u/keepfighting90

Background: my protagonist is a popular science author who became famous for a series of books on dinosaurs and prehistoric life. He's been contacted by a research organization for a unique project. The org has succeeded in opening a temporal rift back to the Cretaceous period, where an expedition has set up a base camp to study dinosaurs first hand. The leaders of the organization, who are big fans of the protag's work, have extended the opportunity of a lifetime to him - he can join their research expedition, and have a chance to look at and study dinos firsthand. In return, they want him to write a book about his findings to highlight the achievements of the organization and show them in the most positive light possible. He will be known as the writer who actually traveled back in time and walked among dinosaurs when the company goes public with their discovery. There is also a very generous financial bonus involved. As a dino nut since childhood, he accepts without a second thought.

One of the plot points is that due to the massive power/energy requirements to operate the time travel device, a rift can only be opened once every few months. Until the next opening, the protagonist will go through a basic training/orientation course to prepare him for his time in what is essentially an alien world. I'm trying to think of what a regular dude (albeit one with a lot of knowledge on dinosaurs) should know at a high level before going through.

Here's what I have so far:

• Basic first-aid training - CPR, treating minor injuries etc.
• Basic firearms training - there is dedicated security personnel but this is to cover any emergencies
• Some endurance and cardio training
• Thorough review of maps of the area where the expedition is located, emergency shelters, what dinos live there, as well as their observed behaviour etc.
• Understanding of emergency procedures
• Precautionary vaccinations
• How to operate the off-road vehicles and rafts the team uses for exploration and transport
• How to use communication devices like walkie talkies
• Who should be contacted based on specific inquiries/needs

Anything else I'm missing that would be useful for the character to know?

I'm curious to see the level of outlining and planning others are doing when writing your draft. I don't really think there's a correct amount, as the level of outlining you do is probably dependent on the kind of story you write. Like a plot-heavy mystery-thriller probably needs a bit more structure and plan than something that's more literary and character/theme-forward.

But I know there are writers that plot a lot or not at all regardless of what they're writing, so how does it look for you?

Personally I find that my "ideal" outline length is around 2 pages, in a default Google Docs file. Within that space I capture the broad strokes of what I want to put in the story, as well as some specific scenes/character moments. I'll follow it as a general outline and then just pants the rest based on what feels right and how the characters evolve as I'm writing, and developing them on the fly. Anything more and the story starts to feel a bit mechanical/inorganic and anything less makes it feel rudderless and open to plot holes.

What's your process look like?

Read the first couple of books of Jay Kristoff's Empire of the Vampire series, having been pulled in by the cool premise. A post-apocalyptic vampires vs swordsmen epic is pretty hard to not give a shot to.

My impressions of the series after going through 2 books is that...it's fun. It's fun in an over the top, campy, action-heavy anime kind of way. It's gory, intense and has some really great action. I like that Kristoff went full dark fantasy with this one, as the vampires are nasty and dangerous. There's some really cool, evocative imagery. I enjoyed a lot of the worldbuilding as well and again - the setting and premise are just dope as hell.

But man I can't remember the last time I rolled by eyes this hard at the pure cringe in a fantasy novel. It's so try-hard with the edginess that I almost feel like Kristoff meant it to be a parody of those stoic badass vampire hunters like Blade or Saya from Blood: The Last Vampire. The prose is ridiculously overwrought and it's full of groan-worthy dialogue. The smut feels really forced and over the top. It's honestly like a more polished and professionally-written Wattpad fan fiction written by an emo teen.

But despite all the complaints I still enjoyed it quite a bit. It's definitely a more guilty pleasure type read though. Hopefully the series ends well.

Currently working on a prehistoric dinosaur survival thriller where a couple of normal, everyday people find themselves in the late Cretaceous period (Campanian age specifically), on the Laramidia island continent.

