TK Tormiction

Ooh. The Keybearer.
So we have a big good guy (Erekho) going joining with two pretty-much-clueless good guys (Arachne and Zaeron), going on a rescue mission that looks like it's going to get them into even more trouble. So he leaves the other part of his group to get along without him.
They can actually do that pretty well. Until, that is, the second-in-command, Eldonyn, who also happens to be a traitor at one point in the story (watch my words, they can play tricks on you) gets caught by the big bad guy (Sahrain)'s...well I don't know if you can call them henchmen, but they're nasty little inventions of him that can only be destroyed by a very powerful light. Meanwhile, Eldonyn's brother, Lirel (told you he'd be back), goes looking for another person -a cracked hermit named Keril (no I DIDN'T get it from the name 'Carol') -who needs to answer a question for him.
Amazingly enough, he gets there. He gets the answer to the question. He lets his leader know. And then he gets caught. They're the same things that caught his brother.
While we're at it, we'll take a sidestep over to where a metal has helped this Sahrain take over the mind of a pretty important character. While she's being controlled, she removes another character from the scene with a twisted exchange of wills. *sly smile* That character reappears, though...
Back to Erekho's group, there's a traitor among them that they have no idea's there. One of Erekho's sisters is searching for a powerful in a pretty dangerous place. Her twin is quite indisposed -she's the one Erekho's getting, actually.
I just can't let my characters get something accomplished without my story, Kohra, making sure something bad happens to them. So Em saves me from myself, literally (if you read this, you'll know it's myself she saves me from...).

Fun stuff

Ahhhh... I've finally reached th' part in my story where things get t' start falling apart. My thirteenth chapter is titled "Unraveling"- an appropriate title. It's the tormictionists/torreaderist's dream- see just how many subplots can start falling apart at the same time AND switch between them at the worst possible places!!! I'm lovin' it.... =-D

Haven't Written F'r A While...

(copied from another of my blogs Alnea)

I had the big bad guy of Alnea inject a couple girls in my story named Phae and Cariya with a special metal, an invention of his.
The reason why is this bad guy (also known as Sahrain) likes to invent things. And one of the things he invents is a poison that eats away at your will. What it takes from your will it gives to your strength, but that doesn't come to be of any use since you eventually don't have the will to do anything. Anyway, this poison is very slow-working, and the reason Sahrain invented this metal was so that it would help a person absorb this particular poison much faster. But the side-effects of the metal have some very interesting effects.

For one, if you're injected with it without having been given the poison, the length of your life grows. A lot. Your senses also get sharper. From there the side effects vary from person to person, except for one more thing that remains consistent. Whoever injected the metal into the person has partial control over their minds, and if that person isn't fighting a constant battle to keep the liberty of their will, whoever gave them the metal will take over, utterly and completely. This is the case with Sahrain, who put it in Phae and Cariya.

They happen to carry some things that Sahrain wants to increase his power. Alnea (my world, for those of you unaware) would basically be destroyed if he got all of these things. They enter the land of one of his vassals, and his strength in the tug-of-war with their minds grows. Eventually, he does get one of these gems that they're holding. He cuts them off from all outside communication, including blocking any entrance where telepathy might find a way. So that now everyone else is unaware of their growingly desperate situation.

Until one has an idea to save the one who did not have enough strength to stand against Sahrain. But not herself.

As before and always be,
Nestami.

Tahlia

I've crossed the line

Finally!
Nobody'll believe it at first. He's gone through too much alive. It'll be a prank note from Qeyatel, of course. I'm just teasing, of course. He'll come back at the end of the book. Right?
Wrong. I'm finally going to do it.
That character just gives me too much trouble, and any more of this and nobody will believe that he'll die. That anyone will die.
But he will. And rid me of a lot of trouble. That character is just a trouble-magnet. Phew. A few more chapters and he'll be gone for good-at least for this book...and the next...and the next...and the next...and the next...and the next...and the next...but the one after that? Yeah, all the Akaelians will come back then.
Farewell and good riddance, O character of mine.

