Author Archives - Doug Franklin Books

This has just been one of those weeks. Wait, it's only Tuesday! The world is on lock-down and I'm sitting here looking around saying, 'well, this is happening'. It is into that surreal stage where so much weird stuff has happened over the last few days and weeks that not much is surprising lately. There is a point we reach, psychologically, where we just can't process more and get much emotional bang. We reach our saturation point for things. There are some fun ways we can use saturation of both good and bad things. I use the techniques when I'm writing a character I want to be annoying or boring or negative in some way; they create a slow drumbeat of that over a few scenes and presto... result. Basically our brains can only handle so much good or bad news at once. Imagine that person who is just bad news every time they open their mouth, 'late for work', 'dog ate the homework', 'forgot your appointment' etc, after a short time it's expected and they are the negative person. That same person says to you one day all at the same time 'I'll be on time, I got a reliable car, won the lottery and want to share winnings with you'. You'll still think of that person as the negative type even after that one day, because the blip of good won't overshadow the pattern of down. That is how you can create a great reputation for yourself of chip away at others, just look at how the news treats people they like or don't like. It is basic psychology, but you literally see it everywhere. This week I'm a little emotionally tapped out. There is just a lot going on, with everyone, and I'm dealing with some extra stupid family issues and the standard stresses everyone has now. I'm also not sleeping well so I'm not replenishing my emotional stores properly. That means that while I like stuff, I'm not really surprised or irritated when the things I like go flat and I'm not moved. One example of things I like but I suck at is a space ships game called EVE-Online. I play a space ship game. Yes, I'm a big child. It is fun and relaxing and I'm atrocious at it! I'm a casual player at best and the game has evolved into nothing but hardcore cut-throat fanatics over the last many years I was away. Every time I go out anymore I get blasted and lose piles of game money. The piece on the left was two expensive ships I lost because I went from fine to 'why the hell is my ship red' at the hands of game NPC opponents. To start my play time for that day I found out my corp booted me. I was frustrated and bored there; the play times were different, the communications protocol was horribly complicated, the time demands were worse than a full time job, and some of the leadership were frankly verbally abusive while I was busy during the day demanding attendance in game. I wasn't happy and should have done something about it long before it got to this point. Instead, I got fired in my space ships game... :/ Pride in tatters I tried to figure out a new aspect of the game. I made a new ship based on a video I watched... and I got demolished. Then I lost the second expensive ship trying to recover my gear. Translated into real money, my losses on those two game ships were worth $3.50-$5.00, were I to use real money translated to game money to buy them back outright. Yes, I'm a cheap ass... My pride was also further reduced to cinders. A lot of my book ideas come from this game and other hobbies of mine. Almost all of the Guardsman series had some grounding in lessons learned from this game. I suck at games. I like them, but I suck at them. Learning Points for the Week: If you're not happy with something change it. Don't waste 179 days not enjoying something. Not that I played very often, so not a huge loss.Don't chase bad money with good. Cut the losses, again.Don't be afraid to try something new. You might learn something new for $3.50-$5.00 and be able to use that elsewhere.I need to periodically examine my comfort zones, and push those boundaries if I want to keep growing.In order to be 'great', you need to be 'good'. In order to be 'good' you need to work up from 'bad', and in order to make it to being sucky at something you need to first TRY! It is still good to take lessons learned. Pride in tatters means nothing. You need to pick yourself up, get over it and try again.