Creature Profile: Crawler Excerpt

Here’s an excerpt from Lost Under Two Moons describing the deadly crawler. Hopefully this gives all you artists some ideas for your own version of this creature. Remember that the deadline to get your artwork to me is September 15th. Can’t wait to see what you all come up with!

Excerpt taken from the December 1^st entry, Day 100

There’s also a small variety of flying creatures around here, but to be honest I’m getting tired of writing. I’ll stop after describing one more new species. It’s large, about the same size as a sail beast but less ostentatious. This creature has the general shape of a large bluish-green bird with strong legs and long wings. What’s strange is that while this creature may technically be a biped, the bird moves by crawling on its belly, using its folded wings like a second pair of legs, similar to the way a bat would move on the ground. I’m not sure how fast the crawler can move in this way, as I’ve only seen it walking slowly. I suspect that these creatures are carnivores judging by their large, predatory beaks. Perhaps the crawler rises up onto its legs to chase down its prey. Or perhaps it’s a scavenger and primarily feeds on carrion. Either way, the crawlers definitely look to be the most dangerous creatures in the area and everything else is giving them a wide berth. I think it’d be wise for me to do the same. Luckily, there are only a couple of them around here.

Nourishing The Muse

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a wonderful six days at the International Kite Festival at Long Beach Washington and recharge my creative batteries. As I sat on a driftwood log staring at the rolling waves with a pen and notebook on my knee, I couldn't help reflecting on how lucky I was to have a setting that was almost guaranteed to breathe new life into my writing muse.

Of course, I had been writing consistently before my trip as well. As my favorite writing quote from Peter De Vries says, “I only write when I’m inspired, and I make sure I’m inspired every morning at 9:00 AM.” Authors can’t afford the luxury of writing only when it suits them, just like professional artists can’t choose to paint only when the lightning bolt of creativity fuses them to their canvasses. But there is definitely a difference between grinding out a few hundred words in an hour and the kind of flying-pen flurries that writers live for. Here are a few ideas to help those moments of inspiration come more frequently.

Daydream While Writing

Staring into space may mean unproductivity in most jobs, but for a writer it’s as essential as deep breathing while exercising. Each time I write, I always give myself permission to pause and entertain the occasional random thought that might occur to me before getting back to work. It also helps to have surroundings that relax and inspire me as my mind wanders, and I can definitely say that watching the crashing waves last week proved to be an inspirational distraction.

Try New Things

Everybody has a comfort zone that he or she would much rather stay inside, but the truth is that it’s outside that comfort zone that we find adventure and conflict. After all, most plots revolve around characters being forced into doing things that are uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and challenging. As writers, we owe it to ourselves to have a little adventure now and then as well. We should be willing to take a risk, however small, and study our own reactions. While at the beach, I went horseback riding for the first time in over ten years, and while I was nervous at first, I had a great time and got so many ideas for my stories (both horse-related and not) that I definitely plan on doing it again.

Celebrate Your Moments of Inspiration

At one point last week I was so happy that I had more-than doubled my writing goals that I eagerly shared it with my family and online followers. I think this kind of celebration validates our successes and reaffirms what we are doing with our time. Just be sure to only share your writing achievements with those who will understand and appreciate your accomplishment.

Write What You Want To

I have multiple projects going at all times, and I sometimes feel like I should be doing an equal amount of work on each of them. However, while it is important to maintain some level of progress on all your writing projects, you shouldn't punish yourself for writing more on something that you have lots of ideas for. This is why I recently changed my writing routine. While I still work on whatever project is next in line each morning, I now write on whichever story I want to during my evening sessions. This has resulted in more work done each week, and I highly recommend it to anyone that’s using a similar writing process.

I've said before that writers who only write when they’re inspired will never be authors, and I still think that’s true. But I also think the same can be said of writers that are never inspired. A successful writer is someone who writes even when they don’t want to, and writes even more when they do.

