The Future of Storytelling
“Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.” - Don Delillo
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Random Dream (Seven)
In the future, humanity relies more on genetically modified humans and eventually creating humans from scratch (i.e. test tube babies). Fast forward 200 years in the future and humanity is pretty much a new species, but with greater flaws. Humanity's Godlike ambitions has left severely exaggerated humanlike weaknesses. These weaknesses are known as the 'seven human flaws', which mirror the seven deadly sins. They are: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. Although small at first, the effect has been amplified through the years. The government hastely tries to correct the problem by using machines that can counter thought processes. The problem is that some people have more than one of the seven flaws, and the more they have, ironically, make them even less human. It also appears someone is aggravating the process resulting in even more exaggerated flaws. One person is thought to be behind, who has every flaw and wants to bring the world down. I, in the dream, have the flaw Wrath and use a machine known as a Soother to correct my problem. I break in to a government facility where they are running tests on people. They have lists of everyone and their flaws. They also have future dates of extermination if rehabilitation doesn't work. They also have notes of humans infertility due to no natural born humans for centuries. Humans will die off soon unless they can reverse the infertility or somehow rework the genetic makeup so the flaws disappear. Either way, most of the human population is dead.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Random Writings, 500 word exercise - Code Name: ICE (Part 2)
“It’s not that complicated of a
system,” he said calmly. “One world up and one world down. That’s it. We don’t
know why that’s the way it works, but that’s what it is.”
Valentine continued to stare at
the drawing. It had a circle labeled “brown” with an arrow pointed to another
circle labeled “red.” Then, from the red circle was an arrow drawn to another
circle labeled “green” which also had in parentheses “(Earth).”
“So all these circles up there
are planets?” Valentine asked. “Is that red one Mars?”
The short man that had been
talking nearly fell over with anger.
“Have you not been listening to
a word I’ve said?” He asked pointing at Valentine in a threatening manner. “Yes,
they’re planets, and no they’re not in this dimension. I can’t point in the sky
where they are because they’re not in this universe. How many times do I have
to go over this with you? Kat, take over for me. I’m done trying to get through
this human’s thick skull.”
“Yes, Captain Masuda,” Kat said
obediently. “Try to keep up, Jack. We’re only going to explain this once more
before you just have to learn as you go.”
He hated his name Jack. He
wished people would never use it. Agent or Valentine was much more mysterious
and that’s what he liked to be. He decided to force all the thoughts to the
back of his mind so he could pay attention to Kat.
“Our universe is like a room
being lit by a single light source,” she began. “It illuminates everything, but
is stopped from continuing on by the walls, floor, and ceiling. These give our
universe a physical boundary. There is another universe right next to ours. It
has a room and a light source as well, but is completely separate from ours.
But because it is right next to ours, it shares one of our walls. Now imagine
someone takes a drill and creates a small hole in the wall. Now the light from
our room shines into the other room, and the light from the other room shines
into our room. This has effectively created a way to travel between universes.
This is what happens. We have a parallel world, sitting in the exact same
location as Earth, orbiting a Sun just like ours, but is inhabited by a much
different species than human. These different species can be civilized, but
most of the time their monsters, out for personal gain. We try our best to
contain these interdimensional rifts that pop up throughout the world. Does
that make any more sense?”
Valentine thought for a moment.
“So is there a room that you
drill holes to test your theory?” Valentine asked.
She looked at him dumbfounded. “That
was an analogy Jack. An analogy. I was speaking figuratively. Are you seriously
asking if there’s a room wh-“
“I was kidding,” Valentine
said. “Don’t freak out. I think I understand. There are multiple universes
Friday, August 28, 2015
Random Writings, 1000 word exercise - Code Name: ICE (Part 1)
The breeze blew gently through
the dark alley. It was a strange breeze, colder than air should have been at
that time of year. Strange things had been happening for the last couple of
months so this was just one more thing out of the ordinary.
He looked down the well-lit
street. Cars were parked close enough together that running between them might
pose a problem. He had a feeling that whoever was hiding in the alley didn’t
want to be found, let alone caught.
He had lost track of his
partner during the chase, so he wasn’t sure whether he should wait or act. His
code was to always act first, never be acted upon first. If someone makes a
decision for him, it takes away his freedom to choose his own mistakes. Without
that power of free choice, a person would never learn from the mistakes made,
but rather the mistakes created by someone else’s decisions. He wasn’t about to
let that happen.
He breathed a heavy sigh and peered
around the corner into the alley again. He couldn’t make out that much besides
a dumpster and a couple doors. Both doors were more than likely firmly shut at
this early in the morning. That meant there was only one way in and out. It was
silent except for a soft humming sound. That was odd. No sound at all. He
returned his back to the wall and listened for any type of sound. Nothing.
