My Favorite Things I'm Happy Never Got a Sequel

      When it comes to some of our favorite things, it's hard not to wonder why certain favorites didn't get the sequel we all think they deserved. Other times it's obvious later after reading some articles or just looking on the internet in general why they didn't make it past the first outing. First thing for me that comes to mind is "9", the movie with all the little guy made of sack cloth and such. The ending leaves it open for if they wanted to do a sequel, but honestly what do you do when everything is wrapped up good enough plot-wise? Then there are games like "Bloodbourne", where I have to take a good look at how games are made nowadays and wonder if I really trust another sequel being made. I mean, yeah it would be awesome to see the story continued and to get new things in the same franchise, but something tells me it's better to leave things as they are instead of there being a chance of mucking it up.

     I know I just used "Bloodbourne" as a prime example of this, but it's what really made me think about it the most. For those that don't know what I am talking about, I will try to keep it brief. So you play as a character with unsaid sickness that goes to a place that is known for having healing blood. You get the transfusion, and sent on a hunt to end the night for the town and move one. Simple right? Well it's a Fromsoft game so nothing gets to be that simple. Starts out with werewolf like creatures and takes a eldritch turn and it gets weirder and weirder. Everything for this game works so good that fans have been waiting years for a sequel or even a remastered release. However, I don't know if it's an actual good idea to continue the story. The plot is amazing, the gameplay is awesome, everything about it is great, but I can't say it's a good idea without a little bit of a bad feeling in my gut. Look at what happened in the "Dark Souls" franchise. First game was open ended where you knew which of the many endings was bad, but you had no idea which one was the truly "good" ending. Then they made two more games, retconned some stuff, and gave the last game a generally well packaged ending, where you find out in game it might not matter what you choose. I prefer if you're really going to do a "who knows" ending, then "Bloodbourne" did such a great job I would be ok playing it again and again for years to come.

     A little bit in the same vein, the "Dragon Rider" series by Cornelia Funke obviously has sequels and stuff, but it's a book series so it doesn't count (to elaborate, she didn't do like Rick Riodan did and make sequels series and for the post just go with me on this). I haven't seen any film adaptation or tv shows using it. It's just the books that I read as a kid. In fact, I believe "Dragon Rider" was the first novel I ever finished on my own! Yet Funke's other stuff did get movies and such. I'm talking about "Inkheart", the movie I remember everyone liking okay enough, but much like "Eragon" and "The Lightning Thief", many fans were left disappointed. Now I understand that if a movie was made today, it would have a lot more to work with to get the desired results of a true book adaptation. However, I would be so happy to let this book series from my childhood stay that way, so that there is no chance for it to get messed up on the big screen. 

    Now to change up the pace, I want to talk about one of my favorite shows that got one season, and it better stay that way. I was looking through the dvds and blue ray discs that me and my wife have acquired over the years, as we were looking for stuff to watch together for Halloween. That's where I found "Over the Garden Wall." It was one of those shows that was so good that every time I think of the Autumn season, I think of this show. Two kids get lost trick 'r treating, hijinks ensues. A super deep cartoon that is also filled with amazing animation, it of course only got one season. Now, knowing what I know about some of my other favorite shows, I hope there is never going to be a sequel to it, or if they did, I want all new characters ending up in the same place. The last thing I ever want to find out is that they created a new season/spin-off, and it's terrible. Look at "Avatar: The Last Airbender" for example. That show was so good, even though the whole lion-turtle thing at the very end felt weirdly rushed and I've heard good arguments for and against it. However, no one can deny how angry almost everyone I know got at "The Legend of Korrah." I would hate to see one of my favorite shows turn into a mass of disappointment because of a what came after.

     Those are some of my favorites where I'm happy they left well enough alone. What are some of the things you wished did or didn't get a sequel, or happy it left off where it did. Let me know and be on the look out for the story that is coming tomorrow. See y'all later!

