Posts Tagged ‘ideas’

Characters Taking Over The Story

Posted: July 22, 2013 in Novel, Reflections, Writing
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I belong to a group of suspense and thriller writers on Facebook, and occasionally the subject has come up in discussion on characters taking over the plot of the story and acting in defiance to the author’s expectations for the story. Until recently, I had no idea what that meant, though I may or may not have said that I did. With my stories, especially my novels, I wrote an outline, then I wrote the story. The characters mostly followed the outline, and any changes, such as certain areas of the climax of Reborn City, I felt were my own creative decision.

It wasn’t until this morning, waiting for the bus to work, standing in the pouring rain, that I had a little epiphany of the subject. I remembered when I first started writing the outline for Reborn City, back in high school when publishing a book was still just a very far-away dream. Originally I’d planned for bad-boy Rip to be the star of the show, and Zahara Bakur to be the deuterogamist (secondary protagonist for those of you who don’t know that term). But as I started outlining the novel, I saw that Zahara was taking up more of my attention and more of the story than Rip was. Consequently as time went by, Zahara went from deuterogamist to co-protagonist, and by the end of the outline, she’d gone to leading lady, with Rip being the deuterogamist.

Reborn City

And you know what? I thought the novel benefited from that. Sure, the Hydra leaders have a plethora of problems, and having Zahara around doesn’t exactly make them easier. But I think they benefit in some ways from Zahara, and she’s the one who goes through the biggest transformation of all. Heck, I’m only two chapters into the second book of the series (three if I can stay on track for tonight), and I’ve already noticed that she has a confidence that wasn’t present in the first book.

Sure enough, my characters are having more of a say in how the story turns out than I am. If anything, Zahara’s dictating her story to me, rather than I’m coming up with it. It’s a weird feeling, but it’s also kind of fun and exciting, and I get to experience my characters’ growths, decisions, and tribulations with them. And isn’t following a character through all that just the reason we pick up books in the first place and read them?

I’m looking forward to see what happens from here on out. I’m also hoping to see if I’ll write any more stories where the characters do more of the dictating than I do. If I do, it’ll probably be sometime soon, especially since I’m working on two novels at once!

The Quiet Game: My First Review

Posted: July 18, 2013 in Living and Life, Review, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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Between finishing the last post and getting out of the shower, I realized that there wasn’t enough time to watch a movie before bed (another time, perhaps). Which is why I decided to write this post, featuring my first review of The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. (If you’re interested in reading but don’t have the link, click here). It comes from one of my beta readers, and it was posted on her Facebook status. And by the way, this happens to be my mother.

Yes, I know your family is supposed to love everything you write, even if you have your character choking a baby (please don’t ever write anything as sick as that). But my mom’s a little different. For starters, my mother was the one who got me into Anne Rice and Stephen King. Yes, she did. Originally a fan of the two authors, she’s the one who lent me Interview with the Vampire and told me to read Stephen King when I’d read several Anne Rice books. She’s also lent me other books and turned me onto other writers like Dean Koontz and Dan Brown. She also introduced me to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files, shows which had a profound influence on me and my writing.

So even though she’s family and even though my mother doesn’t get the same sort of thrills I do from horror movies (I feel delightfully terrified while she’s just terrified), she’s definitely helped in molding me into the writer I am. Which was why I was very delighted when I called her and she told me she was about one short story into the book. And later when I logged onto Facebook, I was greeted with my first review. What did Rabbi Wendy Warren Ungar have to say? Why this:

“Reading Rami’s new book of short stories that was just published, (shameless promotion here), and I’ve discovered that my son is yet another author I can’t read at night!”

If you haven’t noticed, the subtitle on this blog is “Scared yet? My job here is done.” Well folks, my job here is done. Because I’ve always dreamed of giving someone a fright with my writing, and hearing that my mother can’t read my work at night gives me a small sense of accomplishment. I like knowing that I can deliver the goods when I say my stories are scary, and I like knowing I’m getting the sort of reactions I’d hoped for.

So Mom, thanks for reviewing and shamelessly promoting and all that. It means a lot to me and I hope to make even better stories as time goes on.

I also hope to post more reviews for The Quiet Game as they come. I know some friends have said they’ll write a review when they’re done, so I’m sure those reviews will show up in the next couple of weeks. Until then I hope you enjoy reading The Quiet Game as much as I enjoyed writing it, putting it together, and sending it out to you.

