A Pile of Short Stories

You may have gathered from my previous post that I've been editing some short stories. I've written a handful of them over the past few years, and I haven't looked at them since. This has caused me some confusion, because I forgotten things I was in the middle of. I've edited four of them so far. I still have four left. Crud, I thought I'd finished more than that. 

And I have one more short story I haven't started. Another sequel. 

Except for one, all of the shorts are about characters or events that appear in other stories. Someone told me to submit a short story to a magazine. I'm not sure how well they'd stand on their own. I feel like they have more meaning when they're part of a whole. (Maybe that's an excuse for not trying to make them stand on their own?)

I wanted to show a story to someone, so I went back and filled out a few things that otherwise only make sense if you read the first story. I still wrote a page explaining the events that lead up to the story. I hope I didn't scare them off from reading it... 

I couldn't work every detail into the sequel short story without making it clunky. I suppose I could have left it purposefully vague... 

I don't know what to do. Try to explain what it's a sequel to, or let them figure it out on their own. TT^TT

It takes too long to think of names...

When I write short stories, I get annoyed about naming the characters. Some of them only have brief appearances, but I still need to find the right name. Either from the right culture, or with the right feel to it. 

So sometimes I cheat. I've used names of actors three times just over the past year. If not more. I should probably change my tactics... I went back to edit one short story I hadn't looked at in a long time. I wondered why I'd chosen the name "Pascal." Was it because of the Disney character? Or the actor Pedro Pascal? I guess now I'll never know. My instinct is to say the character. But why would I name a soldier after a cute little chameleon? 

I went to edit another story, and realized that I'd left a handful of side characters unnamed. I went through the painstaking research for names from that area. And once I finished, I realized that I'd already made notes on potential names, which I'd typed into the first draft... If I'd skimmed through it, I might not have had to go through the naming twice. 

So, I hope the names I've picked don't have any unusual connotations. And that I'm pronouncing them right in my head. 

I have one more short story in mind, and I hope I don't need to name any brief side characters! 

And Your Bird Can Sing

Another unexpected complication about world-building is animal names. Not all animals. I'm going to call a lion a lion. But when you get around to some species, it's not so simple. 

For example, the Townsend's warbler is a beautiful little bird I sometimes see. It's named after an ornithologist. There's no reason that another world would name a bird after a guy from this world. And sure, I could make up some back story for a guy with the same name who had a part in the history of this bird. 

But when an American bird species (or African, etc) is named after a European scientist or explorer, that's a problem in itself. It's not like that person discovered the bird. It's pretty much a guarantee that the species already had a name in the local language. 

And on top of that, some bird species are actually getting new names because they were named for people that did bad things. 

For other cases, it's silly to use a French name for an American bird (such as the grosbeak). 

So, when I want to have a specific bird appear in one of my stories, I sometimes have to give it a new name. I've found a couple old-fashioned names that work. And for others, I've gone with American-Indian names for the birds. A couple others, I've just reworded. 

There are so many things to figure out! 

Really, Google?

Since Blogspot changed some of their features, there's this weird AI button. It's right in the corner of where I type posts. Whatever genius designed this made it so I can't see the text that's beneath that button. So every time I edit a post, I have to hit enter a couple times so I can actually see the text.  And then move everything back into place. 

Nice job, programmers...

Not to mention that for a few years now, the login has been broken. I can no longer just click on a post to edit it. I have to search for it through the whole list of posts. 

I also stopped using Google search because there's no way to avoid the AI vomit that fills half the screen. I'm now using Ecosioa, which works just as well. And it's supposed to be a more environmentally friendly company anyway. 

Stories of history have often changed over time, becoming part fable. Details get exaggerated, or left out, or changed. But even if they're no longer completely true, you can still find truth in them. Even if all that's left are messages or themes. 

Become Cartoony

I've seen advice on how to design cartoon characters. And while I love some cartoon styles, I never bothered to try my own cartoony style. I've only ever drawn characters from existing cartoons. 

My drawing style is a little more realistic. Even when I draw comics (I'm very mediocre at that) the style isn't at all cartoony. But now there's a character I want to use in some comics. I did a practice drawing, which turned out pretty good. But I can tell that if I try to draw him like that in a comic, it won't look right. Now I have to figure out how to draw him so he looks good as a comic character. So far, I haven't found any reference pictures that are in the direction I want to go. 

Yeah, I have no experience in this kind of thing. I guess i'll just have to do some experimenting and see what works. 

Recovering Villains

I seem to have a category of character that I find endlessly entertaining:  Recovering villains. 

And I can finally use my new warning sign! 

I think it first started with Once Upon a Time. There's a span where Regina isn't evil anymore, but she sure ain't nice. Snow says something optimistic, and Regina goes, "do you get a quarter from the hope fairies every time you say that?" That cracked me up. 

In Steven Universe, we get Peridot. The angry slice of pie. Once she's captured and her tech taken away, she's not really a threat. She doesn't even try to deceive them. She's too honest for that, to the point where she has to be reminded if she's supposed to lie. But even when she's no longer dangerous, she's quite the stinker for a while. Like when she learns that bopping someone in the face hurts them. 

For Strange Magic, there's the Bog King. Especially when he's trying to get Dawn to stop singing, and he can't help but feel touched by her kind gestures. 

Then of course there's Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, with my favorite crazy monkey. Even in prison, he still had plenty of attitude. It's a lot of fun to watch. But the reason I like this category so much is because it's great to see these characters steadily become good. 

Then we get She-ra and the Princesses of Power. After everything Catra did, I was certain I'd never forgive her. But she's a cat. Which means I couldn't help warming up to her when she stopped being nasty. Even if she still is pretty prickly. She deserves all the teasing, like how cute she looks in her helmet. At one point, she says she's working on anger management, and Adora is so excited. Aah, fun stuff. Angry cats trying to be a little less angry. 

And most recently there's Spiderman No Way Home, with Dr. Octavius. It's not actually him that's being evil. But when he's captured, he takes every available chance to be a jerk. He just can't back it up, so his threats are laughable. I find it far too entertaining how he gets dragged around by his own machine.