He placed his finger in his ear
and wiggled it around. He could hear that sound it made. He didn’t want to make
too much noise, but he got the feeling all the sound around him was being
drowned out by something. That, or the air that acts as a medium for sound was
refusing to cooperate. That sounded crazy.
He couldn’t waste any more
time. He had to act. He already had his gun in his hand, but added a flashlight
to the other hand and turned it on. He turned the corner quickly and his
powerful light barely illuminated the blackness of the alley.
“DCPD, I need you to step out
from wherever yo-“
He saw the creature before any
sound was made, but it was too late. It was travelling in slow motion toward
him, cutting through the icy air. Every step it took, a crackle of ice sheered
through the pavement. The walls were being ripped apart by crevices, filled
with liquid water than almost instantly freezed, drive a bigger gap into the
already fragile walls. Everything seemed on the verge of death.
In this instant of surrealism,
his finger managed to find the trigger 6 times before the beast was on him. The
force hit him like a truck. The creature clawed at him as he flew away, ripping
his chest open. The pain should have been enough to force a scream, but he felt
nothing. The blood seemed to freeze instantly as it flowed from the body.
The night seemed to freeze as
he flew in midair. He let out what was probably his last breath. Did this creature have the ability to freeze
time as well as his surrounding? Or was it the moment before death when time
seems to slow down? And in what world do monsters like this exist? This must be
a dream.
He hit the icy sidewalk and
slid conveniently under a car. The impact sent him into a state of unconsciousness
and he thought the frozen darkness had permanently surrounded him.
It hurts everywhere. Everywhere
hurts.
“Agent Morrison, he appears to
be coming out of it.”
“Partner! You’re finally awake!”
He felt a sharp pain in his
shoulder, sharper than the rest of his body. He hadn’t opened his eyes yet, but
he assumed that Agent Morrison had punched him in the arm.
“Rise and shine. It’s time to
get out of bed,” he said loudly. “Kidding, of course. You took quite a beating.
Doc says you might not even remember what happened judging from the seriousness
of your concussion.”
He finally opened his eyes and
let the world slowly spin in to focus. The room was quite dark so either it was
night or the windows were covered. Either way, he wasn’t in the mood to
actually check.
After the world stopped
spinning for the most part, he looked at his partner, Agent Morrison. He was
older, but not old enough to interfere with his performance in the field. He
looked like any typical FBI agent, clean cut face and parted brown hair. He had
a stern face that didn’t match his personality in the least. Independent of who
he was talking to, he always had a joke ready.
“Agent Valentine?” He said
annoyed. He grabbed Valentine by the shoulders and shook him violently.
“Arrrrgh.” Agent Valentine
said.
“Stop that at once!” A female voice
said from the doorway. Valentine imagined it was the Nurse, but couldn’t
actually see her behind Morrison’s body. “He’s badly injured and needs some
rest.”
“I understand Doc, but I need
to talk to him about the events from last week.”
“Last week?” Valentine said
incredulously. He tried to sit up, but was met with pain and Morrison’s firm
grip. “How long have I been out?”
“Only a few days. No big deal.”
Morrison said nonchalantly. “But we need to talk about what happened. Was it a
gang? Did the guy surprise you? How’d you manage to fire your gun 6 times and
hit nothing? I mean, not even Agent Erikson is that bad, and he’s pretty awful.”
Agent Morrison snickered to
himself. This was the cue that you too should also snicker, or laugh, or smile.
If you didn’t Morrison became upset because he knows everything he says is hilarious.
“No, it was some 10 foot tall
blue spikey dinosaur monster! It was crazy! I’ve never seen anything like it.
I-“
Valentine was about to continue
when he noticed a man in black clothing
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Random Writings, 500 word exercise - Code Name: Kevin (Part 1)
“Is this real?”
“Oh, you newbies always ask the
most intriguing questions,” He said. It was obvious that he was trying to hide
his amusement and failing terribly. “It depends on your definition of real.”
Kevin eyed the swirling sphere
in front of him. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. It looked like a
giant glass sphere, but didn’t seem to accurately show what was behind it. Instead
of a modest Northwest American town, it was a forest. Not just any forest, the
trees actually appeared to be shrinking.
“What is going on? What is
this?” Kevin asked incredulously.
“Really, you’ve seen me walk through
walls and stop time and you’re fascinated by this ol’ thing?” He asked charmingly.
“I guess I should explain since this will be your greatest, and probably only
tool for the next decade or so.”