Good night everybody!

The Quiet Game Launch Party

Posted: July 17, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, short story, Writing
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Welcome! Come one and all to the launch party for The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. Seeing as I can’t actually afford a launch party, this post has just become Ohio’s most happening place right now. We have so much for you, but first, why not have a drink?

Expensive champagne all the way from Google. And have some hors d’oeuvres:

And before we get to the entertainment portion of the party, I’d just like to thank everyone for coming. Your support has meant the world to me, and without it I seriously doubt any of us would be reading The Quiet Game over the next couple of weeks. A special shout-out goes to my family, a spectacular “BOO!” to my beta-readers and their excellent feedback, and a cauldron full of weird goop for all those who contributed in some way to the creation of The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones.

Now I know you want to scroll down and download or order a copy of the book. I know, I know. But before you do, there’s some wonderful entertainment here for you. First, we have a special performance by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. They’ll be telling us why I should shop at the thrift store more often.


Thank you, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Macklemore. I can’t tell which one is which, truth be told. Now, before we bring out our next guest performers out, I’d just like to say a few words on how The Quiet Game came to be. During the Fall 2012 semester at Ohio State, I started toying with the idea of writing a collection of short stories. I had several ideas for short stories on my tack board, and the critiquing of Reborn City was taking longer than I thought it would. So after the semester ended, I shrugged and said “Why not?” That later lead to five really creepy short stories being written over the course of a month, with one of them being rewritten several times over. Then there was some artwork to create, a book trailer, a copyright to get, but in the end it led to The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones.

And you know what? It was worth it!

Our next performance is from the group who asks, “Is there a more logical way this movie could’ve ended?” Please welcome the folks from HISHEdotcom and their new video, “How Man of Steel Should Have Ended.”


Boy, was that something else! Now I know you all want to get back to your day jobs, so I won’t keep you much longer. I just would like to say thank you, and I hope you will indulge me by watching the book trailer for The Quiet Game one more time.

Now without further ado, here is The Quiet Game: Five Tale To Chill Your Bones! First we have the Amazon page! Very cool, right? And for a limited time, you can save twenty-seven cents when you buy from Amazon now! That means instead of paying $5.50, you pay $5.23 (you’re on your own for shipping and handling).

And right after it, we have the link for that wonderful e-book sharing website. Yes, it’s the Smashwords link! A lovely page, in a lovely shade of blue.

Well, thank you all for coming and I hope you enjoy reading The Quiet Game. I hope you’ll also tell your friends and family about it and maybe write a review or two about it (every review helps). I would just like to close this party by having Mr. Macklemore and Mr. Lewis come back on stage. Which one are you guys again? Oh, what does it matter? Party hard!

Slender Man And Why I Like Him

Posted: July 17, 2013 in ideas, Reflections, Scary Stuff
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See what I see? It’s what the Slender Man is supposed to look like.

Lately I’ve been fascinated with the Slender Man. Okay, not so much lately. More like for a long while now. It’s only been recently that I’ve been doubly psyched with the Slender Man, enough to write a post about him anyway. I blame that on the fact that I saw a really awesome and totally freaky indie movie on Slender Man, proving that indie films can actually be terrifying.

Of course, those of you who are not horror aficionados are probably asking yourself, “What the heck is this guy talking about?” Well if you haven’t gone to Wikipedia yet, allow me to explain. Slender Man is an example of modern-day folklore. To be more specific, it started out as an Internet meme. A guy created some photos on his computer that showed a tall man in a suit with long limbs and no features on his face standing really creepily in the background. The photos came along with excerpts from what was supposed to be longer stories of people who have had experiences with the Slender Man. More people created photos showing the Slender Man, and that led to fanfic-like stories on the Internet, artwork, cosplay, and eventually a video game called Slender. The game was a hit, which led to more Slender Man-based work, including a YouTube series or two and some indie movies, one of which I saw this evening on my computer, and more on their way.

Check out this totally awesome trailer for an upcoming adaptation called Entity:


I’m a little dubious on whether or not including a possible government connection is a good idea, but I’m psyched to see this movie when it comes out.