As before and always be,
Nestami.

Question

Oh, my mind just blanked.

There we go.

Why are the characters tormictionitized the most always the guys? I have a few answers, but does someone else have an idea as to why this naturally occurs?

An Example of Torreaderism

I just ended a chapter with the words:

"She was going to die."

Man. That's evil. I almost feel guilty. Especially since the character DOESN'T die... *evil grin* To make matters worse, the next chapter switches to a different set of characters! In fact, I may not give the conclusion to this problem for a whole 'nother CHAPTER.... mwahahahahaha!

*wipes laughter tears from eyes; cartoon-villain-ish voice* I'm so evil.

Morbid Fascination (copied from my other blog)

Ok... a couple you have asked me to finish the story. Ok, ONE of you has asked me the story, and I will, but I currently don't really have the time for Oodstu and Rilloma [if you haven't read my "Drifting Through Shadows" blog, don't ask]. I've got lots of school, I'm SUPPOSED to be writing music, but... well... my favorite characters are stuck in a rather intense situation, and, well... you know.... I just HAVE to write! :-)

[tormictionists- you will be interested in the following]

This intense situation involves a poisoning. Which are awesome, but I sometimes struggle to create a unique poison (I'm working on that, btw). So why try? I went to wikipedia and found STRYCHNINE!!! MWAHAHAHA! A few things about strychnine before I get on school- strychnine is very violent, very fast, *Wesley voice* and among the deadlier poisons (any of you who haven't seen "Princess Bride" will miss that reference, sorry). I wish I could launch into a nice little informed speech about the thing, but alas, that is not condusive to my time frames, so suffice it to say this: you don't wanna ingest strychnine. It creates violent muscle convulsions, so violent that the victim will often die in 2-3 hours from EXHAUSTION. That's saying somethin', right there. With strynchnine poisoning, one can also suffocate, because the poison paralyzes the the neural pathways that control breathing. Either way, the victim is almost certainly dead within 2-3 hours of exposure (untreated, of course... not sure the stats on survival rates, but I'd say, the sooner you're poisoned and get to da hospital, the better).

I read all this and had one o' those evil lightbulbs pop over my head. It was PERFECT. Only... I'm in Uhrya and I need a slightly different poison than this, but ohhhhhhh baby did it give me inspiration. (my chracters are quaking in a corner right now thinking "Yeah... too MUCH inspiration")

Well, off t' do school so I can work with my poison/poisoning/poison victim some more this af'anoon!

Another Word

Tormictiphobia: n the fear of being tormictionitized
(This is only used by fictitious people, of course.)

Old Times, Tara-edition

Yeah... I remember my early days of tormiction. A couple pals and I were going to co-author the EIGHTH installment of the Chronicles of Narnia *snickering*. It was tormiction out yer ears, I'm tellin' ya! Someone was unconscious every other page. And the page in between was spent trying to get the person unconscious on the LAST page recovered enough to be unconscious again on the NEXT page. *evil grin* It was baaaaaad, I'm tellin' ya... :-D

Old times (boy, does that sound weird)

I was doing some spring cleaning (yes, in February) and I ran across a bunch of old stories. Old stories. I entertained myself by leaning against my bed and reading them. They were quite repetitively predictable, and I was amazed at the situations I got my characters into and out of. For instance, I let a maniac loose. He (he's also just under the qualifications for a giant) pounded down an padlocked iron door. There was another character (he was about 19/20) coming down the hall, and the main character (a 13 y/o girl who's small for her age) coming from the other direction. The 19 y/o whistles for help, and the three best (strongest, smartest) men there quickly show up. The maniac immediately takes out the strongest (quite a feat) and the second one (who's deaf, mute, and blind in one eye but remarkably able to figure out everything that's going on) and grabs the third around the neck. The 19 y/o, I forgot to mention, was also knocked out. That left the 13 y/o, who cannot take this guy on. Somehow, I got them out of that situation (I won't tell you how, that would spoil everything). Somehow this was done a long time ago, without Tara's help. Wow. That's just one of the situations I maneuvered them out of. Boy it was fun, just going through those stories and laughing at them. I also rediscovered several cool names (Guardian Night, Storm Shadow, Jianfel, Axume, Arachne, etc.) that just ended up in the wrong place. Alright. This sounds great. (And talk about ideas...)

