What Stories Would You Like To See On "The A.L.I.C.E. Files"?

As regular readers know, I recently launched a new audio drama YouTube channel in partnership with Alice Liddell called The A.L.I.C.E. Files! While the overarching story of this channel is about the mysterious Carroll Institute and the new "Alice" that's been hired as a witness cataloger, that overarching narrative is punctuated by the stories she finds in the files themselves. These stories come from my and Alice's previously published works, and we're also drawing on public domain books and collections, as well as writing a few fresh stories to add to the collection.

My question for you all this week is a simple one. What stories would you like to see turn up on Alice's desk in Workstation 17?

We have a lot of things to draw on, after all...

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more! And, of course, check me out on Blue Sky, since that's what we're talking about today!

We're Taking Requests Now (Because They Take Time To Make)

When we sat down to start this channel, I had a handful of dramatized story videos already in the bag. I've been updating them with fresh intros and outros so they add to the channel's overarching story, but these were the seeds of the project that we've been steadily planting over the past month and change.

It started with my story Dead Man's Bluff, which came out of my short story collection The Rejects:

And then we moved on to an audio rendition of my 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, which was one of the most popular fiction posts in my Vocal.media archive:

And there are a handful of future episodes that we're recording fresh intros for. These include:

- 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, Cthulhu Mythos Edition

- 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, SCP Edition

- 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, Warhammer 40K Edition

- Suffer The Children (also from my collection The Rejects)

- An untitled story from the Exalted tabletop RPG

- A dramatization of my short story Devil's Night, from the Pathfinder adventure path Hell's Rebels

However, once we've finished with those episodes, we'll have a wide open field regarding what shows up on Alice's desk next. And that's why I wanted to take a moment to ask my readers what stories you'd like to see us tackle!

And I'm asking now because we still have some lead time. Because full audio dramas that last between 20 and 30 minutes aren't something we can just make in a single week. We have to check the scripts, corral the voice actors, edit, create the soundscape, create the video... it's a whole process! So we need to start slotting in our new audio dramas now to be sure they're ready in a month or two!

With that said, some of the options available include:

- More published short stories taken from books like The Rejects, or possibly from SNAFU: A Collection of Military Horror, and other anthologies Alice and myself have appeared in over the years.

- Samples of full books, like my novels Old Soldiers or Marked Territory, or some of Alice's books like the period vampire novel Succumb to Darkness or her mermaid fantasy novel Love of The Sea.

- Stories taken from public domain works, such as The King in Yellow, or the works of writers like Lovecraft, Poe, and other classic authors.

- Creepy pastas, such as the stairs in the woods, ritual games, and other instances that might come to the Institute's attention.

- Fresh stories that have never appeared anywhere else before, written just for the channel!

Whatever your vote is, please go to The A.L.I.C.E. Files Trailer, and in the comments leave your vote for the kinds of stories you'd like to see going forward! Please mention that this is in response to the Literary Mercenary post, so that we can keep track of how many folks are actually voting.

Also, if you want to help ensure that we have the momentum to make the episodes you're requesting, please subscribe to The A.L.I.C.E. Files, watch the episodes that are already up (it's only about an hour and a half of stories so far, so it's easy to binge), leave comments, and tell your friends about us! We're still growing, and doing our best to get this thing monetized so we can keep the wheels turning, and telling stories for all of you to listen to!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (where many dramatized versions of my stories can be heard for free)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list.

Writing Is About The Process, Not The Output

Normally when I talk about writing I'm concerned with the technical aspects of storytelling, and trying to help folks overcome common pitfalls. However, with the advent of plagiarism software, I think there is something that really needs to be addressed. Something that is so intrinsic to making any kind of art that we didn't even need to put it into words before now... but this is the world we live in.

In short, the output you generate is worthless if it doesn't have a soul. What makes a story, a drawing, or a sculpture worthwhile is that it reflects the process the creator went through. It has to be the result of action, creativity, blood, sweat, and tears. If all you did was turn the assignment over to a computer to execute on your behalf then not only did you not make something, but you are poorer because you didn't even have the experience of making something.

That is what makes art valuable, and what lends it a unique flavor; the fact that it is made by a human creator who did their best to execute this piece to the fullest extent of their ability.

You can't trust the process if you aren't even going through it!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

Making Art Is About Having An Experience

I want to take a moment to reference a piece of fiction from a place even bleaker than our world, but which at least realized it should ban any form of Abominable Intelligence. In the grim darkness of Warhammer 40K, the Emperor of Mankind genetically engineered several sons who were colossal in size, strength, and power, considered demigods forged from science and warp-touched sorcery. One of these was Fulgrim, a being who sought perfection in himself, and in all things.

