Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost...."

For seven months now, I've been a lucky man. Since my wife became a travel nurse in August 2016, the two of us, along with our two-year-old black lab/wirehaired terrier mutt, Otis, have been able to explore much of the western United States in the name of work, getting food and rent paid for and seeing sights we might never see again.

Wife and dog in the Sawtooth Mtns of Idaho

So far we have traveled from our original home in the high mountains of Colorado to the lonesome wilderness of central Idaho across the wasteland of central Nevada to the lush redwood forests of Northern California. We have seen snow-capped peaks with serrated skylines, and clear mountain lakes where the reflection and realty are so identical you could flip a photo upside down and hardly tell the difference. We basked in endless sands on beaches at the precipice of the great Pacific, and climbed the rugged bark of the world's tallest trees. It has been a remarkable journey, and it isn't over yet.

The Stagnant Mire

For years prior to setting out on the soul-searching adventure (what we have dubbed "The Search for Home") we plowed through the typical grind of normal life: 9 to 5 jobs, 40-hour work weeks, repetition devolving to stagnation, months of endless grind looking forward to too-brief four-day vacations.

One day, we woke up simultaneously and proclaimed in harmony it was no longer working. We loved the place where we lived. We didn't love the framework of life we had constructed within it. Before we could settle down, buy a house, start a family, our itchy feet burned to travel.

 So we set out, and as of yet we haven't looked back.

As a writer, everything seems like a story. And so far this personal story is one of the most engaging in my 33 years on this wet rock dubbed Earth. Our current chapter in this story, however, has come to an end.

An Even Bigger Chapter Follows….

Rugged shores of Northern California

Alaska. It's called the Final Frontier. 663,000 square miles of rugged wilderness, sky-prodding mountains, calving glaciers, hungry brown bears, and land as unexplored as perhaps anywhere else in North America. This is what awaits.

For the next year at least we will be in Seward, Alaska, an oceanside hamlet of 2,800 people, encircled by snow-tipped battlements and crenellated glaciers. A place where there are often more whales than people, and the bald eagles are bold enough to grab a careless pet right off your front porch. In the summer there is direct light at midnight and in the winter there might be no sun at all. It's a dramatic change and, hopefully, a fitting climax for this journey to find the place we will one day call home.

The Journey is the Destination

It is 1,718 miles as the condor flies from where I sit right now to where I will be in three weeks. The journey north looms. For two weeks we’ll wend a circuitous route up the West Coast, probing the sights of Oregon and Washington, until we board a drive-on ferry in Bellingham, WA. Four days on a boat will land us on the frozen North Shore at last.

In other words, blog followers, friends and family, I will be experiencing a media blackout for at least three weeks, perhaps longer. But don't count me as lost. I haven't given up writing or blogging. I'm not sick or in trouble. I'm merely back on the road again.

The journey must continue and I promise, barring some unforeseen trouble, I will be back.

A little travelin' music to fit the mood:

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If you enjoyed this post, consider signing up for my mailing list. I blog about all sorts of crazy, slightly educational, somewhat entertaining, and occasionally funny topics from what makes an effective first paragraph in a novel to giant redwoods, medieval sailboats, the ancient Mayans and more. If you do sign up, you will get a once-a-week update on my posts and NOTHING ELSE! No spam, no selling your email to third parties. Okay, if I ever get around to publishing one of these works in progress that are constantly haunting me, I might send out an email letting you know. In the meantime thanks for reading.

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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions

Wondrous Things Uncovered While Moving

Ah yes, moving again (I'll explain why we move so much in an upcoming blog post.) Moving ranks right up there with root canals and bankruptcy for most enjoyable life experiences. Seriously, have you ever heard anyone actually say (and not ironically) I love moving!

Despite the many aspects about moving pretty much guaranteed to ruin your week (aching back, gaps in internet service, fights your wife over the book collection you're not willing to shrink down), there is at least one that can actually be sort of fun: re-discovering all of the weird and crazy forgotten stuff that was buried at the bottom of your closets, the drawers you never open, underneath the bed and in the back of your garage.

Here are a few wondrous things I found while moving:

An essay from seventh grade

No, I'm not a hoarder. My problem is more like a mysterious strain of communicable laziness. Not sure who I caught it from. Who can say why I thought this C- paper was important to keep or how it has escaped detection/purging through at least five different moves over the years. I didn't put much into it then and I can't get through the first paragraph without at least three facepalms now. Seriously, does my writing still sound like that?

Enough dog hair to make a blanket

Hey daddy, my shedding isn't a problem. Aren't I cute when
I read a book?

Otis, my black-lab/wirehaired terrier rescue mutt, sheds like a sheep. We could seriously be missing out on a potential income source in outsourcing his wool to some weaving loom. His coat is thick and seems to shed/replenish at a supernatural rate. Most disturbing is all of the places it turns up like in the bathroom (a place he never goes since he fears baths like Hell itself), in my desk drawers, in the back of the freezer. What? The back of the freezer? Yep...somehow.

My lost cell phone!