What I really like about this particular Internet meme is not just its popularity, but how powerful it’s become, to the point that it’s become public consciousness like Bloody Mary or the man with the hook who escaped from the mental facility. Heck, some people are even starting to believe that the Slender Man is real, or at least a very old urban legend. That and the consistency of the tales qualify the Slender Man as folklore (though technically any story out there and often religious objects can qualify as folklore). And the tales are pretty consistent throughout: the Slender Man is some sort of spirit or demon that hides in the woods and spirits away people, usually children, and then kills them or devours them or their souls. Sometimes he or his victims leave notes around warning of him.. And occasionally he’ll manifest with multiple tentacle-like arms on his back. Cuh-reepy!

Of course the best part is that the mythos leaves so much to be filled in, and since it started as an Internet meme, Slender Man is in the public domain.  Which means anyone can make their own version of the Slender Man story and add, subtract, or spin it any way they want. Of course they have to keep certain aspects so as not to upset the fanbase, but it’s still so awesome. I even have an idea for a novel that’ll utilize Slender Man, or a version of him.

And like I was saying, the Slender Man is an example of a really viral meme and its impact on the global age. Something as small as a couple of doctored photos can multiply and become part of the public consciousness, the subject of games, online TV series, and even movies. Imagine what others could create doing the same process, with the same idea of a supernatural being utilized. Perhaps a ghostly lover found at lakes. Or maybe something involving will-o-the-wisps. Or perhaps a photo showing Elvis in modern-day New York eating a hot dog!

Okay, that last one is a bit of a stretch, but you get the idea, right? It’s the creepy version of Gangnam Style, and there’s potential for much more to materialize. And I can’t wait to see what the people of the world will create.

Do you have a take on Slender Man and/or viral memes from the Internet?

Why Gore Is Ruining The Horror Movie Industry

Posted: July 9, 2013 in Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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I’m never sure how popular these posts analyzing the horror industry (books or movies) are. But I am a horror writer, so I’m going to take a moment out of your day to let you know that gore is ruining the horror movies we’re seeing these days, and I hope you don’t roll your eyes and say this guy is either loony or one of those angry, self-righteous preachers who feels he knows everything and anyone who disagrees is an idiot who can’t grasp genius.

I’m more the former than the latter, which is very much like Sheldon Cooper.

Horror movies have one aim: to scare people. And they’ve done that in several ways. Usually it involved a monster or a ghost. Rarely did it involve excess amounts of blood, organs and severed limbs that were separated from the bodies in all manner of freaky ways (never had a problem with pushing the boundaries of sexuality, though). The movies that did employ those three I just listed were usually slasher films, and those were very difficult to pull successfully off to begin with. And when they did succeed, it usually led to many low-budget sequels.

But in 2004 a little movie known as Saw came out. And while its sequels could definitely be called slashers, the original was much more than that, a horror, a mystery, and a thriller all wrapped up into one neat little horror film. And if you haven’t seen the film, believe me, it was gory for its time. Bloody bodies and stumps and God knows what else. And it was a box office smash, breaking all sorts of records and winning all sorts of rewards. And so were its sequels, which always raked in several times their very low budgets. And ever since, more horror films have been utilizing gore in order to scare people silly.

Just one problem: gore is a turn-off. Studies show that people are disgusted by bloody scenes, such as car crash scenes or scenes from massacres. So why would you make it the main feature of your horror flick, if it just turns people off? I’m not sure. I really don’t understand the logic of Hollywood executives and filmmakers, except that it involves a modicum of profit-seeking. But I’ve seen too many movies that have used too much gore, Evil Dead being the most obvious example in my mind. And they’ve done badly when they could’ve been better.

Luckily for Hollywood, there are ways to still use gore without being excessive. Ever watch the movie Carrie? For those of you who haven’t seen the movie or read the book (and if you haven’t I feel so sorry for you), a telekinetic girl gets pranked at prom and gets covered in blood. There’s the gore. Now imagine that girl causing havoc with her powers, all while covered in blood and still wearing her burgundy dress. That’s scary, right? But not because of the gore. No. It’s the girl with the telekinetic powers going on a rampage! But the blood all over her does add to the terror.

Adds to the terror. Adds.

And it’s the same with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Say what you want about that movie, but with the hotel’s twisting and turning layout, chairs disappearing between shots, and the changing of carpet patterns within seconds serves to create a sense of unreality, a sense that you can’t grasp the situation, and that’s pretty damn scary in itself. The bloody elevator and the man with the split head just adds to it all.