I'm a bit torn between two setup/initiating scenarios. I have the whole story pretty much fully planned out and the story beats will generally be the same outside the beginning. Was hoping to get some feedback to see which one of them seems more interesting:

Scenario 1: The MC, Ray, is on a cross-country road trip and currently driving through Montana. He stops for a couple of days at a beautiful wilderness hotel near Glacier National Park. The hotel piques his interest when he sees that the building was a defunct research lab turned hotel. A few years ago, all the employees and researches at the lab mysteriously vanished overnight, never to be found again. After some years of investigation, the case was closed and the building was turned from an active crime scene to being abandoned. It was then purchased by the hotel's owner. While at the hotel, Ray finds himself experiencing a weird space-time distortion and then him and a few other guests are pulled back in time to the Cretaceous. Ray later finds out that the research lab was working on developing a temporal rift back into prehistoric times, and succeeded, but the rift became unstable, pulling in and trapping all the research lab folks on the "other side". From time to time, the rifts reopen and close by themselves, and Ray happened to be at the wrong place and wrong time, as the laboratory was where he was hanging out at the hotel. Now Ray and the other guests from the hotel have to survive and find a way back

Scenario 2: Ray is a successful pop science author, having made his name writing a series of books about dinosaurs and prehistoric life. He's brainstorming a new book when one day he's contacted by Theo, an old friend from college. Theo works as a project manager in the R&D division of a massive global megacorp. Theo tells Ray that they're working on a top secret project at a lab in Montana that he wants Ray to see, and that it'll be something Ray would love. Ray travels to the lab, and Theo tells him that the founder and CEO of the megacorp was a huge fan of dinosaurs and Jurassic Park growing up. For years now, he's been funding a secret project at this lab to develop a temporal rift back into the Cretaceous. His goal is to study and explore dinosaurs up close and personal. He's also a big fan of Ray's books, and offers Ray the chance of a lifetime - to join the corp's expedition into the Cretaceous and write a book based on it, with the founder as the protagonist. But something goes wrong when Ray goes through the rift - he finds out that he's ended up in the expedition's basecamp 1 year after everyone else, and he's all alone. He must now rely on his knowledge and wits to survive

Which one of these sounds more interesting to you?

Albertosaurus fossils have mainly been found in the Horseshoe Canyon area, as well as around Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial park in Alberta, around 105km from each other in the present day. My question is, how wide do we think the range of Albertosaurus would have been in its heyday? If we're talking present-day Canada, how far west/east would they have ventured? I would assume their eastward path would be blocked by the Western Interior Seaway eventually? Looking westward, is it possible that they may have ranged as far as where the Rockies are today, around Banff National Park, for example (~200km from Horseshoe/Buffalo Jump)? Or would that be too far based on what we know?

Ok stay with me here. I'm writing a time travel dinosaur survival thriller with a pipe dream of getting it published one day, where a few regular humans travel through a temporal rift back to the Late Cretaceous era, and have to survive and find their way back.

The specific time period is going to be the middle Maastrichtian, as I want my main predator dino to be the Albertosaurus (gotta rep my homie as a Canadian born on the West Coast). The specific region will be Laramidia, and the characters are stranded where modern day Banff National Park is (I know Alberto was found around Horseshoe Canyon, and the characters will eventually travel over there).

So part of the story is the characters making their way to what remains of the Western Interior Seaway during this time and then crossing it, and I'm mulling over the idea of them riding some dinosaurs for the journey. I do want this story to be as scientifically accurate as possible and don't want it to be too ridiculous, so I'm wondering if this would be possible based on the dinosaurs, especially large herbivores, that existed in the area around this time?

My research shows me that some of the large herbs around this time period, in this area, would be Edmontosaurus, Saurolophus and Hypacrosaurus if we're talking hadrosaurs. Maybe the hornbois like Pachyrhinosaurus would be another option? IDK if logistically the armour-plated guys make sense, seems like it would be rather uncomfortable.

Like could a human, given enough time, tame a baby Edmontosaurus and allow them to ride it like a big horse? I know it's hard to really pinpoint dino behaviour and temperament like that, but since Edmontosaurus lived in herds, could it be kinda chill? Would their physiology even allow for something like this? Any other Dinos that could be a candidate? IF I go through with this idea I want to make sure it at least sounds kinda plausible lol.

I've pretty much spent all of the last few weeks making my way through all of the Fall of Civilizations podcast by Paul Cooper. I can't overstate how impressive and incredibly crafted of an experience it is. As a history buff, I've listened to a lot of the big history pods out there, like Hardcore History, Tides of History, Rest is History etc. but for my money, I think FoC really is the gold standard.

What elevates it to the top for me is not just the actual historical information and content - which is amazing on its own - but Paul Cooper's storytelling ability. The guy knows how to weave a compelling narrative. It's not just a dry recitation of facts - each episode feels like you're being immersed in a high-quality Hollywood production, or a big-budget HBO miniseries, with fascinating characters, events, digressions into side stories and a very clear sense of a beginning, rising and climax/epilogue of a story. There's a sense of epic grandeur, majesty and ultimately tragic melancholy at seeing these civilizations rise and fall. The Youtube videos add a lot to the experience with the visuals but just the audio versions are amazing as well.

