The Official Mythopoeia Blog

on writing...

21/6/2022

I'm back to writing regularly again. Feels like going back to the gym after a longtime out. My writing muscles are out of shape, but I'm hoping there's some muscle memory that will kick in and the rust will fall before too long. It's funny how the thing I love and define myself based off can be so difficult to do. Most of the year I've been in triage mode, juggling our behind the scenes, getting various projects launched, fulfilled, etc.

It's not an excuse. I need to not forget that I'm a creator first and foremost, and that my bread and butter is my words.

The highlighted is my rough outline / stream of consciousness in an informal style which will hopefully help me break the story.

I found myself having a hard time with shot (panel) selection and scene direction, so instead I decided to focus on dialogue and 'breaking' the story by outlining / stream of consciousness writing what could and maybe would happen. I'm hoping that when I revisit the scene tomorrow I'll be ready to flesh it out fully into a more refined version.

This is my way of tricking myself into moving forward and not being stuck with analysis paralysis (otherwise known as writer's block). Just get some words out, even if it feels like vomit, even if nothing is quite usable in the form that it currently exists in.

Writing is Rewriting. One of my mantras in life. Still, to rewrite you have to write. It's easy for me to get stuck on all of the other stuff going on, but I guess this here blog is a reminder of what's important.

Write, Ray, Write!

- Ray

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The Crash of L33: A Tale from the Great War

5/3/2021

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Hey folks,

Vince here from Mythopoeia, and boy do I have a story to tell! And yes, this one is about airships :D If you've read up on Skies of Fire, you'll know that I have a fascination (some might say obsession) with airships.

But the way I came about writing this piece was actually through some work I've been doing for our latest campaign on kickstarter, Pro Patria Mori. It's a WW1 mini-RPG zine that puts you into the shoes of a soldier on the frontlines of the Great War. I knew I had some WW1 related items lying around the house, and was able to find the pin you can see below hidden in a Princess Mary Gift Box (check out that story here).

The pin that started it all. L33 flying above.

I thought it'd be cool to update the campaign with the story of this nifty little trinket as it was related to the time period, with the added benefit of airships! But, when I began reading up on the history of L33, I was amazed at the gripping adventure this pin had gone through. And what was meant to be a small update ended up being this post. I hope the story of the brief life of the airship known as L33 will capture your imagination as it did mine.

Early Beginnings
The First World War was a different kind of war. One where technological advancement changed military philosophy forever. One of these technologies was the Zeppelin airship. Invented by Ferdinand von Zeppelin at the turn of the century, these behemoths of the skies were initially used for civilian transport in Germany.

With the start of the war, their value as observation platforms was quickly utilized and on January 1915, the first airship raid on British soil occurred. Citizens and politicians were horrified at this development. It was unprecedented, and there was no effective defense against such attacks. With airships, no one was safe...

The British papers called these bombings the Blitz, doled out by the "Zeppelin Terror." And for most of 1915-1916 this was true. Time and time again, airships would come to bomb key military targets, striking fear over the city of London. Dozens of Zeppelins were built and hundreds of crew trained in the art of bombing.

But it was not meant to last and the days of the airship as a war machine were coming to an end.

An airship under construction.

Shifting Tides
The night of the 23rd of September 1916 was clear with favorable winds, and Germany decided to launch an air raid against Britain using 12 airships. Eight were older models designated to strike the Midlands, while four newer models (L30, L31, L32, and L33) were ordered to bomb strategic targets in the London area - their first operational sortie.

The scale of the operation was not by chance. Just a few weeks earlier on the 2nd of September, the first airship was lost over Britain. The introduction of incendiary bullets were deadly against the flammable hydrogen that held the airships afloat, but airship command wanted to prove that Zeppelin raids were still a viable form of combat. They were going to put everything on the line to prove their point.

The new model L30s were supposed to be more robust and capable of fending off fighters and escaping anti-aircraft fire. Even so, their crews couldn't shake the fact that things had been growing more and more dangerous over the skies of London.

The Night Raid
Nevertheless, the mission was a go and the ships made their way across the channel. L30 had engine troubles and turned back, but the others pressed on. Reaching the coast, the fleet separated and went for their respective targets.

A raiding fleet gathers over the North Sea.

L33 was the first to reach London, the sky above bristling with ominous searchlights. Kapitän-Leutnant Alois Böcker ordered parachute flares to be dropped, blinding the forces on the ground. They were successful in their first bomb run, but were quickly picked up by and fired upon by anti-aircraft weapons.

A couple of direct hits resulted in the ship losing hydrogen, forcing it towards the ground. Böcker ordered his crew to throw anything and everything - machine guns, tools, crates - to lighten the load. They turned the ship around and made for the Channel.