5 Stories You Should Try Writing/Reading!

     For those of you that write, or even just want to give it a shot for fun, or like list (I don't know just go with it), I present this first list of things to try! I was writing today and realized that this was the first time I had written this kind of short story. Yes, it's still set in the wizard-cowboy world I made up. The catch is that I wrote it from the point of view of Samson's wife, Bonnie (Samson is the sheriff of the book I wrote since I don't think I have said that before). Not exactly like the biggest change to the usual kind of thing I'm whipping up for the collection, but it got me to thinking "What other kinds of things have I never tried or have tried that aren't seen often?" So here is a quick list with a quick explanation of some ideas that might spark some new stories or interest in those kinds of stories.

1. Write from the POV of the opposite gender: Figured I'd ahead and write this one since I had just talked about it above. This one was actually really fun for me to do, as it showed me just how little I truly think about things from the point of view of someone such as my own wife, sister, mother, grandmother, and so on. Most of my stories are from the point of view of a couple of idiots and for a while has been just Samson. So, taking the same setting and writing from a perspective I have only seen and not look though myself was cool! However, I would suggest you do the same thing I am doing, and have it reviewed by some close friends that share that same perspective so that any tropes or misconceptions can be caught early. I don't think I did that per say, but better safe than sorry!
2. Mix two genres/settings you want to see together: This one is something that I have had first hand experience in. In fact, it's all I really write as of right now. Try taking something like horror and mix it with comedy, something so few get right but is awesome when done correctly. Maybe even add some magic to your space opera, like Spelljammer did for DnD. Why not add some Sci-Fi to your cowboys instead of magic! Han Solo and "Firefly" can't be the only things that have roguish space-faring desperados. I'm sure there are tons of other combinations that would look odd at first, but could make for some great stories.
3. Take a genre you hate and make it yours: Okay, I think I mentioned this before, but until I started writing Western-ish things and read some good Westerns, I promised myself I would never write a western. I was born and raised in Texas, and I figured it would be too on the nose if I started writing such a story. Although that probably is still true, I realized that as a writer if I took a genre and changed the things I didn't like, I could write things in ways I had never seen before. Instead of dreading romance because of the tropes and trends commonly in romance, make your own romance with your own sweet couple! I never thought I would be any good at poetry, yet I was picked to be the winner of this contest we were having for the schools creative writing club for Valentines Day (in case you're curious you can find it here). If I could do that, the guy who also said I couldn't write good poetry, no reason you can't make your own horror story with all the stuff you like.
4. Add something completely random and have the characters deal w/ it: Picture this; it's a sunny day, the birds are chirping, your character/s are waking up and enjoying breakfast, then BOOM there's a dinosaur. Yes I know that is far fetched and somehow too obvious but imagine the chaos this would cause and ideas that might transpire. Imagine the people you have written before dealing with this sudden change to the status quo and how they would handle it. First thing that comes to mind is all the different crossovers that have happened like "TMNT vs Batman" or even "Scooby Doo" and all their weird crossovers like hanging out with the Harlem Globe Trotters. Have fun, go wild with it! Add a mech to your coming of age romance story! Why not! You're the writer, have the girlfriend save her boyfriend from the no descript giant lizard! (In hind sight I think If I did well enough with that story about Bonnie I might try this.)
5. Write that super tropey video game/movie/rpg story: If you're going to throw everything and the kitchen sink into a campy, overly cliché, sappy story, you might as well add the fridge and outside freezer. We all know the things we hate in media, and make fun of them like I did in earlier posts, but eventually if you write it good enough and add enough stuff it becomes satire. Comedy is born, or at least I think it is, when we poke fun at the things that are silly in daily life. This is also true when we poke fun at the things in media. Some of the funniest stuff ever written was by A.I. trying to write a story exactly as commanded. See a robot try and recreate an action movie means it can only pull from already exist, and comes off almost as if it was writing by the most sarcastic, grammatically incorrect writer to ever exist. If a program can do it, give it a try.

So there's the list! I hope it was helpful for anyone in a slump or in need of some ideas. I know it can be hard sometimes to come up with stuff when life just keeps getting in the way. My way of dealing with it is not to waiting until the iron is hot then start striking it, start hammering away until it's hot! The first draft of anything is going to be not great anyway. Revision is where we really start cooking. At least, that's what I think. What about y'all? How do y'all find inspiration when it feels like it's ran out? Let me know in the comments below, share this with people, the whole shebang and I can't wait to let y'all see the next post. 

