Run for Cover

By Rose Benjamin In books and movies, antagonists/villains are often portrayed as hideous beast-like people. Of course, there are exceptions, but writers usually tend to make their villain's appearance match their behavior. This may be to add to the reader/viewer's perception of the antagonist as a villain, having less empathy towards them. Many antagonists are already generally bad people, however, so it shouldn't be necessary to have them look weird. I think it is more likely that villains' appearance is designed to scare a reader or viewer, creating a more immersive experience. Different stories have different reasons and backstories for their villain's appearance. One book published in 2004, The Legend of Holly Claus by Brittney Ryan, tells a story about Santa Claus having a daughter, which then awakens an evil warlock deep below the Earth. This warlock has been sealed inside a prison for a very long time, so it makes sense that he would be ugly. However, the n...

    The SCP Wiki is an expansive public creative writing project housed on  scpwiki.com . The SCP Foundation (the Foundation) is a secretive fictional organization inside the SCP universe which contains thousands of people, objects, and places that have anomalous properties. These range from a cardboard box which origami dragons fly out of to a deer god that can turn any matter into a hexagonal column. The anomalies that the Foundation contains, how they are contained, and the stories linked to them are detailed in Special Containment Procedures, which take up the majority of the content on the wiki. Currently, there are six "series" of these procedures, each with a thousand articles.     If you go into a random article on the wiki, you will probably be overwhelmed by acronyms, numbers, and unfamiliar names. There are a few articles that detail what some of these things mean. Useful links are always provided in articles whenever they're mentioned. Object classes...

It was Wednesday morning, and I was hunched over my laptop, brainstorming about what I could possibly write about for the last blog post of the year. After a lot of staring at a blank Google Doc and thinking, I decided on “A History of Writer’s Block and How to Overcome It.” It seemed dramatic and fitting enough, except then I stumbled upon an article about Graham Greene, an English writer considered to be one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. He suffered a long period of writer’s block, until he started his dream journal. All that mental distress slowly morphed into creative productivity, in the free-flowing form of jotting down his dreams in writing. The idea of dream journaling intrigued me, particularly because I have been recalling my dreams and nightmares especially well these past few weeks, and texting my friends about it seemed to be just another form of dream journaling. I went off on a tangent of articles and when I returned to trying to write about what writer...

 By Ankita Bhargava Some of you may know that in the early 2010's there was a huge boom in stories that featured classic fairy tales (like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, etc.) but with a twist. For example, Cinder, a sci-fi book loosely based on Cinderella, was published in 2012. The School For Good and Evil, about children of famous fairy tales, 2013.  Land of Stories, about children who get transported to a land where fairy tale characters live through a book. Sisters Grimm, about two sisters who keep a town full of amnesiac fairy tale characters safe from the world. Heartless, a prequel to Alice in Wonderland, focusing on the Queen of Hearts, published in 2016. Of course, this trend didn't only affect books; some people might remember Disney's Descendants, about the children of Disney characters (many of whom are retellings of  classic fairy tales themselves). In 2014, the movie Into the Woods was released, also by Disney, based on the Broadway musical, which f...

Tiamat's Wrath Contains spoilers for The Expanse series By - Karl Vu Tiamat's Wrath  is the 8th book in the The Expanse series. A few years after the events of Persepolis Rising , the crew of the Rocinante  has split up once again. Holden is a prisoner of Laconia and Amos is undercover on it. Alex, Bobbie, and Naomi are running missions for the resistance. Elvi Okoye, who was a main character in Cibola Burn , is researching uninhabited systems in the rings which might house protomolecule artifacts. Winston Duarte, leader of Laconia runs a test on the ring gates to discover what is causing some ships to disappear when travelling through the gates. A bomb is detonated in one of the gates leading to an uninhabitable system. Whatever people or things that were controlling the gates have been provoked and cause a neutron star on the other side of a gate to collapse, sending a massive energy burst into ring space. Everything in ring space is destroyed, and Elvi's crew just bare...

By Rose Benjamin Illustrations in books, especially novels, can either be useful visual aid or unnecessary. Sometimes, the charm of the story is how the reader can envision the characters and setting themselves. When a character's physical appearance has little do with the story or the mood of the book, vague verbal descriptions (or none at all) are enough. Other times, however, visuals can help set the mood of the story and give characters personality. When the text already provides extensive description or properties of the environment are written to be vague, illustrations break the intent of the text, providing detail that should have been imagined by the reader. Unnecessarily showing how characters look can also ruin the reader's unique experience and make it more similar to everyone else's. People may have in their heads a certain design for a character, and be set on it. An illustration of said character would ruin their perception of the character, especially if the...

