The Magnificent Little Chaos Goblin

I watched this video this morning, and it inspired ye olde noodle to begin processing thoughts unrelated to the book I'm trying to write. I actually had to pause on my novel to write this blog post. 

​The guy's name in this video is Joseph Ferris, and he goes by the social media ID of BUPC. His tagline is as follows: B.U.P.C. (Boopsy). The original Big Ugly Piece of Crap! Gen X Poet with sarcasm, shenanigans, and chicanery. I've linked his social media pages to the left.

That idea got me thinking about my writing and my characters, because of course it did. I write stories that I like to read. I create characters that I’d enjoy having as a friend in my life. Of course, I have to create antagonists as well as good guys, but even the bad guys have something about them that I think is worth hearing.

I tend to get really excited about things that I’m passionate about. I'm vocally expressive and use animated hand gestures when I read out loud. I used to read bedtime stories to my daughter when she was younger, and she’d once said to me that I could read an instruction manual and make it entertaining. How much of that is my silly naïve outlook on the world and how much is genuine passion for sharing stories, the world may never know. Maybe it’s a little of both, but I truly believe that we need stories. As the little saying goes, we need the fantasy to survive the reality because reality is pretty depressing.

"In the sublime war of man against reality, man had but one weapon: the imagination."
~ Benjamin de Casseres

I’d save everyone if it made for a good story, but sometimes evil must be defeated. Good stories need conflict, or else they become uninteresting.

Fun fact: When I started writing Threshold, the first book in my Elemental Alliance series, I had the idea to try something new. I wanted to try writing the book from both the perspectives of the protagonists and the antagonists. I thought it might be fun to see things from the bad guy’s point of view. The stories in this series are about opposing sides, and so I thought: Why not see things from both sides? I created the good guys, the fairies; and then I went about creating the bad guys, the demons. But I noticed a problem with the process early on. 

Now, I’m one who tends to see the good in even the most desperate situations. It’s rather annoying to my family, I think, when I counter their argument that something is negative with something positive. After all, who knows what’s good or bad?This is one of my many personality quirks, but I did the same with my writing. I created some negative qualities in the good guys and some positive qualities in the bad guys. The trouble was, I’d created the bad guys into likeable characters and no longer saw them as antagonists that needed to be defeated. As I said earlier, you can’t have a good story without conflict, and I’d just eliminated mine. So what was I supposed to do?

I rectified the situation by changing the entire storyline around to accommodate these new characters that I’d created. I decided to create something worse that would make both fairies and demons put aside their differences to overcome. I didn’t make the same mistake, though. I didn’t tell the story from the new antagonist’s point of view. I didn’t have it in me to do that, I realized, because I’d just create another character that I’d want to invite for coffee, and then I’d be back to square one … again. But I think the solution created an even better story than I’d originally come up with so, who knows what’s good or bad?

Anyway, the video that I saw this morning got me thinking about my characters and what passions they had. And then it got me thinking about the many stories that I’ve read over the years where the characters seemed flat, or one-dimensional. The characters in a story have to feel real. Even if they’re not human, they have to feel like someone who could really exist if anyone is going to be able to relate to the character. 

Years ago, I’d had the silly idea to create a scrapbook of my characters. In the scrapbook, I thought I’d dedicate a page to each character and create a bio of that character. I know the characters inside and out, but others didn’t. The ones who’ve read my stories might not have picked up a little nuance that I felt was a defining characteristic of the character.

When I’m creating characters, I like to find someone who looks like the person I have in my mind to make it easier for me to provide the reader an accurate description. With one exception, I don’t put people on the covers of my books, because I want the reader to form an image of the characters from my words, not from the cover art. The saying goes that you can’t judge a book by the cover, but people do it all the time, and I never wanted that for my stories. I’ve been lured in by an interesting cover only to find that it didn’t really match the story, and it left me with an unpleasant feeling.

I started writing before generative AI became available for public consumption, so I’d scour the internet for a picture of someone who looked like the person I had in my mind. Sometimes the character would be based on the physical features of an actor or actress in a specific role, or else it was just someone who’d posted a picture of him- or herself in the hopes that someone might see it. People tend to be vain and desire attention, so there were plenty of pictures of non-famous people out there for me to find. Nowadays, one can simply tell the computer what the character in his or her mind looks like and an image can be created. I don’t like AI and think that it takes away from the creative process, but that’s my opinion. I rely on ye olde noodle for everything involved in my stories, but I accept that AI is here, and, so long as it’s used as a tool to help humans and not to replace them, I’ll begrudgingly coexist with the foul fiend.

​I never did create the character scrapbook but think that it’s a worthwhile endeavor for anyone starting out. That thought got me thinking of one of my passions, and that is to bring stories into the world. Stories make this ugly world a little more beautiful, as do all forms of art. Writing and painting are two of my passions, but since this is my Writing Blog, I’ll stick to that for the time being.

