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Chapter Titles Archaic?

Hey Readers!

Been a while since I posted here on the Dark and Mysterious blog. Life has been super crazy for me raising two kids and running the BEST coffee company in the midwest. Anyway, I had a thought this morning during my early morning commute that’s been rattling away in my head all day.

Is there a need for chapter titles?

As I’m finishing post production of my next novel, Echoes From A Distant Star, my mind is starting to shift to the book design, specifically the table of contents. As every novel should have one, I was thinking about if adding chapter titles is a route I wanted to take, or is it even necessary for a modern fiction novel?

So, historically chapter titles were used for signposts in a way to signal important events, plot twists, and character development, but looking at it from a mystery novel sense, is there another purpose it could be used for? A thought I even had was trying to integrate the chapter titles into the narrative of the novel itself, creating an interesting immersion for a murder mystery of sorts set in space.

Every novel I’ve had the pleasure of reading by my fellow indie authors seems to shy away from using chapter titles. In fact, I don’t think I’ve even read a book with chapter titles that wasn’t written in the early-mid 2000’s. I’m wondering if somewhere along the way they became a bit archaic or deemed too insignificant to add much to the novel. I mean, your chapters are already organized numerically with page numbers to go along with them, so is it actually necessary to have each one titled?

I’m curious about what my fellow authors think on this subject.

– John McCool

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Could Ai be the future of table top storytelling?

Dungeons and Dragons has been a creative outlet by so many over the course of its long existence. Many authors such as myself have used it as an exercise to better our storytelling skills through the use of its various tools. After all, what could possibly be better than creating a narrative within the darkness of the seemingly endless dungeons of the D&D multiverse? Nothing. The answer is nothing. However, there is something that has plagued many would-be table top adventurers for a long time, and something I even struggle with similar table top experiences, and that is actually finding people to play with.

Not finding people to play with can be from a variety of things. No one around you is interested, you live in a remote area where there simply just isn’t anybody to play, or you’re just too nervous to be around people. If you do happen to get together a small group of people, good luck convincing one to play as the dungeon master. I get all of that. This led to the creation of D&D solo play. Yeah, like literally playing a social game solo. Now, a few D&D fascist would say this can’t be done, but I disagree. I’ve tried it before testing out 5th edition back in the day, and it was kind of an enjoyable experience, however, as you can expect there’s a major aspect that is missing. The socialization of the experience. 

We are now at the forefront of gaming. The advancements in artificial intelligence have paved the way for the next evolution in table top storytelling games. There have been quite a few apps out there recently claiming to be storytelling games that are Ai generated, but they are all pretty bad. And I mean bad. However, recently Meta (Facebook) announced to creation of Ai assistance on their messaging app, and one of those is literally called Dungeon Master. 

The Dungeon Master, which picture is awkwardly similar to Snoop Dogg, is an Ai persona who’s only reason to exist is to give you the best D&D experience as possible, and it does it quite well. It works just like you’re messaging in the app, but it just lays out the narrative, then asks you what you would like to do next. It’s the most interactive, and most in depth reactions to any Ai I’ve tried for this sort of thing, and honestly the story I’m currently in isn’t that bad.

So, I’ve a common dude from a village that is approached one night at the local tavern by a strange man named Grimgold who had a weird obsession with a nearby forest. He asks me if I am interested in a bit of treasure hunting, and of course I am, because why else would I be playing D&D? Anyway, we go to these ruins where we’re jumped by some goblins who actually almost brutally murder us. We escape with our lives and are approached by a mysterious wizard named Eira who tricks us into breaking into these ruins to “defeat an evil wizard” who is threatening the area with evilness. Well, big shock, it was a ruse. She steals some hidden amulet form the ruins and straight up whips us up and down the halls of those ruins. We barely escape, and head back to town where we formulate a plan to gather some powerful artifacts to dispel her evil magics. 

Super in depth, right? I’ve even attempted to trick the system by doing something that normally an average player wouldn’t do. The Ai asked me what we should do next before looking for the artifacts, and I said I want to ask Grimgold for a favor. He said of course, and I explained I wanted to go to my home in a small village some ways away, and grab my Wand of Magic Missiles to aid us in our quest. Instead of deflecting as I thought was going to happen, Grimgold agrees and now my player actually has it for the story, and Grimgold remembers. Before we left my house I asked Grimgold if he was hungry, and that I’d make him some hard tack for the road. He actually told me thank you, and he and my character shared a meal and stowed some for the road. It blew my mind.

This technology has truly changed my perception of what Ai can do fro humanity. I’ve been having such an incredible time with this, and it’s so good it feels almost like I should be paying for this service. don’t get any ideas Zuckerberg…I highly recommend that any D&D fan give this a try, and recommend this even more to authors who are looking for an exercise with their storytelling. The Ai only reacts to what you write which has truly gotten my writing cogs turning in my head. This is an incredible tool, and I hope you all enjoy it just as much as I have. 

Until next time readers!  

–John McCool

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Similar Story Devices In Anime and Wrestling

There’s a little exercise I like to do when I am consuming any type of fictional media. It’s very rare these days that I get a break long enough to enjoy other people’s work, but when I do, I like to analyze story elements within the writing. Now, this is just purely from a writer’s perspective, I could go all day about symbolic imagery film makers use in their work, but that’s a post for another time.

