The Save or Die Fallacy

I’m a nerd.  A geek.  Like, the old fashioned 1980s version that’s really uncool, as opposed to the hip 2010s version that apparently rules the world.  And, despite being 37 years old and married, I still play with my funny shaped dice in a little game called Dungeons and Dragons.  Usually about twice a month.  More if my group and I can work it into our adult schedules.

That being said, if you’ll bear with me, I have a point to make.  You may just have to overcome your nausea over my geekdom to get to it.  Sorry.  I do bathe though, so it shouldn’t be too bad.  I’m not one of THOSE nerds.
A few weeks ago, we had a game where-in my character (kind of like a WoW avatar, only on paper) gets hit with a magical attack which means that I need to roll a saving throw, or the character is dead.  Despite my awesome bonuses, I fail the roll and the character is pushing daisies.  In gamer-nerd terms, that’s a “save or die” situation.

Save or die is much like the psychological phenomenon of the either/or fallacy though.  The either/or fallacy occurs when an argument is made in which the choices involved are artificially restricted in what may be an otherwise flawless logical discussion of an issue.  A large example that most would be familiar with is the pro-life/pro-choice debate.  An individual doesn’t have to be on one side of the debate or another.  They can choose to remain outside of the debate because they do not have an opinion.   Another example, if you don’t care for that one (and I know a lot of people won’t) would be, “If you don’t know how to use a computer, you’re an idiot.”  While this isn’t necessarily the case, it may be the opinion of the speaker.  There were millions of incredibly intelligent people on the planet before the invention of the computer, and in fact people who have never seen a modern computer designed the first computers, so that argument is invalid.  But, once again, it’s just as valid an opinion as any other.  It just isn’t factually accurate.

How can we use this concept as it relates to our writing?  There are two examples that I would like to address.  The first is the possibility that, with the save-or-die mindset, we may create plot holes without realizing it.  Secondly, how can we use intentional save-or-die statements to improve plot, characterization, and setting?

As we write, we often add details to our plots and characters that reflect an either/or situation or a character’s or culture’s save-or-die mindset.  The problem that arises here is that we need to ensure consistency.  For instance, in chapter 3, you write that your villain, Lugnar, is a bigot.  His mindset is expressed as, “If you aren’t a minotaur, then you aren’t worthy of my notice.”  What you’ve done by announcing this mentality is limit your choices later in the story.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though – UNLESS, you forget to maintain that limitation consistently.  Later in the story, you introduce his lieutenant and most trusted advisor.  Let’s call him Crud.  Crud happens to be a Centaur.  What does this do to the reader?  It distracts him with the question/comment:  But I thought he didn’t respect anyone who wasn’t a minotaur?  How did this centaur get to be his “right hand man?

There are a few ways to work with this scenario.  You can take the easiest path and – *POOF* – Crud is suddenly a minotaur instead of a centaur.  The second option is to go back in the story to your fallacy and alter it.  Maybe Lugnar is fiercely loyal to his tribe rather than a minotaur-supremacist, or perhaps it’s only dwarves that are beneath his notice.  Or – you can simply throw the save-or-die thinking out the window.  Make sure though that you review the story to look for inconsistencies any of these changes would cause.  Make sure you don’t fix one problem to create a domino effect that might bring your whole story tumbling to the ground.

The next fix is perhaps the better one, if done correctly.  This is where we get to the second question I expressed earlier: How can we use intentional save-or-die statements to improve plot, characterization, and setting?

In our example with Crud being the misshapen bung in our plot hole (keep the double entendre to yourself, thank you very much), how can we BUILD on the initial limitation to make it a plot point instead?  With this particular issue, we can institute an exception to the save-or-die logic by giving Lugnar and Crud a backstory that enhances the plot, broadens characterization, and provide more setting information.  For the plot, we can add a backstory for the pair.  Both were enslaved in the same arena as gladiators.  Crud was able to defeat Lugnar in a match, but refused to kill an unarmed slave, thus saving Lugnar’s life and earning respect concurrently. – OR – Perhaps Lugnar was separated from his family as a child, and Crud looked out for him during his time as an orphan.  (This is pretty cliché though.  Anyone else having a slight flashback to Star Trek: Nemesis?)  Perhaps there is a cultural issue at hand here where-in Crud is considered, by minotaur tradition, to be a centaur.  He earned his place amongst them by fighting at their side in battle.  Still another option is that Lugnar saved Crud’s life, and Crud is fulfilling a life-debt.  Perhaps, and hopefully, his real name isn’t Crud even.  Maybe he’s only biding his time until his life-debt is fulfilled before killing Lugnar in an ironic plot twist at the end?