Fulgrim once entered a competition to carve a statue against a baseline human sculptor. Like something out of a Greek myth, the human artist couldn't hope to defeat Fulgrim... but somehow he did. Because while Fulgrim executed a technically perfect piece of art, there was no denying that the other man had carved something that truly made a connection with the observer. There was a soul to his art that people could read into, gaze upon, and which made one feel something. When they looked upon Fulgrim's statue, all they saw was a flawless depiction of a subject, but it seemed empty. Hollow. It had no soul, and no story to tell. Even Fulgrim himself, enraged and with his pride bleeding, acknowledged that the human had made a better piece of art than he had... he just couldn't understand why.

How... how do they do it!?

There are dozens of examples of fiction talking about the process of creating art, and what a quintessentially human experience it is (Asimov had a lot to say on the subject, too). However, I find myself thinking of this example from a very silly dark space opera series about big manly men having violent punch-ups, because this one snapshot encapsulates so much about the fundamental misunderstanding so many people have about creating art. Any art.

People who are defending AI, who get super stoked about being able to push a button and have it make things for them, are Fulgrim. They have the ability to effortlessly create an output, that even if it is technically perfect (generative AI isn't, but we'll set that aside for now) it is empty, soulless, and the eye just slides right off of it. He is so fixated on why his flawless sculpture has less regard, and less beauty, than the flawed creation made by someone who lacks his enhanced gifts, and his unusual abilities. How is this art made by a mere mortal better than his?

And we can have the whole debate about using words like soul to describe a piece of art, or arguing over whether something digitally painted is less "real" than something made in a physical medium... but that gets into higher, philosophical hair splitting. However, generative AI creates an uncanny valley effect. Even if it gets the hands right, and even if it gets the proper number of teeth, just looking at it we feel there is something off about it. It feels like an imitation of something in a way that triggers our brains that it isn't safe, and it isn't right. It's off-putting, and once you recognize it for what it is, it's ugly in a way that no crayon drawing can match, because at least those were made with genuine effort.

Don't worry, this applies to text-heads, too.

Everything I said above about sculptures and images? It applies to books, too.

Because even if you get lucky, and an AI manages to write a story that doesn't have massive grammatical errors, constantly forgets who the cast of characters is, and has plot twists that spiral in on themselves in a way that makes no sense, it feels off to read. Reading something written by generative AI feels like hearing something in the Apalachian wilderness call out in a voice that sounds human, but which clearly isn't. You don't know if it's the intonation, the accent, or just that no living person speaks like that, but you know it isn't right... and it creates that same uncanny feeling.

Roll Up Your Sleeves, And Get Stuck In!

Art is about doing. Yes, at the end of the day, the output is going to matter if you want to be able to sell your art and make a living as a creator. But it takes years to hone your skills, and to be able to make art with your own mind, your own hands, and your own skills. Whether you're writing, drawing, making videos, or sculpting, that end result is not the end-all-be-all. It is the result of your journey, and the experience you had getting there. It is the result of your process.

You cannot skip the process just because you don't want to do the hard work, and then claim this uncanny fey creation is your work. You didn't make it. You just pushed a button, and made a pact with another creature, who did the work for you.

It's sort of like people who download video games that play themselves without any input from you. Or people who just pay to win a game without actually playing, skipping straight to the end scene. Those people didn't have the experience of playing the game, didn't develop the skill necessary to achieve that victory, and as such they didn't actually do anything. The experience, even when it's hard and frustrating, is the goddamn point of it all!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Using The 5 Man Band In Your Stories

When your story has a main character, they are referred to as the protagonist of your story. A deuteragonist (a word a lot of us haven't heard a lot) is a term referring to a character who is secondary in a story. Sort of like how a superhero's sidekick is still an important character who contributes to the unfolding drama, but they aren't the one who's really in the spotlight. And for a lot of us, this is the traditional setup for our stories. We have our main character, a handful of support characters, the antagonists, and we're ready to roll!

But what about when you have multiple protagonists in a single story? Well, since they're all equally involved in the story, and they all have their own unique motivations and contributions, this is where you end up with a story about a team of individuals rather than any one person.

This is where we get into the 5 Man Band, which is a setup that I highly recommend you use for any team-based story you plan to tell.