Time has Killed Some of My Favorite Things (in media)

      Yesterday I wrote a lot about the troupes or clichés that I couldn't stand in media, but today I realized something while watching an old video on YouTube. Some of the greatest moments in games, books, or movies that I thought were awesome back then have started to get stale, and has caused what I thought was great to now be just another thing I have seen too often. Depending on whether it was movies, books, or games, something came to mind for each different art form of something that I thought used to be cool, but now I see many today ridicule as just a cliché. 

     The video I was watching specifically talking about the type of boss fights everyone seems to be annoyed by; the unwinnable first fight. That kind of moment when it turns out the boss you are fighting was built for you to lose, and there for doing anything once you figure this out or its the next time you decide to run through the game is a waste of time. Now, I've seen it done with a twist nowadays, where the boss can be beaten. It's incredibly difficult verging on impossible, but you get a reward and an alternative cutscene for being able to make it without losing. This gives the player that incentive to actually try, but in the end the game continues down the same path that was started. In fact, you can go on YouTube right now and there are entire compilations that show what happens when you beat bosses that were supposed to be unbeatable. Sometimes the cutscene still plays as if nothing had changed, other times it breaks the game.

     Books on the other hand have a different problem where a cliché has been seen so many times, that I remember being told word for word "This isn't the [insert time frame] anymore." Things like writing stories about the author going on an amazing journey to find his muse, or twist that once done can't be done ever again or else the well-read reader will see it coming from the very first chapter. Even being overly detailed in describing a scene is often met with the remarks of "You aren't J.R.R. Tolkien/C.S. Lewis/Stephen King" or something similar. Yet I still love everything Rick Riordan writes or wrote! I might be bias after being told he's from Texas, but for some reason the magically gifted teenager who is born special and fights monsters is different with Percy Jackson. I could go into detail why that first book. "Lightning Thief" is so different from the usual chosen one troupe that I talked about in my last post, but at its core it did something that I feel many might not appreciate today. 

     On the other hand, movies are the easiest target for things that might have worked even as soon as a year ago but will never work again, coining the term box-office poison. Things like making a movie about toys being alive or bugs or what have you worked once and now no matter what spin you put on it, everyone is just going to go into the movie saying its a clone of a well known movie. Yet I will always, ALWAYS love every single cheesy action movie cliché. Perfect example of this is "Pacific Rim." I couldn't care less about the plot's problems or whether common sense would've told me that certain moments don't make sense. Such as, does it really matter that the pilots decided to wait for no apparent reason to use the sword concealed in the arm of the mech and use a boat instead as a weapon? No! Why? Because it's cool dang it! In fact I say that the reason the second movie didn't do so well is because of keeping the focus on the action, the best part of the previous movie, they wanted to focus more on plot which showed just how lacking it was. I came to see giant monsters fight giant robots, and the first movie delivered. 

     Thank you for making it this far. Of course talking about all this makes me realize that I have my own fear I'm sure many people, especially writers have. It's that Simpsons-did-it moment, where it turns out this idea that you had that was supposed to be so special and so unique actually already has a popular series already written about it. It's like what happened when I tried to be a YouTuber. I spent all this time and effort designing what I thought was an original idea, and even searched multiple times on Google and all kinds of social media platforms to make sure it was a unique idea. The first day I was going to put up a video I did another quick check and found there was five or more different channels with a similar username and similar content to mine. That doesn't matter much to me now, but I was so upset back then. Now I just have to make sure I keep working at it and be known as the guy that makes fun wizard-cowboy stories even if I'm not the first. Thank you again, and only four more days until Halloween!

Tropes that "Scare" Me

     Everyone that has read a book, watched a movie, or played a game knows what I mean when I say there are certain troupes or trends that scare me away from finishing said book, movie, or game. While some of these are pet peeves, others are things that even though I have yet to meet a single person who could defend them, they keep popping up. Not to say I don't have some favorite ones of course. It's just that every time I am enjoying whatever it is I am reading/watching/playing and suddenly there is that one thing I hate pops up, it makes me want to close the book or turn of the screen and find something else to do.

