Saturday, May 30, 2020

May 2020 Update

Wow! It feels like it's been so long since I've written an update. It has sure been a busy year so far. I've found a few new authors that interest me, got a new cover for The Vixen, and drafted a few more WIPs.



I also discovered a series of lectures from Brandon Sanderson on Youtube so I've been watching those and gleaning good tips for writing. Hopefully we can see some results from that in the near future

Sunday, January 5, 2020

January 2020 update

So I ran into some issues for the story I was hoping to get out. This is perhaps the curse of writing stories out of order in that you can be locked into certain key events happening. I have some ideas how to address them, but it's going to take some more musing.

In other news, I finished a first draft of part 1 of the bridge between Shining and SABRE. It's a bit interesting because it actually could stand as a complete story on its own. So I might have beta readers check that out while I muse on the remaining 4 parts. Considering that it might be a while before I get to those four parts, it might make sense to do that anyway.

Why? Because in addition to everything that happens in life, I'm also considering foraying into non-fiction. One is to take the letters idea from SABRE and simply publish a collection of philosophical letters. For people who prefer for the ideas to be conveyed via story, SABRE will still do that, but others might want just the philosophy without the story. Another idea is a blog series on storytelling. Similar to the philosophy letters, it'd be a series of opinions where I try to add something new to the table. I think I'll do that in my Writing Corner blog so this blog might be inactive for a while. However, I'm still somewhat active on Twitter so you can find me there.

Until next time,
J. D. Nyle

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

November 2019 Update

It has sure been a while since my last blog post. It has also been a long time since I did writing. Taking care of family combined with my computer breaking down a month ago, there was no time to write. Alas, I finally see some opportunities to write. So hopefully we can expect a "new" short story by the end of the year.

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Letter on Loneliness

For suicide prevention day, I decided I should share this letter that was written for the first story in Neostriker SABRE. I hope that this helps anyone struggling with depression, loneliness, and suicidal thoughts

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My dear child,

There are some evils I wish I could protect you from, among them is depression from loneliness. I pray that when you encounter this that you have the strength to continue on and live. Remember your mother's words: there will always be someone who loves you.

Loneliness is a strange phenomenon in that you can feel lonely even while surrounded by people. The reason for this is because loneliness truly describes the state when we don't feel loved at all. When we feel loved, we can endure the hardships of life still smiling. However, when we feel lonely, we can lose all motivation, losing even our will to live.

I ask you to continue to fight, my child. Fight the feelings and know that they are simply feelings. Remember that there will always be someone who loves you. If you can persist past these feelings, that would give me pride.

It is certainly a task easier said than done. To help you overcome this trial, it might help to understand the nature of loneliness. Here are my thoughts on the topic.

Loneliness is caused by not feeling loved. Therefore we must remember what can make people feel loved. People want to be cared for, admired, liked, and wanted. These in turn are filled by the love languages. If you can figure out which tank is empty and your primary love languages, that can help a great deal in recovering.

Now if you were to encounter someone who is suffering this fate, I would entreat you to help them. I can easily believe that this kind of depression is cause of most suicides. If you can help these people, then you will be a great hero.

With love,

Your father

Friday, August 23, 2019

On the Cast of SABRE

A major reason why it took me so long to start writing SABRE even when Shining was first written over 10 years ago was due to characters. I had attempted to write multiple times, but I was having trouble with the characters in that I could not make then feel distinct. Not only were they clones of the cast of Shining, but I even had clones of the clones. As a result, I knew I could not do a good job at the time.

This changed when I started work on the proof of concept and figured how to make the rival interesting. From there, the individual characteristics, motivations, and ideologies started to form for my main cast. They have become distinguishable and also, in my opinion, relatable to various degrees.

Shining was focused primarily on David with a small focus on Jenny. This was intentional as I was writing David's story. However, one thing I liked about Digimon, one of the major influences for Neostriker, was how each member of the team developed in their own character arc. And so for SABRE, I wanted to try that as well.

With the release of The Vixen, my initial main cast is complete. While I do not intend that every story would focus on only these five characters, they do form the primary cast I wish to develop in the series.


The five main characters are as follows (descriptions are based off what is shown in the currently published stories):

George (Ryon): the primary protagonist. Orphaned at a young age, he tries to live up to the philosophy of his father conveyed through the many letters written before his death.

Sera: George's younger sister. She works in SABRE as an operator, often partnering with either her brother or Danny.

Danny: George's best friend and fellow Neostriker for SABRE. Can be impulsive and likes to joke around. He has a crush on Sera.

Sophia: She is a fellow student that George once rescued from a suicide attempt. The big sister of the group who cares deeply for everyone, she has recently joined SABRE.