As before and always be,
Nestami.

I'll be writing more posts 'cause the other author is sick...

I must admit, Tara, we need to isolate that bug. Right now I'm in desperate need of ideas. But since you in your current state are not in a position to verbally give ideas (to anyone -not just me)...I'll be praying for you. And I hope to find Monique soon. Either way, there are some fascinating ways in which somebody getting sick could really spice up a story...and I have discovered some and am on the verge of discovering others...

As before and always be,
Nestami

Traitors

What do you do with traitors in a story? Well, apparently they betray whoever's side they're on in some way shape or form. How they do it can get quite interesting and tricky. For instance, you could have the typical traitor -one who acts as a friend of a group but instead is relaying messages to the enemy, who in turn come along and either beat up the good guys or the good guys escape by the width of a gnat's eyebrow. Or there are the types who have infiltrated the other camp long ago and uses subtler means to communicate with the enemy. Or there are those who start out on one side, but as the story progresses their minds change but they stay on the same side and just help out the ones on the opposite side. It can work for either side. And usually the traitors don't do the dirty work when the team they're actually on comes around. So what good are they to tormictionitize? I don't know. (However, I know they're great for torreadtion.) Since I have one coming up, I'll see that I can do with this...person... *tormictionist grin*

As before and always be,
Nestami.

Flexibility

Flexibility strikes me as something really handy when writing. People who can fit into any contortedly (if it's not a word, it is now)-shaped hole. They're also really fun to mess around with. See how you can twist 'em around -and hey! You might actually like it so much as to leave a few people in that position!

Sick

I've got a nasty flu/fever thing. Had it for the past week and it isn't showing any signs of letting up soon. But there's a sprinkling of good in every situation- I've gotten some GREAT inspiration while lying in bed, with a cough racking my entire body (literally) and a hammer pounding at my temples (NOT literally) and a fever teasing me with the old "hot... no cold! hot... no cold!" gig. And I've got a question for all those other authors out there- how come characters never just get COMMON colds? Are MCs somehow IMMUNE to the common cold? Or a sore throat? Or a bad bruise? You name it... it seems the only time an MC ever gets hurt/sick, it's big. Which is fine, but I propose we make our characters HUMAN- they can get a bad cold for a reason other than falling into an icy river. They can have a fever from a cause other than devious poisoning.

And now I'm back to bed... to analyze my condition and try to burn it into my memory.

Oh... and sickness isn't always only good for tormictioning. I just had one of the best torreadist while trying to fall asleep last night. *evil grin* Be afraid. Be very afraid. Fever does strange things to an already strange mind...

Reassurance...?

The character she is talking about has an important part to play in his death and therefore the situation cannot be removed. :-D And he's one of only two to die (the other one is a person who isn't important in the least), good or bad, in this story. But anyway, Tara, I managed to drop a knife and keep someone from getting hurt (albeit it was about the width of a gnat's eyebrow away from a person). Oh well. I guess it was a good thing, because any closer to that character and there goes the story.

A Glare for Ms. Grant (A Tormictionist's Dilemma)

*sigh* It's a fact of life- a character gets too beat up or captured under the wrong circumstances and they're... well... dead. It's a fact of life. It's a limit on tormictioning. I've done it, and I've helped Tahlia do it. Big deal. However... it IS a little hard when you find yourself LIKING a character who you KNOW is doomed to die. Mixed feelings- I'm eager to plot his death with as much torreadisitc value as possible, and yet I want the character to live and prosper and finally be free from mine and Tahli's tormictioning when (and, sadly, IF) he makes it to the end. *dramatic sigh* So I feel I must send a glare to Ms. Grant. (even though I'm winking at her with the other eye... *evil grin*)

Close Relative

No... this is not going to be the post about the uncle-slash-adopted-father-figure who is killed when the hero's farm is raided by the horribly evil bad guys after his guts. *shudders and turns up nose in disgust* No. If you want to know about that, go talk to Christopher Paolini. I'm going to be talking about a close relative TO tormiction.

