Three Big Reasons Why I Write

I've always loved stories. I've loved thinking about characters and places and how this shapes a plot.

Reading a story is wonderful, but creating one yourself takes me to an all new dimension.

Making movies might be an eventual dream, but the greatness of writing books is that it is based on a limitless imagination with limitless worth without a huge price.

Back from the Writing Conference

I had a wonderful time at my first writing conference this weekend. I learned so much and met lots of writers and others in the writing industry and connected with other attendees. Without a doubt I would love to return.

Plus: I just started a new Twitter account https://twitter.com/BennyRSFantasy

The conference was at Cuesta College, but I stayed in Morro Bay, which was a memorable location where my family visited when I was a child.

Classes of Magic: Teleportation

Last year, while waiting for a delayed train, I spent the time developing in my head the magic systems for The Face of the Pumpkin.

People in the Sorcery Society of Salem (as well as other magic groups of sorcery and enchantment) fit into four different classes of magic (earth, air, fire and water)... I came up with different advantages that these classes have and in particular, with regards to Teleportation.

Earth magic produces Green Apples that when eaten allow the person to transport to their wanted location. Disadvantage: You must always have apples on hand. Advantage: Although earth magic produces it, anyone can wield it.

Air magic allows Teleportation by thinking. It is perhaps the most advantageous, but it uses a lot of energy, and so one can only take in so much in a certain amount of time.

Fire magic is one of the most difficult as it requires the production of a potion that ignites a fire portal. Due to its power with light, Fire Teleportation is the only way to travel beyond Planet Earth.

Water magic is done through making portals by thought through bodies of water. It uses less personal energy than air magic and is easier for others to follow, but Point A and Point B must be in bodies of water (ocean, river, lake, swimming pool, etc)... It's always safer to travel with magic Blueberries to breathe under water.

Book Reading: The Once and Future King

This weekend I started reading T.H. White's The Once and Future King which includes the several volumes of The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight and The Candle in the Wind.

The Disney animated film, The Sword in the Stone, is based on the first book, and the musical/film Camelot, produced during the same era, is based on the later parts. Let's see how it works out reading all of these pages!

Title Card

Here is a book description from my new card! 

To Use "To Be" Verbs... or Not to Use "To Be" Verbs...

As I've gone through critique groups, people have mentioned my use on "to be" verbs and adverbs. As I continue revising I have started to cut out past "to be" verbs (was, were, been) as well as most adverbs, at least in the narrative. In dialogue I've cut some of them, but not all. This has helped a lot in making my sentences more active and less redundant. 

For eliminating adverbs, I found that almost half the time, I can take away the adverb and it has little affect on the sentence. Other times, I can use a different verb (I prefer to use verbs, however, that most people understand) or reword the phrase in a different way. 

Taking out "was" verbs presents more of a challenge, as this tends to require changing the whole sentence. 

Overall, this has helped strengthen my writing, although it does not do everything. For example, other issues include using too many other inactive verbs or indirect speech, etc.. 

The irony is that although it has helped me, many of the best writers use "to be" verbs and adverbs. Now some of these only use them sparingly, but they do use them. And of course these writers have a lot of experience and know how to make it work. 

For example, Roald Dahl, one of my most loved writers, used them quite a bit. The first chapter of James and the Giant Peach last about three pages. I counted about 23 past "to be" verbs and 6 adverbs. Describing things using words like "was/were" occurs quite a bit. That being said, it does not affect how I feel about the writing and I love the storyline. 

Other writers I like also use these sort of words such as J.K. Rowling, Jim Butcher, Philip Pullman, Gregory Maguire and many others use these sort of words. I suppose the issue has always been to know exactly when and how to use them. 

Once Upon a Time: Beyond

Here is the cover for the Once Upon a Time comic book Out of the Past, which ABC/Marvel released this spring. Unlike the previous comic book, this one divides itself into four separate stories focusing on Killian Jones (Hook), Rumple/Belle, Regina and Jefferson (The Mad Hatter). I enjoyed Jefferson's Wonderland story the most. Plus we also see a little bit of Camelot in Jefferson's story, which will be a major setting next season.

Last year I wrote an article talking about loose ends and things I wanted to see for Season 4. As we stand in the middle of summer with about 70 days left until the Season 5 premiere, now would be a good time to see what came true. Spoiler Warning if you have not caught up to the end of Season 4!

Here is the article:http://bennyrotondi-smith.blogspot.com/2014/06/questions-on-once-upon-time.html

Note that many of these loose ends involve withheld information that the show may never reveal, which probably the case for 1-6 and several others. For number 7 it is mentioned/implied how Hook and Baelfire left Neverland, but we never actually saw such flashbacks. For this article, I will comment on the questions that did have at least a partial answer.

13. How did Regina’s father, Henry, end up a prisoner in Wonderland? (Is he “The King of Hearts”?) 
In episode 4x20 "Mother" many have suspected that the flashback scenes with Cora occur around the same time that Cora took Henry,Sr. to Wonderland although we did not see it onscreen. I also loved hearing a mention to the White Rabbit which confirmed the theory that Cora did indeed know him. 
18. What is the full back story to Maleficent and her relationship with Aurora and Phillip?
We did not see the full back story, but we did see a lot of Maleficent. I wrote this question before hearing the news that Maleficent would return for a major story arc. Most of Maleficent's flashbacks focused on her history with Snow White and David as well as Regina and Rumple (and Cruella and Ursula and what Snow and David did to her). It has not been announced if Maleficent will return next year but we may find out more about her next season. 

19. How was Ariel’s relationship with her family under the sea?
We did see Ariel one more time in Season 4, but not her family. Instead, we saw Ursula's relationship with her father Poseidon, which had strong parallels to Ariel and King Triton. 

20. How will Elsa/ The Snow Queen fit into OUAT?!!!
It's funny that when I wrote this article, I did not know that Elsa and the Snow Queen would be two separate characters, I was just referring to the original fairy tale. We found out a lot during Season 4A, including Emma's involvement in the sister story. 

One question that I did not write in this article, but something I and many other Oncers thought was the identity of the author of the storybook, which turned out to be a major issue in Season 4!

I also wrote this article:
http://bennyrotondi-smith.blogspot.com/2014/09/once-upon-time-returns-in-less-than-week.html

I wrote about the characters I wanted to see return. Not only did we see Zelena again, but she returned in a big way. We saw a little bit of Oz again and found out that Will Scarlet once lived in Oz and that's where he met Robin Hood. Zelena will also return in Season 5 as a series regular. Robin Hood will also be an official regular, however Will will no longer be a starring cast member, however I still don't know if he will return as a guest star, considering the big plot holes with his character.

As mentioned before, we did see Maleficent return as I had hoped and a little bit of Aurora, but only a little and no Phillip. We definitely saw some of Emma's foster families and in the comic book Out of the Past, mentioned above, we met Priscilla, Grace's mother. Also in Season 4 we saw Ashley (Cinderella) appear in an episode, as well as Cora. Next Season we will see Lancelot again and Merlin too!