The point is, there are always fixes for these situations.  Some take more work than others, and some could damage the story if not executed well.  Regardless, the key is to realize when we’ve set ourselves into these situations and find a creative way to use them to our advantage rather than letting them be the save-or-die element in our stories’ successes.

As far as the initial situation with my character getting turned to stone:  The dungeon master fixed that.  In his setting, getting turned to stone is only an inconvenience for a dwarf.  Dwarves choose to turn to stone when they are tired of living, and if they haven’t made that choice, they can reanimate their shell and turn it to flesh again.  So, Mordin is still going about saving the world and doing clerical work, but he’s got a bit more respect for beholders.

Happy writing!

Thinking in Three Dimensions:

In our native setting, humans are the top of the food chain.  Sure, we might sometimes stumble into a gray area and be eaten by a lion, tiger, or bear (Oh my!); but we still generally sit at the top of Mother Nature’s food pyramid.  For us, the view is good.  Nothing but blue sky above us and tasty treats below.  But what happens when we change that?

Let’s look at the genius that happens when we look at more than what’s in front, behind, or beside us:

In Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the entire story is based on this premise.  A dragon sweeps out of the skies, decimates the city of Esgaroth (what most remember as “Lake-Town”), and steals the vast treasures of the dwarves for itself.

Then, in The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander there is a predatory bird that often acts as spies for the evil Arawn Death-Lord.  Alexander uses them to add depth and intensity to the flight of the heroes as they race to find various items of power in their fight against various evils.

     Dragonlance‘s Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman worked with a team to establish a setting where the primary concerns are those above.  Either the gods (represented by Krynn’s constellations) are plotting against one another and causing strife; or dragons in various forms are fighting and manipulating the bipedal races to do their bidding.

Let’s not forget Stephen King’s IT.  Where is the “clown” the first time we see him in the film?  In a sewer grate, BELOW us, where we often don’t think to look.  (It should be noted that this is often where one finds whatever one’s children are looking for but claim, “It isn’t ANYWHERE!” with much angst and woe-is-me.)

By far, the best example, in my opinion any-whether, are those stories which take place in some subterranean perspective.

The adventures of Drizzt Do’Urden as told by R.A. Salvatore in The Dark Elf Trilogy take advantage of all three dimensions perfectly.  The city Drizzt is born in is deep underground and filled with a race of dark elves known as the drow.  Drow live in three dimensions.  They can levitate; so hiding places are not just front, back, left, and right, but also up or down.    Their goddess is a spider-queen so spiders move across every surface.  Danger can – and does – come from every conceivable direction.

While we may not all write in high fantasy or horror or even horrific fantasy, I think we all want to create stories with depth, and we can do that by making sure to remember not only depth, but width and height as well.       Jodi looked left and right as she approached the road, then glanced behind her to see if her pursuer had gained any distance.  A flash of metallic green skin told her all she needed to know, and she moved to dash across the road.  A bone-wrenching impact on her right shoulder dropped her quickly to the ground.  As her vision started to fade, Jodi rolled over and saw what appeared to be an enormous red-eyed tree frog standing above her.

“Boss!  I think I found that fly you were looking for.”

Beware the terrifying red-eyed tree frog.
See the link for the original photo’s size and sourcing.

     Go on, write a short snippet about danger coming from above or below.  Give planar thought its comeuppance.

A practical discussion with Piers Anthony.