I remember clearly the night of panic when this old flip phone disappeared. The tearing apart of everything (so I thought) in the desperate search to find it. The week of terror being cut off from the rest of the world. There are places in my house I probably searched a dozen times. The one place I guess I neglected was the one place it actually was.

That damn James Joyce novel I keep threatening to read

Why? Why do I keep hauling it around and saying I'm going to read it? I'm pretty sure I've taken on the first five pages at least a dozen times. You'd think I'd give up and just donate it to the library.

A dirty sock?

Hmm... Haven't worn that style in about a decade. Let's see...still fits! Guess I'll throw it back into the mix.

A heart-wrenching love letter 

Woe is me! And I always felt so torn up wondering why she never responded. Probably because it was here, underneath a stack of worthless scrap paper all this time. Let me just read a little...oh, God, I was actually planning on giving that to her?

A moldy...what is that anyway?

It must have been a lonely 2 am forgotten snack. Now it's a lump of greenish-blue something or other. Actually, the sciency side of me is strangely intrigued. I king of wish I had a microscope.

A stack of 50 cds

Cds were annoyingly scratchable but I kind of miss the
rainbows that reflect off them

An amazing collection of handpicked music. Sadly, I actually don't own a cd player anymore. So what's in it? Some mixed cds. The complete Beatles collection. Every Rolling Stones album ever made. The Who. Johnny Cash. Miles Davis. Nirvana. Wow! I used to have such great taste in music. When did I become so boring?

My first novel

Love it. Hate it. Ten years ago I had the epiphany I was going to be a novelist and I hammered this 150,000 word mess out in 2 months. Love it for inspiring me. Hate it because it is actually really terrible.

Usually I'd probably pick a near-drowning experience over a move, but it can actually be strangely interesting too. It's like opening a time capsule into your own life. The longer you have been at a place the more irritating the move yet the more intriguing the capsule. You go further and further into you past as you rifle through the detritus of your house. In the deepest corners you might find some laughs, some tears, something smelly. 

Ah crap, which box did I pack my clean clothes in again?

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If you enjoyed this post, consider signing up for my mailing list. I blog about all sorts of crazy, educational, entertaining, and occasionally funny topics from what makes an effective first paragraph in a novel to giant redwoods, medieval sailboats, the ancient Mayans and more. If you do sign up, you will get a once-a-week update on my posts and NOTHING ELSE! No spam, no selling your email to third parties. Okay, if I ever get around to publishing one of these works in progress that are constantly haunting me, I might send out an email letting you know. In the meantime thanks for reading.

Follow Me on Twitter!

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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions

Hugh Howey's Wool: Proof that the Indie Model Can Work

A few weeks ago the hunt for a new book commenced. 

The preceding months I'd been slaying fiction like a mighty dragon hunter, seeking novels and their treasure troves and taking them down with heroic abandon. I justified the ever-mounting expense to my wife by claiming that the mountain of paperback corpses piling up in our house was the product of crucial "research." (Mostly, however, I have come to suspect she's the damsel every hero actually needs: one not in distress but who accepts her hero's foibles out of the genuine goodness of her heart.) I harbor closely guarded and grandiose illusions (delusions?) of myself as a fiction writer, and every fiction writer worth his salt knows the best way to hone his craft is to study examples of those who've mastered it already.

I needed a new book to slay. I wanted to find a new writer I'd never read, but I also wanted something current to help me decipher the trends in speculative fiction and unlock the mystery of the modern audience.

Amazon scores: 12,970 reviews
5 star- 75%; 1 star- 2 %

Thus after a tedious scouring of the dark wilderness of Wikipedia, Amazon, and Goodreads, I stumbled at last upon my next worthy adversary: Wool.

What made Wool so intriguing was not just that it had an astonishing 12,000 customer reviews on Amazon (the vast majority of which were 4-star and above), or that it had made the NYT bestseller list and was optioned for an upcoming movie. What interested me most was that, at least during its rise to glory, Wool was a self-published novel. 

My attitude towards self-publishing so far has been mixed to cynical. Constantly harangued on Twitter by writers not so different than myself trying to sell me their self-published books, I find myself often utilizing the “look inside” feature on Amazon to scrutinize the first pages of these numerous suitors. Occasionally, I’ve found some interesting enough to load onto my kindle. However, though it pains me to say it, the results have almost always been grim. But with 12,000 reviews and a heap of accolades, it seemed Wool might be the indie champion to defy my conclusion that self-published novels, for all their good intentions, are simply inferior.

The Novel

For those, like me, who are latecomers to the Wool phenomenon, let me provide a brief synopsis. Wool takes place in a dystopian future where an unspecified apocalyptic event has rendered the atmosphere fatally toxic. The world of Wool, therefore, is a massive underground complex known as the “silo” that winds hundreds of levels into the ground. Every birth in the silo requires a death, and when such a chance arrives, couples must enter a lottery for permission to conceive a child.

While this premise was not unbelievably original, when taken with the novel's stunning success, I was intrigued enough to give the world of Wool a fair chance.

THE GOOD

The Beginning 

One of the biggest faults I’ve noticed in many self-published novels is a beginning that fails to “hook." My recent investigation into what makes a first paragraph effective suggested that readers respond to the engagement of emotion and the raising of questions the reader has to have answered. In this difficult task, Wool performs exceptionally.

