Let's Discuss: Attack on Titan and a Comparison of Creative vs Academic Writing

 Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well. We made it to the end of the year, and we are still pushing forward. There has to be something said for that. Despite the struggles, I have been able to share a few milestones with you that I am proud and excited about. As of this weekend, Trinity of the Broken is officially available as an audiobook. You can pick up your copy on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes, and if you get the ebook first, you can get an additional 33% off from Audible. Making an audiobook was an incredible experience, and Kayll Heath was fantastic to work with. He really made the entire process easy, and really helped to bring the characters of Trinity to life. I hope he will be able to continue voicing Dante for me when the next installment comes out. 

This week I finished Part 1 of the Final Season of Attack on Titan anime, and holy cow, this has been an insane rollercoaster. As usual, I will do my best to avoid any spoilers, but if you have not been following the show, or the manga, you are missing out on one of the best stories to come out in the last decade. It has won several major awards, and Hajime Isayama, the writer and illustrator, was able to make Attack on Titan become the best selling manga of all time. The series is extremely violent and visceral, even by my standards, so if you are squeamish to such things, be warned now. It is extremely graphic. The story follows Eren Yeager and his friends who live in what is believed to be the last city on Earth. Humanity was wiped out by the Titans, mindless giants that live only to eat people. The last city is protected by three massive walls that have protected humanity for the last hundred years, until two new Titans appear and destroy the gates into the first ring of the city. Titans pour in and begin to kill anyone they can catch, including Eren's mother who was he had to watch be eaten. Eren vowes to wipe out the Titans and as soon as he was old enough, joined the military with his two best friends.

There is so much to go into regarding this series. The characters are unique and real. They have their own strengths and weaknesses. They are flawed in real ways. Armin is incredibly intelligent and a natural strategist, but is often paralyzed with self doubt and fear of being wrong in such a way that it would cost the lives of his friends and comrades. Eren is so driven by his anger and hate, that he often finds himself in trouble. That and the fact that he clearly suffers from extreme depression and PTSD from watching his mother die, makes Eren a tragic hero. The world is rich with its subtleties and nuances. between the truth of the world, the opposing political philosophies, and the natural tendency of people to be biased and racist, Attack on Titan could become the focus of a multitude of different discussions. If you are looking for a great show, or are looking to pick up the manga, I highly recommend Attack on Titan. 10/10 love this series.

I do not have a clear segue into the second part of this discussion, so I will just make it a hard jump. As a teacher and a fantasy writer I often find myself caught between two worlds of writing ideology. It has always amazed me that these two worlds are often considered to be exclusive of one another, but I have always believed that they compliment each other in ways that make both better. When I was an undergrad, I had a professor that told us he did not waste his time reading fiction, because it was meant to allow you to ignore and avoid the real world around you. That if you wanted to be respected as a writer, you had to use a clearly structured methodology and provide an opinion that is designed to bring to light something or someone in the world, so as to better society with your efforts. That same year, my Short Stories professor said that creative writing was the key to connect and enlighten society through the use of their imagination, and that there is no specific method or structure that should limit your ability to tell your story. Through out my college career I was pulled back and forth between these two views, which ultimately lead to my current style and approach to writing. 

Academic writing is great as a foundational platform. As a historian, you are taught to apply the scientific method to historical and social research and to present it in an organized and supported method. It is analytical in its approach, but it helps to learn how to brainstorm and plan out what you want to write, while providing a specific topic that keeps you centered on your narrative. It was during my time of endless research and paper writing, that I discovered that there was room for creative writing in academic work. Some of my favorite secondary sources were composed in such a way that it allowed you to hear the authors voice and feel the inflections and perspective of their narrative. It was still structured, and it was still rigid in its fundamental presentation, but it was inspired and created a means to be connected to the work. 