NOTE:  This interview occurred last fall via telephone.  It is the best experience I’ve had to date as a student/writer.  I had originally written the paper for a Human Communications course that I took; however, after thinking about it, I realized that if the professor was the only one that read it, then it wouldn’t be serving the purpose that Mr. Anthony and I both hold dear.  We both want to make life easier for beginning writers/authors, so if I hold the advice that he gave me to myself, I’m not doing that audience much good.  So, here is my paper in its entirety with a few verbiage changes and two corrections he provided me with after I had sent him a copy to review.  (I’d done the math wrong on his years of marriage, and misheard him when he said “Tatham Mound”.  My ears had heard “Tape and Mount” and my brain didn’t bother to tell me that my ears were inept.)

Also, Mr. Anthony’s site is a wonderful resource for writers, especially those looking to self-publish.  His blog/newsletter that he maintains on the site is also fun to read, so I strongly encourage you to give it a click.  www.hipiers.com

You can also follow him on Twitter:  @PiersAnthony

The majority of his books are available through Amazon, including his recently e-published works:  Piers’ Amazon Page

May the Force be with you.  Enjoy:

My Interview with Piers Anthony

When I was eleven, I went to the school library looking for something I hadn’t read before.  I had sucked in most of the books that looked interesting to me.  Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, (located handily on the “literature” shelf) several versions of Arthurian legends, and what I’m sure was the entirety of the sparse Young Adult section.  I had avoided the Fantasy shelf for fear that it would be quite girly, filled with frog kissing princesses and a million Sleeping Beauty knock-offs.  However; after running out of everything else, I figured it couldn’t hurt to dig through it.  After all, nobody else was in the library to see me looking at the “girl books.”  Eventually, I chose to check out a book entitled A Spell for Chameleon, by Piers Anthony.  I read it over the weekend, and checked it back in that next Monday – so that I could check out the sequel, The Source of Magic.  The books were part of what is now a 38 book series, with publishing dates spanning from 1976 to future release dates in 2014.  And, perhaps most importantly, they were the equivalent of a gateway drug.  I was soon as addicted to fantasy and science fiction as any drug user is to their chemical of choice.  I began taking in books written by Terry Brooks, Robin McKinnley, Robert A. Heinlein, and C.S. Lewis.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since that weekend in 1988, when I first read Piers Anthony’s novel.  I had a few brief moments daydreaming about being a computer programmer who helped develop androids or a superhero, because, you know, I’m practical like that.  I always come back to writing though, and I think that’s for a reason.  I just don’t think I would be happy doing anything else.  What other job allows you to daydream all day long and get paid for it?  It’s perfect, and my interview succeeded in confirming my dream.  This wasn’t the first time I’ve experienced such a thing, Mr. Anthony has always reaffirmed that goal.  When I was fifteen, I wrote my first short story.  It was wonderful(ly horrible), and I just HAD to have someone’s feedback that I respected.  So, I dug through book after book in the library, and found an address to submit correspondence to Mr. Anthony.  I printed the whole thing out on our high school’s dot matrix printer, stole all of the stamps in my dad’s desk, and popped it in the mailbox.  Several weeks later, I had given up on ever seeing my precious story again, when my mom handed me a packet as I walked in the door from school.  It was my story, reviewed in detail by Mr. Anthony with red pen marks skittering across the page and comments throughout the margins.  I probably should have been devastated that my masterpiece had been so thoroughly criticized, but all I can seem to remember is bragging, “The dude that writes Xanth wrote me back!”  Every time I’ve written him since then, I’ve always gotten an answer and been encouraged.  Even if it were only a short note, every letter has gotten a respectful and dignified answer.

So, when I was assigned this interview project, I decided to ask one of the three professional fantasy and science fiction authors I’ve had correspondence with to do it.  I decided to ask Mr. Anthony because his books were where my obsession began, and so it seemed appropriate.  I sent an email to him on Friday, September 14 at 12:56pm, asking for an hour of his time.  Three hours later, he checked his email and called me.  I picked up the phone wondering who would be calling me from a Florida area code.  As soon as he began speaking, my heart skipped a beat, and I was knocked into a dreamlike state one might expect would happen when a youngling meets Yoda for the first time.  I stammered through the conversation, and we had an appointment set up for that following Saturday at 4:00 PM.

