Musing On the Muse

So far we have talked about Milieu or Setting and Inquiry or Investigation in storytelling, this time we'll dive into Character. That is what the "c" in MICE stands for. This is an absolutely critical attribute to most stories. Characters are the vehicle in which worlds are revealed, plot is moved, conflict is resolved or escalated and lessons are learned. Basically, without a character arc in your story you are paddling in your canoe around and around in circles. You can build an amazing and/or complex and intriguing setting, but without characters to interact or be awestruck by that setting it will be like watching paint dry. you are pretty sure something is happening, but it's not very engaging. Sometimes, downright boring. You also need to have a character to really delve into any mysteries or ask the questions as a reader surrogate to figure out your who-dunit. Basically, there is no story without at least some character component. Quite a while back I actually h...

 As mentioned in the prior edition of this creative blog, MICE is an acronym for a creative process/tool first proposed by Orson Scott Card that has been propagated and endorsed by Mary Robinette Kowal. The tool breaks down storytelling into four categories of content within your tale. Milieu or Environment, Inquiry or Investigation, Character (That one needs no alternative answer) and Event or Occurrence. The MICE theory actually has a specific mathematical formula which you can research on your own because I don't tend to get that precise when I am creating. It will even tell you how many words you should spend on each element. I use MICE sort of like the Pirate Code, "they're more like guidelines" to keep me on the right track. In this blog we will talk about the I portion of MICE: Inquiry. We have all experienced an Inquiry based story. Fans of Columbo, Jessica Fletcher, Monk, Hercule Poirot, or Miss Marple or as far back as Sherlock Holmes know the formula for an...

 It's 5:15 in the morning and I can't sleep. It's not that I have a new story in my head that needs to be told. That does often happen at 5AM, but less so these days. My unrest is due to the realization that I am quite late in my most recent blog entry. A few weeks ago, I embarked on this creative focused relaunch and so far all I have said is what not to do. While that may be instructive, it is looking back at mistakes rather than planning for what you want to create. So today it is time to talk about a concept coined by the famous Orson Scott Card and then championed by the author Mary Robinette Kowal called "The MICE Quotient". It is not about little furry animals that infest you house in the winter; MICE is an acronym for Milieu, Inquiry, Character and Event. Each of these four items are ways you can approach a creative endeavor, mostly narrative fiction, or fiction that tells a story. I recently watched a lecture on MICE give by Mary Robinette Kowal on You Tu...

So it is time to dive back into the writing I have been putting off for such a long time. Nearly a decade ago, I self published a novelette on Amazon and Smashwords called The Stolen Throne . A few people even bought it. I thought it was pretty good. I wrote this as the first part of a four part fantasy story that tells of the overthrow of the heartless monarch of Avalon and the events and allies that are recruited to redeem the throne and restore his line with a more just successor. It was conceived as foundational to a series of present day urban fantasy novels. I saw this as my Silmarillion . Yeah, grandiose and arrogant, I know.  I managed to get the first one written and it clocked in at around 10,000 words. I started by creating a history where the Elves from Hy Brasil considered the indigenous populations of what would eventually become the British Isles as their subjects. I conceived of a war of conquest lead by a grieving young Elven king bent of avenging his parents death...

We've all been in a spot where we look back on what we're doing and wonder how we've been able to spin our wheels so hard and for so long. Many of us do this at New Year's when we have a calendar year of regrets to dust off and summarily dismiss as passed. I'm actually going to get a jump on that by doing it during the week before Thanksgiving here in New England. Rather than regrets i will change it up and do a full reboot of this blog by reflecting on what I am thankful for. Firstly, I am thankful for you, my dearest readers, who have stuck with me through a couple different aborted starts on this blogging thing. I had started with film related blogs and then something about life from my somewhat cynical middle aged perspective and some of you actually read them. For that I am grateful.  Next, I am thankful for having an idea that has been rolling around in my head for nearly twenty years  and has not given up on getting my attention. Now, I may finally take the p...