Helene: Beautiful and tactically-minded. She started dating George after being betrayed by her ex-boyfriend. Initially having a negative bias towards SABRE, she has started to realize that she might have been mistaken after a personal encounter.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Concerning Clichés and Tropes in Storytelling


Here's perhaps a controversial opinion: people don't really hate cliches.


Ready to hear me out? The definition of cliche is "a very predictable or unoriginal thing or person." Now when we read a story once, we can predict everything during the second read, but good stories hold up after many readings. Similarly, people like to be able to predict something, and writers like to use foreshadowing. Lastly, people are more upset if things don't go as they should or hyped for. Therefore predictability is not really an issue.

How about originality? Surely we value original stories, right? "There is nothing new under the sun" is the common phrase. Writers often base off experiences, thoughts, or even other works. Sure, the stigma of being a clone hurt the original Digimon anime, but I never see anyone claim and successfully defend that the first season was inferior to the first season of Pokemon, even though half of the each of the later episodes are recycled animation. And recently, people more often claim that Pokemon copies from Digimon. Unoriginality is actually mostly just an obstacle for starting to consume a work if not a copyright infringement. Therefore unoriginality is not an issue either.

The real issue that readers and critics hate is lazy writing. When people encounter lazy writing, this is when they lament cliches and tropes. The reason for this is because as time goes on, we recognize issues with them and we become tired of seeing these imperfections, which in turn make us think the writer is lazy. This is even worse if the reader can think of a better way of accomplishing the same thing, as can be the case when very familiar with the stereotypes.

I was beta reading one story and it started off really well. The first half of the first chapter was utterly fantastic, but the second half was written in a manner to advance the plot and used cliche after cliche to do so. Not every one annoyed me, but some did. In addition, I was able to think of ways that, in my opinion, would be more interesting and character-driven. As a result, I greatly disliked the second half of that chapter.

So how should we write cliches? In part, it depends upon our story. Tales of Symphonia is a game filled with them, but I still enjoyed the story when I played it years ago, perhaps because it was a mixture of satire and for comedic effect in my opinion. If we think about that, then we can realize the key is to be intelligent with them.

When I started writing Neostriker: Shining, I was well aware of cliches in anime at the time and one of my goals was to make sure they all made sense. The prologue starts with stereotypical world building only to provide the first twist that also explains everything; the world is the character's fantasy. The first scene has the character self-aware of the it and expresses trying to do better. It is a common theme throughout the book to either question a cliche, use it as a platform for a joke, or actually discuss it.

All that being said, I will admit that there is a danger. When something is predictable for a long period of time, it's easy for the reader to gloss over and potentially never return. If we have important facts in the middle of these, they risk being missed and the reader will be frustrated later on.

What do you think? Any points that I miss on either side? Sound off in the comments below or engage with the tweet this will be shared with.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Writing as a full-time working parent

It's fairly common for people to ask, “how do you find time to write while parenting/working full-time?” My answer: most often, you don't, but that's okay.


Despite a very supportive wife and a fairly good work environment, it's hard to find time to write. I often utilize my train commute to write, but that means everything is written using my phone, which also means lots of cases of “auto-wrong” messing things up. To be fair, it's still better than not writing at all, but even after getting great technical feedback from @WilmariClaasan, finding the time to go back for solid editing is a difficult task thanks to life in general.


I love my children and would never wish to go back to a time before them, but between parenting and working, there is maybe 1 hour and a half of free time for me, assuming commute counts as free time. For writing, that might be enough time if completely dedicated, but we are human and have many needs, chief among is rest and leisure.


After working 9 hours on a computer and holding babies, the hands and eyes need to rest. I learned this the painful way so be sure to stretch and rest. The warning that came with the game boy saying not to play when tired is valid. Doing so tires the eyes and do it repeatedly enough and I ended up with one of the worst headaches ever.


Beyond the need for rest, we also need to partake in the social world. Spouses need to date. People need to meet with friends. We need to enjoy the arts. We need to exercise and have fun. All of these are needed to maintain a healthy and happy mind. Yes, I sometimes want to write, but if we ignore everything else for too long, everything comes crashing down sooner or later.


Ok. Now that I made that case, here are tips to help with actual writing despite limited time.


  1. Use Swype, Gboard, or something similar for writing on mobile.
    1. It can be annoying to correct the mistakes, but it's way faster than tapping every key. Write too slowly and you may lose the flow or find it too difficult to write at all.
  2. Consider writing serialized short stories instead of full novels
  3. Take public transportation to enable extra writing time.
  4. Have a notebook to write down thoughts before bed. Organize by date and create an index in the back for easy reference
    1. This also helps with falling asleep when you have an active imagination
  5. Get a used Kindle or e-reader 
    1. so you can read on the go
    2. You can load PDFs and docs for reading
  6. Chat with other writers and readers for feedback and inspiration
  7. Enjoy life to keep your mind fresh

Dream on,
J. D. Nyle