The first line of Wool reads: “The children were playing as Holston climbed to his death.” Immediately, I wanted to know how and why this character was going to die, and why there were children "playing" in proximity to an unfolding tragedy. This first line had the type of emotional/question-raising intrigue I had found so effective in other books. 

But a novel cannot hang on the anchor of a strong first line or even a first paragraph no matter how well-written. A good novel sets the stakes high and doesn’t disappoint.

The first chapter of Wool paints a vivid portrait of this underground world. The description is believably textured and engaging. The world-building, even in this confined setting, feels painstakingly vast.

Howey increases the intrigue with the introduction of the silo's system of capital punishment where the condemned are sent on a one-way voyage to “clean” the digital sensors above ground in the toxic air so the people below can view a clear projection of the outside world on a massive screen in the cafeteria. Why the cleaners never fail to complete this task despite knowing they will only survive long enough to finish the job before succumbing to an agonizing death is one of the foremost questions of the beginning of the novel. And why do the silo's citizens, who treat these cleanings as a sort of holiday, invest so much in a projection of the burnt, broken and lifeless world littered with the corpses of all those who have been "put to cleaning"?

Pushing forward, Howey reveals that Holston’s wife had decided abruptly three years before the novel's outset to voluntarily clean, a form of suicide her reasons for which she never adequately explained. For three years Holston watched the projection, fixating on the crumpled form of his deceased wife, before deciding to follow. 

It becomes obvious there is something amiss about all of this. Something not quite honest about either the digital projection, the cleaning process, or the silo itself. 

Good Characters

Good novels, even some of the best, don't sound particularly original when you distill their plots to a handful of sentences such as you might find on the back cover or underneath the title on Amazon. What makes a novel great is most often the strength of its characters. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is just a mediocre James Patterson knock off without the intrigue of Lisbeth Salander. The Hunger Games sounds much like Ender's Game without the fully fleshed enigma that is Katniss Everdeen. In this once again Wool delivers.

Juliette is the heroine of the dystopian world of Wool

The pecking order of the silo is apparent: the grunts are tucked away at the bottom; the important people live near the top. The novel's principal heroine, Juliette, works in Mechanical, the department on the silo's lowest level. Juliette is underpaid and under-appreciated, but she is hard working, humble, intelligent and charismatic enough to generate a loyal following among her co-workers. She possesses an uncanny sense on what works and knows exactly how to fix what doesn’t. While this, at first, applies to the mechanical workings that keep the power, water and food systems of the silo running, it is later revealed that this is also a metaphor for her comprehension of just about everything. In other words Juliette is a tough, badass chick brimming with charisma and intelligence and you cant help but cheer for her all the way to the end.

Pacing

Wool is a novel that keeps the pages flowing. Never is there a section that lags enough to hamper the story's flow. Even expository sections are engagingly executed. The novel doesn't lean too heavily on bang-bang action, though there is a generous serving of that too. Wool is constructed on interesting philosophical underpinnings that transcend mere action and suspense. 

Dystopia as a Cracked Mirror

One of the joys of good dystopia is what we can learn about our own world. As a projection of a possible future that reflects our cultural trajectory, dystopia reveals the potential consequences of modern actions when taken to their logical conclusions. In Wool, the silo is a microcosm for today's Earth. Howey harbors deep convictions about corruption, classism, the warping/withholding of knowledge and science, and the value of honest interpersonal connection and deep familial bonds. None of this, however, is forced on the novel so that it impedes the story but rather flows with and sharpens the plot at every step.

THE BAD

Plot Holes

There were a few plot holes in Wool that distracted from my suspension of disbelief. The absence of an elevator in the silo seemed distinctly implausible. The vast number of stairs required to march from the top to bottom (or visa versa) is a major obstacle routinely examined but never explained. I suppose the cause could be the scarcity of electric power, or perhaps some conscious decision of the silo’s creators to maintain its clear hierarchy. To me, however, it seemed that an elevator or lift of some form would be essential to this type of construct and the lack of one felt simply ludicrous.

Crumbles into Action Thriller

I’m a sucker for adventure over action. In the first 2/3rds of the novel the driving force tension centers on unlocking mysteries, exploring this strangely unique world, and trying to uncover who is behind the apparent corruption. This was far more interesting than the last third where battle sequences, action, and fighting become paramount.

CONCLUSION

Ultimately, Wool is a worthy page turner and a fine example of dystopian, post-apocalyptic science fiction. The strength of the characters, particularly Juliette, as well as the intriguing world building is more than enough to overcome the plot holes and its eventual and unavoidable devloution into an action thriller. The book is a fast and engaging read and even though it is somewhat long (over 500 pages) I reached the end wishing for more. 

Out of five stars I would rate Wool a strong four

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I am in-debted to my readers. Without people to endure the words on my pages, I will vanish like the dodo. If you liked this post, feel free to comment below. If you didn't like it, feel free to comment below. I'll be your friend forever if you consider signing up for my weekly newsletter. You'll get a once-a-week update on my posts and NOTHING ELSE! No spam, no selling your email to third parties. Okay, if I ever get around to publishing one of these numerous books I've been working on, I might send out an email letting you know about that, but that's it! In the meantime thanks for reading.