I waited anxiously through that long week, and eventually the day finally came for my conversation with a man who has been a mentor and positive influence in my life for 25 years.  He snuck into basic training with me in the form of For Love of Evil, and even did a few brief guard shifts in Germany in the guise of Demons Don’t Dream.  And now, I was going to talk to him on the phone, ask him for career advice, and request his opinions regarding the future of the novelist in the digital age.  Mr. Anthony was glad to talk, and warned me that I might have to ask him to end a statement, if he were to go on too much.

As we got on the phone, I started with the usual pleasantries.  The wife and family are good, and so on, until I got to my questions.  The first thing I asked him was, “What first got you into writing?”  Mr. Anthony responded that he initially wasn’t interested in being a writer.  He was on his second year of school, having taken 8 years of art classes.  At one point, he realized that he didn’t have the talent to make it as an artist, so he thought for a night and a day, and decided he’d be a writer.  From there on, that’s what he did.  His wife (They’ve been together since 1956 and will soon celebrate 56 years of marriage together.) followed him through a stint in the U.S. Army where he got his U.S. citizenship, and he taught English for a short time after he got out of the military.  Eventually though, his wife worked out a deal for him to take a year off of all the other jobs to work on his writing career.  He sold his first story during that time, and his career has grown exponentially since then.  Mr. Anthony will soon have over 160 novels in print.

As I have tried to write more, I’ve found that a lot of things tend to interrupt the writing process.  Kids need patched up; my wife needs help around the house; a friend is throwing a party; class work needs done; or my job needs a little more of my time.  So, I asked Mr. Anthony how he dealt with that.  He told me stories about the interruptions and distractions he had as he first began to write for a living.  He had a young daughter that needed a lot of attention; his wife was working and he needed to be the homemaker as well as the writer; and various other issues came up.  His solution was that a writer can’t let interruptions ruin his day, and that a writer had to develop the “mental muscle” to be able to take care of those interruptions and sit back down and write from the point where he left off.  Over the last few weeks since the interview, I’ve tried to apply that idea to my life.  It works! I’ve gotten more done at work, more class work accomplished, and – most importantly – more writing.  He suggested approaching boundary setting positively.  He suggested that a writer should have a space apart from the family to do his work.  In the end though, it’s about the compromise.  Life is more important than writing and finding a balance between real life and writing is important.

Mr. Anthony and I also discussed the difficulties of getting published initially, and what he would recommend a new-coming author do as he first sets out to get an agent, get published, and make a living in the publishing industry.  He told me the story of how he first tried to become published.  He had gotten together with some friends and together they had written query letters to every agent available in the market at the time.  He didn’t receive a single response, and it wasn’t until after he sold his first novel that he got an agent.  While he does recommend getting an agent, who can generally negotiate twice the money that an independent author can, he said that an agent is not the first step in today’s publishing world.  He recommends that a writer begin by publishing electronically now, to develop a readership base.  Once that is established, and you can show some success in digital publishing, then look for an agent, indicating the successes you’ve already had.  He also advised that it isn’t too late to get an agent after you’ve received an offer for a book.  He cited the example of a newcomer to publishing who had been offered $25,000 by the publisher for a trilogy that he would be writing.  Upon receiving the offer, he contacted an agent who then took him on as a client and negotiated a six figure book deal for the trilogy.

Since the emergence of e-publishing, the publishing industry as a whole has changed dramatically.  Corner bookstores are fading away for the most part, while online outlets like Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com are growing quickly.  Anyone who types up a written work can publish it digitally with no screening process from an editor.  I discussed the emergence of e-publishing with Mr. Anthony, and asked him how he thought the industry had responded to the changes.  He said that he felt the publishers hadn’t done anything to establish quality in the e-publishing process.  There is no editor to review a book before the author puts it up for sale on a website.  It is incumbent upon the writer to develop quality material, and that quality will come with time and practice.  The most important things an author can do are to practice his craft and listen to criticism with an open mind.  They can’t depend on choosy publishers to edit their work until such time as they get a contract to have a book published.  To help authors, Mr. Anthony has an online survey of vanity publishers and e-publishers with reviews from people who have used the services those publishers offer.  He regularly receives feedback from authors, counterpoints from the publishers whose services have been questioned, and posts the notices online for authors to review.