Stay with me, and this will all make sense.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

Who Makes Up The Five Man Band?

If you're a fan of tabletop RPGs (or my sister blog, Improved Initiative), then you're likely already familiar with the idea of the 5 Man Band, as it's used in the construction of the "ideal" adventuring party. And if you read a lot of military fiction, the 5 Man Band is your basic fireteam of 4, with a medic thrown in as number 5 in a lot of stories. However, generally speaking, the roles filled in a 5 Man Band include:

- The Leader: The team leader, generally the center of the team

- The Lancer: The foil to the Leader, and often a rival or antagonistic friend or colleague

- The Heart: The emotional center of the team. Often a medic or healer of some variety.

- The Smart Guy: The brains of the operation, often a tech savant, wizard, etc.

- The Big Guy: The tank, the Big Guy is strong, tough, or sometimes both.

This setup is extremely useful for stories with multiple protagonists, and especially when you need to rapidly differentiate them from each other even if there's a great deal of similarities between them. For example, consider Kill Team Errant, featured in my Warhammer 40K story Blackest Knights, which you should read if you haven't.

Our team features:

- Cadmus: Leader

- Phobos: Lancer

- Chiron: Heart

- Daedalus: Smart Guy

- Garm: Big Guy

Now, every member of the Kill Team is a space marine wearing the same, blank, gray armor. However, there are a variety of clues to let the audience know which member of the team is meant to fill which role, and to slot everyone in place in short order (this is a short story, after all, and I don't have infinite word count). If you're looking for easy, quick-fix solutions for your own stories, consider some of the following:

Names

Every member of the team has an alias taken from mythology, and the legends these names refer to are meant both as a signifier of their skill set, but also as a clue to their role in the 5 Man Band.

Cadmus was an ancient hero, and a slayer of monsters, making him a proud Leader. Phobos was a minor god of fear, making him the dark shadow to the sergeant, filling the role of the Lancer. Chiron was the centaur who taught philosophy and medicine to the ancient heroes, marking him as the team's apothecary (space marine medic), but also as the moral compass and heart. Daedalus was one of the great, learned minds of mythology who built the Labyrinth of the minotaur, and Garm was the hound of Hel who would drag back any souls that attempted to escape that realm.

Armament/Equipment

Weapons and armor (as well as other equipment) always has a symbolic representation in stories, in addition to any practical use it has for the characters in question.

For example, Cadmus carries a power sword of fine craftsmanship. This weapon is prestigious, as befits a leader, and it's clear that he is skilled with it. It also speaks to command, as officers have carried swords as sidearms both practically and ceremonially for centuries. Phobos, by contrast, uses a combat knife and a bolt pistol. Both of these are nasty weapons meant for up-close-and-personal killings, and they tend to work more for an ambusher and slayer than for a soldier or a warrior. Chiron only seems to have backup weapons, though we find by the end of the story that he's a psyker, a power which is extremely common for the Heart in this particular setup. Daedalus focuses on his bolt rifle and explosives, both of which are custom tooled to his exacting specifications, and which require a highly technical mind to make the most of in his particular fighting style. And Garm is equipped with a power fist, which allows him to strike devastating blows with one hand, and a boarding shield, which exacerbates his toughness, and ability to soak up punishment.

Manner of Speech

Every member of the Kill Team speaks differently, but the cadence and rhythm of their speech, as well as the choice of what they talk about, says a lot about them.

Phobos is irreverent, and cruel, which is a perfect opposite to Cadmus who focuses on the team, their goals, and coordination. Chiron attempts to solve problems with his words, and he is concerned with the morality of the actions his companions take. Daedalus speaks in an almost mechanical way, implying he's far more comfortable with facts, figures, and programs than he is with organic interaction with other people. And Garm... well, Garm barely speaks at all. Not an uncommon trait for a Big Guy, as the strong, silent type is a trope for a reason.

Show Your Audience Who Is Who

We're always saying, "show, don't tell," when it comes to our stories, but when it comes to tropes like the 5 Man Band it's extremely important to focus on that rule. Mostly because the trope exists as a meta-conceit. It's not part of the world itself (most of the time, anyway), but rather it's a tool for us as writers, and our audience as readers, to find a comfortable foothold to easily understand the mold a story fits into.

