The Hidden Truth

This is not a chapter of the story, but an added bonus. Too many people claim I have a talent or some special gift for writing and I heavily disagree with this opinion. So, to prove you wrong, I am going to let you into my mind of how I came up with Mirmo’s past, of the last four chapters and tricks I use.

In order to even start the tale, I need to get into the mind of Mirmo. It is very important that when you come up with a main character that the character has some strong, well defined and used features. They can hyper a lot, or angry, or not very emotional, but you need to portray this before you go into their past. It also helps a lot if the character has several features, which makes them unpredictable to a degree and keeps the reader interested. Use a character that is based off someone you know or someone you wish you knew. Mirmo is not based off anyone I know, but more like the master I would like. Make sure the character isn’t perfect so the character can have a problem to deal with.

So, first I made myself think who Mirmo is. He is a serious, yet laid back man, who does not get angered easily, but can get emotional. He reserved around others that he doesn’t know every well. He’s very polite and formal with his talk, even around Karen, but he is willing to curse in a moment of short lived anger. He can make mistakes, and even had trouble admitting them. So the first question to ask is how would he tell a tale to Karen? Well, he would never use contractions and he would focus mostly on actions, but add in emotions, because he values emotions. He trys to leave out his opinions, or if he includes them, he notes them. He’s not very good about details, but that’s something I purposely did to keep the chapters from getting too long. Yet, if you think about it, most people never go much into details when telling a story.

Now I can think in Mirmo’s mind and logic, but I need to think up a reason for him to tell the story. It’s been chapter and chapters, or a few months in story time, since Karen got sick and it would be a good time to tell a story to a bored and sick person. Also, there was only one chapter explaining how Mirmo got to be a Jedi, but nothing about the twelve years of being a Jedi, so there is plenty of action to tell. Truth be told, I didn’t mean for this tale to go on for three chapters, but I usually end up over planning and going into more detail.

Let’s think about the general Star Wars plot. The Emperor, in the movies, did wipe out most of the Jedi and if you read the extended universe (EU) books, they make a point to tell how a few Jedi did survive, but the Jedi had a very hard time doing so. When Luke caused the Empire to fall, the galaxy had enough on their hands to not have time to try to find any alive Jedi or care for any Force sensitives. In the real world of Earth, it is easy to see that anyone who is considered weird or unusual, gets ignored, picked on, or taken advantaged. So, I imagine that even without having to lookout for people trying to kill you because you have some power no one will talk about, you still don’t want to advertise yourself. So, trying to start an order of Jedi would be very hard indeed, as you can see for Mirmo.

Using this notion means I have an easy outline to write about: Mirmo struggling to gain respect and support for who he is. Writing about a struggle is easy. It’s a problem. It has to be thought out, plans or ideas formed, ideas to be tested and improved upon, results to be observed, and feelings about the whole process to explain. A good story will have several struggles or problems to work on all going on at the same time.

It helps me that I run a site and very much know how hard it is to start a project like starting an order, and how you have to learn to advertise to the right people, in the right manner. I made a lot of mistakes and used these mistakes to write in my story. I’ve also helped a lot of other site managers get their site up and have found a common trend that people want to boldly and rudely advertise their site. So, I used that trend with Mirmo. Another tip, if you haven’t figured out already is to use examples from your life, even if they don’t directly relate to the story. It makes writing a lot easier, for you can put details that help readers relate.

There were two ways I could of told the forth chapter in the mini tale. I could have focused on just one more tale, or explain a whole bunch of short little missions Mirmo went on. I was actually thinking of doing mostly one tale and then mentioning a few ones, but I decided I could save these other tales for another time, plus I hadn’t thought up any more stories to tell.

Now, most of you have told me that you hate cliff hangers, but what you don’t know is I hate them far more than you do. It means I have to put up with your complaints and then keep the energy that was building up, stable or reach the climax. Climaxes aren’t easy things to write if you want to impress your readers. The climax is when you want to put the most detail, the most emotion, and the most action in that part if you want to fully engage your readers. You need to be really careful about tying up all the ends, and chose words carefully to get the most impact. You also can’t have a very long climax, or the readers will get impatient. Then, after the climax, you can’t let yourself get lazy and have a quick ending. You need to leave the readers with a completed feeling, but the ending doesn’t have to be happy. I messed up a little bit, by trying to rush the completed feeling because I didn’t want to think anymore. That was a sign I should have taken a break and not tried to do in one sitting. But, this is only a draft and not meant to get published.

The last thing that a writer needs to think about is the wording. Thinking up the problem he solution, the character, the climax and ending isn’t enough to tell a good tale. You need to think what to say. You don’t need to be the best speller. That’s why there is word. If spelling was my blocker, which is was for a number of years, I would have never written this story. I have found dictionary.com to be good and synonyms tool to be my life saver. My speaking vocabulary isn’t great, but my reading vocabulary makes up for that lost. If I can think up the word and give it my shot at spelling the word, usually I’ll get it. A broad vocabulary is what made my story good. I have learned to not use the same word twice in one sentence if I can help it. I’ve learned to not use “it”, but to define what it is very clearly. Grammar is important. Learn to use commas. Don’t repeat the same type of sentence over and over. An example of a type of sentence is “She walked in, sat down, and said” Twist the sentence around like “As entered the room, she looked for a chair to explain her thoughts.” Try to stay away from using “and” a lot.

Details are everything. Always question what the character is thinking, doing, feeling, wearing, seeing, and all other senses. Don’t just say she walked into the kitchen and sat down and said – Explain what the kitchen looked like, what was in the kitchen, was something cooking, why did she come into the kitchen, who was in the kitchen and was there anything noticeable about the other person. What did she feel when she walked in and how did she emotional react to the new person. What thoughts were going through her mind? You need to answer all these things and more when you write about a simple action. You are painting a picture that only you can see. Don’t use vague words like “a lot, sort of, thing, a while, or object” These words are a sign of laziness on the writer’s part and won’t show a clear picture. The readers have to use your words to see the picture, so it is important to add as much detail as possible.

For now, that’s all I have to say about writing a chapter or a story. I hope this helps you understand the “secret” behind my success. Thanks for reading this and enjoy the rest of the story.