Why I Write: The Power of Story in the Human Narrative

Years ago, when I was traveling to different churches and seeking a job as a youth pastor, I ended up at a fairly conservative Baptist church. I don’t mean to pick on that denomination, but while there on my interview, I was put into a bit of a bind by a particular question I was asked in front of a group of parents and students. “Do you think it’s OK to watch rated R movies?”

The reason this question proved to be so awkward was that it’s loaded with assumptions, and implications for the wrong answer. It also is the kind of question that makes people look at Christians all goofy. Continue reading →

Comment-Fu

To me there is nothing in this world that is simultaneously more sad and more funny than Internet comments. Often, I find myself discussing the comment thread to an article or link just as much as I discuss the content itself. I’m not sure what it says about my personality that I find this kind of character vomit somewhat fascinating, but I’m certain it’s probably not healthy. I can’t even think of what the real world equivalent would be without getting completely grotesque, so choose your own abhorrent adventure, I guess.

When we first started posting stuff online for SmoothFewFilms, I wasn’t always the best at reacting to comments. OK, that’s a massive understatement. Probably more truthful to say that comments used to send me into an epileptic rage. Continue reading →

Congratulations, Jack: The Lost Finale

Is it possible to be unsure of whether you liked something or not, but still be satisfied by it? Because after sleeping on it, that’s how I’m feeling about the series finale of Lost, complete with its Desmond Ex Machina, sideways purgatory and creepily Evangelion-like conclusion. Despite all the mythology and ambiguity, the show creators have always maintained that this was a character show, and “The End” certainly lent itself to that end. Continue reading →

Things I’ve Learned in a Sunshine State Weekend

Jen and I traveled to our old stomping grounds in Tallahassee, Florida for a wedding this weekend. It’s actually the first time we’ve been back to Tally in just about five years exactly, since we graduated from FSU and got married in May of 2005. Mainly, it’s been good to see old friends and once familiar places. It’s a bizarre kind of time travel, really.

It’s weird how people you haven’t seen in several years can just pick back up with you like no time’s passed at all. I think it speaks volumes to how valuable friendships are, and the need people feel for connectedness. Either that, or our mutual Facebook stalking has kept up the ruse of familiarity. Maybe a little bit of both.

Anyway, here are the things I’ve learned in our trip to the Sunshine State… Continue reading →

Seven Sons Prologue

When this site got up and running finally, I promised a small glimpse at the opening section of my novel, Seven Sons. So, I figured I’d make good on that. Here is a (very) rough version of what I have in mind for the prologue. If you need a primer on Sons, I’d suggest you go read up on that first.

Something I feel that I should point out: once again, this is a rough draft, so nothing here is final. That includes characters, titles, etc. Anything is fair game to change. At the moment, I’m writing for quantity over quality. This hasn’t been edited much, because the idea is that the heavy revising will happen in the next draft. The main goal right now is simply to get to the end. That’s the hard part. Going back and making it sound pretty is the simple stuff. So, I would appreciate it if you could keep it easy on grammatical critiques, as it’s not the thing I’m concerned with at the moment. I’m sure there are a great many. Also, it should be noted that this opening POV is from Jonas, a thieving, conning, all around rotten dude.

So, now that those caveats are out of the way, feel free to read and tell me what you think. Continue reading →

Harry Potter and the Magical Existential Island

OK, I really got into last night’s episode of Lost, “What They Died For”. It was a great set-up episode for what is hopefully a banging conclusion to one of my favorite shows on TV. Pacing wise, I’m trying to hold on to faith that the sideways world has a point, because it seems like there still isn’t any importance to it, even this late in the game. In addition, I find it curious that in the time it’s taken Jack and co. to walk to Locke, steal a boat, get captured and released from Widmore, steal a sub and wash ashore, Ben and Richard are still on their way to New Otherton.

But those small quibbles aside, the biggest head scratcher actually came once the final credits rolled. I have to ask, ABC: what was up with the Disney storybook voice in the series finale promo? Continue reading →

The Art of Making Your Own Crap

If there’s anything I’ve learned over the last 3 years of making Web content, it’s the following two principles:

1. Make your own crap
2. Stop giving your crap away for free

Really, everything else you wanted to know about the Intertubes stems down from those two ideas (and I’ll discuss the 2nd in a future post). So why don’t more content creators do this? Half of what we see linked around online is something that derives its source material from something else, whether it’s a mash-up of two movies, a spoof of a video game, or a special effects short about video game characters infiltrating our world. There’s a reason for this precedent, and I think all of us content devourers are partly to blame. Continue reading →

Shedding Another Person

I can’t quite pinpoint the time or the date, but sometime early last year I decided that it was time for me to lose weight. There were several factors that lead me to this conclusion, the least of which was the fact that I was on the verge of collecting several moons to orbit my person day and night as I slowly rotated about my ever-growing axis. I was Galactus, devourer of worlds that would satiate what was apparently a 3500 calorie a day diet. If you’re unaware, that’s a lot of calories, considering the average person needs about 2000 a day.

So, I did something I had never done in my entire life. I dieted. Continue reading →

Stones of Black and White in the Magic Box

A couple of years ago, J.J. Abrams gave an illuminating presentation for TED, where he spoke about a principle in storytelling that is riveting to watch unfold: opening the magic box. Here is a clip of it, if you be having curiosities.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching it, or if you’re just too lazy, the idea behind the magic box is simple. Sir Abrams speaks of how he bought a mystery box at a shop when he was a boy, and how he has never opened it his entire life. Mystery creates imagination, and that is where stories and characters live in their coolest places.

The danger of all of this mystique? What’s inside the box can never be as rad as what your imagination wanted it to be. Perhaps that’s why he’s kept it shut all these years.
Continue reading →

Seven Sons, That Book I’m Writing

Every time someone asks me what my dream job is, I always say a sci-fi/fantasy author. If I could make money writing cheesy books for the rest of my life, I’d be a terribly happy man. The only thing better would be getting paid to play video games, but even that would lose some of its enjoyment after a time. And this is coming from a video game nut.

At the end of last year, I decided to finally try my hand at writing a novel. I’ve had ideas of doing it for the longest time, big ideas that I’ve been keeping in my backpocket until they were developed enough. I decided to finally go for it because I accidentally caught that my word count of blog posts on GamerSushi and SmoothFewFilms combined came out to a total of 250,000. This was with just 2 years of posting. If you’re unaware of just how many words that is, imagine one of the later Harry Potter books, or anything in the Wheel of Time series. That roughly translates to around 800 pages or more of sheer nerdy prose, and I had done it by accident, accumulating volumes of words by posting a few hundred each night. I figured, well, if I can do that, I can do the same thing towards an original story for an entire year and see what happens.

Enter my novel, whose working title at the moment is Seven Sons. Continue reading →

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