A must-listen if you have even a passing interest in history.

Looking at the RYM list, especially the first 100 albums, which ones would you personally consider the best and which one would you say is the worst?

Like a lot of people, I was left somewhat underwhelmed by 28 Years Later. I appreciated the attempt at taking a somewhat different approach but the execution imo left a lot to be desired, with a truly ridiculous ending.

The Bone Temple though, fixes a lot of the issues I had with 28 Years Later - while not only taking the strangeness to another level but also somehow making it work. Like this is a zombie movie that's about a doctor getting high and dancing with a massive naked zombie, a bunch of satanist chavs with matching names skinning people alive and a scope that feels even narrower than the already intimate and small 28 Days Later...but it really works.

Honestly, when I finished it, I wasn't really sure how I felt about it, but the more I let it sit with me and process it, the more I came to appreciate it. The concept of empathy feels almost absent from the zombie genre, and the focus is almost always on how bleak and nihilistic a scenario like this would be. And while Bone Temple is obviously very dark and brutal, its core theme with Kelson and Samson's relationship seems to be that kindness is ultimately the light you need in this dark, hopeless world.

Because ultimately, Kelson's kindness towards Samson is what led him to regaining his humanity, and possibly carrying on his work to maybe one day find a cure for the rage virus. And even his patience towards Jimmy Crystal is what ultimately led to the dissolution of the Jimmy Gang and Spike and Jimmy Ink/Kelly escaping, and being found by Jim. Ralph Fiennes absolutely killed it in the role (when does he not?) and he'll be sorely missed.

And the actual horror/action set pieces are also very unique. The skinning of the survivors in the barn, the Number of the Beast dance routine and the crucifixion have an abstract, dreamlike quality to them that's so different from the usual zombie action you see in most movies like these.

Kind of a shame the movie flopped but the marketing and the release date so soon after 28YL probably didn't help.

Going back to 50s-70s scifi can often be a bit of a challenge, especially through modern eyes. Despite the cool ideas and concepts, they can feel dated in how they approach social and cultural norms. Arthur C. Clarke, however, I've found to generally feel a bit more "timeless" than other authors of the same era (especially Asimov and Niven), and I really enjoyed Rendezvous with Rama and The City and the Stars.

Childhood's End similar to those books, still feels pretty contemporary and has a pretty cool and unique execution of a familiar premise - first contact with a race of super-advanced aliens. But instead of the violence/invasion/war approach, Childhood's End goes the exact opposite direction, with the aliens basically helping rid humans of all their problems.

The book then follows through with that concept and explores what that would actually look like in reality. It's a somewhat rambling, meandering narrative but I think it works for this particular story. It goes from both small-scale and intimate to the epic and cosmic. The final arc of the story, >!with the discovery of the Overmind, humanity merging into a single consciousness and the Earth exploding into a nothingness!< is cool as hell, and feels very classic "sense of wonder" scifi. There's a sense of melancholy to the narrative as well as we watch humanity dwindle into nothingness, not through conflict or violence, but through sheer attrition.

With that being said, Childhood's End is still old-timey sci-fi when it comes to what it's not good at - the characters have zero personality and really only exist to drive the story, and the prose is functional at best. If you can overlook that, this is still very much worth reading.

Finally got around to watching The Penguin and it was an amazing show overall - but the season finale made my jaw drop. I've seen very few shows this willing to push its protagonist to this level of terrible and irredeemable. Even famous anti-heroes like Tony Soprano and Walter White had something to keep them grounded to their humanity - Tony with his family, Walter with Jesse. But Penguin straight up goes and has the protagonist personally eliminate the only thing connecting him to any shred of humanity and empathy remaining.

Watching Oz slowly kill Victor was brutal and hard to watch but I have to give the writers credit for being willing to go this far. The final scenes just added to the skin-crawling levels of darkness, with Oz essentially imprisoning his mom in a vegetative state and romancing the escort who looks exactly like her. It's like the viewers are basically being punished for ever finding Oz to be magnetic or badass (shoutout to Colin Farrell for actually being able to do that throughout the show).

The only thing that stops it from unbearably bleak is the bat signal at the end - at least you know Oz is going to get his ass kicked by Bats soon.