It is funny to think of creative writing in a college setting, because it is still technically academic since it is instruction on the writing process, but we are not necessarily discussing the absence of education, but the absence of mandated structure. Proper grammar and sentence structure are still very important aspects of writing in general, and creates the true divide between the armature and the professional writers. That being said, creative writing taught me to write without strict guidance. Be it poetry or some form of fiction, the idea is to be inventive and imaginative in your work. The point was to engage your reader and draw them into your words. To both inspire and to be inspired through your own writing. For me, I had a hard time understanding why these two styles could not benefit from each other.

 I have spoken of my writing methodology before in my world building discussion, but for me there is no difference between academic and creative writing. Both require an immense amount of research and planning before the first page is ever attempted. My fiction characters are treated like a historical figure. I want to know who they are, what their life was like. What was their social class, did race play a significant roll in their day to day life, did they practice a particular faith, what is their economic experience? On a larger level, what was their society like? What was their dominate morals, customs, and traditions? When I write academically, I look to understand who the people are and what were their experiences that led them to their actions. By being able understand those involved, I can begin to put together a presentation that not only answers the five W's, but be able to deliver it in a way that people want to read more about it. 

Ultimately, I feel the biggest difference between academic and creative is the intended audience. The practical applications to the writing process are beneficial from both sides, but there are different expectations based on who the intended audience is. In general, I try to write to the average person, but there have been many papers that had to use specific language and structure that was typical of academic writing. Knowing your audience, for me, is the secret to successful writing. If you are a sci-fi writer that writes about space and super advanced technology, then as a reader you expect there to be a fair degree of technical dialogue with theories that are at least loosely based on real scientific principles. It requires a fair amount of research by the author to be able to write to the expectations of their reader. A biography is expected to be linear in its presentation and focus on how that individual affected the world around them, which will require a fair amount of educated interpretation. Even a high fantasy novel is expected to have a certain amount of lore and world building within it to engross the reader. Knowing what your audience expects of your work will help you to structure your writing, and it does not matter if you are writing academically or creatively. Both schools have something of value that all writers should learn, as it creates a stronger writer, regardless of what genera you decide to write in.

I want to thank you for giving me your time, it is invaluable and I am honored that you have shared it with me. I hope you feel it was time well spent. I hope you have an enjoyable and safe holiday and new year. If you like what I am doing here, please feel free to hit the follow button, and then find me on Facebook and Twitter. May your days be fulfilling and your path be clear of trouble. All the best, and speak to you soon. 

Let's Discuss: Arcane and Video Game Storytelling

 Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well. These last two weeks have been difficult for me, as I managed to injure my ankle, and it has made for a very demanding distraction. What we have been able to do is finish the primary recording of Trinity of the Broken. I have one more read through to complete, but I am hoping that we will have it uploaded just in time for Christmas! Kayll Heath has done an amazing job bring Dante to life, and I really think you will enjoy his interpretation. In terms of writing, I am progressing slowly. I have been forcing myself to become better organized in my world building, since much of the established lore will also filter into my high fantasy series I am currently framing. As such, I have been putting everything in a wiki for quick reference. As you can imagine, it is easy to get lost in creating the lore and I end up on hours long trips down various rabbit holes. 

This week I wanted to give my thoughts on the new Netflix series, Arcane: League of Legends. This was a show that I had initially blown off as a pre-teen money grab based on a game that I had played a few times upon release and quickly decided it was not for me. With the exception of the occasional tournament news, I had barely even thought of the game, let alone know anything about its characters and lore. It was only after seeing a multitude of reviews and comments that I decided to give episode one a shot, and oh my god, I am glad I did. There was no reason for this show to be that good. 