The Night Fighter
Unbeknownst to them, they were being pursued by Alfred Brandon in an B.E.2c biplane. A night fighter, Brandon's biplane was fitted with machine guns and incendiary rounds capable of turning the L33 into a blazing inferno. Taking a run at the airship, Brandon's gun came off its mount and lost a magazine of incendiary rounds. Doubling back, he reloaded the gun with fresh ammo and fired at L33, riddling it with bullets. Böcker and his crew braced with fright as incendiary rounds punctured through gas tanks and the ship's hydrogen cells.

Alfred would try a third pass, but his gun jammed and he had to return to base. Luckily, for the crew of L33, the ship didn't catch on fire. However, it was now evident that they would never make it across the channel with the state of their ship and Böcker decided to land in Little Wigborough, Essex.

A B.E.2c, the Zeppelin killer.

A Rude Awakening
L33 came crashing down to a halt on a road in rural England. Böcker and his crew scrambled out in fear of it catching fire. The captain ran to a row of nearby houses, banging on the doors to inform their inhabitants to leave in case the ship exploded. But none of the families responded out of fear of hearing all the chaos and German voices outside.

In the end, the ship never blew up, and Böcker and his crew of 21 began walking down the country road in hopes of reaching the coast.

The Cycling Constable
One can only imagine what it must've felt like to be cycling out to an airship crash, only to come across 22 German airmen casually walking down the road. This is what happened to Constable Edgar Nicholas. Approaching the men, Böcker greeted the constable and asked him in broken English "How many miles is it to Colchester?" The exact conversation is clouded by history, but Constable Nicholas was able to arrest the airmen and escorted them back to a nearby village.

Tea in a Church Hall
It was 4:00 in the morning and the constable had to wait the rest of the night with the airmen as the military would not come around to pick them up until morning. Not knowing where to house them, the village vicar offered up the local church hall, where the men were given a place to rest and some tea and biscuits.

Kapitän-Leutnant Alois Böcker.

Come morning, the military arrived, and Böcker and his men were made POWs for the remainder of the war.

End of an Era
The results of the raid proved disastrous for Germany. Not only were Böcker and his men captured, but L33 was left largely intact, offering great insight into the technology for Britain. L33 was also not the only ship to be lost that night. L32 was also hit during the raid, coming down in a ball of fire. Kapitän-Leutnant Werner Petersen would later be found someways away from his ship. He had decided to jump rather than burn aboard the L32. All 21 crew perished and were offered proper burials.

It was a great blow for Germany and its airship crews. One that they would never recover from. By war's end, airship raids were seen more of a nuisance than a direct threat. And when surrender came, many crews destroyed their ships rather than hand them over.

The remains of L33, photographed on September 24th.

A Lasting Legacy
When researching the history of this pin, I was pretty shocked at its story. Fit for a Hollywood epic, the lives of such crews were harrowing and filled with the thrill for flight. A crew stranded from home, led by their chivalric captain who would go out of his way to ensure the safety of the families he just landed on.

But, we must remind ourselves of the consequences of the war. Many of the bombs dropped during the Blitz fell on civilian homes. 40 people lost their lives that fateful night in September.

Either crafted by an enterprising individual to sell as a souvenir, or by the government to drum up funds for the war effort, this pin is a piece of L33, taken from its resting place. A small remembrance of that September night.

Geoff Gonella, L33: A Night to Remember, 2016
Kenneth Poolman, Zeppelins Against London, 1961
Arch Whitehouse, The Zeppelin Fighters, 1966

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Writing Exercise: The Story Breakdown

8/5/2020

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Hey Folks!

We've been plowing along on Glow recently and thought it would be good to go back to the well and rewatch some of the stories that inspired the comic. Mainly, that means watching a lot of classic American cartoons! So far we've dug into old episodes of Gargoyles, X-Men: The Animated Series, The Clone Wars, and of course Avatar: The Last Airbender!

For educational purposes, for this post I'd like to focus in and do a deep dive on one of the best episodes of Avatar and, in my opinion, a turning for the entire series:

"The Blue Spirit"
written by
Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

Read the story breakdown here. 

The War Within, The War Without. Avatar: The Last Airbender returns to Netflix this month!

If you found this useful and would like to try the exercise yourself, I've written out my methodology below as an assignment:

Story Breakdown Assignment

Writing can mostly be broken down into three phases: reading, writing, and reflection. We read to be inspired, write to practice the craft, and reflect both consciously and subconsciously to deepen our ideas and understanding.

This exercise will combine all three in an active analysis assignment. Watch an episode of television that you love and break it down using the following methodology:
.

