Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Legends: The Basis of Wisdom

Hello Everyone!
     Two things for today. If you have been on wattpad, you may have noticed that I started sharing Shining on it as JD_Nyle. I hear it's a popular app where people can download titles and read them on tablets, meaning it should be easier to read my novel. The transfer process is a bit tedious due to some formatting issues but I plan to eventually put the full novel up there. It will probably stay there too unless I get a publishing deal that requests for it to be taken down. We'll see how that turns out as I am excited at the prospect of getting more readers.
     The second thing is about the Legend below. It's not too well developed and mostly a first draft. I really wanted to put this in the next novel, however, there's no room for it and it would be hard to insert it anywhere. As a result it is merely a rough draft but I hope you enjoy it.

J. D. Nyle

Legends: The Basis of Wisdom

"Teacher Simulaen," the younger prince raised his voice. "What makes you qualified to teach us?" he asked. The older brother began to rebuke him for asking such a question but the prophet knew there was no mal-intent behind the question.
"Young lord, am I teaching you how to forge a sword?"
"No," the prince replied, a little confused on the relevance of the question, but the prophet continued on his path.
"Am I teaching you how to fight a hundred men?" Simulaen asked. The prince answered no. "How about how to prepare a delicious meal?" Again the answer was no. The prophet then asked, "What am I teaching you?"
The prince pondered the question for a moment. That was indeed the real question behind his initial inquiry. "Random stuff" he finally replied. The prophet laughed.
"I am not qualified to teach you how to forge a sword, how bake a cake, or even how to fight. In fact your brother is far more qualified than I in that last field. And so in that regard, it would be better for him to be your teacher. However, what I am qualified for is relaying what I have learned myself and I have indeed learned much. But take heed and realize that it is never enough to learn from only one unless it is the Spirit. You must take up and learn from all deemed fit. There is still so much for me to learn and much more for me to become wise."
"So the Spirit didn't make you wise?"
Simulaen laughed again and began to explain. "I do hold that all wisdom does in fact come from the Spirit. After all, if the Spirit established order, then by nature it established the Wisdom to accompany it. However, even if we are told something, it doesn't mean we understand it. Do you know what you need to gain Wisdom?"
"A good teacher?"
"Ah! Very true but that's not all. There are three things required. The first is Experience, Your curiosity is indeed a gift, my prince, but not one to be taken lightly," the prophet began to lecture. "In some men, it is in their nature to explore. I believe that these men are meant to seek wisdom and become teachers. Teachers are supposed to convey experience so that students may learn from them as well. One lesson is to take caution with your curiosity lest you die or cause harm to someone."
  The prince sat in silence after hearing that last sentence. The prophet looked over and continued his lesson.
"The second is leisure. A man who works all the time focuses on his work and has no time to ponder. A man with leisure may indeed reflect on what he has learned and grow wiser."
"Zel, isn't that great?! We can use this to get out of chores!"
Zel looked at his brother with an expression along the lines of "You wish but you know it's not going to happen." Simulaen spoke up and dashed the young prince's hopes saying, "Ah but chores give you experience. Without experience, leisure is meaningless. You cannot be idle for idleness is the misuse of leisure. What leisure allows is for you to perform activities unrelated to your trade or rest and meditate. If you do nothing at all, then you have just wasted precious time.
"Now the third item is perhaps the most important. It is the willingness to accept Wisdom. Truth often has two enemies, those who don't understand it and those who do but reject it."
"Why would they reject something that is true?"
"Because they find it inconvenient," Zel spoke up. "If they accept the Truth, then it would mean they need to take a certain action they are unwilling to do."
"That is correct, Zel," the prophet applauded. "Now I can bestow upon you the first two, but the last requirement is up to you. It is your choice whether you seek wisdom or not. It is my hope that you do, for to become a wise man is truly a great goal. And if you wish to be good leaders, it is important you obtain wisdom so that you may properly and justly govern the people under your care."

Monday, May 11, 2015

Writer's Notes: Re-Exploring Old Ideas

    There's an interesting thing about writing a series. Ideas that you had dismissed long ago can suddenly grant you inspiration. One idea was an idea of maneuvering between a real world and a spiritual dimension where actions would affect the real world and you could combat demons. Sound vaguely familiar? I remember getting the idea from the implementation of the Dark World and its future versions in the Legend of Zelda series. This actually is what led Neostriker's core concept centering around Spirit Battles and it fits perfectly.
    The reason why I started thinking about that was because of some ideas that popped into my head from "understandings" of another series called Persona. Now this is where I start using an example of creativity I covered before where I don't understand something. I have never played any Persona or Persona related games. It has aroused my attention, but the concept of allying with demons has always turned me away. There is also the fact that I don't have any of the game systems to play those games. As a result, I know essentially nothing about the games. This means the only way Persona has given me inspiration is through headlines of articles about the games. One such article was the idea of "Social Links" where doing simple actions had huge effects. At least that is what I gathered from the article's title since I didn't read it. This, in combination with a trailer for Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, I started thinking about spiritual dimensions again.
    However, I need to be honest and add that another title has brought about more thinking on the concept and that is Tales of Hearts for the DS and PSP Vita. I haven't played it, but I was tempted to buy it and so at least know the premise. The major problem was I didn't know which version to buy and I couldn't understand Japanese well enough to warrant a purchase.
    Would you believe that there is actually a third thing that brought about this thinking? This is actually more of a parallel concept that I was thinking might possibly tie in. When I mentioned that the Spirit Battle becoming Neostriker's core concept, I didn't mention that it only became official in Shining (which can you still read on this blog from the Episode List page). Shining is the bridge between the old and new as it became, by accident, the most succinct and convincing core explanation for how everything works in that world. Until then, the Spiritual Dimension, which was very vaguely implemented, was only a concept that I had for a completely different work years ago and forgot about. The implementation only grew as I began to ponder sequels, the current novel, other novels' plots. The original plot involved machines and then eventually plugging into the cyber world sort of like The Matrix but with the Mega Man Battle Network System as that was the actual inspiration as well as a method to linking my older works. Anyways, the reason why I have been thinking about this is because I was also pondering exploring the concept of Operators again. However most of these ideas are mostly restricted to the Shining Universe as they relate to how I was planning its sequel dependent on if it will be a movie or a game. As you may already know, I'm not actively working on that so it may be a few years before it becomes reality.
    So why did I write this piece then? Well, to put it simply, I thought it was a nice look into how a creative mind works. I also wanted to establish that there are some things I come up with just given a headline or premise. The thing about creativity is that you are given a little piece but you need to fill in the rest. Someone helps you take the first step, but you need to walk the mile. I could possibly look into those games I mentioned, but I have no intention as it would possibly take away from the fact that I developed these concepts myself. Sometimes if you envelop yourself in too many works, your own creativity weakens. Being creative is an exercise and so you need to leave yourself open to being able to develop things on your own, otherwise you just end up copying.

J. D. Nyle