So if you’re going to use gore, use it as a spice to your true object of terror, a frosting on the cake, an accentuation (I’m running out of adjectives, but you get the point, right?). Using gore to add to the terror is okay, but as a main thrill it just doesn’t work as often as it should.

Of course, I’d prefer that gore not used at all. Take a look at movies such as Paranormal Activity, the original Amityville Horror, or The Haunting in Connecticut, which use no gore at all, but rely on surprise, build-up of suspense, and a spooky sense of things-not-as-they-seem. Add in some special effects, and it’s scary as hell. Little gore, and it’s barely noticeable when you see all the other stuff that’s going on.

And they are the scariest movies I’ve ever seen. Freaks me out! And that’s not easy.

So Hollywood, if you’re reading this, please don’t think I’m trying to tell you how to do your jobs. But I do think that a smaller emphasis on the gore and more use of actual creepy angles, a sense of unreality, and just being scary would do some amazing things for your movies. After all, the upcoming movie The Conjuring looks like it doesn’t use any gore at all, and it’s already expected to do really well, if the reviews and the trailers are anything to go by.

Just a suggestion.

Individual Pages For My Books

Posted: July 7, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Writing
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I was reading a post on Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors the other day and one of the authors, Ruth Nordin, suggested that if I were to have a page for my books, I should have individual pages for my books, or at least individual books for each series and each stand alone novel. I decided that was a good idea, so I went ahead and created three new pages, one for short story collections, one for the Reborn City series, and one for Snake.

I think this was a very good idea, and I’m glad I did it. The page for short story collections leaves me a chance to put in more entries if I ever put out another collection of short stories (and there’s always a possibility of that, believe me), and so does the page for Reborn City and its sequels. And as for the page for Snake, I only wrote a fuller description for the entry, but I think it’s more enticing than what I had before, distinguishes the Snake as a protagonist and lets people know what the conflict is without giving too much away. I rather like it.

If you want to read the pages, please scroll up and look at the entries next to Home and About Me. They should be there.

An Idea From A Dream

Posted: July 6, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, Writing
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It’s just amazing what you can find on Google, isn’t it?

Last night I went to bed sometime between half-past eleven and midnight, had some trouble falling asleep, had a nightmare or two, needed a drink of water, finally got to sleep, and then I had the wackiest dream. When I woke up, it was past ten and I was late for synagogue. But it was okay. You know why? That dream I had, the wacky one? It ended up being the basis for an awesome novel idea that I refined throughout the day.

The dream involved me and a bunch of wizards in a cabin. I was a young apprentice, and my own master was telling me to get a certain spell book for a spell that would recreate the ten plagues. In the dream, certain phrases kept going through my mind–Divinity of Israel, Vashta Nerada, etc–and in that weird dreamy way they were all connected and relevant and made sense.

When I woke up, I thought it was a weird dream to have and it was going to make me late for synagogue, but I later held onto the details of the dream and figured they were a gift from The Big Guy Upstairs, a little something to metaphorically chew on for the Sabbath. And I did manage to get to the synagogue for the second half of the Torah service. Heck, I managed to catch a few ideas for the novel from the rabbi’s sermon. If that’s not God doing me another favor, I have no idea what is!

And this is my 500th post. What an interesting thing to write about for it. Gotta give the Big Guy His props when they’re due.

Now I’m going to try and finish a book I started yesterday before I go to bed. Tomorrow I’m going to be doing so much writing I won’t know what to do with myself. Wish me luck!

A Conundrum With Resurrection

Posted: July 1, 2013 in short story, Writing
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No, this post is not about me wondering if there’s going to be an end of the world and I’m going to be raised from the dead. I’ve thought enough about it already and concluded that until the Messiah comes, it’s just not worth thinking about.

Yesterday I got an email from a friend of mine who was looking at a short story of mine. The story, titled “Resurrection”, is about a man who is brought back to life from the dead through a cryogenic process, and something of supernatural origin messes it up. It’s nearly five-thousand words, which makes it a very long short story, or a very long short story in the eyes of most magazines. I was hoping I’d get some good feedback from my friend, which I did, but I did not expect this to appear in the response:

“It is very good. Actually, it could be expanded into either a novella, a full blown book or even a screenplay.”

