This blogfest entry is brought to you by J.C. Martin at The Fighter Writer. You can view all participants through this link.
This entry stars my protagonist, Valence. Most returning fest-goers have met him. This scene occurs in the beginning of the story, when Valence steps in to save the king from an assassin.
If something bugs you or sticks out, please let me know. Thanks and enjoy!
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C'mon! Come Get Me!
Valence stepped forward, pretending the poison no longer contaminated his blood, and charged with his crescent blade. He yelled with a beast-like rancor and the assassin pulled two sabers from the sheaths on his back. Valence hacked away, missing a clean swipe at the assassin’s chest. The black-skinned man danced in at him, the blades flicking like snake tongues. The assassin knocked away another crushing blow and Valence backed off with the tip of his sword meeting the tip of a saber.
They circled carefully. “You’re Valence, am I right?”
Valence glared and he cocked his wrist up, positioning his tip higher than the saber. “How do you know my name?” His fingers fidgeted, coiled to strike, and his hand thrummed from their clash. As if sensing he would be a dangerous adversary, the assassin narrowed a glare on Valence that strove to pierce his guard. Valence refused to falter and confronted the look with his own discerning stare, probing his foe’s strengths—and weaknesses. For him, the face-off lasted forever. The assassin stunk of earth and sweat, and his skin had an unnatural sheen. He smelled death on the assassin’s blades. A thousand screams of defenseless victims lingered there.
“We all have names.” Their steps were matched in time. “Mine is Xixios.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.” Valence fought for his breaths, but Xixios did not appear broken like he.
“You’ve become quite popular. The Darkness wants you.”
Valence caught a lost breath. Mekuyo spoke the truth. He examined the assassin’s posture and studied his words a second time. “Not going to happen.”
The assassin curled his lip and tightened his hold on the sabers. “Nothing escapes it once claimed.”
The duel continued.
Valence had Xixios on the defensive, but with each swing, the assassin dodged. Their circular movements pressed on. He lunged and Xixios lurched away, leaving the crescent sword to slice tufts of shadow in his wake. He lifted his blade to his chest, ready to parry. Xixios coiled the shadows and vanished into the screen of darkness. The dueling ground tightened. Valence tempted a slice at the thickest part of the shadows and returned to guard with his left hand resting at the knife on his belt.
Valence stood alone, circling and eyes darting. The shadows broke open and Xixios jumped in, sabers held high, cutting toward him. Valence ducked and repelled the first saber. He tucked his sword low at his thigh and struck his elbow at Xixios’ abdomen.
The darkness surrounding them tore apart when Xixios tumbled to the floor. The afternoon sun teemed through the windows in pillars.
Xixios gathered his second wind and returned to his feet. As Valence watched him rise, the king stirred at his back. Valence stepped into the assassin’s view of the throne, sword pointed down.
“That was fun,” Xixios said as he picked up his sabers.
“That’s Lunata combat.” Valence’s answer was sharp and he kept his weapon ready.
“Impressive.”
Valence's breath rasped as he tried to keep his balance, but the poison brought him to his knees. He lacked the strength to hold his sword’s weight and his fingers tingled against the leather wrappings.
Xixios sneered, the reptilian slits scrutinizing Valence’s strength. “Did I get you?”
“Not this time.”
“Let’s see if I can fix that.”
Valence forced the poison to retreat and rose as Xixios rushed. The assassin spat obscenities as he hacked at Valence’s feinting form. Valence bellowed each time his weapon connected to the whistling sabers and pushed harder. Slice, dip, and lunge. Xixios lagged and Valence struck forward, grazing the assassin’s arm. He followed through and tangled his weapon between Xixios’, fighting to break his hold on the sabers. Their strengths matched and his opponent’s stink assaulted him the closer he stood. His sight fuzzed as sweat dripped into his eyes.
“You’re done,” Xixios said.
“Not yet,” Valence breathed. The words stung his throat. He tasted his own defeat, but refused to let Xixios hear it. His biceps screamed, the pain surging, but he pushed Xixios away.
Valence expected Xixios to reexamine him, but lashed again. He pushed his advance on Valence, his blade patterns all too similar to the Lunata fighting style. Valence stepped off Xixios’ explosive combat. The sabers whirred left and right, cross body and into an extended thrust. Xixios finished with a reverse-blade uppercut.