First and foremost, this show is not trying to target children or pre-teens. It is most certainly made for the young adult / fantasy market. The storyline is complex, the characters are richly developed with both good and bad traits, and the world is vast and unknown, with a rich history that is often touched upon, leaving you wanting to know more about it. In its most basic description, Arcane is a story of two sisters that end up on opposite sides of an ideological war. The story takes place in the divided sister-cities of Piltover, a near utopian supercity, and Zaun, a poor and destitute slumland. A single council of upper-class elites presides over both Piltover and Zaun. A brilliant engineer, who was obsessed with magic, discovered a way to harness magical energy using technology, elevating Piltover to a major world power. Meanwhile, Zaun is on the verge of revolt, led by a criminal organization that has created a type of super steroid that temporarily transforms a person, giving them amazing strength and speed, but also makes them savage and recklessly ruthless. 

What I enjoyed most about the show is how they address aspects of society that are often ignored or overlooked in most storytelling. It looks at the economic and civil aspects of the society, but it also looks into ideological differences within the opposing cultures. It looks at bias, mental illness, and coping with loss. There were so many layers set to in Arcane that you can not help but be drawn into it, and left with wanting more. I ended up watching the entire series in two days, something I almost never am willing to make the time for. If you have not checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do so. It should be obvious by now that just because it is animated, does not mean it is for children.

That leads me into the second part of my discussion, the advancement of storytelling in video games. My first game console was the Atari 2600. Games were simple in their plots, and their designs. Get the frog to the lily pad, escape the jungle, don't let the aliens destroy your cities. As the technology got better, so did the games, as well as, their plots. I still have a hard time calling Super Mario Brothers a story based game. For me, The Legend of Zelda was the first story based game I ever played, soon followed by Final Fantasy 2. While these games and stories were very linear, they were complete stories, and raised the bar for all later games. With the development of MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online games) the developers needed more than just a story progression, or choose your own adventure style of storytelling. They needed to have a world that the players feel apart of. Most RPG (Role Playing Games) already included significant bits of lore and history that could be discovered and sought out, but eventually everything that could be included. Modern games have the ability to be ever expanding and visited in a number of ways. 

Games like Kingdom Hearts have spin-off games and apps that add to the lore which appear on multiple gaming systems, as well as, mobile apps and websites. They are hiring screen-play writers and A-list actors to create an experience that is just as engaging, if not more, than the best movies or tv shows out there. I am an avid Destiny 2 player. While they had a slow start, Bungie has put together a model that spreads a story line out over the course of weeks, with aspects that connect them to the opening events of the game. This February Destiny will be releasing an expansion called Season of the Witch, a story that they have been building towards for over two years now. Not only has the main storyline been heading to this climax season, but the game has included lore that can be unlocked and discovered that provides deep and complicated connections between characters and events. It is the equivalent of experiencing The Lord of the Rings, but in your travels you begin to unlock the scraps of texts and maps that made up the Silmarillion and Atlas of Middle Earth. What used to be reserved for the most popular of fandoms is now becoming expected in any story based games, and we are better for it. 

Just as we are able to lift animated movies and shows out of the stigma of children's entertainment, video games are removing the stigma of being a voice-actor, animator, playwright, director, or producer of video games as something worked on by armatures hoping to move on to "real" work. I know it has everything to do with the fact that the current game and animation creators, like me, are looking at the mediums they grew up with as viable tools to tell their story in the most vivid way possible. These people who have spent a lifetime being exposed to storytelling that was never even imagined before the 1980s. The last forty years have worked to raise the bar of entertainment to incredible heights. While there will always be a place for simplicity, I will often decompress by playing Freeflow or Candy Crush, people today have higher expectations of things they are expected to spend hours and hours upon. Even sports and racing games have career modes and require the player to manage all the little aspects of maintaining a sports team or a race car. I look forward to the future of videogames as technology continues to improve and developers are able to share their world build in ways that we fantasy writers have never been able to. 

I want to thank you for giving me your time, it is invaluable and I am honored that you have shared it with me. I hope you feel it was time well spent. If you like what I am doing here, please feel free to hit the follow button, and then find me on Facebook and Twitter. May your days be fulfilling and your path be clear of trouble. All the best, and speak to you soon.