Red Wolf's Room

  Photo by  Houcine Ncib  on  Unsplash What Are the Key Elements of a Mystery? At its core, a juicy mystery has to have these elements: The Sleuth Setting The Crime/Mystery A Satisfactory Solution The Sleuth The sleuth is the main character who tries to solve the mystery. The mystery can also involve the sleuth. Their background usually connects them to the mystery or even to the killer/culprit. The sleuth has to have a motive that explains why they feel the need to solve the mystery.  Sometimes, the sleuth's motivation is rooted in the fact that they provide a service to clients and they don't have an emotional stake in the crime or mystery. Photo by  Eleanor Styles  on  Unsplash Setting Readers are drawn into well-described and atmospheric settings. Think of Sherlock Holmes walking along the foggy streets of London, Nancy Drew driving around River Heights in blue roadster/convertible, or Thomas Magnum driving around Hawai'i in his red Ferrari. D...

Image source:  https://unsplash.com/photos/3y1zF4hIPCg  I have always been drawn to tragic heroes, conflicted characters, angsty characters and characters that appear to be bad, but have the potential to be good. Some characters spring to mind: Severus Snape , Henry Bolet from the game Nancy Drew #17: Legend of the Crystal Skull ,   Hamlet ,  Dr. Jonathan Willaway from The Fantastic Journey. Even my own creative writing was more often full of angst, anger and sadness. I always thought that it meant that I liked conflict. I know conflict is what drives a story, so I thought nothing more of it.  Until now. Is it chaos I've always been drawn to or both conflict and chaos? Conflict From a story stand-point, there are internal and external conflicts. As you probably know, an internal conflict is when a character struggles with opposing thoughts and emotions. As a Libra, I identify with this and love characters who have an internal struggle. According to Dave Snowde...

Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-man-touching-his-head-3752834/ Some of you may recall that I wrote about the COVID-19 quarantine , lockdown, pandemic, crisis, however you call it, and reflected on it from a writerly perspective. It is now two months later, and I, an introvert, have been feeling incredibly anxious. No, it has nothing to do with writing or the quarantine. It's other things in the real world. Yes, you remember. The world that's all around you while you're deep within your beloved books? I don't exactly excel at adulting (still not sure I like that word) and Life has been getting me down. Life and my own damn fears. While I'm an introvert and I like staying inside, even on sunny days, I'm not entirely okay with being physically alone almost 24/7. Anyways... What Can Help Anxiety? ASMR! I've been exploring the ASMR community on YouTube since the quarantine was announced in March. I discovered ASMR Weekly and that le...

I found this interview with Paul McGann on YouTube (posted by Morgan Creed) and enjoyed the conversation because McGann discusses quality writing and how so many stories on television focus on "crash-bang-wallop" and CGI effects instead of characters.  It got me thinking about how children don't notice the bad visual and audio effects older shows had until they see them again as teenagers or adults.  This allows children to get more enjoyment out of stories.  On the other hand, it's good that we lose that belief when it comes to the scarier (and sometimes gory) elements of stories.  I remember when my parents were watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer .  I was in grade school and I would shield my eyes from the television screen when I had to cross the room because the creatures were horrific.  A decade or so later, I see them and they are laughable because I can see the actor beneath the make-up and rubber.    Although McGann is an actor, he br...

As we already know from Lady Gaga herself, David Bowie is one of her influences.  With her new single "Applause", all I see and hear is David Bowie.  First the picture of her with the smeared clown make-up reminds me of Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" song. Copyright:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pco91kroVgQ Copyright: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiusZZDbIoiQi5p9sEkrp_gI5AzZsYlCDXsQfp4x0cbjDSn-T5Dj7fnTt_t78C3C9AEIgOLmbb_o2L0sT33bcIznJJJISxu7e0kiHbKOqFVfMMHd4owqVI0n9wm9Z9cpkdEImVvsAXtksQ/s320/ashes_bowie.jpg Then in the first stanza of Lady Gaga's song, the intonation of her voice is very much like the intonation Bowie used in his album "Hours."  I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga, but I do like a few of her songs like "Bad Romance" because it was different.  The concept of "Applause" just reminds me of Bowie's song "Fame."  She is using too many Bowie elements so that she is not influ...