Outline - As you’re watching, reconstruct the outline of an episode scene by scene. Make sure to write it down!
Storylines - Once you have the outline written out, take a highlighter and highlight each distinct storyline contained within each scene of the episode with a different color.
Premise - Now that you can visually see the different storylines, summarize each one in 1-2 sentences at the top of the document.
Stakes - Below the premises, further break the story down into INTERNAL, EXTERNAL, and PHILOSOPHICAL stakes. The external are all the action bits, the internal is the subtext motivating your characters, and the philosophical explores abstract values (I like to phrase the philosophical as a VS. statement or a question).
Notes - After you’ve done all of the above, write down your stream of consciousness notes / other things you noticed while working on the assignment. Things that were interesting to you for your future self!

Hope you found this useful.

Happy writing everyone!

Ray

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The Struggle: Ups and Downs

16/3/2020

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It's been a hard slog the last couple of days when it comes to writing. I can't quite decide what I want to work on and find myself hopping between three projects, pecking away a little at each. I don't think that's a good strategy long term but I find myself stuck and in a downswing in terms of story and a bit paralyzed by imposter syndrome. Everything that I come up with seems so contrived and bad.

I've definitely been here before. I think most people who are creative find themselves here sometimes if not often. I ... am telling myself unconvincingly to go through the work and to focus on one thing at a time. Ironically, this blog has been an anchor for the past couple of weeks, so I'm glad I got this, at least.

What a consolation prize. I am currently hopping between writing and thinking and watching and reading and everything seems a jumbled mess or inconceivable height and why even bother trying to climb when some things and people are just clearly at another level. WHO CAN RELATE? That's a bad Logic reference.

I work hard everydayayayayay....

Writing sometimes can be such an up and down thing. When I have a story or scene or character nailed it's some kind of high. An amazing thrill knowing that what you created works and you're the cool badass mofo behind it. You live for those moments. High brow it's finding that nugget of truth or whatever, but low brow it's just ego, honestly - I made this. I willed it into existence.

Nothing quite like it. Those who know are those who crave. And then there's the opposite feeling.

The ego death. The hesitancy. The fear. Of nothingness. Of contrivance. Foolishness. For even attempting. Comparing. Dreaming. Doing? For who are you to think it through, the lives of those beyond your own. Is it arrogant to even try?

I don't know. Probably. Certainly feels that way right now. But this too shall pass.

So sayeth the Toilet Paper Sages.

Covid be thy crown.

Ray
2020

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On Writing: Rewriting & Discovery

4/3/2020

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I have currently playing on in the background True Detective Season 3. It's research for a new project we're in the initial stages of laying the track for. We're trying to find out what the show is about, fleshing it out in order to get to an outline which will be used to give birth to a script which will hopefully give birth to something else.

I feel bad about not giving the show my full attention. I've told myself that I shouldn't watch things with my attention split - that to really understand I need to be present and focused. Alas, I also have already been procrastinating on doing these blog entries so it's either two kill birds with one stone or stand idly by as the routine is wrecked not even the second time around.

Onwards -

Today I'd like to talk a little bit about where ideas come from. I personally don't think there are any original ideas out in the world. What originality is, in my opinion, is a mix of sensory experiences and memories processed into novel ways expressed through the patterns your brain sees and inscribes as output. If only writing itself were so simple. Recognizing the patterns in completed works is one thing but creating the patterns is monumental work that I personally always toil over.

The first season of True Detective was a masterpiece. Vince and I touched based on it as a reference point today. I mentioned how I thought it was a very simple plot, and he countered back that though the plot is symbol, it's thematically complex work. I agree. The show drips with allegory, powered by melancholy and mystery. The result is something ... unique. Fresh. Wonderful. We think and agree on.

The second season of True Detective is not as good. It came out only a year after the original. The series creator, Nic Pizzolatto started writing season 1 in 2010. He finished shooting in 2013. The show premiered in 2014. I got all that info from Wikipedia.

So, three years writing one season. Then he writes season 02 in one year and it's about a third as good as the original. Haven't seen the third one - working on rectifying that - but I'll bet it's better than that second season.

This is all my long and rambling way of making the following point: writing is a process of (re)discovery. We tend to have seeds of an idea, which we try to create, refine, whittle down, and resolve into something beautiful and sometimes intricate and meaningful and novel. It's a monumental and vain task as it is fucking hard as balls.

Where do ideas come from? Sensory experiences both conscious and unconscious. Things you've experienced, read, watched, and consumed. The process of turning those ideas into good stories is the process of finding meaning by creating order through patterns. Order of events cascading together into patterns we recognize as core to life itself if it's good or tired and derivative if it's bad which is all subjective to begin with (but at least we have thousands of years of culture and genetic memory as primates as a starting reference point.)

It takes time to write a good story. Time is sometimes the missing ingredient between bad and good, good and great, great and masterpiece. Or maybe a piece was doomed to be just what it was and what it ever will be. Guarantee you though that if you spent on time on it maybe you could've made it better. Discover a little more. Maybe a bit. Maybe a lot.

About yourself. The world around you. The truth you seek and see. Everywhere and anywhere. Patterns of order. That's what the process is. At least, that's mine.

Ray

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