World-Building Lessons #1: Making Something Illegal and Censorship

Greetings Travelers,
I thought I would make a post about world-building, and about censoring and criminalizing
something in your Fantasy world, Science Fiction, or dystopian world as this is an important issue in our own world, and it helps to think about the issue in as many ways as you can and not just black and white.

So let's begin:

**warning: spoilers ahead for The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,  an episode from the TV series Star Trek: Voyager called "Random Thoughts," and an episode from the series Star Trek: Enterprise called "Stigma." If you haven't watched or read these, read the post with caution or go and read and watch them before continuing** 

One should keep in mind when criminalizing something in their fantasy world or science fiction world for that matter that no matter how hard your society tries to stop people from doing whatever they want them to stop doing, that they won't be able to get rid of it completely. As an example in All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again, the country where my characters live and where their story starts has rules against modern medicine and tenchology hence why they have not developed as quickly as they could have. The reason for this is fear because something like what happened in the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein happened causing fear and making people resort to using natural medicine and using mesmerism in place of drugs. And people have made sure that technology is safe before releasing it to the world. However, even if I like this form of censorship for my world (as a writer of it), I cannot say that everyone else in the world or that the people outside of my world who are reading my book will be okay with it. In fact I am sure there is a black market for different types of drugs in my world where people put new drugs that are potentially dangerous and untested there and models of the technology and the blueprints for the technology is also sold. The reason why this is all happening, though, is that if one makes something illegal, anything, people are likely to go and buy it or do the now-illegal practices that the government told them they couldn't do.

This in fact has happened many times in books, movies, and TV shows.
In Star Trek: Voyager there is an episode called "Random Thoughts" where to even think a bad thought is illegal because it will cause crime. The reason being the people of this planet are telepaths. They can read each other's thoughts and read non-telepath's thoughts. And to have a bad or violent thought in that world would affect people enough for them to kill someone or commit another crime. This seems like a reasonable law since we see the world represented as a safe haven, and a beautiful place. However, when B'Elanna gets wrongly accused for releasing a bad thought the punishment is a little severe. They say she must remove the thought from her mind, and they would do it in a way that could potentially damage her brain.

(image from wikia, https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Random_Thoughts_(episode)?file=Engramatic_purge.jpg) 

As the crew investigates we are led to find out that there is a black market where people sell bad and violent thoughts for the pure enjoyment of it, because "outlawing violent thought hasn't made it go away. All you've done is force people to share it in back alleys." (ep. "Random Thoughts") and the people who are doing it don't really care about the consequences of what they are doing. But they do it anyway because the government made it illegal, or just because they have an addiction to it or they want to, or they feel incredibly pressured by society and want some freedom to make mistakes. There could be a million reasons as to why one would do something illegal.

An addiction to the thing can also be a reason as to why someone would do something, even if it is something they themselves decided was prohibited. In The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jekyll did not want to go back to being Hyde, yet his body forced him to, because it was unbalanced after he had tried to separate the two sides of himself and also disrupted the Yin and Yang balance of his body and soul.

(Image from wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde_(character)#/media/File:Jekyll-mansfield.jpg)

Around the time that Jekyll stopped taking the drug he looked sickly. Utterson came to see him and he had "his death-warrant written legibly upon his face. The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it was not so much, these tokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyer's notice, as a look in the eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some deep-seated terror of the mind." (pg. 27-28) Jekyll's addiction to the drug forced him eventually to take it against his will, despite the fact that he set up a rule himself not to take it. When he felt an urge to do it, it was because he was "seized again with those indescribable sensations that heralded the change; and I had but the time to gain the shelter of my cabinet, before I was once again raging and freezing with the passions of Hyde. It took on this occasion a double dose to recall me to myself; and alas! Six hours after, as I sat looking sadly in the fire, the pangs returned, and the drug had to be re-administered." (pg. 67) Either way, if something is outlawed by oneself or by a society, it doesn't mean the addiction, the need, or something else along these lines will not come in and break the rules that have been set up.

However this issue isn't black and white at all, and no one should view it that way, because it has happened throughout history as well as happening in TV shows, books, and movies.
 Outlawing something, whether it be a religion, medicine, books, etc. has happened many times throughout... The Nazis outlawed books that they disagreed with and deeply censored them, even burning them as well as deeply hurting and killing people who were Jewish. The British in the 18th century censored Americans' letters to one another which caused the Americans to create their own postal service. King Henry VIII caused Catholics to have to hide their religious beliefs and some were forced to create a safe haven in their home so that when people came looking the people who were of that religion would not be noticed. Recently the book, Harry Potter, was almost taken off the shelves (and some people have succeeded in getting it removed) because some people were scared of the ideas that the book presented. Not every time that something is censored means the thing itself is evil, or that the people who are doing the now illegal thing are evil. It is often the censors that are evil.