Creature Profile: The Sleevak

pencil sketch by Elicia Schopfer

Creature Name

Sleevak

First Appeared In

The Beast Hunter

Physical Description

A sleevak is roughly the size of a mountain lion and is reptilian in general appearance. Its long, low body is supported by six thin, long legs and a tail that makes up a third of its total length. This creature’s torso and shoulders are covered in semi-soft armor plates and its large head has a hard frill surrounding its vulnerable neck. The sleevak has six eyes with three on either side of its slightly pointed snout. Its teeth are long and sharp, and remain somewhat exposed when the creature closes its jaws. The sleevak’s scale-less skin is typically a mottled green but can range from muddy brown to a bruise-like purple.

Natural Environment

pencil sketch by Aaron Volner

Sleevaks are native to the bogs of lowland Malpin, though they are hardy creatures which can survive a variety of climates. They prey on coiling creepers, barb tails, and other smaller beasts, as well as more mundane creatures. They have no natural predators.

General Temperament

Sleevaks travel in loose packs with an alpha female leading a group of four to five breeding males and their young. They use little strategy in their hunts, relying upon brute strength and fierce tenacity to bring down their prey.

Additional Background

The sleevak has only recently been utilized as a “domesticated” beast for the purpose of beast hunting. Like a ferret released into a rabbit hole, the sleevaks are released into the neighborhood of the bestial pest and then recaptured again after the hunt is finished. Handlers use a combination of strong cages, sharp goad-sticks, and drugged meat to corral and control these savage creatures. While there are some humans that own and use sleevaks, most sleevak wranglers are Heteracks. These large, fierce humanoids have a long history with the sleevak in their native marshes and moors, and the relationship between master and beast might almost be considered a sort of retribution for centuries of living in fear of the deadly creatures. The frill of each sleevak owned by a handler is cropped short to allow the handler’s goad-sticks access to the creature’s sensitive neck. Its left shoulder-plate is also notched with a distinct pattern to identify its master and facilitate its recapture after each successful hunt.

Inspiration

When I started work on The Beast Hunter, I studied all kinds of hunting techniques that have been used over the centuries. I was intrigued by those cultures and societies that use animals in their hunts, and realized that these could be divided into two broad groups, those that use trained animals and those that used untrained animals. Trained animals include dogs and horses, while untrained animals could also be dogs but were often smaller creatures like the ferret mentioned earlier. I liked the idea of wranglers who had a living weapon they could barely control and decided to create the Heteracks and their deadly sleevaks. For the sleevak’s basic anatomy and characteristics, I imagined something like the greater basilisks in the classic computer strategy game Heroes of Might and Magic III, which had the multiple eyes, six legs, and reptilian body that the sleevak would eventually possess.

Thanks to Elicia and Aaron for submitting artwork for this feature. Next month’s feature will be the crawler bird from my first novel, Lost Under Two Moons. Send your pictures of a crawler to lindsay@lindsayschopfer.com and put “Creature Profile” as the subject. Deadline is September 15th. I can’t wait to see what all of you come up with!

The Writer Gamer… or the Gamer Writer

A screenshot from "Commander Keen: Marooned On Mars"

A couple of weeks ago one of my good friends called me up and asked whether I owned an Xbox 360. I told him that while I did have my laptop, a Wii, and a PlayStation 3, I didn't have an Xbox, so he asked if I wanted his old one. One hour later I was sitting in my living room with the new system and a pile of borrowed games trying to decide where to start.

I've been a gamer since the days when I would sort through my parents’ floppy discs for favorites like Space Invaders, Pac-man, and Commander Keen, which was the first game I ever played in color. These games, as well as the ones I later played on my beloved NES, were great fun but had little to no story in them. Remembering those classic games and thinking of what is available to both the core and casual gamer today, I sometimes wonder whether there have been more innovations in the graphics of games, or in their stories.