​I used to participate in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) endeavor until its own stupidity caused its demise. Afterward, I decided to continue with the program on a personal level, and so I created my Personal Novel Writing Months (PerNoWriMos). Every year before I've started the program, I’ve put a post on social media encouraging anyone who took the time to actually read my post to join me. Over the fifteen years that I’ve participated in my annual writing endeavor, no one has ever joined me. Not once. I said in my post that I’d help in any way that I could, from offering advice to being a sounding board to bounce ideas off. No one ever took me up on my offer, and I’m not sure why. I believe that everyone has a story inside, just waiting for the opportunity to emerge. But maybe others don’t feel the same, or else don’t know how to start.

That led ye olde noodle to one of my other passions, and that is to teach. I think I might have missed my calling to be a teacher when I chose to pursue an accounting career, but I never lost the passion to want to guide another person to find his or her chosen path. I’ve been following the philosophy of Taoism for longer than I can remember. Each person needs to find his or her own path in life. Taoism, in its simplest translation, means the way. My way is right for me, but my way isn’t the only way, and I think that might have been the main reason that I never became a teacher. I never thought it was right to instruct another person to follow my way of thinking. Now that I’m older and, I’d like to think, a little wiser, I understand that a teacher’s role isn’t to tell someone what to think, but to help someone find a way to think. To help guide the person find his or her own path through life.

The video this morning helped me to remember the curious kid I’d once been. I don’t think I ever became the boring adult the guy in the video describes. I still believe that dragons exist. I still believe that my gargoyles come to life when the sun goes down. I still believe in magic. I’m perhaps as stupidly naïve as my mom always accused me of being, but I still believe in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, leprechauns, fairies, demons, werewolves, and even light elementals. And I believe that the world would be a better place for us all if more people believed in magic as well. If more people were able to see the fantasy instead of just the reality.

A quote that is misattributed to Gandhi states that we should be the change we wish to see in the world. It wasn’t said by the Indian mystic, who, indeed, did wish for change, but the statement is no less true than if Joe Schmo down the street was the one who’d made the statement. If we all put forth just a little effort to encourage change in the world, imagine how much better the world would be. If we all became the change that we wished to see. I wish to see more stories in the world. For more people to believe in magic. So how can I accomplish this?

Maybe it isn’t too late for me to become a teacher. Not necessarily to go back to school and get a teaching degree, but to impart some knowledge that I have to someone who’s looking to receive that knowledge. I consider myself to be a decent writer, but I’ve never made the National Bestseller list. I’ve never even made enough in royalties from sales of my books to cover the most minimal of household expenses. So, what makes me think that anyone will listen to what I have to say? I suppose that’s why so many quotes are falsely attributed to famous people. If a quote is attributed to Mohandas Gandhi, people will stop and read it, but how many of those same people would stop scrolling and read it if the quote, however poignant and helpful, is attributed to Joe Schmo down the street?

I see on my social media newsfeed lots of people offering literary advice. Some, I find helpful, and some I don’t. I’d love to put in my two cents to the mix. I’m giving some thought to creating a social media page dedicated to the art of storytelling, or maybe a newsletter if enough people would sign up for it. I could also just write it in a blog here on my website.

On this page, newsletter, or blog, I’m thinking that I can offer small bits of advice on how to create things like a realistic character, or how to create a believable world, or even how to find the inspiration to write the opening line of a story. I can pass along little gems of inspiration that I find along the way. I can share what I’ve found works for me, and what I’ve found that stalls my creative process.

I’ve been writing for the better part of forty years, having written my very first story at the tender age of nine (see the cute yet very remedial book to the left). I’d like to think that I have at least one thing that might help a potential writer get started or to stay writing when the urge to give up rears its ugly head.

​What do I do when I encounter writer’s block? How did I find my writer’s voice -- because although I write under three pen names, the twenty or so novels that I’ve written over the years all sound like me. How do I keep different storylines separate and yet intertwined at the same time? How have I created the characters that I have, and how have I given each character his or her own unique voice? All of these small nuances are what makes a story either engaging or boring.

Anyway, that’s where ye olde noodle went this morning after seeing the video at the start of this blog. I think it’s a shame that while children are encouraged to explore their curiosity, society seems to discourage it as an adult. People who constantly ask why are often avoided in everyday conversation, or at least I am. Why? is my favorite question. It always has been. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it’s also the very thing that makes the world exciting. I’m not going to be some adult wearing beige pants having the weird sanded off me. I’m going to be a magnificent little chaos goblin and spread my enthusiasm to everyone I meet. I think it has a nice ring to it: The Art of Storytelling by MLC Goblin.