Valence tucked and rolled as Xixios landed shortly behind him from a leap. His saber crushed through the floor, showing no strain of having cut into solid marble. Valence spun and pressed into a lunge, but faltered as tendrils of poison swam down his sword-arm. Xixios parried and dropped his saber short into Valence’s vambrace.
Valence’s sword skittered across the floor. He witnessed the hatred in Xixios’ red eyes boil to black and watched defenselessly as the saber rose and hewed into his pauldron. It bit through the hide protection, the strike deep and just left of his collarbone. Valence yelped from the serrated sting of his flesh tearing open and was grabbed up from his knees. Xixios lifted him off the ground and flung him over his shoulder.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Woe is Me (Awkward Writing 5)
Welcome back for the 5th and final installment of my Awkward Writing series, where we will be discussing a more broad subject: breaking cliches.
As a reminder, anyone who comments on the series posts (previous or future) will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway will be announced on the last series post. If you make multiple comments, you receive multiple entries. Max 5 entries via comments. But...
1) If you shout out the series (FB, Twitter, Blog, etc.), you get 1 entry. Please only 1 mention for the entire series. Please also supply the shout out link in your comment.
2) If you create a post linking back to my page, or one of the posts in the series, you receive 2 entries. Please supply the post link in your comment.
That is a total of 7 entries total you can have put in the pot. Don't forget to supply those links to your blogs or social media shout outs. You must supply them to be granted the point(s).
EPIC DRUMROLL SOUNDS!
So, it's been an interesting ride with all the comments made across the Awkward Writing series. Thanks to all who've participated. We have a good 20 plus commenters, each ranging with various entries. The series will officially conclude Friday, September 3rd at 5pm EST. The winner will be announced soon after. The prize will be a $10 Amazon voucher, sent via email. Be sure to get your last comments in!
* * *
So this is more of a broad subject to end the Awkward Writing series. We're going to discuss breaking cliches in writing. As natural as they feel to write, we each as growing writers try our damnedest to break cliches. All genres have their staple cliches in the various areas: character traits, world elements, plot elements. And the list can go on. The most popular cliches all in genre fiction. The search for magical artifacts, the rise of demon lords, the conquest over treasure bearing planets, et cetera.
So, as growing writers, we are challenged with breaking cliches. Those bestsellers who have come before us have set a standard which can be a "son of a beast." How in the world can you create something fresh? How is it possible to do what hasn't been done?
So I am leaving this topic way open for interpretation. Please share what you can about your journey through breaking the cliche.
As a reminder, anyone who comments on the series posts (previous or future) will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway will be announced on the last series post. If you make multiple comments, you receive multiple entries. Max 5 entries via comments. But...
1) If you shout out the series (FB, Twitter, Blog, etc.), you get 1 entry. Please only 1 mention for the entire series. Please also supply the shout out link in your comment.
2) If you create a post linking back to my page, or one of the posts in the series, you receive 2 entries. Please supply the post link in your comment.
That is a total of 7 entries total you can have put in the pot. Don't forget to supply those links to your blogs or social media shout outs. You must supply them to be granted the point(s).
EPIC DRUMROLL SOUNDS!
So, it's been an interesting ride with all the comments made across the Awkward Writing series. Thanks to all who've participated. We have a good 20 plus commenters, each ranging with various entries. The series will officially conclude Friday, September 3rd at 5pm EST. The winner will be announced soon after. The prize will be a $10 Amazon voucher, sent via email. Be sure to get your last comments in!
What am I currently doing? Answer: blogging, watching Blue Harvest (the Family Guy Star Wars episode) and drinking Firefly.
* * *
So, as growing writers, we are challenged with breaking cliches. Those bestsellers who have come before us have set a standard which can be a "son of a beast." How in the world can you create something fresh? How is it possible to do what hasn't been done?
So I am leaving this topic way open for interpretation. Please share what you can about your journey through breaking the cliche.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Poverty, Abuse, and the Like (Awkward Writing 4)
Welcome back for the 4rd installment of my Awkward Writing series, where we will be discussing social issues in writing.
As a reminder, anyone who comments on the series posts (previous or future) will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway will be announced on the last series post. If you make multiple comments, you receive multiple entries. Max 5 entries via comments. But...
1) If you shout out the series (FB, Twitter, Blog, etc.), you get 1 entry. Please only 1 mention for the entire series. Please also supply the shout out link in your comment.
2) If you create a post linking back to my page, or one of the posts in the series, you receive 2 entries. Please supply the post link in your comment.
That is a total of 7 entries total you can have put in the pot. Don't forget to supply those links to your blogs or social media shout outs. You must supply them to be granted the point(s).