Of course, that’s not to say that all modern games have stories in them. Even games that are supposed to have great stories are often lacking many essential elements of effective storytelling. Sometimes, it even feels like much of the gaming community won’t consider a game’s story to be well done unless it is so confusing and cryptic that the average player is completely lost by its end. But video games also provide a unique form of storytelling that can, when done effectively, create an experience that is equal parts cerebral and visceral.

A screenshot from "Uncharted 2: Honor Among Thieves"

Perhaps the most unique feature of stories in video games is the way that the player can temporarily become the protagonist and affect the story’s progression directly. The closest comparison to this are pencil and paper RPGs with a live game or dungeon master, but a video game usually has more structure, with every possible character-decision backed by a story arc and appropriate plot developments. In a way, game designers have the harder job, scripting multiple outcomes to each scenario in order to give the player greater freedom of choice and a more personalized experience.

I've often heard that writers must also be readers, and I agree with that, but I also think that writers should be open to all forms of storytelling. I can safely say that I spend more hours gaming each week than I do reading for pleasure, and I don’t think that’s a handicap. In fact, in many ways I think my gaming has contributed to the things I like best about my own writing. I feel like I have a better eye for action and keener focus on essential details because that’s what the games that I love are like. I also tend to use a tight third-person POV in my narratives, which is reminiscent of the sort of interface common to RPGs, FPSs, and other action-adventure games.

Maybe someday I’ll get the opportunity to combine my love of story writing with my love of great games. Until then, I’ll continue to enjoy my separate but harmonious identities as both a writer and a gamer. 

Writing Empathetic Characters

A year or so ago, I saw a movie that was both visually innovative and incredibly fast-paced. Unfortunately, I left the theater feeling no attachment to the slim story or poorly defined characters. Later, when I discussed the movie with a friend who had also seen it, he couldn't believe that I didn't like it.

“Didn't you see it in 3D?” he asked.

I told him that I had, and he seemed stupefied that I still hadn't enjoyed the movie. I tried to explain to him that I just couldn't care about whether the main character survived the variety of deadly encounters she kept having.

“So you’re telling me that seeing a human being in peril doesn't matter to you?” he said. “You just don’t care if another person lives or dies?”

I realized that my friend was just trying to goad me into a pointless argument and I let the matter drop, but the truth is that while I do care about another human being in peril, I felt that the filmmakers had failed to make their fictional character a human being. I was never convinced that the protagonist was anything more than a figure on the screen, and without that emotional investment, I found myself simply not caring what happened to her. So what can writers do to create characters that their readers will care about?

The first way is to give a character some background or depth. Alfred Hitchcock, the great director and storyteller, once described suspense as “the addition of information.” The more we know about someone, the more potential we have to relate to her. Of course, a writer can go overboard with too much information about their characters. The trick is to give enough information to make the character relatable while leaving enough up to the reader’s imagination to give your audience a sense of ownership of the people in your story.

Another way to build an empathetic character is to give her some noble qualities. Readers often react to story characters the same way that they react to real people. As a result, the average reader will be more drawn to characters that they like rather than ones that annoy or disgust them. Even if your character is an antihero, consider giving her at least one redeeming quality to entice the reader to spend some time following the life of this otherwise unpleasant person.

Similarly, readers who enjoy following characters that are likable will usually prefer a character that is  above-average in some way. We enjoy reading about characters who are a little more skilled, stronger, smarter, or prettier than their peers. Look at the popularity of superheroes in our current culture for just one example of this sort of hero worship in popular fiction. Of course, being exceptional doesn't mean that a character doesn't have any problems. Difficulties of all sorts are a part of everybody’s life, and so it needs to be a part of your character’s life. The trick is to make those problems hard enough to be interesting while avoiding the need to constantly save your character through the intervention of convenient literary devices.

Above all, remember that you as the writer must be the first person to care about your characters. Always keep that in mind, and you won’t ever have to rely on 3D to make your story and characters engaging.