That was the first time I ever used the center-alignment option on this blog. I don’t know why I’ve never done that before.

But that’s beside the point. What my friend said got me thinking, and since then I haven’t been able to stop thinking! I mean, I could see this story being expanded in some form or another, though I don’t think a novella or a full-blown novel is in the works right now, with all that’s going on. A screenplay might work, and heck, other horror writers have written screenplays before, Stephen King being chief among them.

Of course, there’s a couple of problems: I don’t know anything about writing screenplays! And to top that off, I’m still a relatively unknown writer with some short story publishing to my name, a collection coming out in sixteen days, and a novel in November. The way Hollywood is right now, what are the chances my screenplay will make it to the lunch table, let alone to the big screen? And considering how much Hollywood hacks slash, rewrite, and ultimately murder screenplays, would I really want them to do that to my own work?

I’m not so sure.

So for now I’m going to put “Resurrection” on a shelf until I know what to do with it. I may edit it and try to publish it in a magazine. Or maybe I’ll expand it into a different format of creative literature. Or maybe I’ll even turn it into a screenplay. Or maybe I’ll save it for another collection of short stories. Who knows?

Until then, I think I’ll wait and see. Time usually tells, and I’m sure time will tell me the right answer, once I’m ready for it.

Still, I wouldn’t mind your thoughts and opinions on the subject, if you’re willing to give them to me.

“The Street Urchin’s Gift”: Published!

Posted: June 24, 2013 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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It seems that my life just keeps getting better all the time, and God willing, it’ll stay that way. Today I logged into my email and saw that The Writing Disorder, an online magazine for fiction, poetry, and essays, among other things, had notified authors that their summer issue had been launched. Guess what? My short story is in the summer issue!

“The Street Urchin’s Gift” is a short story told from the point-of-view of a homeless boy named Fletch living in Victorian England. At the time I was writing the story, I was going for stories that involved hard choices, such as leave your family or survive a war (that was Ripple‘s theme, for the most part). Because at the time I was obsessed with this manga taking place in Victorian London, I set the story there and tried to think up a very difficult choice for my main character. And as the story shows, I think I did it well enough that the story got published.

I’d like to thank The Writing Disorder for publishing my short story and I wish them the best of luck. They were so kind to me and fun to work with and I’m considering sending another short story to them.

If you would like to check out their website, click here. For my short story, follow this link.

Writing The Video Rage Outline

Posted: June 19, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Reflections, Writing
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With RC there weren’t many photos I could use. Not so with it’s sequel!

Recently, I read the novel Misery for the first time. At a certain point, Annie Wilkes says that when dealing with a cliffhanger, the resolution has to be “realistic” and “fair”, but she also wants this to apply to all literature. What does she mean? Well, if you’re on a plane and it’s about to crash, pull a parachute under the chair. Somewhat fair, pretty realistic. If a character with several broken bones suddenly is able to get a doctor and do experimental blood transfusions in the 19th century, then it’s not fair or realistic at all.

Paul Sheldon had a hell of a time getting the balance right, especially since he was being threatened with missing limbs if he didn’t deliver. And although I’m not in any danger of losing any limbs, I feel the pressure to make things realistic and fair with Video Rage, the sequel to Reborn City. My philosophy with sequels is that you have to build up, do something better than the first book. To do that though, I find myself having to think really hard about how I plot the story as I write the outline, and I’m wondering if what I’m writing down for each chapter is any good.

I’ve often preached about sequels and how people just don’t know how to make good ones, but I have to admit that it’s hard. Most of the action of VR takes place on the road, and besides normal conflict, there’s also the conflict of relationships which I’m trying to insert. And when I add certain elements–a hunting cabin to hide in, a Lakota village with a hospital–I wonder if people will buy this or if they’ll call BS. I’d have someone critique the outline, but there’s only one person in the world besides me who’s even read RC, and I don’t want to spoil it for him by having him critique the outline.

Well, this is why I advise taking a break after writing the outline to creatively recharge those batteries. Perhaps after the outline’s first draft, I’ll be able to figure out if things need to be changed. However at this point I don’t intend on changing much…except possibly making one of the antagonists much more involved with the fighting instead of using drones and soldiers.

Wish me luck. I’ve got more work to do in the morning, where I’ll try to finish this outline. Honestly, VR could potentially be longer than RC, the way I’ve been writing the outline.

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