Immersive Storytelling

I am reading a novel I wrote two years ago. I have found twelve typos so far. I shall correct them before posting the book on Amazon.

I thoroughly edit my work... yet there are always mistakes I miss: typos, grammatical errors or continuity errors. The story is what it is despite these imperfections.

The quality of fiction is its immersion. The significance of each aspect is this one thing. A reader knows the story is fake yet it feels real.

The novel I am reading is a survival horror story with a dreamlike setting. The problems writing it were weird physics and impossible odds. I had to make these unbelievable things believable.

The protagonists are little girls. The antagonists are spooks, witches and monsters. The girls must survive long enough for their story to be a novel.

The novel is The Wayward School for Girls. It is immersive.

The characters are believable as real people. Though they have magical or psychic powers, they talk like we do. They act like we do. They use their powers as we would if we had such powers.

The setting is weird... but consistent. Readers learn the strange the physics. They understand the cause and effect. The story never cheats... so what happens is accepted.

IMMERSION!

1. Make the characters speak and act as if people living their lives rather than as plot devices for telling the story.

2. Establish the rules of the reality and never break them

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President Saul

Donald John Trump ventured into politics hoping to drain the Swamp and save America. He meant to make the country better for its actual people. Though born to privilege, he did care about the common folk.

Alas...

He won the first election because he was clever. He won the second... but it was stolen from him. Clever was not enough now that the Deep State was ready for him.

Trump spoke with his children before doing what he did. They agreed that he should take the risk.

Alas...

Trump's children were born to privilege but were becoming pariah among the privileged. Trump survived a murder attempt. He feared for his children. Not only could they lose everything... but they could lose EVERYTHING.

Trump was defeated and alone after the second election was stolen from him. He was confused. He was afraid, not for himself but for his children. He was angry at the common folk for not rising up in his defense. The public he fought for was always complaining about the very things he did for them.

Trump turned against us.

Donald J. Trump mastered the Art of the Deal. We, the People are powerless, so his covenant with us is likewise. He made deals with the powerful. He aligned with Swamp creatures to win the third election.

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

--Jesus

Donald John Trump has more in common with the globalists than he does with us. They inhabit the world he lives in. We do not. They are his friends and family. We are strangers. We are the peasants and they are the lords and ladies.

Trump is ordained by God to be our President. Saul was ordained by God to be King of Israel.

"I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now."

--Jesus

God is evil. He loves the world... but love is selfish. He is righteous... but might makes right. The failings of Trump are those of his Father in heaven.

You are made in the image and likeness of God. You are evil accordingly. Your faith and obedience are irrelevant on Judgment Day. Your fate is decided by whether you were compassionate or not. Your sincerity is tested. Rob one man to pay another and your supposed grace shall be the death of you. Give from your own pocket or not at all.

God is aware of his own failings. He sent Jesus to make right what he did wrong... or rather to make good what is otherwise evil. Our reality is the work still in progress.

Pack Rats of the Inside

I read the novel Pack Rats of the Inside by Buddy Tippet. It is surreal survival-horror as a story about human nature... though the humans are anthropomorphic rats.

The misadventures begin in the House, a place of safety where everything needed is strangely provided. The Inside is the world outside the house... and cannot be seen through the windows.

The Pack Rats imagine was is beyond their home. They have story groups that share ideas. They discuss which door to use should they ever venture out.

To leave the House is to never come back. The residents violently keep you out: The Inside is outside and never to be let in. Curiosity gets the best of everyone, sooner or later, and they venture out into the unknown.

The Inside is strange and monsters lurk. Five bosses take perverted interest in Pack Rats... and ravish them in impossible ways. Doom is a fate worse than death since no one dies. Everything is sexual.

What I loved most about the novel was that it is like a nightmare of many dreamers. The protagonists are probably doomed... and I read with grim anticipation. The ending is a big surprise... but makes perfect sense.

Pack Rats of the Inside is meaningful. Its strangeness is clearly about what is normal... and makes sense accordingly. The evil is that of everyone. The monsters are as monstrous as everyone else.. and there is a reason why. The universe is cynical... but not really. Our choices do matter. Ultimately, we decide our own fate. It can be for the better.

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Fake War

In reality, wars are power struggles. They are not good against evil. The guilty are the beneficiaries and the innocent are the victims.