As an established author, Mr. Anthony has embraced e-publishing because it allows him freedom of expression.  Generally, he writes humorous fantasy novels, and that is what publishers that he works with have come to expect from him.  However; that isn’t all that he writes and he has historically had a hard time selling works such as his recently published To be a Woman, which explores civil rights from the point of view of a self-aware android seeking legal recognition.  Having been effectively “typecast” as a humorous fantasy author, publishers aren’t always open to him providing them with material outside of their expectations.  E-publishing allows him to publish what he wants to write as an author, rather than what the publishing industry expects of him.

As a college student, I see comments in every syllabus passed to me at the beginning of each semester warning of zero tolerance for plagiarism.  Also, I regularly read articles related to digital rights management (the software that prevents digital works from being copied excessively), and the legal pitfalls of publishing digitally.  As a professional purchaser, I also see that contract negotiation is an essential skill for anyone entering into a business relationship, whether they’re buying plastic-ware for a state hospital or establishing the means of determining how much an author is paid.  I asked Mr. Anthony what he thought the most common legal pitfalls were for an author, and how they might deal with them.  He replied that legal issues weren’t really the pitfalls, but rather the ignorance of the author was.  Any author should learn to understand contracts, and be able to point out contractual concerns when negotiating with a publisher.  However; new authors who have yet to establish a reputation in the industry may need to “shut up and take it”, using polite manners to fix any missteps in the negotiating process.  He suggested that the key thing for authors to look for at first is an audit clause.  This is a clause in the contract which allows the author to have the records of the publisher audited to ensure that the author has been paid correctly.  A good audit clause will not only allow the author to audit the records, but will also make the publisher responsible for any associated costs if the audit reveals payments that are excessively in error (more than 5%).  This advice was probably the simplest I’ve heard anyone give, and probably the most useful.

In recent years, I’ve had the great pleasure of seeing many of my favorite books made into amazing movies.  Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, and several others have all made debuts in movie theatres, with mixed results.  I’ve loved every single one of them, even if they didn’t meet my expectations or match my mental picture of what I’d read.  They’ve always brought me back to the books, and added imagery to my reading that I had either missed or hadn’t considered before.  I asked Mr. Anthony which of his movies he had options for, and which he would most like to see made into a film.  Most of his books have movie options, and he has actually done the reverse, taking a movie script and making it into a novel for the film Total Recall.  He said that he would like to see all of his work on-screen, and that his novel, Split Infinity, has a movie in production scheduled for 2013.  He would greatly enjoy seeing his novel, Tatham Mound (a historical novel about De Soto exploring America) on film.  Currently, his most popular work, the Xanth series isn’t set to be made into a film, with Warner communications having dropped the movie option when it was last up for renewal.

After speaking with Piers Anthony, do I still want to be a writer?  Yes!  Emphatically yes.  More in fact than before speaking with him, but that desire is also checked with a good bit of practical advice.  I know that I need to be prepared to work hard.  I know that my success is up to me.  I know that 99 writers out of 100 won’t be published by a major publishing house, and of those that do, 99 out of 100 won’t become rich from writing.  That’s ok.  I’m fine with that.  I have my day job.  I have my family, and I enjoy writing for its own sake.  I’m still aware that there are many other opportunities to work in publishing.  News companies still need reporters.  Publishers still have operations staff.  Someone has to get all of the other jobs done that are involved in getting a book from the writer’s desk to the retail outlet (be it digital or ink on the page).  I just want to be a part of it, and in the meantime, I have the joy of writing for its own sake.  I’m fine with that.

The Great and Almighty Difference Between Sci-Fi and Fantasy…

… Or, I am a Picky Bastard.

I read an article recently, and I swear it wasn’t just for the pictures. It was actually a reasonably insightful article about fathers in fantasy. (Article) Now, I generally agreed with what the article had to say, and it did get me to think about father figures in some of my favorite books, or rather, the absence of such. Then I started reading the comments, and I got irritated. “Why did you get irritated, Rob?” you may ask. “Well, let me tell you…”

The folks who responded to the article were blaspheming.