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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions

Ten Signs You've Taken Your Writing Obsession Too Far

Every writer knows the blessing (or curse, more accurately) of writing. The superpowers of world creation. The pure joy of instant escapism into a world completely under your control. The exhilaration of being puppet master for both your characters and readers. The vicarious ecstasy of slipping into the role of both handsome hero and clever villain.

But like anything, even writing, needs to be dosed in moderation. Here are ten signs you’ve taken it too far:

1. You accidentally call your wife by the name of your novel’s heroine. 

Depending on the particular circumstances of the mistake, this could be a marriage breaker.

2. You are still in your pajamas at 5 pm on your day off. 

Just one more chapter turned into five more hours.

3. You dream a brilliant plot and scramble out of bed at 2 am to write the outline. 

Usually doesn’t sound as good in the morning as it did in the middle of the night.

4. Your friends have stopped calling and it took you three months to notice. 

The only friends you need are in Middle Earth anyway.

5. You conflated your boss with your story’s villain. 

Oh well, the character was probably based on him, wasn't he?

6. You have more empty coffee mugs on your desk than rejection letters. 

And there are a lot of those.

7. You work on three manuscripts, four short stories, a platform, a query letter, an author bio, a front cover, and a blog all in one day.

And somehow you still find time to read fifty pages of the latest fantasy epic from your favorite author.

8. Your book budget is nearly as high as your rent.

Yes this is actually my keyboard. Good thing I don't need to
look at it to see where A, S and E are....

And you still refuse to get rid of your old books. It's okay, Gollum, I know they're precious.

9. You correct the grammar of the local newspaper.

Where do they get these hack writers, anyway?

10. You’ve typed so much you can no longer read the letters on your laptop’s keyboard. 

Yeah, A, S, E, and O are all invisible on mine, and C, D, and L are close behind.

Don’t worry, quirky, obsessed writer you. You are not alone. Maybe someday it will pay off. Or not, in which case you better enjoy it.

I am in-debted to my readers. Without people to endure the words on my pages, I will vanish like the dodo. If you liked this post, feel free to comment below. If you didn't like it, feel free to comment below. I'll be your friend forever if you consider signing up for my weekly newsletter. You'll get a once-a-week update on my posts and NOTHING ELSE! No spam, no selling your email to third parties. Okay, if I ever get around to publishing one of these numerous books I've been working on, I might send out an email letting you know about that, but that's it! In the meantime thanks for reading.

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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions

The Everlasting Journey of the Hero

Naive and immature protagonist is thrust into strange and dangerous world. Guided by a wise mentor he suffers through innumerable misadventures to return, wiser and transformed. 

It is a plot arc that has been written a thousand times. Classic examples can be traced back to the beginning of storytelling itself, from early epics like Homer's Odyssey to the Arthurian tale of Percival to modern favorites like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings and even Harry Potter. Scholars have even posited that the stories of Jesus Christ, Muhammad, and Siddhartha Guatama fit neatly into this common pattern. This plot, a type of bildungsroman sometimes called the Hero's Journey, forms one of the keystones of storytelling throughout the ages.

The Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces
was the first work that explored the "monomyth" of the Hero's 
Journey

As a definable term, the "Hero's Journey" entered in the modern lexicon with mythology scholar Joseph Campbell's 1949 book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In this seminal work of comparative mythology, Campbell describes a recurring narrative, what he calls a "monomyth," that is present throughout the ages and across nearly every culture. What is it about this "coming of age" story that makes it so compelling it has captivated the human imagination for millennia virtually unchanged? The hero wears his thousand faces, but at his core he is the same. The details of the story, as Campbell illuminates, are recognizable to the point of predictability, yet are employed by storytellers subconsciously. It would seem that the notion of the Hero's Journey is buried inside every one of us.

The Components of the Hero's Journey

Campbell identified several stages of the Hero's Journey, split into three "acts." Here is an oversimplification of each using modern or classic examples:

Act I- Departure

1. Call to Adventure- The call to adventure most often interrupts the hero's stasis of normalcy, pushing him (I will say "him" throughout but the Hero's Journey can and has been undertaken by many female figures as well) towards a dangerous fate at the end of a long, desperate road. Usually this call to adventure is forced on the hero. For example, when Gandalf sends Bilbo out against his will with his dwarf companions in search of the Lonely Mountain, or when Odysseus is driven into the far seas by Poseidon's angry winds. Both represent a sudden, unexpected departure and the beginning of an obstacle-laden journey.
2. Refusal of the Call- In many examples, the Hero experiences a moment of fear, doubt, and unwillingness which often leads to them refusing the call. Such as Luke Skywalker's reluctance to abandon his aunt and uncle at the moisture farm to join Obe Wan Kenobe's journey to Alderaan.
3. Supernatural Aid- Inevitably the Hero meets a helper, often in the form of a guide, crone or older mentor (which coincidentally often fits cleanly with Carl Jung's archetype of the wise old man, or "senex"). This guide frequently presents the hero with a token or amulet that will help keep him safe on his journey, such as Obe Wan gifting Luke with the lightsaber, or Dumbledore giving Harry the cloak of invisibility.
4. Crossing the Threshold- The point at which the Hero departs the safety of his world and begins the epic journey. Sometimes the order of these things can vary, but think of how Bilbo runs out of Bag End, famously forgetting his hat.
5. Belly of the Whale- A first crisis, one that often appears nearly fatal, represents the final departure from the hero's former world and his plunging headlong into the journey. With The Hobbit, this could be either the run-in with the trolls or perhaps, even better, Bilbo getting lost in the tunnels and having to face Gollum in a riddling contest.