We should also keep in mind that censorship can be really hurtful to people because it can also be used as discrimination against people they don't agree with, which is seen in history, but also represented quite well in another Star Trek episode...

When T'Pol from Star Trek: Enterprise in the episode "Stigma" unwillingly participated in a mind-meld which was illegal (and considered dangerous in her time-line), the Vulcans were not willing to give her a cure or a treatment for it and looked down on her because of it. It was illegal in their minds, and also uncivil. T'Pol even comments in the episode about how unfair the discrimination is by saying "There are no rules telling you to oppress minorities" (Ep. "Stigma")

The problem about taking censorship or criminalizing something lightly in your stories is that you can really hurt people who have indeed gone through similar things and felt discrimination because of it, so you do have to also keep in mind the hardships of it and how it may force people to hide who they are.

In any case no one should take censorship lightly. As a creative artist you have to be wary of that because people like us have been censored throughout history. And one day it could be our own writing that is censored, which is a scary thought, but you have to keep it in mind when writing a story involving censorship.

As for writing about censorship in your story, you probably want to bear these thoughts in mind..

1. Is the world censoring something potentially good? and why?

2. Do I view the thing that the world sees as potentially bad as bad as well? And why? 

3. How does it affect the world now since the thing is censored? and why?

4. Does it affect a minority or a majority? and why?

5.  Does the censoring of the thing, hurt a group of people's belief systems in any way? and why?

6. Does the censorship support another group of people's belief systems? and why? How and why did the thing get censored or turned illegal? And why? 

7. What happens if the thing gets uncensored or becomes legal? 

8. What happened to get the thing to be censored or to become illegal to begin with? 

9. Are a majority of people going to be upset at all if the thing is uncensored or decriminalized? 

10. Was the thing harmful in any way? Or was it something people deeply cared about? 

11. What happens if someone breaks the law? Is it a harsh or more gentle punishment? 

12. Does this censorship or criminalization remind you of any historical events or event? 

13. Does society hurt or make fun of the people who do the censored or illegal thing? Are the people who do the thing a minority? 

14. How do people hide that they do the thing? And is it possible to hide?

15. if people are banished for doing it? What stops other people from protesting? 

16. if people get killed for doing it? What stops protests from happening? And does the fear of getting killed motivate people to continue doing it? 

17. Do any of your characters do the illegal thing? And why do they do the illegal thing? 

18. if your character doesn't do the illegal thing is it because of religious beliefs or something else? 

I hope these world building questions are useful. Feel free to copy and paste them into whatever you are using and answer them. Last time I made character developing questions I realized there weren't enough for myself or for an another person to think deeply enough about it, so I added more this time for world-building. Enjoy! 

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How does your Fantasy or Science Fiction world's censorship affect the world? And what is the censorship exactly, what is the government censoring? 

-Quinley

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Drawings 2020

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day everyone! 

To celebrate I decided I would post drawings of my characters of color. In Fantasy there tends not to be as many characters of color, which is sad, but hopefully there will be more stories that do have that in the future. 

The first drawing is of Elm, my dryad character. 

I really love how her hair turned out in this drawing. 

The second is of a character who doesn't currently have a name yet, but she is from

The Silver Key, and is a priestess and martial artist. 

This character who doesn't have a name yet, was actually inspired by 

the fact that Halle Bailey is going to be playing Ariel in the live action Little Mermaid. 

Even though the character herself is not Ariel. 

A drawing of Elm dancing in the rain, I really love the way this turned out.

As for this drawing, I thought it would be fun to draw her in a pose that showed she was ready to fight. In my book, she is a very skilled marital artist and someone you probably don't want to anger or hurt her friends. 

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Which drawing is your favorite? Also, do you have any favorite Fantasy books where the main character is a person of color? 

-Quinley 

Pandora's Box (Animation Project): Scriptwriting, Storyboarding, and Concept Art.

Hello fellow animators and Greek mythology enthusiasts.
I've talked about my recent writing and editing projects I've been working on. So, I thought it would be a good time to do an animation project post. Two years ago I announced that I was going to be animating Pandora's Box, but I didn't give any other details about it, so I figured it was time to tell you...

The scriptwriting portion 

This was the first time I wrote a script for something (besides a one woman show that I had worked on more recently in the summer of 2019--more on that later...). I might have to rewrite the script in some ways, and add some scenes into it, but so far I think it is a good first draft. 