First off, there were the umpteen ignoramuses that said something along the lines of, “OMG! CNN, you’re so awful for ever posting this drivel. This isn’t news. I SCORN YOU! SSCCOOOORRRRRNNNNNNNNN Youz! FOREVER!” Ok, morons. No, it isn’t news. This is why it’s in the “Living” section of the site. The “Living” section contains semi-opinion articles and observances about life in general. It is intended to be entertainment, rather than news. Get over yourselves, please. Either that, or shove a turkey baster filled with arsenic down your throat and squeeze the bubble.

The second blasphemous irritation was the commenters’ complete disregard for, or inability to identify, genre. Now, I know I’m perhaps overly particular about a lot of things. I know I’m a grumpy badger of a man. I also know that my opinions of genre identification don’t necessarily match your typical lit professor’s definitions. But screw them! I’m right. They’re wrong.

Fantasy and sci-fi are two different things that seem similar. It’s like the difference between jelly and preserves. The differences might be academic, but to the cook, they still F’n matter. (Preserves are better, just so you know.)

The typical definition of fantasy, according to www.reference.com is: “8. a. literature having a large fantasy content b. a prose or dramatic composition of this type”. Obviously, the people at Reference don’t necessarily abide by the concept that you can’t use a word to define itself. So, let me fix this for you, in relation to literature anyhow. I’m cool like that. I’ll help you out. Just don’t go quoting this stuff to your literature professor. They’ll shit bricks. No. Really. Bricks.

But, before I do that. Let’s discuss sci-fi. Most will know that “sci-fi” is short for “science fiction.” Complex, I know, but please follow along. I’m standing on this soap box, and my feet are starting to hurt. Science fiction is a concept that I like. Science fiction, as a concept, is the reason I love Star Trek, Stargate, and many others. Sci-fi is filled with gizmos, gadgets, wondrous creatures, and vast comparisons of cultures throughout time. I think though, there’s one thing that really sets it apart from Fantasy, rather than simply being a subgenre of fantasy. It could really happen. Yep. Scoff at my delusions if you will, but it’s true. Sci-fi has, in fact, inspired many scientists. We’re weaponizing lasers (pew pew), developing vehicles, and improving on technology all because sci-fi inspired scientists to be creative. You want proof:

See Kirk and his tablet computer from the 1970s.

And, that isn’t the only instance. There are several instances of documentaries (or articles) that show us that scientists are inspired by sci-fi. The theories that creative geniuses like Heinlein and Roddenberry show off in their books and television show up in real life in one form or another, though maybe with less 70s styling. Even when these things, light speed for instance, can’t be done with what we currently know of science, they can be researched and theories can be revised, updated, or just plain proven wrong. Even so-called scientific “laws” can end up getting a second look. So, all sci-fi is possible, or at least approachable.

Then there’s fantasy. Fantasy is made up of various things, like magic spells, talking pandas that shoot fireballs out of their eyes, and swords that guide the hand to strike the vitals of even the most fearsome of beasts (that aren’t badgers). Fantasy is made up of those things which are only real in our dreams (or nightmares). We can’t research how to cast fireballs. Santa Claus doesn’t and never will deliver gifts to gatherings of talking woodland animals. Deposed queens don’t raise dragons to help them take back their stolen throne. We don’t need to worry about some Hitler-esque jackass having a Ring of Power that lets him rule over us. All of these things are fantasy because they’re impossible. They’re purely in the imagination. They reside in the fantasies of their creators and can never make a real life appearance.

But a data pad can, and does exist.

The space elevator, as imagined by Arthur C. Clarke and other sci-fi authors is being researched. (Wikipedia)

I haven’t heard about any breakthroughs in dragon breeding recently though, have you? No. Because dragons are fantasy creatures. Even if we gene splice a Komodo Dragon with Pteradactyl DNA, we won’t get a fire breathing dragon with super magical abilities of doom. We’d just get a cool looking critter that has a poisonous bite and a bad attitude. Kind of like a teenager that just got grounded from using his phone.

In short. Science Fiction is a realm of imagined POSSIBILITIES. In contrast, Fantasy is a realm of imagined IMPOSSIBILITIES. Now, I know I could have just said that, but then I wouldn’t have been able to rant about the subject, and isn’t that the point of blogging? Getting a good rant off your chest. I feel better now. I’ve identified someones that were wrong on the internet, and gave them a good talking to. As my friend Bon says, “Like ya do.”