In fiction, wars are either realistic or fantastic. The realism is embellished. The fantasy is usually tempered with acknowledgment of tragedy.

Reality is a fiction written by God. Its characters are alive and have free will but are limited by plot devices meant to assure the intended plot plays out. The author dictates pacing and word count.

Important people do wear plot armor. They cannot die unless a dramatic moment is meant for them or they have outlived their usefulness in the story.

Most people are unimportant characters. They are living props more than anything else. Demographics are more important than individuals... with very few exceptions.

Contrary to what is assumed by the hopeful, God does fancy war. His creation is at its best when people are fighting as groups. He is pleased when people work together, even if to do evil. He enjoys the demonstrations of prowess. He is inspired by the acts of courage.

God is prone to bad ideas. He tends to squander his good ones. His wars are uninspiring. They break people, inside and out.

Nuclear weapons are God's worst idea yet. Sure, they ended World War 2 early. They “kept the peace” for nearly a century. Alas, they negate the relevance of courage and prowess.

The wars of fiction are better than those of history books... unless the history is actually fiction. I am mindful of this as a writer.

Rotating the Crops of a Fertile Imagination

I wrote twelve books in three years. I designed their covers... and the covers for six more. They are the stories of three universes.

White Empires is military science fiction. The setting is an alternate 1930s in the modern day.

Black Death is black comedy action-adventure. The setting is a strange version of our current reality.

Weird World is surreal horror. The setting is a dreamlike version of our world.

Each universe is very distinct... yet teeming with the same themes. They represent different moods of my imagination.

White Empires is my fascination with war, politics and history crafted to be what I find most interesting. Black Death is the sexiness of horror movies as the adventures of antiheroes. Weird World is my interest in dreams, nightmares specifically.

I exhaust an inspiration when I write a book. It regenerates while I focus on something else. Focusing on three universes yet alternating between them allowed me to expand upon ideas without overextending my imagination. It is how I am able to write and illustrate so much so swiftly.

The Kingdom of Heaven Belongs to Such as These

The wicked are obsessed with children... and were from the beginning.

The importance of the world is its plants and animals... not the people born into it. Pets instead of offspring. The innocent are parasites. The young are to blame for the troubles they inherited... and they should provide for those who came before them.

Children are loathsome creatures... yet they should be given a say. They are better in bed than are men or women... in the beds of men.

Children are the favorite food of the wicked witches who eat them. They toil for those who are lazy or greedy. They are the selfless and loyal soldiers of the warmongers who sacrifice them.

Children are humanity as the future. To care for them is to make things better. To neglect them is to forsake the world. To abuse them is to turn them into spooks or monsters.

God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

The Father is the old man of the three. He is the maker of the world and the progenitor of its humanity.

The Son is the man in his prime. He is humanity at its best and inherits everything made.

The Holy Ghost is the child of the three. Unlike the Father, who knows everything, he is innocent. Unlike the Son, who made everything, he has nothing but himself. He can do nothing but be himself.

There is only one sin never to be forgiven. It is not against men or women, whether they are young or old. It is not against plants or animals. It is against the spirit that inspired God to create children.

Make Love, Not Peace

Wars in propaganda and fiction are heroic struggles of good against evil.

I write and illustrate fiction.

WAR is a major theme in my work. It is usually about before the war, though. The belligerents skirmish along their shared borders or in disputed territories. Espionage, proxy wars and or counterinsurgency operations are more common.

A total war is hectic. It typically ends as the end of its loser. I hesitate to the destroy the “evil empires” in my fiction. I want to keep them in play for as long as I can, to flaunt their stylish uniforms, sleek weapons and eccentric personalities. I like them to be available as the villains for the next story... and indefinitely.

Normalcy is disrupted by war. The limited actions before a total war allow for long moments of calm. The characters can still live normal lives. They are humanized accordingly. They are simply war machines as people otherwise.

The struggle of good against evil is the most important theme of my work. The wars themselves are not the struggle, however. The sides have impersonal reasons. The individuals have personal reasons. There are “good guys” and they are the side to win... but the goodness is not their cause. It is the heroes themselves... and sometimes the villains too. Their excellence is the goodness.

My greatest WAR STORY is the Sorcerer books of my White Empires universe. The hero is compassionate yet the villain is righteous. Their struggle is ultimately the love that binds them. The triumph of good against evil is when the villain sacrifices himself.