Torreadism.
(torreadtion; torreadists; etc)
1. To torture, torment, and/or play with the reader in such a way that both advances the story and keeps them captive to the story.

my oh my... anyone who thinks tormictioning is fun hasn't seen NOTHING yet. Torreadism is superior in a few ways:
a. it is often a bigger challenge, for those of you/us who LIKE tackling constructive challenges
b. it is often much more plot advancing, even though it is just as enjoyable as tormiction
c. there is a wider variety of ways to accomplish torreadtion- you can do it by tormictionizing, by leaving off chapters at suspenseful parts, the possiblilties are about as endless as your imagination and skill at The Craft (aka, writing)

*resignedly* Of course... it's not half as theraputic as tormictioning... *evil grin*

WARNING: Tired Tormictionist

I was woken up early this morning. I have this constant allergy-thing, so a sinus infection wasn't in the way. But I was woken up early by "THERE"S SNOW!!!" being called by my sisters from one end of the room to the other (I like waking up by myself). Let's just say that that wasn't exactly the way I wanted to start my day. Then I get the beginnings of another headache. And I haven't even been up for an hour. (The time below is three hours behind.) Hmmm...

Beware. I'm a fantasy writer. A tired, achey, in a not-too-inclined-to-be-amiable-though-I-must-be-so-anyway mood author. WATCH OUT. I can't get this completely out on my characters ('cause I tend to maximize the situation 100 times before putting it on them) without killing them so I won't, but be careful. Be very, very careful.

As before and always be,
Nestami.

A Warning

Sleep. That has been used so many times in fantasies (The Wizard of Oz, The Silver Chair). There's plenty of use for it. But sleep can put me at a disadvantage. My characters aren't aware of anything that's happening to them when they're asleep. Don't use it much for tormictionitizing. It's hard to work.

As before and always be,
Nestami.

What a blackout does...

I had a blackout yesterday...it wasn't complete, and I had a couch to fall on (my youngest sister was standing by thinking it was all a game and wanted me to do it again), but I've had those since I guess the blood vessels to my head are kind of narrow and don't open up after I bend over backwards. But those kinds of things give me ideas-fun ideas. Like I put some sort of deficiency into a character and make her fall and wake up in a place totally different...and than I can continue from there.

A death during the night

*sigh* Just when I said I hadn't killed any characters recently... *sigh* Last night, one of my characters got themselves killed. I never intended this person to die, but she threw herself into the path of a spear or arrow or something (I'm still investigating) to save a friend. Unfortunately, she didn't know that the spear wasn't going to KILL him... it was just gonna HURT him. *shakes head* And now I've got a death on my hands. Luckily, this character is more of a secondary character anyways, but I know of a few readers who will be in an uproar over her death. Not to mention I'll be stuck with the nickname "Character-Killing Queen" for life... even though, in the latest draft of the story, I hadn't killed any main or even secondary characters... until last night, anyways...

BUT IT"S NOT MY FAULT!!! The character was impulsive and threw herself in harm's way. *shakes head again*... oh well. She wasn't very important anyways... *evil grin*

Cells

Just wait until you get to Mod 6. Boy, is it fun in there. You learn about the cells and their functions, and, for tormictionists and/or fantasy writers, there are ideas GALORE on how you can twist certain functions around and end up with something completely different. Be very, VERY careful of science-studying fantasy writers.

Science

Am reading my biology text over here... it's giving me FAR too many ideas for tormictioning... scary to think how delicate life really is... bwahahaha...

