Mystic Monday

What Makes a Good Adventure?
Definition of adventure (taken from dictionary.com):
1. an exciting or very unusual experience.
2. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure.
3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.
4. a commercial or financial speculation of any kind; venture.

Considering this, indicates most romance novels I've read contained adventure as a major ingredient. No, not all of them have been futuristic, sci-fi, fantasy or paranormal. Many of them have been historical romances.

Yep, many historical romances tell tales where the characters go through adventures. From Mary Jo Putney to Nora Roberts to Amanda Quick - adventure seems to be a favorite story additive, especially when you consider the huge popularity of certain movies:
Twilight quad
Star Wars (IV, V, VI)
Indiana Jones
The Mummy
Pirates of the Caribbean
Harry Potter Saga

These are some of the biggest films out there, and they've been enjoyed by viewers of all ages.

What do they have to do with anything? Despite the fact that they're paranormal, fantasy and/or sci-fi, the adventure is what makes them popular. Yes, they add to the escapism, transport you to another place or another time, but that's not all they do. These movies take the reader on a fantastic adventure with danger and excitement around every corner.

What these movies do is no different from what Mary Jo Putney did in her story, Silk and Secrets. I don't have the book in front of my because I read it quite a bit ago, but I remember that I liked it, I remember that the main character, Ross, went on an adventure, why this time, I can't remember. I just know that this adventure takes place in foreign, dangerous lands and there are some very well-done action scenes with desert tribes.

Ice Blue, a contemporary novel by Anne Stuart, takes place in the US (California, I think, but I can't remember exactly where) and overseas, sort of. Basically, the two main characters are enmeshed in a dangerous web and need to survive. Sure, you could say it's "survival," but isn't that just a fancy name for adventure?

No matter the setting, adventure is adventure, and that seems to be what I seek. However, I've come to expect certain things from regular adventure stories. Story staples I guess you could call them. The best adventure stories I read usually have the following with them:
1. Map of the area the story takes place in, to help the reader orient themselves and get a feel for the terrain.
2. Glossary of terms and/or people - not required, but when there are a lot of different terms whose definitions are integral to understanding the story or a lot people to keep straight, a list can be essential and prevents the need for repeating certain information, unless it's absolutely necessary.

For example, this latest book I'm reading, Servant of a Dark God by John D. Brown, both references are handy because there are a lot of different types of races to keep straight, and the relationships from one race to the next can be complex. Plus, the territory isn't something you're automatically familiar with, so the map helps to orient the reader within the setting.

Not all adventure stories have these two things, but they do a superb job of creating the setting with narrative and dialogue as well as developing the characters through dialogue and actions.

That being said, every time I read an adventure story - historical, contemporary, futuristic, etc. - if there isn't a map and the characters travel to multiple locations during the story, I always wish there was a map so you could get an idea of where these different locations are relative to each other. I don't know, I guess I just like to look at maps, know where the characters are going because, generally speaking, I'm going along for the ride and I always like to know where I am! :)

Besides a map and list of terms/people, something else extremely important to an adventure story is character development. Sure, yeah, I know that most of you say this is a must for any good story, but I say a requirement for an adventure story.

Why is character development more important for an adventure story over others?

Well, as with stories in other genres, as lame as the adventure itself might be, the characters will be carrying the story, but that's not the only reason. Given any adventure, there are lulls in action - down times - for the characters while they wait for the next part of the adventure to begin.

Well-defined characters will always present interesting situations during those "down" times. For example, in a romance novel, the down time is usually when the first (or expected) sexual/sensual connection will occur. But that's not usually the case with non-romance adventure stories. Down time does not have that kind of fallback to move the story along. Sometimes, the chapter ends when the character goes to sleep and picks back up when they're awake or a scene break occurs and the reader gets a glimpse into something happening in another area of world.

However, resting points for the characters are great way to inject chaos and mayhem. One of the characters may run into an old friend who happens to be able to supply information that seems unnecessary at the time. Or, bump into someone, making them angry. Of course there's also one of my favorite ploys - a bounty hunter or someone the character is trying to avoid shows up, forcing some funny or dangerous situations.