Act II- Initiation

1. The Road of Trials- The road of trials is a series of tests that the Hero must face in order to gain

   

   The original Star Wars trilogy fits nicely into the Hero's Journey
   framework, a move that was intentional by George Lucas

   wisdom, skill and knowledge that will help his reach his ultimate success. The hero often fails at one or more of them and is bailed out by his mentor, often covertly. Frodo has to survive being grabbed by Old Man Willow, captured by the barrow wights, and being stabbed by a morgul blade at Weathertop, among other things, before he has the strength to face his ultimate test at Mount Doom.
2. The Temptress- Having passed, or merely survived, many of the early trials, the hero now faces temptation(s) that threaten to draw him away from his journey. This does not always have to be a woman as the term temptress implies, but it represents the seduction or lusts that could draw the hero from his quest into an apparently easy life of pleasure. A classic example is Circe in the Odyssey. Circe is a goddess who gives Odysseus and his men comfort, food and drink. At this point their quest nearly fails as they grow gluttonous (and are even turned into swine) on pleasures of the flesh.
3. Atonement with the Father- The hero now faces the figure which holds the ultimate power over his life, often represented by a male figure or even the character's literal father. An obvious example is Luke's confrontation with Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. While it is difficult to say Luke and Anakin reach "atonement" in this sequence, it is the confrontation, and the subsequent acquisition of knowledge, that is at the heart of the quest.
4. Apotheosis- Apotheosis is the point in which Hero realizes he has reached a greater understanding. Like Luke casting aside his light saber after defeating Darth Vader in The Return of the Jedi and proclaiming himself a "jedi." The hero is now ready for the final and most dangerous part of the journey.
5. The Ultimate Boon- The ultimate achievement of the goal or quest. Having survived the trials, reached his state of enlightenment, the Hero is now ready to complete the goal he set out to accomplish. This is when Frodo finally casts the ring into the lava at Mount Doom, or Harry defeats Lord Voldemort, or Luke (and Anakin together) overthrow the Emperor. The goal is achieved and the most dangerous part of the quest is over.

Act III- The Return

1. Refusal of the Return/Magic Flight- Much like how the Hero needs help getting through the threshold, he may also need help starting the return. In many instances, an escape is necessary for our hero. As Campbell says: "The hero may have to be brought back from his supernatural adventure by assistance from without. That is to say, the world may have to come and get him." For example, without being rescued by the eagles in The Return of the King, Frodo (and Sam) would have laid on the rocks until the lava overtook them.
2. Crossing the Return Threshold- A crucial part of the complete Hero's Journey is the return. The character struggles processing what he has learned and, by extension, how to share that wisdom with the rest of the world. In The Return of the King, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin return to the Shire to find it overrun by crooked men and hobbits who are operating under the will of a depleted, malicious Saruman. The world they have returned to is an ugly pantomime of the one they left and they must now utilize the wisdom gained on their journey to rescue their former world.
3. Freedom to Live- In the final stage of the journey, the Hero reaches an inner peace with the world that he has faced, how it has changed and how it changed him. The shedding of the fear of dying allows the character, at last, to live fully in peace. This can be seen in Harry's settling down to marry Ginny, have children together, and make peace with Malfoy. This moment of understanding is also apparent at the last moment of the Return of the Jedi when Luke sees the corporeal figures of Anakin, Obe Wan and Yoda apparently restored to their former selves, peaceful and unified, representing the achievement of inner peace.

The Hero's Journey in Today's World

A depiction of the Odyssey from the 2nd century

There is something innately pleasing about the Hero's Journey that strikes at the heart of what it means to be human. Literally or metaphorically we all undergo journeys. It is through these trials, quests and accomplishments that we grow most profoundly into the wise people we are bound to become. Innovation as a storyteller then comes in ways we can invent a new and more interesting Hero, or creatively tweak the setting to create something fresh.

Or perhaps there is more. Perhaps we can subvert the Hero's Journey and show how its convenient template fails our modern world, either in part or catastrophically and completely.

In Joe Abercrombie's Before They Are Hanged, we find a corrupted version of the Hero's Journey. In this novel the heroes are guided on a journey far from home that ends in a triumphant return of sorts. Outwardly it looks like that familiar form all over. But Abercrombie subverts the tale in several interesting ways. Instead of a wise old mentor, we get the wizard Bayaz, a corrupt, selfish and dangerous figure whose goal isn't to guide the hero's self discovery but to further his own wicked ends. And the ultimate boon turns out not to be some great object of power and wisdom but no more than a worthless rock. This intriguing, and perhaps quite intentional, subversion paints a non-idealized and realistic version of the journey that ultimately feels more applicable to the real world. 