A Conscious Thought

You know what Tara suggested before? That it would be a tormictionist's dream if a characters could not go unconscious? I figured out a way to make that happen. In a story we're sort of plotting, authors get thrown back and forth between three worlds. What if those authors, and all the people around them, couldn't be knocked unconscious? That would be fun.

As before and always be,
Nestami.

You're a Tormictionist if... (cont.)

...you and your friends hold contests where the competitors tell stories of what you do to your characters, and the others say, “That's not half as bad as what I did to this person...”

...you get selected for 'random check' at the airport more than once because of that evil gleam in your eye -even though your most dangerous weapons are the pen and notebook you have in your carry-on

...you know that tormictionitizing is crazy and that's exactly why you do it

...you have trouble thinking of ways you can be nice to your characters

...you wonder why people think you're so strange because you think everyone else is as crazy as you are

...knives are your favorite weapon -tool -because they're not fatal all the time but can cause some serious damage

For Fun or Not For Fun

Both. I tormict my characters for fun and for certain vital parts in the story. The bad guys beat on the good guys, of course, and there are specific places where the bad guys hold certain grudges against the good guys. And there are a few spots where I just feel like beating on people. Of course you don't do that to real ones, so...where's a better place? The little kids are annoying me to death...hmmm...I've got a spot for that right here where I have her get frostbite and he gets fifty lashes with one of my specialty whips...

As before and always be,
Nestami.

What I Do

I admit it, I admit it! I encourage The Story into doing what it does!

*evil tormictionist grin* I don't care. I love it. Especially the looks on Tara's face when I tell her what I've gotten my characters into now. And she's probably figured out by now that the place I threw poor Tu'Haln was the Gorge of Caharn. Of course...nah, not right now, I can do that later. Anyway, I need to get off and do some things, so as before and always be, Nestami.

What if...

... there was a person who was literally incapable of going unconscious? It'd be a tormictionist's dream, I can tell you that. *evil grin* Think about it- they get whammed in the head, but instead of getting knocked out, they simply have an unthinkably horrendous headache. The implications are numerous. *looks at Tahlia* And I get first dibs on it. =-)

For My Fellow Tormictionist

Ok, Tara, get me out of this one. And don't ask why I posed this.

In the center of a desert there's a deep canyon. On the canyon floor is a boy about fourteen-fifteen years of age. He's normally tall and strong, but at this point a third of the bones in his body are broken (not including his neck or back). He is wearing a light leather shirt and pants and has no water or food or weapons.

Take into account:
He's mute.
He's been there for two days.
He's not a main character.
(His name is not Lirel.)
There are no other human beings for at least a twenty mile radius.
At least twenty hungry animals are watching and waiting for him to die.
The canyon does open into the desert on both sides.

Now, I want you to get him out of there alive.

You're a Tormictionist if...

...you actually use the word enough to justify its creation

...your conversations with your friends are either on how to torture a character or how to get him/her out of an impossible situation -that you created to torture the person you're trying to rescue

...you can't get your characters out of the situations you put them in -and you stubbornly refuse to change the situation in any way

...you have to vocally reassure your characters that you'll get them out of the trouble you put them in

...anything even hinting at hurting a person physically reminds you of a time you did something like that to your character

...you make the character you torture the most of a nearly invincible race simply for the purpose of torturing him/her more

...your daydreams are on how to hurt a character but not badly enough so that he/she can't get out of the situations you put them in

...your friends have to remind you to not beat on your characters too much

...your friends know you have another idea that will torture your character the moment that certain gleam enters your eyes

...you enjoy doing it

Shamed into Creativity

Alright, I think I have a way to get Lirel and Riyela out of their mess. Ok, ok, I know, the extra tormictionating I threw in for fun. So Lirel was being killed by a kekaila and I didn't want him dead yet, so I had to bring someone in to save him from it. Riyela's lost and Lirel's being no help. In a very dangerous place.

Tara shamed me into this idea, to be honest. She said, "Why don't their friends go back to help them?"