These ploys are not unlike some of the situations in Amanda Quick novels. In one of them (sorry, can't remember the name), the main characters (man and woman) find themselves trapped in a brothel they were searching by the villain(s) of the story, so the pair hides in a prostitute's room, but realize that bad guy(s) isn't leaving, so they need to change the plan a bit - they pay the prostitute for some of the clothes she has, dressing the high society lady as a brothel wench, effectively disguising her enough to get her out of harm's way for the moment.

Injecting chaos and mayhem is important to most stories because it adds some humor, but it also complicates matters and makes the end goal that much harder to reach. Adventure stories need obstacles and side missions to stretch out and interfere with the task at hand to add complexity and depth to the story line.

However, these scenes don't work if the character isn't well-defined. The last thing an adventure reader wants to do is question why a character does what he or she does. By this I mean that the character's actions must match their personality. Do they apologize to the guy they bump into...stare them down into silence...ignore them?

Of course, what the character does here will reflect the personality painted from the beginning.

If a character is quick to believe something about someone or believe information from them, readers want to really be able to understand why. If a character doesn't confront another character about something, they want to know why, and that reason must make total sense to the reader and jive with what the reader knows of the character or the reader may not continue reading.

I'm getting sleepy now, so off to nap!

Mystic Monday

Cleaning, Injuries and Cabin Fever

Okay, so it's not officially "winter" yet, but that's just a technicality as far as I'm concerned. It's bad enough that I've been taken out of circulation due to migraines - which are finally getting better, even though loud annoying sounds and voices can still trigger them - but now that I'm finally on the mend, it snows!

That's right, not only are we cold up here in the north, but we've got snow too! It doesn't matter that I've lived here all my life, I'm just never ready when that dreaded snow finally arrives!

All that aside, it's time to switch gears from my "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" approach for the summer to my "write-it-down-on-a-list" approach for the winter.

Why?

Well, if I don't I won't get anything done and find all kinds of excuses to play games on the computer. Okay, mainly just one game, Farm Town. I still like that game, but have no idea why.

Lists help me turn house work, home repairs, and other stuff into a game...sort of. I put everything I need to do in a day on a list - meals, showering, getting dressed, etc - and I add other things that I need to make sure get done within the week on that list too. I may not get everything done on any given day, so I make sure to add it to the list for the next day. The overall goal is to not have too many things getting passed from day to day or from week to week, especially with the holidays approaching.

I had been doing a decent job keeping up with the cleaning and even tackling some long overdue projects. However, my ankle sprain really sidelined things good. For two months I was hobbling around and in too much pain to even have a mindset to focus on anything but resting and getting better.

Okay, did that. Then, we went away and I had the bright idea I'd give up caffeine. It wasn't too much later that I got sidelined with migraines caused by a nasty sinus infection.

The migraines took me out for over a month. It wasn't until I started taking this amoxicillin that I began to feel any better. While I'm getting better, I'm not there yet.

However, there's one problem - cabin fever has already begun to set in. It doesn't matter how much we do around here - go to Bucks games, hang out with friends, etc - I always have this need to go south. I feel inexorably pulled to warmer weather. I want to go to Florida or Arizona for the winter. Plus, I just want to "get outta Dodge" for awhile.

Usually, we get away enough during the summer to feed that need through at least January. However, the economy being what it is, we didn't do as much traveling as we would otherwise. My gypsy blood is getting restless very early this year, and cleaning isn't going to cut it. I can get this entire place clean and organized and it won't kill the need to actually get in the car and drive south. I would just get in the car and go, except I don't like traveling alone. It's much more fun with my husband, and he has ties.

What about you? Do you feel pulled to the south and warmer weather when it gets cold, or do you not mind the cold and the snow?

Do the holiday activities keep you busy enough to ignore that pull? Is reading a book enough to quell that need for escape? What happens when a book doesn't work? What do you do?

If not, how do you handle it?

Mystic Monday

Facebook Games, Addiction and Cleaning

I bet you're wondering what all these things have to do with each other, or maybe you're not. Maybe you're one of the many, like me, who found themselves addicted to one of the many Facebook application games and can't seem to stop playing them.

Okay, I get it, some of you are shaking your head and laughing wondering how in the world a person could get addicted to a simple game that basically comes down to pointing and clicking. Well, it's not much difference than pushing a few buttons on a controller.

What games and why?