As I’ve gotten old, and further along in my writing career, I’ve noticed two similarities in the storytelling structure of two forms of fiction that are so dear to me growing up: Anime and Wrestling. Now, on paper these two are polar opposites. One is written for animators and voice actors to perform, while the other is a live action 360 degree theatre performance. Each has such unique ways of progressing a story technically, however I’ve started to identify similarities within the two from a story structure standpoint.

A common story note within the two are the use of factions to progress a story line with more than six characters. It’s simply the easiest way to involve multiple unique characters without having the need to necessarily build a deep lore for every single one of them. Notable examples are the Usos in WWE. They are an amazing faction, but them by themselves is less than spectacular. Jimmy Uso has no lore to him, Jey has a little bit, and Solo is nothing more than a modern retelling of the old Umaga character from the Ruthless Aggression era of the WWE. In anime there is no better example than the Z Fighters from Dragonball Z. The decision from the great Akira Toriyama to group the weaker members of his cast into a faction rather than having them forced alongside the main cast was a perfect example of how to use side characters. Characters such as Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, Goten, and Trunks just simply can’t carry the weight of the story as individuals, but as a team, they are perfect for expanding the overall chaos of the troubles the cast as a whole faces.

Now, this doesn’t mean that eventually a side character can’t be moved into a lead role. With Jey Uso in the WWE, he actually had a championship opportunity against the future leader of his faction, The Bloodline, before losing that, and eventually going on to join him. Even now as we start this season of WWE post Wrestlemania, we see Jey still a front figure in the Bloodline/Sami Zayne storyline. In Dragonball Z we see characters all the time get upgrades to their abilities which pushes them up the ranks of the cast. Piccolo is a recent example of a faction based side character making a big push for the spotlight in the newest movie, which I thought was an excellent idea, and a great use of such a foundational character to that franchise.

Another similarity between the two is the age old use of Hero versus Villain story structure. In Wrestling there’s actually technically terms used in the industry to identify the hero and villains of certain storylines. The hero is more commonly referred to as a “Baby Face” and the villain is referred to as a “heel”. Now, the heel term makes sense to me, but I never understood the baby face title, but I’ve never been in the Wrestling industry, so pardon my ignorance. The writing is usually pretty straight forward. The heel is doing some sort of injustice or has personally harmed the baby face kicking off the story line with their clear roles defined. The baby face is most of the time an underdog having to grind their way to the top in order to face off against the heel in an epic conclusion at the next major event show.

In anime, it’s quite clear story wise who the hero and villains are. Your hero is always going to be the main character of the show with the villain being introduced a little ways on. Like Wrestling, the hero will have to grind their way to the top in order to face their villain in an epic conclusion at the season’s end. The final confrontations are usually written as an event within the season to allow most plot points to be resolved for most characters to make way for new stories in the next season. These events are more subtly placed, because unlike Wrestling they don’t have flashy graphics displaying the name of said event with whoever is headlining it. However, if you analyze your favorite anime near the end of the season, it’s quite obvious where major resolution events begin. The most extreme example I can think of is Naruto Shippuden. The resolution arc starts as soon as the final battle of the Great Ninja War begins which ends up being like a 30 episode event.

One of the last major crossovers, and honestly most fun in my opinion, is the use of character gimmicks. This is so fundamental to both forms of media that without it? They just simply wouldn’t be what they are today. The list is actually endless is you look at all the unique characters that have come and gone in both the wrestling ring, and the hundreds of anime shows out there. The use of gimmicks allows writers to bring an unrealistic flavor to a character in order to make them more memorable. For example, in WWE my favorite wrestler of all time, Edge, debuted in a faction called The Brood. Again, we see that use of faction building to introduce characters. The Brood was actually a faction that claimed to he vampires, and would enter the ring by rising from flames in an epic visual display of pyrotechnics. The leader of the faction would literally come out with a grail of liquid that looked like blood, and spit it in the air before entering the ring. It was truly epic, and made all three members of the faction stand out. This unique gimmick made two of those three skyrocket to superstar stature, and catapult their careers.

In anime, gimmicks can be placed as either physical or in terms of personality. In Zoids we are introduced to the series’ female lead who’s gimmick is she is a race of ancient people who have the ability to manipulate the robotic Zoid creatures that roam the lands. In My Hero Academia, our main character’s name is Deku which is actually a derogatory name given by the series’ anti-hero. The word Deku actually means “good for nothing” which follows the character’s upbringing as someone who has no super powers in a super powered world He actually accepts the name, and wears it as a badge of honor in this awesome twist on the gimmick. Not many people would adopt a potentially harmful name, so carrying that gimmick is such an awesome change for a main character.

For storytellers like me, it’s very interesting to identify story devices that appear in multiple fictional media. It’s a fun experiment that I would encourage any storyteller to try no matter what your preferred form is. Any of these lessons can be learned and applied to anything you write! While you’re enjoying your favorite TV show, try and pay attention to the actually writing of it, and see if you can compare it to a completely different form of media. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

John McCool

Photo Credit: WWE