    Now there are some troupes that don't bother me whatsoever. Things like the young hero that has their old/wise mentor that has to take on a quest to go do the thing. What is that thing? Doesn't matter to me, as long as the characters the story focuses on are interesting to watch, the adventure makes up everything else. However, with this troupe specifically, there is one iteration I love when done right and can't stand when used as an answer to the problem just to cut everything off. The "Chosen One" and how he interacts with the cast that surrounds him can either be one of the most interesting stories, or these other characters are just there to make comments on how just truly gifted and strong the young hero is. In the former's case, when you pair the unusually talented hero that was just born that way with a mentor that not only teaches them, but actually shows that their talented apprentice can't compete with legitimate experience, that often ends up becoming one of my favorite characters. I love seeing characters like Master Roshi from Dragon Ball Z or Uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender prove that just because you have some kind of special ability that makes you stronger than most, that isn't going to cut it when you're dealing with someone with decades if not centuries of experience. Now while both of those characters end up training their pupils to being as strong if not stronger than themselves, the fact that someone didn't just pick up a rock and become the strongest person to exist is what makes those stories interesting. What I can't stand is the Mary/Gary Sue. The too perfect, never has to work for their powers, "I'm not like other girls/guys" type of heroes/heroines. Pair that with being born unbelievably powerful, replace deep character traits and pretend being dark and edgy can replace any thing meaningful, and you got the character I am talking about. 

    Now imagine you took a story you were enjoying, everything was great, laughs were had and tears were shed and the next thing that happens is the character waking up. Weeks of intense tragedy and happiness? All made up. Friends that died? Don't worry! They either never existed or are still alive and happy. Now don't worry, when they woke up they kept all that intense training and it will help them somehow win the big game or whatever. The main reason that I dislike this troupe is that how it just waves any kind of consequences away. I actually wrote up a story for class once for my professor that didn't end with "it was all a dream" but started with it. He even told us he was afraid to tell us his most hated types of stories, since that always led to a classroom with one clown that decides that that's what they want to write because it'll be funny or they can do it different. I was that clown. The gambit did pay off though, only  because I didn't write a story that was some big adventure that ends with a complete lack of follow through. It wasn't good, but it was as good of a satirical take as a freshmen in college could make. Basically, what I was making fun of was what makes the troupe so hated. Why do I still remember being a knight and how to be a knight if it was all fake? I was of old age, and now I have to go from the castle I earned to waking up in a shack again? What about the kids! Me and my wife had been trying for years to have children, and now they are all just figments of my imagination? The story did a good enough job that I believe he ended up liking it, other than vaguely fantasy Europe wasn't a great setting. 

    None of those troupes compare to what I truly despise is the "big misunderstanding." Now this is honestly a pet peeve, but I can't stand it when the third act comes and there is this break up that happens that could be fixed with like five words or standing there for three more seconds before running off. The reason I know it's a pet peeve that no matter how good the story is it will bother me, is because there is a movie that people love that I couldn't get past twenty or so minutes was Tucker and Dale Versus Evil. It has actors that I love, specifically Alan Tudyk, and its a funny enough premise, but the fact that even when they are trying to explain everything time and time again, these people are figuratively and at one point literally throwing themselves into a woodchipper to keep the plot going. In other movies, it comes right out of a nowhere and seems more like a ploy to keep the movie going another twenty minutes too long. Other times it feels like the writers felt like the movie didn't have enough drama, so lets just shoehorn this BIG MISUNDERSTANDING to continue to keep the couple apart and drag out their inevitable reunion. 

    Speaking of the inevitable, thank you for reading this entire post. After asking on FaceBook what kind of stuff y'all wanted to see, I will be saving the last day of this save days of Halloween to drop a short story that has never been published and is planned to be in the collection I will hopefully have out by December. Comment down below if y'all have any troupes or trends that keep you away from finishing even the best stuff. I hope you enjoyed my rantings, and can't wait until tomorrow!