“Decade?” Kevin blurted out. “What
about high school? What about my life? What about-“
“Where is your high school?” He
countered. “Where is your city for that matter? Where is your life? Until we
figure out what is going on you have to be a Viewer. We need to focus on this,
and then focus on getting your life back, understood?”
Kevin nodded. His
eyes were still fixated on the flawless orb floating in front of him. Every
swirl seemed to jump to a different place in the planet. Was this some sort of teleporter?
“So, back to your original,
well one of your original questions,” He started. “This ball of infinite wonder
is called the ball of infinite wonder. Really? No, I was kidding. I do that a
lot. This ball is called a Fildenstein-Ikakus Spherical Loop. That’s its proper
name. It won’t be invented for another 10,000 years or so. I call mine Frank.”
He looked at Kevin and must
have noticed his bewildered expression because he coughed and started to talk
again like nothing was out of the ordinary.
“Anyway, this is every Viewers
most important tool. It’s how you bend the rules of the universe. You asked if
this was real. I say it depends on your definition of reality. This orb
effectively combines the real plane and the imaginary plane in to two
overlapping solutions, two superimposed realities.”
“Now you’ve really lost me,”
Kevin said.
“Ok, I guess you don’t really
need to know how it works, just that it does work. Tell me Kevin, are you
looking to be an engineer when you grow up?”
“Well, actually-“
“Ignore that question. It was
rhetorical. Now, when you enter your FISL (pronounced Fizzle ‘cause it just
sounds cooler), you become instantly available in two locations. One location
is where you were at the moment you entered the FISL, and the other location is
the time and place of your ‘jump.’ Jumps are limited by Viewer, not by FISL.
So, this way to can view the entirety of the universe. We have rules, obviously,
but-”
“What the heck is going on!”
Kevin yelled. “Where is
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Book Ideas
Resolve - Many people do not understand quantum mechanics, yet think they understand time. The future is a probability function. The present is being observed and thus has a collapsed waved function resulting in one answer...one possibility. The past is known yet unknown. Can it be changed. Is it changing right now? How would we even know? Would a change in the past result in an immediate change in the future or does it ripple? These are questions that a young man has to ask himself as he starts on a journey to become a master of time and space.
ICE - Like Men In Black except inter dimensional aliens instead of extraterrestrial aliens. Also, the dims rio a are directional. Though there may be infinite dimensions, only two are accessible due to limitations in the energy present in every universe. People of earth are capable of accessing energy/powers directly from the dimension to combat invading aliens. Aliens also have energy/powers of their own. Energy levels that originate in different dimensions have a signature colo to show where that person on alien has come from and where they belong. Once in another dimension you have access to your original dimension where you came from, and a new one. Aliens seek to conquer all dimensions in this linear progression and earth (and this dimension) lies smack dab in the middle of it.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Random Dream (The Road to Anarchy)
This was a crazy dream that involved a lot of build up. First, I was partnered with two insane people. One was an older man, maybe 40-50 years old. The other one was a man (or woman? I didn't see this one very much). I think this person I didn't see was the one doing the small details. It involved a defibrillator that hid a small nuclear bomb. The plan involved a gathering that definitely had the president there and lots of other high-ranking officials. One of them was poisoned earlier that would incapacitate him/her and they would use a defibrillator. The defibrillator activated the bomb and took out half the city. I watched the explosion from a restaurant at the top of skyscraper in the same city, but far enough away that the blast didn't pose a threat. It must have been some clean bomb that wouldn't have given me radiation poisoning. I was eating food with the older man and he was laughing and every one freaking out and trying to get out of the building. And then though occurred to me that this was a really bad thing I just did. And I was trying to save people and the dream ended.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Random Dream (Zombies and Bunnies)
I had a dream about my friend Sarah. It was the zombie apocalypse (like all my awesome dreams). I saved her and her daughter (4 or 5-year-old...also, she doesn't have a daughter) from these slavers. Apparently there are bad guys in the zombie apocalypse too. So then we had to run from the zombies as well. We escaped from them into a tunnel and found a hideout of surviving humans. I had an old style revolver and said I was going to shoot them all if they didn't let us in (6 guards or so). Then the leader came out and asked me what my favorite color was. I said green. He said we're cool and he said we could come in. I then told my friend that my gun was empty anyway. When we got in we found out it was a bunny reserve! It had bunnies of all shapes and sizes and colors and her daughter was going around kissing every one of them. Every time she kissed one, it got bigger. And then I woke up. (I assume the sequel to this dream would be her daughter leads the giant bunnies into battle against the zombies...just a hunch)