Why did she have to say that?

My original objection was that (even though I didn't say this) the leaders of the group (the one from which the two were separated) know what's down there, and that it's pretty much hopeless to get out of (nobody that they know of has ever come out) and by the time they find out Lirel and Riyela are gone, they know that those two should be dead by now and give them up for dead. That was my original excuse. That and the other two people in the group are clueless about everything (and one wouldn't care anyway).

So, since it was the only idea I have, I'm making one of the leaders go back. She happens to be Lirel's sister, and refuses to give him up for dead, despite many objections by the others. Simply because The Story wanted them gone and at least fatally mutilated, I had to appease it. I'm not going to do anything too drastic, but when Lirel's sister shows up she's going to find Riyela in the suffocating embrace of a huge snake that has the regeneration qualities of an earthworm (a tineyr). Thankfully, she's had knife-throwing lessons (from her other older brother whom she doesn't like at all) and is good at it. She saves Riyela. I still have to decipher how to get them out, but...let's finish this part and hope The Story doesn't mess it up any more than it has.

As before and always be,
Nestami.

An Agreement to the Agreement (aka Lack of Creativity) and an Update

Of course...and I do the same to Tara. And I'm not ALL that bloodthirsty, several times my characters help themselves. Yes, yes, and the amount of time they don't is about equal. But who cares about that? Only...that little comment I made earlier about 'writing without planning is half the fun'? The other half is figuring out what to do when your characters get you into situations that you see no way out of. I'm actually getting pretty good at getting them into trouble...and am getting better at rescuing them, but it still needs work. (Oh, and that Lirel I was talking about? I want him to live for a little while longer, but The Story wants him to die now. I am insofar unable to write anymore until I can defeat The Story.)

Agreement

Oh yeah. Oho yeah. Humiliotormictionism is the best. In fact... in the old draft of my story (I've tempered my bloodthirstiness somewhat in the newest version of my novel) I don't think any of my 'victims' ever saved themselves... they were always getting saved. Which posed some problems, as I constantly had to position other characters just right in order to save the victim's skin. Which can become quite a pain. I remember one character in particular- Jadryn- I'd beat the living daylights outta him every few chapters or so.... *wicked tormictionist grin* Ahh... it's so much fun to remember the old days. Now I'm tempering myself and trying to supress my 'tormictionist impulses' for the sake of my novel. However, in my mind I love to tormictionize. And, of course, it's so much fun helping Tahlia tormictionize and humiliotormictionize her characters. *glances at Tahlia* But then I have to help her get out of those messes... *wink*

A Subset of Tormictionist

I am becoming a specialist in a certain area of this new word: I will be a humiliotormictionist. Simply put, a tormictionist who also humiliates the characters that are being tormictionitized. You know, even if the character you are tormictionizing loses a battle with either man or beast, he goes down in a blaze of glory. I don't do that. He has to be barely escaping with his life and someone else has to save him -thus humiliating him. In this particular situation the character I am tormictionalizing is named Lirel. He's going to get beaten and bashed before getting saved. I'm not sure who's gonna save him, or how, but that's half the fun when you never plan a story.

Story Research

Today I almost passed out while riding my bike. Freak occurrence, but whatever. It was good story research. Instead of lamenting my condition as I lay on the couch, lungs burning and limbs feeling like jelly, I analyzed every inch of what I was feeling- story research. I should've written it down, but I think I'll remember. But Uhrya beware- one of your heroes is about to pass out.

I don't know if I'll elaborate on the drowned mouse story... more story research, lets put it at that. (And no, I didn't kill it. I only torture fictitious people and creatures.)

A New Word

Tormenting fictitious people. It's what we do, as DW already explained. So, we decided we simply MUST have a special term for this.

Tormiction [tor-mik-shon]; verb
'to torture, torment, debilitate, and/or mutilate a fictitious person, usually a character in a novel'

So now we are not only the Sadistic Authoresses... we are also tormictionists! *evil author grin* MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.......