And it's also important to remember that all of these positions are flexible in terms of how they present to the audience, the traits that they have, etc. Your Big Guy might actually be the shortest member of the team, but he posses potent power as a psychic, or he's so dense nothing can truly hurt him. Your heart might be a gruff, foul-mouthed, stern parental figure who, underneath it all, truly cares for those around them. Your smart guy might be a gym rat who biohacks himself into the body he wants, in addition to being a multi-doctorate scientist, and your leader could be dark and brooding with their lancer a chipper, upbeat sort who always pushes them to do the most heroic thing.

If you haven't played around with this trope before, I highly recommend it... and that goes double if you're planning on writing squad-based military fiction, or party-based fantasy stories. It really saves you, and your audience, a lot of work!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Don't Take Criticism From People You Wouldn't Go To For Advice

It takes a massive amount of energy, drive, vision, and focus in order to translate any work of fiction from the electrical impulses in your skull jelly to words on a page. And after sweating through that slog to make something out of nothing, you'd think that we'd be protective as hell of all that hard work.

But so many of us are willing to put our work into major surgery at the first sign that someone doesn't love it as much as we do... and we honestly need to stop that.

Seriously, you made it, stand by it!

Before we get into it this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! To be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, make sure you check out my Vocal archive for several hundred other articles about geek ephemera, weird history, writing, and more!

Criticism is Everywhere (Don't Take It All Home With You)

If you're a creator, then you're going to get criticism. Art is completely subjective, and even if you have experience, talent, skill, a unique idea, and you polish it to a mirror shine, there's always going to be someone who tells you your work is shit. Sometimes they'll elaborate, and tell you all the things they didn't like about it. Sometimes they'll just yell obscenities in text, and give you a 1 star rating.

There are, however, a few important things you should ask yourself when criticism comes your way. Some of these include:

- Is It Specific?: Anyone can say your book sucks, or they hate your work... but do they know anything about it, or are they just shouting about something they haven't even read?

- Is It In Bounds?: If someone criticizes your book about vampires in a submarine for getting submarine physics and names wrong, that's fair. If they're mad your vampires don't work the same as vampires in a different series, less so.

- Is It In Good Faith?: This can be hard to tell at a glance, but there's a lot of bad faith criticism out there. Learning to recognize this helps a great deal, because people who aren't engaging with you in good faith aren't people you should pay attention to.

Perhaps the most important question you should ask yourself, though, is whether the person offering you criticism is a person you trust. Do you know their bona fides, and do their words carry weight with you? Or are they just some random person who has decided you need to hear their opinion about your work?

You don't know me, but let me tell you all about why you're shit.

You should, generally speaking, be polite to people whenever you can. However, if the criticism is coming from people who aren't in your audience, and who don't have any experience with telling stories or writing books, it's okay not to take their words to heart.

If someone who only reads sci fi doesn't like your sword and sorcery novel, why do you care? They've just told you they aren't in your target audience. If someone tells you they aren't a writer, but then they try to tell you how to write, isn't that like someone with zero knowledge about cars telling their mechanic what to do? It seems obvious, but we often let criticism right past our front gates, and it can make us second-guess so much of our work, and try to change it to satisfy the maximum number of people.

You're never really immune to this, either.

Consider this audio version of my short story Gav and Bob, Part 5: Faith and Martyrs. Going through the comments, there are a lot of folks who really liked it. Some commenters said it made them cry, while others were excited to hear what became of Gav and the other characters afterward. But out of those 731 comments, there were a few who dissented. Some folks claimed this was just fan service, and it was a pointless addition to the story. Some thought it should have had more action, or focused more on Gav and the others fighting the Emperor's foes as they had in previous chapters/installments. However, I made myself back up, and really look at the totality of what I was facing.

In addition to those 731 comments (a few of which were negative), there were 4.3 thousand upvotes on this video! Not only that, but at time of writing it's got over 59,000 views, which for something that involves my work is pretty impressive overall.

Taking the metrics as a whole, that's a pretty overwhelmingly positive response to the story... but even with that many people and factors in favor of the thing I made, the few objections and criticisms still got through. And I had to remind myself that with that many people clearly enjoying the thing I made, I should try to focus on the approval rather than the dissenting voices. Especially since none of those voices came from people who'd written for the Black Library, or even other prominent 40K fan channels. They were just a handful of folks out of thousands who didn't like what I'd made.

And that's just the cost of doing of business.

Support The Literary Mercenary

For folks who just want to do their part to help keep me making more content, please subscribe/follow me in these locations:

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, consider checking out my show Tabletop Mercenary if you've ever thought about becoming a TTRPG creator, but you want a glimpse behind the curtain before you just jump into the deep end.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!