I would like it to make it flow in the same ways that some of my stories do. Perhaps, I could make it a little less comedic, because I want it to be more serious. I find that when I write conversations, they tend to be a little weird, often with comedic elements, even when it is not intended. The reason I might have accidentally written it that way was that I had been writing a serious story before I wrote the script and wanted to write something more light-hearted...which isn't exactly what I want the whole script to be like. (I want it to have light-hearted bits, but as a whole I want it to be serious and have an epic feel to it). I am aiming for the script itself to be a little like the the movie Clash of the Titans (the 1981 version, not the new one).

(Image from Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clash_of_the_titans)

I like how they took Greek mythology and retold it. Though, there were some minor changes to mythology, they didn't make it a different story or mess up the Greek Gods' family tree (like Disney's Hercules does). I also like the High Fantasy feel they gave the myth, and I would love to apply that to Pandora's Box. 

I also want to have a subplot with Athena and Artemis in animated movie, because it was not brought up as much as I would have liked in the first draft. And since Pandora was the first human woman on Earth, Artemis and Athena would be obsessed and excited over her. 

Another issue I still have with my script is the timeline. As far as I am aware, it is never clear  in mythology when the various gods or goddesses were born, but I am sure I can create a timeline for it. For example, Artemis and Apollo have to be born before Hermes in order for him to steal the cows, and Hephaestus has to be born before Athena in order for him to crack Zeus's head open and allow her to come out of it. And since in some versions of the myth of Prometheus (which is before Pandora's Box) Athena is there and breaths life into Prometheus's creation, she has to exist around this time...
The only period of time when it is clear that Artemis and Athena are not there at all is during the battle when Zeus dethroned his father Cronus. But that was only because at the time Zeus had not exactly been married yet and had no children. (And he married Metis later...) But in terms of timeline I really like how George O'Connor handled it in his comic book series Olympians, because he had certain times that all the gods came in, and he also figured out what myths the different gods should or shouldn't be in. 

The storyboarding 

One of the panels from my storyboard. 

Storyboarding is very different from actually animating but it at least helps you get from here to there. At the beginning it feels a little like you are making a comic in some ways without there being any actually speech bubbles. The thing about storyboarding is that it has to be rough drawing and you shouldn't do an overly detailed one. It's almost like plotting out a story, except that it is telling you where the characters will go, and how the character gets from A to B. And then after you're done with that, the actual animating comes in.

I began by putting the storyboard frames into the frames of the animation, though 

my animation will not be drawn in the same way, as the storyboard frames are drawn. The storyboard frames are just there so I can figure out where the characters are going.

For anyone who is interested in animating and wants to know what app I am using,
I am using Sketchbook. And I used Sketchbookx (a different app) to the draw the background. 

I then began inserting the images from the storyboard into the frames. This took a little while to figure out, since I had never used it for storyboards before. 

Hermes will not be floating (at least not floating and unable to see his lower half) in the actual animation 

My intention for the story board was to get something like this near the end: 

You can also watch it here

          Though I must keep in mind that the storyboard above is probably a final and complete draft story board and not what the story was originally like. There were probably many other storyboards before it. But I was aiming for the feel of it, though mine probably isn't the last storyboard because I might have to rewrite the script (and take away some of the narration).

After that I added in some keyframes, to make it move and not jump from frame to frame.

The next thing I did was to try to make basic frames in between the keyframes that showed how the characters flowed within the scene. Once I finish this one storyboarding for the whole script, I will be able to go in and make animation that feels as if it flows well.

Concept Art... 

In order to actually animate the characters, however, and not rely on my quickly drawn sketches for the storyboard, I have to figure out what exactly they look like. Of course this may change and grow as I am developing them...But here is the current view of the characters... 

I actually looked at several sculptures of Artemis to draw her. She will probably get a more distinct design over time, but this is what I have currently. The statue references I used were this and this. 

But this is my second concept drawing for Artemis, though I might keep the statue-like face while still making her more tough and less delicate looking. Or maybe instead make her look like this (even though I didn't use a statue as a reference): 

I am thinking that Aphrodite will have a different facial shape than Artemis (whether it be that I decide to make Artemis have the facial shape above or not). 

 As for her hair, I was trying to give her two different shades of red that made a cool pattern throughout. However I also seem to be referencing in her hair the fact that she was a cause of a war, the Trojan War to be exact, and that a lot of blood was spilled over that. (Also one of the people she loves is Ares the god of war). 

I think when I draw Hermes again, I'm going to make him tanner since he is the messenger of the gods, which would mean he would travel a lot.  But this is a basic starting point for his concept art... 

The next thing I want to do is what I did in the photo above, drawing the character multiple times. This was very helpful in developing Gletta's current appearance. So I assume this will also work with the concept art for the Greek gods and goddesses, and even for Pandora herself. 

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Who is your favorite Greek god or goddess? And what is your favorite Greek myth? (I plan eventually to animate every Greek myth.) 

-Quinley