Getting out of a funk and Power Dynamics

I’m going to write for a little bit, thank you.

I have been in a funk for about six weeks. Why was I in this funk? Who knows, but it happened, and now I seem free of it. Writers are weird animals. Many factors go into my writing. The simplest thing that goes into my writing is the story in my mind. I can do all the outlining until the cows come home; the fact is, if I can’t get in on the computer or paper, it doesn’t do me a shit bit of good.

My brain is weird. I wrote about this in another post ( My Brain! – Author of Tazeric: Sword of Light and Dark series. (jwberwyn.net) ), yet here I am blogging about my brain and its faults again. I have been having problems with focus. I know this is one of the fun filled Covid side effects, but I tested negative for months. I was kind of hoping it was Covid so that I could put a name to my problem, but at last, I still don’t get it. During my funk, I would sit in front of my computer for a while, and nothing would happen until I forced myself to write a week ago. I got in a thousand words, and there was a sense of relief inside me. A thousand words in a 116 thousand plus words story filled me with relief.

So here I am, writing today…I feel great!

In other news, let us talk about powerful friends.

There is an anime that I love, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, written and illustrated by Coolkyousinnya and produced by Kyo Anime for the television series. As you know, if you read my blog, I love Kyo Anime. They have put out some of the best anime of all time. (I will blog about this another time.) First, this anime and manga are about a 25-year-old office worker who finds a dragon in the forest with a huge sword embedded in it. So, the drunk office worker, Miss Kobayashi, whose first name is still somewhat of a mystery, saves the dragon, Tohru, from death and then drinks with the dragon when she turns into human form. To clarify that, dragons can turn into a human in this anime and manga.

So, Miss Kobayashi invited Tohru to her apartment to live because Tohru has no place to stay in this new world. Tohru, besides being Miss Kobayashi’s maid, and is in love with Miss Kobayashi, and the fun begins. A few points of interest here:

1. Tohru is a mighty dragon from another world who is the daughter of the dragon emperor and part of the chaos faction of dragons.
2. Tohru can quickly destroy the city they live in, Northern Tokyo, and Tohru also talks about bringing Armageddon to this world (Earth). Yikes!
3.  Kanna Kamui, the cutest dragon ever, a young white dragon, was expelled from the dragon world for pulling pranks on other dragons to get their attention because she was lonely. Kanna is a young dragon, her power is on par with Tohru.
4. Other dragon dragons enter the fray, and Locoa or the goddess Quetzalcoatl from Aztec culture. (It’s manga and anime, accept it and move on.)

Miss Kobayashi had a dragon army at her disposal, including Tohru, who is in love with her, and Kanna, who thinks of Miss Kobayashi as a parental figure. How did Coolkyousinnjya and later Kyo Ani make these powerful creatures tame? Well, Coolkyousinnjya never really made it an issue. Tohru loves Miss Kobayashi, as does Kanna, and all their dragon/goddess friends seem to fall in line. I think them all falling in line has to do with how powerful Tohru is and how she is also the daughter of the Emperor of Chaos faction. These powerful creatures also stay in line because they enjoy living in our world compared to their world full of fighting, war, and crazy powers.

In my, The Zenith Garinion Series, I have the main character wielding a mighty sword, and she also has a dragon army that follows her. How do I maintain balance so that the books are entertaining, and the power dynamic remains even? Well, as the writer and that this is my world, I make the enemies as powerful as the dragons and weapons that will match the powerful weapons that the heroes wield.

To counter the dragons, many creatures like (I’ll reference the Bestiary) a Balor. A Balor is a powerful demon that can go toe to toe with a dragon. Shadow demons can counter the influential members of the party that Zenith has collected to battle the demons and devils. Then there are the Devils themselves. I can make them powerful to counter my main character’s power at her disposal.

I have already introduced Dark Knights into this world in my second book. In the third book, Dark Knights will start to wield weapons as powerful as Tazeric and the other weapons created by the gods and goddesses to help keep the demons and devils from overrunning their world.

The power dynamics for my series have been tilted in favor of the main character and her party so far. I also must face the realization that some of the party may die in this next book, and I hate that! Does equalizing the power dynamics mean I have to kill off original characters? I don’t know. I am not an author who kills off all the characters (reference George RR Martin). Authors like Michell Sagara have written 16 books in the Chronicles of Elantra, and not a single member of the main character’s party has died yet. So, there’s that.

Death, Power Dynamics, and writing powerful bad guys are in my future. I look forward to seeing what my brain can come up with in this next book to challenge the characters and make the book enjoyable to read.

Thank you for reading this post

Happy Writing

J.W. Berwyn

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