It seems painfully possible that the Hero's Journey was a myth all along, something we're taught to believe in impractically, like the romantic notion of "the one" or the myth of "happily ever after." Perhaps the notion of the Hero is toxic: a projection of corrupt idealism in a realist's world whose failure is in part responsible for far-reaching cultural fatigue and disappointment. As storytellers it's our job to interpret the narratives of the world and either to forge a new and metamorphosing mythology that better fits the ever-transforming world or to reinforce the well-trodden trails until they are so deep that even those who are astray can easily return.

I am in-debted to all of my readers. Without people to endure my words on a page, I will cease to exist. If you liked this post, feel free to comment below. If you didn't like it, feel free to comment below. I'll be your friend forever if you consider signing up for my weekly newsletter. You'll get a once-a-week update on my posts and NOTHING ELSE! No spam, no selling your email to third parties. Okay, if I ever get around to publishing one of these numerous books I've been working on for years, I might send out an email letting you know about that, but that's it! In the meantime thanks for reading.

Follow Me on Twitter!

Sign up for my Mailing List

All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions

Children Are Our Future...Make Them Readers

Kids are our future. It’s a terrifying notion really. The modern kid is a smelly, noisy, selfish, fit factory. And the potential for blame could lie with many of societies numerous shortcomings: flailing school systems, overuse of the internet, video games, bad food, parents who are even bigger smelly, noisy, selfish, fit factories. But if our future depends on these pint-sized monsters growing up to captain our troubled world into the coming millennia, then frankly I’m concerned. We need a champion that can save this generation so they can save ours.

Books. 

Not all kids are as bad as I made them sound. I'm not a parent (you may have guessed), but I'm an uncle. My nephew and two nieces (almost five, seven and sixteen) are all pretty inspiring. Above average, I would dare say but everyone thinks that about their own family, right? But seriously, my older niece has more wisdom as a teenager than I did at twenty-two, my younger niece has a greater knowledge of animal species than some high-school graduates, and my four-year-old nephew can drive a Tonka tractor like a construction wizard.

There are truly some kids, hopefully more than I give the world credit, who possess the skill sets and budding potential to bail us out of the muck pile we’ve buried our boots in.

We need more of them!

Congress recently added a new species to the Endangered Species List. It was a sad and terrible day when I read the news, for this species was part of what made the world the colorful, amazing, mind-mindbogglingly brilliant place it once was and still could be. That species? Critical thinkers.

The United States just suffered through its ugliest presidential election in modern history. Both sides unleashed volleys of hate-filled nastiness at an unprecedented volume. It was Total War. Nothing was safe. Rampant social media addiction has birthed an era where people rely on memes, not actual journalism, as the raw material to forge their opinion of the world. No longer can a person suffer through a two-thousand word article by someone who put in the time to research a subject thoroughly and whose writing was subjected to multiple layers of editorial oversight. Now we allow ourselves just enough time to view a picture and a sentence (usually promoting some clever-sounding but fallacy-packed pseudothesis) click “like” and move on.

It’s sad.

How do we rescue critical thought from the brink of extinction? We need to cultivate readers. Coddle them like the California Condor, scrubbing their oily wings when the pollution of the world runs too deep, and monitor the minutiae of their development to ensure they don't disappear forever. 

I don’t know about other countries, and those of you international friends could weigh in, but in the United States the problem to me is obvious: a sampling of the Facebook/Twitter rhetoric proves that a massive cross-section of our country is functionally illiterate. This huge blob of the population can't tell the difference between a valid, supportable thesis and a nonsensical, ridiculous conspiracy theory hatched straight from a backroom at the sanitarium. And if the decline in critical thought continues at its current rate, intelligence, careful analysis, good decision making and (by extension) almost everything good about the world will be gone in just a few short generations.

Children are our future. We need readers. Tyrion Lannister, an infinite source of entertaining wisdom, said, “A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone.” We need to encourage literacy.

How do we get kids to read in a world where it’s no longer a priority value by culture at large? There are so many distractions for children. So many things that pry them away from the pages of books. I've seen young kids holding smart phones they looked barely old enough to carry, and kids cross-eyed from endless hours of video game madness. Nowadays kids are more likely to proclaim that their heroes are the stars of reality television like Kim Kardashian or Si Robertson than a literary figure or character. Take away their smart phones. Turn off the television. Steal their video games. Not that they can't do these things some of the time, but for at least a few hours make them read a book.

Our future depends on it.

BONUS

One of my literary heroes, Dave Eggers, who is founder of the powerhouse literary journal McSweeney’s and author of the brilliant (though sometimes convoluted) memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, gave TED talk a few years back on the subject of creating tutoring centers that encouraged reading and writing among children. His main philosophy? Make it fun! The video is a bit long (24 minutes) but his ideas are brilliant and if you are interested in a discussion of pedagogy and childhood learning it is well worth the time to watch. His ideas are applicable to many things beyond reading. The video is hilarious and entertaining. I’ve never shown it to anyone and had them say they were disappointed afterwards. The first time I watched it, I was inspired to go out and try to change the world one reading/writing child at a time. Enjoy!

