XPost: rec.arts.sf.written
D B Davis <
g@crcomp.net> wrote:
"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
In case anyone's interested, I am now posting snippets of my
forthcoming epic fantasy GODSWAR: The Mask of Ares on my site; the first
snippet (the Prologue) is here:
http://grandcentralarena.com/godswar-the-mask-of-ares-authors-note-and-prologue/.
GODSWAR takes place roughly concurrently with my prior epic fantasy
trilogy The Balanced Sword (Phoenix Rising, Phoenix in Shadow, Phoenix
Ascendant) and on the same world of Zarathan, and even focuses on
characters seen originally in Phoenix Rising.
GODSWAR will be a dualogy, and the second volume, The Spear of Athena,
will likely come out late this year or early next year.
Apparently Ares aught to read some Stoker and Shakespeare:
a scratch, a scratch ... 'tis not so deep as a well nor so
wide as a church-door, but 'tis enough, 'twill serve.
FWIW Ryk, your Prologue captures and holds my attention in the manner
described by Zak below. (Although the chemical kicker at the tail end of
my excerpt's more of a nod to PKD than anything.)
The "escalating tension hook" no doubt explains why politics
receives so much play in here and about everywhere else you look.
How Stories Change the Brain
... Any Hollywood writer will tell you that attention is
a scarce resource. Movies, TV shows, and books always
include "hooks" that make you turn the page, stay on
the channel through the commercial, or keep you in a
theater seat. ...
... From a story-telling perspective, the way to keep an
audience's attention is to continually increase the tension
in the story. ...
... Once a story has sustained our attention long enough, we
may begin to emotionally resonate with story's characters.
Narratologists call this "transportation," ...
... Emotional simulation is the foundation for empathy and
is particularly powerful for social creatures like humans
because it allows us to rapidly forecast if people around
us are angry or kind, dangerous or safe, friend or foe. ...
... We have identified oxytocin as the neurochemical responsible
for empathy and narrative transportation. ...
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_stories_change_brain
☮
Thank you,
--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``.
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
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