Here’s an English language definitions game: freerice.com. For each correct answer, you give five grains of rice, free, to needy people around the world. Simple.

I like doing good while having fun. How about you?

I have this theory that people like the fiction they like based on some basic assumptions about how the stuff is put together. Orson Scott Card called it the MICE quotient, which is an acronym for Milieu (Setting), Idea, Character, and Event.

My take on this is that different genres focus on these elements in different ways. While all stories have all four (except maybe experimental pieces in the Literary canon, and face it, they WORK at being different), each genre prefers one of these four items to be primary, another secondary, etc. And swapping the order around makes aficionados of the genre uncomfortable, unless the author is a: very careful, b: very good, or c: both.

I call the focus element the conflict engine. It generates the main conflict in the story. For instance, Romance is an Event genre: it always has ‘Two (potential) lovers meet’ as its core element. You don’t have a Romance if you do not have that element.

Science Fiction starts with an idea. “What if …?” And then the author goes wild.

I see a lot of writing advice which says, “Character first! No matter what!” and I have to say that this doesn’t help. While characters are important — most of us don’t want to read about, say, paint drying — they aren’t the be-all, end-all of storytelling. There are perfectly good stories out there with cardboard characters, and folks love them.

Don’t believe me? Well, ever heard of the story of Cinderella?

The point here is that if the genre is not ‘character first’, then character needs to be handled carefully. I see a lot of new writers who write great characters … and then they warp the story to fit those characters, because having done all that work, they pretty much have to. But I think Andy Weir did it better. When he wrote ‘The Martian’, he started with the idea (Science Fiction starts with ideas!) of “What if … an astronaut gets stranded?” And then he went to Milieu, which was Mars. From there, he figured out a plot, which was the series of obstacles his character would have to overcome to survive.

Only once he had considered the I, M, and E functions of his story did he consider the C function: What sort of person would get through all that? And so, ‘The Martian’.

Romance starts with the Event of two lovers meeting (unless they’ve already met, in which case, the Event is implied.) THEN it proceeds to Character.

Fantasy starts with Milieu. The world the characters will inhabit will have profound influences on them … unless you’re just going to say, “This medieval/feudal/imperial world produces people who think JUST LIKE people who grew up in a representational democracy and that’s just fine.”

Um. Okay.

I think that of all the ‘commercial’ genres, ‘commercial’ meaning ‘anything not described as Literary’, Horror is the genre most concerned with character. There are a lot of stock characters in Horror — The Ingenue, The Jock, The Nerd — and they are run through a lot of very stock plots — The Killer Is Out There, Monsters Exist, What Happens When You Do That Thing Everyone Tells You Not To Do — but in the end, you have a person under stress who has to act or die. That’s a very intimate moment, seeing a person make a decision which could lead to their own extinction. It’s a pity that so many Horror stories go for the easy out, but then, under stress, that’s what a lot of people do. They go for what looks easiest.

As an author, I don’t believe in going for what’s easiest just because it’s easiest. I believe in going for what’s most interesting. Characters might be interesting … but then, so might Milieus, or Ideas, or Events.

Finding the balance, though … yeah. That’s the hardest part.

You may not know this, but I have a degree in Linguistics. Yes, I am a word nerd, and darn proud of it.

So imagine my delight to find this: https://www.vulgarlang.com/

It’s a conlang generator. Push a button, and it spits out a constructed language, with a grammar and 2000 words, ready-made for playing with.

I think I’m gonna go play for a while …

So, I’ve been busy with editing jobs lately, and not paying much attention to this site. I’m still planning some releases, depending on a number of issues, including time to get things done.

This independent writer stuff? Yeah, not glamorous. Fulfilling, but only spiritually.

Have a good day, folks.

So, I’m thinking my next piece will be one of the Malone stories. For those who don’t know (and I expect this will be most of you), the Malone stories follow the … um … experiences around a mad scientist and his very high-strung landlady. Humor is involved. Science is, though it’s resemblance to real science, settled or not, is purely for entertainment purposes. Home decor plays its part, too.

But I need covers. Hmm… this may take a few weeks.

Hi.

So, stuff is happening. GALIEL THE FAIR is published and currently available on Amazon; check it out if you’re into elves, trolls, and going beyond not only the boundaries you know about, but the boundaries beyond them, too.

Working on several projects, most notably ENIGMA FRONT: The Monster Within. This is an anthology project set up for members of my writer’s group; I’m the head editor on the book this year. We’re dedicating it to Mary Shelley, because she wrote FRANKENSTEIN between 1815 and 1817, with its first publication in 1817, so it seems timely.

Checking my inventory for other things to publish. The Malone stories. The River Trade stories. The Ocean of Air. … Yeah. Lots of decisions to make.

Cheers, Renée.

Welcome to Red Spot Books, population: me. Still working out the bugs. Here’s hoping there’s few of them. First up: how to spell my own name correctly!

Cheers, Renée.