By Andrea Li Pen names, also known as a pseudonym, literary double, or nom de plume, are made-up names adopted by an author that they use on their works in place of their real name.  A simple Google search reveals that a surprising amount of well-known authors use pen names, including J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Lewis Carroll, and Dr. Seuss. Daisy Meadows, from the childhood-favorite and never-ending Rainbow Magic series, is disappointingly a collective pen name for the four different authors that wrote the books (it was too perfect to be true). Then for the opposite effect, you hear the name Rainbow Rowell and are inversely betrayed to hear that Rainbow Rowell, is in fact her real name. The next time you are wondering why famous people all have cool names, the answer is that they might not!  Pen names may seem like a surface level change and simply for aesthetic purposes, but pen names have existed for centuries and have historical significance. In earlier times, when women w...

  By Ankita Bhargava (Spoilers for the first two chapters of The School for Good and Evil) The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani   revolves around two girls named Sophie and Agatha. They live in a small town, where every four years, two children are kidnapped by the School Master. Those children (one good, one evil) later show up in storybooks that mysteriously arrive in the village, after being taken to twin schools of good and evil. Sophie's dream is to be a Good princess, while Agatha is the perfect candidate for and Evil witch. However, when they are finally taken to the school, Sophie is taken to the School for Evil, while Agatha is taken to the School for Good.  I really liked this book because of the way that it immediately introduces the character's personalities, their flaws and their relationships with other characters. In the first page, we learn that Sophie wants to marry a prince and that she is a little conceited. It also introduces Agatha as her po...

  Persepolis Rising Contains minor spoilers for The Expanse series By - Karl Vu Persepolis Rising is the 7th book in The Expanse series, and the start of the Laconia arc in the story. 28 years after the events of Babylon's Ashes .   Since the end of the Free Navy conflict, the Transport Union was founded unify the various factions of people living in the asteroid belt and give the lower class citizens of the belt a purpose. The Transport Union has established itself as a superpower in the Sol system, controlling most trade within the Sol system, and all trade between every ring system. Earth has fully recovered from the Free Navy's attacks, and the Sol system's economy has been re-stabilized. The crew of the Rocinante are contracted by the Transport Union to deal with the people of the Freehold system, who have been violating Transport Union regulations. After the crew finishes up and goes through the Freehold ring to start heading back to Sol, the Laconia system broadcas...

By Rose Benjamin In the popular Sherlock Holmes books, the narrator is Holmes's friend Dr. Watson, who accompanies him on many of his adventures. It is sometimes mentioned in the stories how Watson documents the adventures of his friend, and the two characters occasionally get into arguments about Watson's style of writing them. Watson wants to write the stories to show the observant and clever qualities of his friend, while Holmes would rather they be more educational to the reader. I believe he once commented that he should start documenting some of his adventures himself, in a more educational way. So, what would a story be like if Holmes had written it instead of Watson? For one thing, Holmes tends to be concise with his words, so he would probably go on fewer tangents than Watson tends to do, especially at the beginning of stories. Watson tends to disclose quite a bit of somewhat unnecessary information at the beginning, including, in many instances, the fact that he canno...

By Andrea Li Books are the gateways into discovering fantastical universes and infinite, profound knowledge, making libraries havens of endless opportunity. Rows and rows of tall shelves span the buildings, filled with countless books in any shape or form. Libraries are a safe space in many different ways to many different people. I can remember begging my mom to take me to the library every time one of the books I put on hold was ready for pick up. I used to order so many books that they had an extra basket on the shelf just for us. We had a mandatory trip to the library at twice a week, until I got older and the trips grew more and more sparse, our book bags less and less full.  Historically, libraries served a fundamental role in communities. Libraries contained exclusive knowledge and worked to preserve and protect information. The Library of Alexandria, considered to be the greatest library of the ancient world, guarded thousands of works of literature: all lost in a supposed ...

  By Ankita Bhargava I recently read the first book in the famous Hunger Games trilogy, and something that really stood out to me was how the author (Suzanne Collins) immediately introduces the characters in a way that cements their personalities, even before the main events of the book start. (Warning: Minor spoilers for the first two chapters of the book) The book begins with a scene where Katniss wakes up and introduces us to her sister's cat. He [the cat] hates me. Or at least distrusts me. Even though it was years ago, I think he still remembers how I tried to drown him in a bucket when Prim brought him home. Scrawny kitten, belly swollen with worms, crawling with fleas. The last thing I needed was another mouth to feed. But Prim begged so hard, cried even, I had to let him stay.   This passage immediately establishes that Katniss has no problem with killing animals, that she is pragmatic and thinks of utility first. On a deeper level, this passage also shows that she is ...

Babylon's Ashes Contains minor spoilers for The Expanse series By - Karl Vu   Babylon's Ashes  is book 6 in The Expanse series. Unlike the other entries in this series, this book takes place right after events of the previous book, Nemesis Games . After the crew of the Rocinante  regroup, they head back to Luna (the moon) to receive repairs. The Free Navy has taken control of the Sol ring gate and the slow zone, a weird dimension beyond it that connects all the ring gates. The leader of the Free Navy, Marco Inaros has attached destructive guns to Medina Station and the alien space station in the slow zone. Chrisjen Avasarala, secretary general of the United Nations is trying to handle damage control on Earth after multiple asteroids hit it, war with the Free Navy, and figuring out what happened to the Martian government. WHILE ALL OF THIS IS HAPPENING, Michio Pa, a Free Navy captain, defects from the Free Navy, bringing much needed relief supplies to Earth. After all this...