How One of My Favorite Games Helped Me Name My Novel

    So for Halloween there are quite a few games that I go back and play again just because they fit the holiday spirit. Things like Bloodbourne or Hollow Night, and I've always loved Vampire Savior/Darkstalkers 3 for all the great sprite animations for the characters. When I was younger, I realized that often Halloween was just a much more relaxed time than the holidays that come right after i.e. Thanksgiving and Christmas. It didn't matter if we decided to do decorations, or if we planned to go anywhere, it was a fun time to go Trick or Treating and dress up for the holiday. While going through some spooky games, I got to play one of my favorites, Darkest Dungeon.

    A little about the game before going into what the title is talking about. Darkest Dungeon is the kind of game where instead of getting a group of four intrepid adventurers reclaiming your ancestral home, you control a group of mere mortals going up against the undead, eldritch abominations, vampire mosquitos, and many other terrible beasts. This game is so set against the player, there is an entire system where if the characters you are leading on their adventure get too stressed out, they are liable to have a specific mental break and possible die of a heart attack. As hard as the game is, the enjoyment felt is often the results of all these different game mechanics attacking you but you still come out on top. 

    What made the game one of my favorites had nothing to do with the way the game looks or plays, but the voice actor for the narrator, Wayne June. Between his delivery and the lines written for him, it is the perfect synergy that hammers home the hopelessness against such great odds felt in certain lines and the overwhelming relief and hype you feel getting through just one more trek into the dungeons. One specific line that always stuck with me was "a trifling victory, but a victory nonetheless", which was often triggered by beating certain enemies. The one that led to the name of my novel was "Wealth beyond measure. Awarded to the brave and foolhardy alike." When playing the game it always feels like even the narrator knows that there is nothing but perfect precision that will get everyone to the end of this one out of a hundred death traps, but death is coming. 

    That line, specifically the word foolhardy stuck with me so profoundly, that I had to find a way to use it in the title of the longest piece I have ever written. As I was using the same notebook that I keep for all my brainstorming when it comes to anything that happens in Sol Rojo, I used the entire back page to come up with different titles of books or short stories. What I ended with was about two or three pages of titles I have used for all sorts of stuff, including what I chose as the title for a project I hope to work on one day that tries to capture the story telling from the Souls games. "In the Company of the Foolhardy" is what I use now as the name I will be using for the series of novels in Sol Rojo, and the first book is "Death Waits in the Desert." Right now I have taken the time to just get some more experience with writing and learning the ins and outs of publishing before I take another long and hard look at my first finished novel to figure out what needs to be adjusted, removed, or rewritten entirely. Quite frankly, I am at a point currently where I can devote all my time and effort that I'm not using elsewhere into getting this collection of short stories and the novel done and released. However, as the game says during a moment where our character finds resolve, "Adversity can foster hope, and resilience", and "Where there is no peril in the task, there can be no glory in its accomplishment." Perhaps in the end, all I will have to show for all this work and late nights is a series of books few have touched and fewer have read, but that will have to be its own reward. To me, a book written is better than an idea fostered and brainstormed, left to rot due to fear. No reason to claim defeat before the adventure is even taken. 

    If you made it this far, thank you for reading all this and having an interest in where this might take me. Soon, I plan or editing and releasing one of the stories I will be including in my collection on this blog. Let me know if there are any ideas or topics y'all would like for me write about, and I can't wait until tomorrow to have some more for y'all to read.

Plans for the Future

    Well, here we are. I never though I would end up writing a Blog or doing anything like this but I figure there is no reason not to, and this might be the best way to let everyone that cares to know what I've been up to and what I am working on. After finishing the newest short story I am making for my collection "Sorcery, Saints, and Saloons: Tales from Sol Rojo," I took a quick break and ended up finishing a bunch of games while trying to put applications in for different jobs. If it was hard to find work before, a bachelor degree in Creative Writing hasn't made it much easier. So I figured since I ain't got the money for a computer that will let me stream or create content for YouTube or such, I would just do what I've always done: write.