Well, I've noticed that "growing" games seem to be quite popular such as Farm Town, Farmville and Fishville. It's not just about the growing thing, it's about the graphics and it's about what you can grow. It's neat to be able to plant seeds for pineapples, blueberries, eggplants, peppers and all kinds of other stuff and it's neat to be able to go back at different points in time and see the progression of the plants. What's also nice is that they aren't real so even those who can't grow anything, not even the simplest plant, can grow something here. It even encourages some planting habits, but then I've always had that desire, just never the ground to do it in and I think that's the same for many others.

Besides planting and farm animals, games like Fishville, let's users grow and take care of a variety of different kinds of fish that many of us would never be able to attempt to take care of because of the expense of the fish and difficulty of the care they require. This let's you do it without the risk of actually killing a real fish.

Sure, in these games fish can die if not feed in the proper amount of time and crops can go to waste if they aren't harvested in the allotted time, in the virtual world of farming, no one will starve if your crops go to waste and the market price of the food doesn't change that I've noticed.

The games may be basic, but there's something else that hasn't been mentioned yet - the social aspect. In playing these games, you're playing with people from all over the globe and have the ability to talk to other people who you wouldn't have met otherwise. It's very similar to the way some of the yahoo chat groups work.

It's easy to get tied to these games because there are regular "commitments" that need to be met. If you play Pirates, you may have a pet that needs regular attention, so you log on, even if it is to "feed" and "pet" your pet. Of course, while you're there, it's easy to just play for awhile. Then, you find yourself going on to the next thing, whether it's poker, farkle, pillow fights or drinks. There's so many to choose from.

Okay, I'm busy enough with my reading, reviewing, blogging, writing and Bucks games that it's hard for anyone to see where I have time to clean, much less play games. And this leads me to my next topic: How to balance a facebook game addiction and still be productive with the rest of your life.

The answer is surprisingly simple: lists.

What!? How can that possibly work?

Well, you don't just make a list of things you know you need to get done, but you make a list of everything you have to do in a day, no matter how small it is, and then cross it off when you've completed your task.

Sounds simple, it is. I started my first list last week Monday and I spent all week testing it out. I have everything on there from taking my pills, to taking a shower, sleep and everything I do in between.

I use WORD so that I can keep track of how many chores stay on the list after I add them and how long it takes me to get to them after I've added them. I then use "Track Changes" to "cross" each item I complete off the list. When I post this blog, I will get to cross one more item off of my "To Do" list. The point of this is that each time I cross something off and see that blue line through it, I want to see what else I can do on my list so I can cross off something else.

You can count how many "items" you've crossed off the list at the end of each day and keep your own set of stats if you choose. Either way you roll it, once you start to make a game out of seeing how much you can get off your list, you won't be able to stop all that easily because you'll be spurred on by that growing sense of accomplishment.

Putting things on black and white like this (especially on a computer where there's no paper mess), your level of productivity becomes apparent. For some it may be an eye opener as to how little they really do each day or shine a light on just how much they really do "do" in a day. Some might find themselves feeling guilty with a need to do more to get things off their lists while others might stare at the list and realize why they feel exhausted all the time now have a desire to slow down a little to catch their breath.

Okay, we've talked about Facebook game addiction and lists, but how do you balance the two? Well, if you're at home and you have time to play on facebook, while your crops are growing, you've got time to wash dishes, do laundry, clean the bathroom or other areas of the house, or anything else you've been meaning to do - and who says you have to clean the whole thing in one day? If you only have time to clean the mirror, clean the mirror, and the toilet the next day and the sink the next, then the shower and the floor the day after that. See, that's the thing about large tasks like cleaning the "bathroom" or "bedroom" - there are many parts of a bathroom or bedroom that need to be cleaned, break them down into smaller tasks so it feels more doable and less daunting. Don't stress yourself out by saying you have to clean the whole room in one day. Of course, once you start, you might want to clean the whole thing, but if you have time to get only one thing done, then choose which is the most important or pressing and get that done first.

Same goes for other larger tasks, break them down into smaller, manageable steps that feel less daunting. So what if it takes you twice as long to finish something bigger, but at least you're working on it as opposed to just leaving it until you've got the time to do the whole thing.

The other bonus this has? It can help you change some of your bad habits into better ones while getting you a cleaner house. If you keep up with things and stop letting them get out of control, your life will be a lot less stressful. That's one of the overall side effects of working from lists.

My list has about 30 things on it so far, but I expect some things will "crop up" later.

What about you? How many items would be on your list for today, and how many of them would you cross off before the day is done?