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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions

Obsession, Love Letters, and Book Reviews

Everyone loves their own opinion. Recently I've become convinced that this self-obsession, this overbearing lust to bask in our own perceived magnificence, is very reason the internet exists. The virtually unlimited comment sections and forums are the ultimate medium for people to blather on unedited about any and, well, every topic. Sometimes it is just worthless word soup. Other times, hearty chicken noodle.

I'm no better. For me my opinion is probably the most important opinion in the world (shouldn't your opinion be for you?).  I'm an opinionated person, I admit it. However, I'm not rude about it, like some people, nor am I afraid to listen to what others have to say. I love a spirited debate. And one thing I definitely have an opinion about as an editor, literature major, semi-professional writer, etc, is books.

Admittedly, I'm a little disappointed in myself right now. Book reviews are a probably one of the most common and probably uninteresting topics for a blog post and now I'm guilty of it. There's two reasons for this generic and rather mundane bit of writing:

1) Love letters- Yes, that's right. Books and writing are what I love, so I tend to hammer out a great volume of letters (also words and sentences) about them.

2) Obsession- With my brand new work-in-progress that is. Having reached near crisis levels on all three of my unfinished manuscripts for various reasons, I decided the best option was to put them all aside for awhile and start something new. Against all odds, in poured a new idea that gripped me like a row of serrated teeth. Over the last few days I have been obsessed, hitting stupid daily word counts like 7,000 effortlessly (something that seemed so rare historically for me.) Yesterday I wrote 11,301 words, which I'm pretty sure is a new personal best. In fact, I'm super eager to just get through this blog post so I can start hammering away on my new story again.

So enough jabbering. I'm going to risk sharing my own opinions about a few books I have recently read. Take them for what they are...just another person's viewpoint. Maybe it helps, maybe it's just word soup.

BOOK 1

Look to Windward
by Iain M. Banks
Amazon scores: 133 total reviews (5 star: 61%; 1 star: 2%)

The Good:

Imagination- The Culture series is an impressive feat of human imagination. Look to Windward was the third book I've read in the series and in this area it did not disappoint. Banks lays out some seriously creative ideas for the future of humanoid civilization:

1. Orbitals. Ring-shaped, planet-like artificial constructs that are mobile, controllable and form the new home to most of the trillions of inhabitants of the Culture.
2. Futuristic extreme sports, like lava rafting. I love rafting but what would make it even more exciting? Friggin' lava!
3. Unique alien species like the behemothaur, a continent-size flying whale-like creature circling for millennia around inhabitable gas giants. 
4. Minds. hyper-intelligent sentient AI which run essentially everything about the Culture while the humans bask in post-scarcity bliss. 
5. Sublimation. Once a species reaches a certain technological level they are actually able to download their minds and souls into an artificially created "heaven."

Complexity- Counter to many examples, both historical and modern, of speculative fiction, Banks's writing borders at times on literary, plumbing intriguing questions of humanity, and forging it all together in tangled webs that resolve in beautiful, but sometimes untidy denouements that feel remarkably poignant.

The Bad:

Over-complexity- Sometimes, and this seems especially true in Look to Windward, Banks gets a little too complex. In Windward, I found it challenging to keep up with the many plot lines. It seemed each time I started to really get into the action, I was whisked away to some other time and place, sometimes another world, having to start back from scratch, learn a new character, try to decipher their motivations, and succeed just in time to be transported away somewhere else. In a relatively short novel (400 pages) there just didn't seem to be enough time to develop it all.

Static characters- Perhaps due to the aforementioned over-complexity and the multiple plot lines, I just never felt like a knew a character long enough to feel the dynamics of their minds, or engage in deep empathy which for me is what makes a novel great.

The Conclusion

All-in-all I would give this novel a 3 of 5 stars. What sticks with me more than the story or the characters was the impressive world-building. This cutting-edge world (or more accurately, galaxy) building took the standard good-against-evil Star Wars-esque space opera and shoved it into a whole new plane. However, sometimes I enjoy a good character-driven story like Star Wars where the plot sinks beneath the interactions of the characters whom you have formed deep empathy for. This lack of character relation, sadly, is where this otherwise excellent book fell short.

BOOK 2

The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin
Amazon scores: 416 total reviews (5 star: 71%; 1 star: 2%)

The Good

Refreshing- As fantasy writers there is something we all have to face: the old tropes, the pseudo-medieval world where a young, innocent character is thrust into a large world and becomes a powerful superstar, is tired. Exhausted really. Yes, great examples of this overused idea are still written, published and successful every year, but it is good to breathe something fresh. In some ways, The Fifth Season is not that much different, but it infuses just enough freshly squeezed lemon juice in that stale old water to give it a new flavor. The world building was intriguing and original, the setting was entirely new, the theory behind the magic was unlike anything I'd been exposed to, and the characters were refreshingly non-Eurocentric. 

