Writing Alchemy Fairy Tale 8 Summary
Editor and collaborative storyteller Lara Milton joins Fay for the reading of part 2 of “Dangerous Company,” which follows the growing romance between Kalla and the dragon, Har. This section of the story delves into both eroticism as Kalla and Har get closer with each other and into conflict as Har struggles with her own draconic territorialism. The following, delightfully nerdy, discussion focuses on tabletop role playing games as writing inspiration and delves into the some of nitty-gritty details of writing, comparing and contrasting first person and third person perspectives in fiction.
Dangerous Company: The last five dragon slayers died. Kalla is good at solving problems, but her skills will be tested as she embarks on her journey with the very dragon she is expected to kill disguised as her guide. Some interesting surprises are just around the corner…
Story: Dangerous Company
Guest: Editor and collaborative storyteller Lara Milton
An green and gray, ink and watercolor drawing of a steep, tree-covered mountaintop with a white sky behind it. Silhouetted in the sky is a flying dragon with large wings and a long thin tail.
Show Notes:
Today’s story
Dangerous Company: https://writing-alchemy.net/older-works/dangerous-company/
Fay’s Links
You can become my patron on my Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/WritingAlchemy
The RSS feed of this podcast is: https://writing-alchemy.net/feed/podcast
Gamer Writing Solutions: Using Dice to Create Better Characters: https://writing-alchemy.net/2016/02/22/gamer-writing-solutions-using-dice-to-create-better-characters/
Dungeons and Dragons overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons more complete information (I find the navigation tree awkward, the search bar is very useful): http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page
Vampire The Masquerade (the creators emphasize it as a game of “personal horror” but it is totally possible to play it without going into the horror aspects): http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade
Lara’s Links
Spectrum Editing: http://www.spectrumediting.com/
Or find Spectrum Editing on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Spectrum-Editing-478317902375795/
Music Credits:
Intro: Kickin’ in the Turbo (Alasdair Cooper) / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Transition to reading: Another Version of You (Chris Zabriskie) / CC BY 4.0
Wind and crickets: Wind, Soft. Crickets.wav by Leandros.Ntounis | License: Attribution
Gusting wind: a gentle breeze, wind 4 by mario1298 | License: Creative Commons 0
Creaking tree: Wind Through Trees 3b by spoonbender | License: Attribution
Playful magic music: Brittle Rille (Kevin MacLeod) / CC BY 3.0
Romance music: Clean Soul (Kevin MacLeod) / CC BY 3.0
Morning bird and crow song: Birds-Crow & Song Birds.wav by Bansemer | License: Creative Commons 0
Ominous dragon music: Thunderbird (Kevin MacLeod) / CC BY 3.0
More rugged terrain footsteps: night walk by bliny | License: Attribution
Forest field birdsong: Forrest field spring sounds.WAV by Sandermotions | License: Creative Commons 0
Podcast announcements: The Place Where I’ll Return To (Alasdair Cooper) / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Outro: Everybody’s Got Problems That Aren’t Mine (Chris Zabriskie) / CC BY 4.0
There is one clarification I wanted to make for this discussion:
I’m not trying to say that things like gender, race, appearance, and culture don’t play a significant role in the daily life of a character, or that there aren’t many circumstances that would make these things clear to readers. What I’m attempting to say here is that there is a challenge with using the “I” perspective is that the character is going to take for granted those things that are known and familiar and focus on those things that are new and different, which can make it harder to provide all of the identity information that a reader needs to understand the full context of the events that are happening. In addition, the revelation of this information depends much more on the personality and traits of the character themselves and the nature of their thoughts. Some characters would be thinking about these things consciously, thus allowing the readers access to this information, but other characters won’t. In addition, the timing of the revelation of this information is very different when the “I” perspective is used as opposed to the third person narrator.