a dozen 
original stories just waiting to be Written in my head.

 I also refuse to die as long as Krista Perry 
hasn't finished Hearts of Ice, Zen Bateman his Long and
Winding Road, Davies his Together Again, Brian Randall 
his Process of Elimination, and dozen of others in the 
fanfic field. This doesn't include Robert Jordan, Terry
Goodkind, Mcaffrey, Weber, Hamilton and lots of others.

 I am not going to shuffle off my mortal coil until
I have Written every story I can and Read every tale 
that can be Written.

 And the way things are going, I'll probably 
live forever. ^_^

 So, that's where I leave you. On the threshold 
of Eternity. This dance of ours seems to be nearing 
its end.

 Before we part, let me feel the warmth of your 
hand on my cheek, feeling the life within it.

 And as we say goodbye, kiss me with your tender 
lips and we can say farewell and Godspeed.

 But it isn't really a goodbye is it? You're 
just going off for awhile to dance with someone else 
and I with another. There are no goodbyes, as Biles 
Wrote in his classic.

 So I leave you with a kiss and a promise to 
return. 

 Until we see each other again. I'll be here
telling my tales and listening to others.  ^_^

   - Elsa Bibat, Guardian of Time (Temp.)
     Erewhon, Nehwon ^_^


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