What am I currently doing? Answer: blogging, beta edits, itching to finish my next chapter and enjoying my day off.
* * *
I think at some point, most writers will debate including a graphic scene in their WiP that might make readers shy away. Have your characters just entered a poverty stricken village? Are they glancing over the destruction of war? Do they see a pair of children screaming for their mother? These are social issues, along with a myriad of others, that can be difficult to write. It takes will power and courage to be able to think of the scene blow-by-blow so your reader will cherish it.
As a disclaimer, I do not condone sexual or physical abuse in any form, no matter your position in life. That said, most social issues that I have seen in writing comes in the form of sexual or physical abuse. It's harrowing to think about, let alone put on paper for the general public to read, but you're not only telling a story. You're spreading a message. How often do you, the writer, learn something from the characters? Granted, they are your creations, but you may not have thought of a solution had it not been filtered through the actions of your character.
Abuse is never just a simple travesty. It has long standing effects on the world. War and poverty, hunger and famine, abuse and murder. All have their atrocious reasons for being committed, but it is through your writing that we can begin to understand it. If your character has just barged into a bedroom to prevent an innocent child from being raped, you've done well. You've decided that your character has heart and he does not revel in pain. You've created something that readers can look up to, and then say, "Would I do the same thing?"
The same circumstance applies for all the listed social issues above. Would any of us do the same thing? If you can learn through the actions of your characters, why not? It began with you as a dormant feeling, untapped and unexplored, but now that you've been able to force it out onto paper, the effect of it all takes on a new meaning.
As difficult as the task might be to write about social issues, you're not only using them to move the story and build character relations. Use them to send a message. Take the time to invest all you have creatively into that one scene so it becomes something worth reading. If you just glance over it and get it done with, you're just writing another part of the story. Good moments of saving someone from evil takes time. It takes heart and soul. It takes cunning.
Difficult yes, but never impossible. To write it properly and with strength would be to teach someone how to avoid it. It may sound far-fetched, but words have great power to inspire and change the heart of someone. Will you be one of those writers?
Question to the Cohorts: Have you experimented in writing social complications? How did you get through the challenge and did you feel accomplished in the end?
Peace and Writing Love!
JWP
As a reminder, anyone who comments on the series posts (previous or future) will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway will be announced on the last series post. If you make multiple comments, you receive multiple entries. Max 5 entries via comments. But...
1) If you shout out the series (FB, Twitter, Blog, etc.), you get 1 entry. Please only 1 mention for the entire series. Please also supply the shout out link in your comment.
2) If you create a post linking back to my page, or one of the posts in the series, you receive 2 entries. Please supply the post link in your comment.
That is a total of 7 entries total you can have put in the pot. Don't forget to supply those links to your blogs or social media shout outs. You must supply them to be granted the point(s).
* * *
As a disclaimer, I do not condone sexual or physical abuse in any form, no matter your position in life. That said, most social issues that I have seen in writing comes in the form of sexual or physical abuse. It's harrowing to think about, let alone put on paper for the general public to read, but you're not only telling a story. You're spreading a message. How often do you, the writer, learn something from the characters? Granted, they are your creations, but you may not have thought of a solution had it not been filtered through the actions of your character.
Abuse is never just a simple travesty. It has long standing effects on the world. War and poverty, hunger and famine, abuse and murder. All have their atrocious reasons for being committed, but it is through your writing that we can begin to understand it. If your character has just barged into a bedroom to prevent an innocent child from being raped, you've done well. You've decided that your character has heart and he does not revel in pain. You've created something that readers can look up to, and then say, "Would I do the same thing?"
The same circumstance applies for all the listed social issues above. Would any of us do the same thing? If you can learn through the actions of your characters, why not? It began with you as a dormant feeling, untapped and unexplored, but now that you've been able to force it out onto paper, the effect of it all takes on a new meaning.
As difficult as the task might be to write about social issues, you're not only using them to move the story and build character relations. Use them to send a message. Take the time to invest all you have creatively into that one scene so it becomes something worth reading. If you just glance over it and get it done with, you're just writing another part of the story. Good moments of saving someone from evil takes time. It takes heart and soul. It takes cunning.
Difficult yes, but never impossible. To write it properly and with strength would be to teach someone how to avoid it. It may sound far-fetched, but words have great power to inspire and change the heart of someone. Will you be one of those writers?
Peace and Writing Love!
JWP
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