#typeaadventures

Many thanks to @typeaadventures for letting me use Fallen Oak and Legends of Lazlor as references for this post. Now, a lot of people will say they like a particular game, show, movie, song, book, or whatever (there really needs to be a good collective word for those things) precisely because they’re bad. I’ve never really understood that line of thought; maybe it’s because I have absurd standards for things but, if I like something, I find it’s because there are parts of it I think are good.

Hence why I bring up Type A’s 80,000 words of “regret”, Legends of Lazlor, as well as Fallen Oak. No one can deny her technique has only improved between the two stories; there’s a more coherent sense of place and movement in Fallen Oak and the descriptions are more vivid, not to mention less laden with errors.

But I’m mainly here to talk about Legends of Lazlor. I’m sure a lot of people are thinking “Man, this is so bad it’s good”. Granted, Type A’s experience of the time definitely shows and she has her reasons for referring to it with the words she does. But I’d argue it has its good, captivating traits. @brynprocrastinates and myself found plenty of amusement in it. I would never presume to know bryn’s reasons for liking something but I can at least talk for myself.

Legends of Lazlor is paced very quickly. The characters are loud and vibrant. The action is exaggerated and dynamic. I consider all these positive traits for the writing. It enthrals the reader’s attention but in a way that joyously invigorates it rather than deadens it into addiction. It’s immensely amusing when the villain smashes a pot in clear sight of the royal guards because he is extremely petty and angry at the princess, who says “The L in your name must stand for LIAR!”.  It has all the excitement and entertainment value of a Saturday Morning Cartoon that we’d watch as kids.

I suspect this is where the notion of it being “bad” comes from. A lot of people are stuck with the sentiment of wanting to “grow up”, which inevitably leads to the discarding of “childish” things. It’s no secret that film producers will add profanity or something to avoid a G rating that’s unmarketable to older audiences. Personally speaking (and sorry for the anecdotal evidence), I avoided playing Kingdom Hearts as a kid because I thought Disney was “kiddy” and I thought myself grown up at the weathered age of 12.

I do think Legends of Lazlor is poor quality and in dire need of an editor if Type A has any aspirations whatsoever to get it out into the light of day for all to say. But I don’t think the points I mentioned above are faults. In fact, I think they’re strengths to be enjoyed. Hamminess is enjoyable, like the milkshake bit from There Will Be Blood and anything Brian Blessed dips his hands into. Stories are less of a sliding scale and more of sweets bowl with M&Ms, Skittles, and coloured rocks in it; rather than classify an entire one by good or bad, look at the components individually.

Omg, bird-kids. My weakness since reading Maximum Ride xD

2. Favorite part of writing.

Favorite part: getting up at 6:00 in the morning when the rest of the world is still asleep and listening to the silence in the air, then making a cup of coffee and going to my desk to begin. Some days the words come and some days they don’t, but my favorite part will always be the beginning of the morning when there is nothing but me and the keyboard. 

32. Easiest character to write.

Oh I really like this question. Probably the easiest character for me to write recently was a character named Johnnie. He was probably so easy to write because he was very vivid in my mind but also because he had pretty shitty intentions and his sense of right and wrong were very fuddled up. So, he was easy to write because his actions were guided by exactly what he wanted and I knew exactly what he wanted. 

37.   Most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you.

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” - On Writing, Stephen King

“you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” -  On Writing, Stephen King

(As mentioned previously, On Writing was incredibly influential for me and if you haven’t yet read I recommend doing so and purchasing a copy so you can mark it up and make it yours)

50. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had. 

They were GREAT books and my entire cast dynamic may-or-may not have been inspired by the Flock ;)

JPatterson is always a comfort to me because my chapters are really short compared to a lot of writers, and I always remember his chapters sometimes being like a couple words long. And if he can do it, I can.

@knightedwriter replied to the same post...

I always thought of Maximum Ride when we talked about Hans, glad that was intentional :D

#okay #but sirens using sign language is literally the coolest idea? #like I've never even thought about it before but it makes PERFECT sense #bryn you're a genius #when is the beta reading for this one ? ;)

Merpeople, (especially sirens), using sign language is one of my favorite things in the entire world, like literally, no joke. 

(I’m super tempted to do a series of novels after Pearl that will just be random books about a handful of merpeople from entirely different steampunk universes but they’ll all use sign language and have adorable adventures and it’ll be beautiful.)

Lol, I like "WaWam" As an abbreviation. Rolls of the tongue :)

@theemdash replied to your post “Fall Quarter Update!”

Okay, first of all, #goals, and second of all, I, too, like the WaWam abbreviation! :)

WaWam it is! 

I'm sorry, but this is cannon now and you can't take it from me ;)