Interestingly complex- There are three main plot lines in The Fifth Season. To avoid spoiling some great movements within the book all I will say is I enjoyed how they all tied together. It had hints of the literary qualities that push and challenge readers in an interesting way but didn't allow them to become heavy-handed to the point of ruining the story.

The Bad

2nd Person!- When I first saw that this book had sections written in second person, I almost threw it in the trash. I hate 2nd person and almost never see the use for it. At best it is a tolerable distraction and at worst it can completely ruin an otherwise interesting story. Luckily, the entire book is not 2nd person, only about one-third of it, and Jemisin pulls it off fairly well. Still, I would have preferred had she left it out entirely. In my humble opinion, it did nothing to make the story better and it felt like a heavy-handed and unnecessary grasp at originality.

Forced Diversity- I saw on the negative Amazon reviews several people complain about this and  I almost have to agree to some extent. Despite what I said earlier about being glad the book was not centered around a bunch of white, European males, the forced diversity in this novel almost felt like one of those contrived McDonalds commercials where a Hispanic, a white guy, a black guy and an Asian are all sitting around a table together. I have no problems with gay characters, transgender characters, black characters, or people of any other race, size or sexual orientation, but I strongly feel it has to be for the better of the book. Characters are who they are because they exist in a world that should feel real. And though writers have to be mindful of their audience, and the conscious or even sub-conscious ways we can influence the world, I felt in this case like at least some of the diversity was inserted as an afterthought is an attempt to prove she was being inclusive. As a counter example, although Game of Thrones is a strongly "white-dude" dominated book, the inclusion of a small person, a couple of gay characters, a bastard, a tomboy, etc, all felt decidedly important and these characteristics were used in a way that made the story better.  

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this book. It was a rare page-turner for me and I finished it in three days, immediately ordering the sequel when I was done. N.K. Jemisin deserved the Hugo Award for this rather brilliant piece of speculative imagination and I look forward to her future writing with great interest. The above criticism did not distract from the story in a significant way, perhaps only keeping this book at a "I really liked this book" level rather than a "this is one of my favorites." I would give it somewhere along the lines of 4.2 out of 5 stars.

BOOK 3

The Color of Magic
by Terry Pratchett
Amazon scores: 969 total reviews (5 star: 56%; 1 star: 2%)

The Good

Creativity- I'm a latecomer to the Terry Pratchett phenomena. The Color of Magic is the first in the Discworld series, which spans some 41 novels that have sold over 80 million copies. It was published the year I was born (1983). The Color of Magic is a parody of the fantasy genre, much like Douglas Adams parodied sci-fi with A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in 1979. While poking fun at fantasy classics like The Lord of the Rings it also became a classic itself. And rightfully so. It is unique, creative and funny and provides a breath of fresh air to the usually heavy, good vs. evil structure of so many fantasy epics.

Funny- I love a good comedy. Who doesn't? Life should not be taken so seriously all the time. The light-hearted desire for a bit of laughter is what prompted me into Discworld, and I'm glad I did. Images like in the prologue when a group of observers lower themselves over the edge of the rimfall at the edge of the flat disc-shaped world only to discover they whole planet was propped up by four elephants standing on the back of a meteor-pocked turtle, or the sentient, many-legged trunk (who belongs to the first ever, and lovably naive tourist, to the city of Morpork's) who is prone to biting off the hands of anyone tempted enough to reach in for the bags of gold it carries around, are what make this book the hilarious and fun read it is.

The Bad

Lack of Poignancy- Okay this may seem a bit contradictory because some of the very things I listed as "good" qualities of the book are also some of things that keep me from loving it. While I enjoy the goofy, irreverent humor, I also found its silliness a barricade to my overall enjoyment. I guess I'm a sucker for a book that hits all of my emotions: excitement, fear, sadness, love, joy. In short, I love books that can stir humor into an otherwise serious cauldron. In essence, this notion, that the very goofy nature that gives this book its unique edge also eviscerates the other emotional connections, is the heart of my criticism. While I sort of like Rincewind, the Quixotic and hapless "hero" of this tale, I don't find myself particularly empathetic with his story and I did not care enough about what happened to him in the end.

Conclusion

Take this book for what it is: a goofy break from the legions of dark, serious and mythical volumes of fantasy novels in the modern canon. I enjoyed reading this book, but it wasn't a page turner. And for me I feel I "got the gist" and don't feel particularly compelled to read on in the series.

If you enjoyed this post, consider signing up for my mailing list. I blog about all sorts of crazy, educational, entertaining, and occasionally funny topics from what makes an effective first paragraph in a novel to giant redwoods, medieval sailboats, the ancient Mayans and more. If you do sign up, you will get a once-a-week update on my posts and NOTHING ELSE! No spam, no selling your email to third parties. Okay, if I ever get around to publishing one of these works in progress that are constantly haunting me, I might send out an email letting you know. In the meantime thanks for reading.

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All writing is the original work of Brian Wright and may not be copied, distributed, re-printed or used any form without express written consent of the author. Find out here how to CONTACT me with publishing and/or use questions