By Rose Benjamin DISCLAIMER: As the title suggests, this post is not about a book. However, it is about a story similar to one you might find in a book, only it is told in a different way. I am analyzing an aspect of this video game's story the same way I would for a book. (Spoiler warning) The story in the Nintendo game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has several different plot lines going on at the same time. One of these is the story of Master Kohga of the Yiga Clan, his bodyguard and servant Sooga, and Astor, introduced as the "Prophet of Doom" (who is not directly associated with the Yiga clan but is working with them), working to resurrect Calamity Ganon, the main enemy in the story. Master Kohga is known from the 2017 game Breath of the Wild as one of the weaker main enemies, but had little to no character development. In Age of Calamity , however, we learn much more about Kohga, the Yiga clan, and this new character, Sooga. Sooga is introduced right after Link ...

By: Andrea :) If you have read enough books, you will probably start to see patterns with scenarios that only seem to happen to main characters of fictional novels and never in real life. Here are a few that I’ve noticed:  The generation-old secret discovered in an ancient home  You’ve definitely seen this one in a mystery book with a gang of kids as the main characters. They probably found the first clue by accident, on a boring summer’s afternoon or a cozy, snowy winter’s morning. Whether it’s a mysterious map, wrinkled letter, antique object, it was hidden in a secret trapdoor or a messy basement. There’s spiderwebs everywhere, dust covers the shelves, and the house features creaky old wooden floors. This secret has been hidden for generations, and it’s a mystery unsolved — until the main characters find it of course. The kids go and decode the message and follow the clues, to ultimately discover a big secret about the house.  There’s nothing wrong with this cliché, an...

  By Ankita  If you ask someone to think of a cute animal, chances are that it won't be a fish. Read about creatures that need saving, and you'll see pandas, lions, even dolphins. Most animal cruelty laws exclude fish. Why is it that humans don't like fish? The book Eye of the Shoal , by Helen Scales is an amazing book for finding out everything about fish, including their history, food, toxicity and intelligence, as well as many myths that star fish. If you're not interested in a long-winded, technical book about fish, the book is full of interesting facts and stories that are sure to keep even the most disinterested reader entertained. The illustrations don't hurt either- interspersed between every chapter are beautifully done drawings of fish. Each of the sections in this book deal with a different topic- color, toxins, uses, intelligence, to name a few, but the author approaches each one the same way, providing snapshots of just a few of the many fish of the wor...

By Rose Benjamin "You need a good hook," every English teacher says when they assign an essay or piece of writing. This "hook," of course, is referring to the very beginning of the piece, the sentence or paragraph or page that makes the reader become interested in the writing. The hook is the reason you keep reading, is it not? For me, usually not. To me it seems that hooks are either boring or confusing. I have only ever seen two types of beginnings in books. One type gives the context you need for the story. This one, I think, is more common. You must know the type: "It had all started when..." or "Years ago..." or, in one famous case, " Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." This last one might need some explanation. It has been years since I first tried (or rather, was forced to try) to read Harry Potter, but I still remember sitting on the big leat...

Nemesis Games - James S.A. Corey Contains minor spoilers for The Expanse series By - Karl Vu   Nemesis Games  is book 5 in The Expanse series. After the crew of the Rocinante  (our main characters throughout the series) return to the Sol system after the events of book 4, the ship has to be docked for maintenance and repairs. The repairs are expected to take a long time, so each member of the crew except for the captain, James Holden, takes a temporary leave to revisit their past and tie up loose ends. Amos Burton, the ship's mechanic, heads to Earth to pay respects to a loved one that passed away and make sure nothing bad happened to them while he was away. Alex Kamal, the ship's pilot, heads to Mars to talk with his ex-wife and try to make things end on a good note. Naomi Nagata, the ship's engineer, goes to Ceres station after she receives a message from her ex-lover that her son is in trouble. Holden stays behind with the Rocinante to investigate colony ships disappe...

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin ~ Andrea Li  [spoilers!] Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists spans five decades following the lives of the Gold children: Simon, Klara, Daniel, and Varya. It starts in the year 1969 in New York City, where Daniel leads his siblings to see “the woman on Hester Street.” The rishika claims to know the day that anyone will die. One by one, each of the children has their fortune told by the old woman in a cluttered, messy apartment. No matter how hard they try to forget that day, the dates are ingrained into each sibling's mind for the rest of their lives. The narration jumps to 1978 in Simon’s perspective. Their father Saul dies, and it is 16 year old Simon's job to take over the family’s tailoring business. Knowing he has an early death, Simon doesn’t want to waste his life suppressed, being someone he is not. He runs away to San Francisco with Klara, gets a job at club, becomes a ballet dancer, and comes out as gay. A new and unknown disease hits...