    So, a little about me before we start getting into all the things I want to do but will more than likely need to be scaled back a bit. I used my G.I. Bill starting in 2020 when I didn't reenlist with the Marines to get a degree in Creative Writing with a minor in Literature and Linguistics. It was nice getting to return to Texas permanently with my wife, Ruth, and our beagle, Apollo. Things were rough at times but nothing happened that kept us from being able to bounce back. While going to college, I ended up getting a job with the tutoring center on campus. Helping people with their papers made me realized if I never ended up being an author and just became apart of the publishing process by proofreading/editing, I'd be more than happy to do that. 

    Fast-forward some-odd years, and here we are. I am currently trying to get a collection together to be self-published on Amazon. When I was first writing short stories, I messed around with a bunch of different short-stories that I may edit and put up on here. First fiction piece I did was about a superhero capturing a supervillain, and instead of putting him in jail, he decided to take him somewhere else and "talk" to him about their work relationship. From there I did a fantasy story about a man who wakes up from a dream, and made fun of the whole trope since it was one that both my professor and myself hated. What got me writing stories about wizard-cowboys ended up being because we had a semester where all the stories we were sharing with each other were just absolutely tragic. 

    Class meant we had to write two short stories and a flash piece, but the majority of class was spent sending those stories out to everyone and we would have a round table discussion for whichever three stories were slated to be talked about (gut response, what's working, what needs work, that kind of thing). This meant that every week, I would get three stories that had me feeling like "Alright, time to get sad." He died, she died, they divorced, everyone died, just absolute tragedy. So decided nah, we have had to much sad stuff, I'm going to write something fun. Up to this point I had come to the conclusion that comedy is harder than tragedy. Everyone knows when something is supposed to be sad, and so even if it doesn't elicited those feelings everyone knows when something accomplished being sad enough. Comedy is the exact opposite, where personal biases and writing compelling stories that have their comedic beats can be complicated at best and impossible at worst. Just look at how people talk about comedians and you know what I'm talking about. Some people can't stand Jim Carrey, think old Eddie Murphey was too much, and Larry the Cable Guy is the pinnacle of comedy. I think they all do what they do well enough at what their subject is, but I'm just the guy writing a blog. 

    I had been toying with this idea of adding elements from one genre to another. I promised myself I would never write a Western, since I read a couple that just didn't seem that great to me. Since then, I took classes that had me read stories that have made me realize that Westerns aren't bad, I just kept reading really formulaic, repetitive Westerns. So with all this sad stuff I was reading, I decided to write my first wizard-cowboy story "Lost and Found Henry" which you can read here. For my D&D nerds, think Spelljammer mixed with Jonah Hex as a character. I figured if the story was fun enough, than that would be a good way to practice my writing in a way that wouldn't hurt too much if it ended up not being any good. Turns out the class loved it! The idea of a cowboy fighting ghost with a wand and a revolver over a pearl necklace seemed to go over so well, that started being my thing. I figured I would keep writing this stuff and eventually when I was a better writer, I would write something else when I'm ready to move on from Sol Rojo. I was the wizard-cowboy writer, and I never even planned to be write a Western. In fact my thesis was the first book I hope to release one day "In the Company of the Foolhardy: Death waits in the Desert" and followed the same ideology of adding magic and sci-fi elements to a typical posse hunts some kidnappers story. Its a typical western town with their beliefs and morals thrown into a world were magic, eldritch abominations, and flying iron clads are now a reality.

    So now here we are, the point to all this. The plans I have for this blog and my writing in the future is to post on here every Friday as a check in and also as a place to flex writing about different things like my love-hate relationship with weightlifting, or a post I plan to write next week where I talk about how fighting games helped me enjoy playing games online again. At the end of all these post I will write an update about how future books are coming along and whether or not I start trying out other things such as streaming or creating videos which are basically essays like this with my voice instead of written words. Right now I am working on a collection of short stories, and possibly a book that is already written, just got to mess with it until I'm ready to drop it. An idea I've been having for a while is a book or series of books that are my personal love letter to Dark Souls, Bloodbourne, and all those kinds of games that have story telling and gameplay that I adore. If you made it this far, then thank you so much for reading to the end. I have a Facebook and Instagram if you want to follow me there, and I will be posting there for when I have new blog post up.