I generally find it hard to come across a crime/thriller novel that works as more than just passable entertainment or "good for what it is". It was therefore a very pleasant surprise when I finally got around to reading Razorblade Tears after seeing a lot of hype about it all over Reddit and Goodreads.

On paper, Razorblade has a fairly compelling premise - two ex-con fathers, traditionally masculine and close-minded, with gay sons married to each other, go on a mission of revenge after said sons are found brutally murdered. A well-told revenge tale is always satisfying, and the book does that part of the story very, very well. It's tense, thrilling and brutal and not afraid to get pulpy and over the top at times.

But what really elevates the novel from just a revenge thriller is its exploration of the human aspect. Beyond just the surface level plot, it's also a very thoughtful exploration of grief and regret, and how it affects men like Ike and Buddy Lee - hardened, macho and not exactly in touch with their emotions. The character development is amazing, and Ike Randolph in particular is one of the best, most interesting protagonists I've come across in a crime thriller.

The book also has a surprising amount of time dedicated to exploring identity, especially in the context of gay and trans POCs, and the hardships they encounter in a regressive environment like rural Virginia. It can veer towards Sunday School PSA didacticism at times but the message is ultimately positive so it's really a minor nitpick.

If there's another complaint I had to make, it's that although Cosby's writing for the most part is pretty good, some of the prose can be slightly clumsy at times with a few too many similes and metaphors. Some of the dialogue can also be a bit cheesy action hero one-liner-ish but it also kinda fits with the pulpy noir vibes the book is going for.

I'm generally not the biggest fan of audiobooks and the only listen I opted to listen to this one instead of reading it is because I had a long drive ahead of me. I'm glad I did though because the narrator for Razorblade is actually amazing. His voices for the characters are distinct and full of personality, and his portrayal of Ike in particular is fantastic.

Also - I don't know if there are any plans to turn this into a movie or TV series, but I would love for it to happen because it's just begging for a cinematic adaptation. I can just visualize someone like Idris Elba and Josh Brolin playing Ike and Buddy Lee.

I'm already a quarter of the way into All the Sinners Bleed. Cosby's got the sauce and I'll be following his works closely from now on.

Just finished Ursula K Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness and really enjoyed it. My scifi reading these days gravitates more towards the low-key and thoughtful and this one hit the mark. The concept of sex/gender/identity and the way it impacts every facet of the society explored in the novel is really interesting, and honestly, feels pretty radical and ahead of its time considering the era it was written in. The world of Winter feels immersive and I found the overall worldbuilding very well done.

In typical le Guin fashion, it feels like there's 600 pages of worth of story efficiently packed into ~300 - she's just so good at conveying so much through saying very little. The prose itself is of course amazing, simple yet elegant and mystical.

It didn't quite reach the peaks of the best of Le Guin for me - i.e. The Dispossessed and the first 2 Earthsea books - but tbf that is an extremely high bar. This is still a damn good book.

Frieren is one of the most popular and highest-rated anime right now and I find it to be fascinating because it doesn't really seem the type of anime that typically becomes this popular and well-acclaimed. When you look at the highest-rated and most popular shows on MAL, stuff like AoT, FMA, Death Note etc. so many of them are male-centric stories with life-or-death stakes, lots of horror and darkness, generally bleak tone etc.

Yet here you have Frieren, which is such a chill, laidback, unassuming show that's not really all that interested in these epic high-stakes storylines.

My thoughts on this is that Frieren is the epitome of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none anime - and I say this as positively as I can given I really love the show. It's not the best or the most top-tier at any one aspect. It doesn't have animation as amazing as JJK or Demon Slayer, the story is not as complex and powerful as AoT or FMA:B, the premise doesn't have the kind of hookiness as something like Death Note or Steins;Gate, the MC is not as forcefully compelling as a Eren Yeager, Light Yagami or Lelouch Lamperouge.

What Frieren is though is just...good to great at everything. The story and setting are interesting and a nice twist on D&D conventions, the visuals are generally very pretty and often absolutely gorgeous, the characters are likeable and well-written, the music is very nice to listen to. The general vibe and mood of the show is very welcoming and wholesome. It's just a really pleasant experience to watch and it has very few flaws. Generally, if you don't like the show it's probably because it might come off as too slow or too low stakes. But otherwise, it's just really good at what it sets out to do, even though it doesn't blow you away in any one category.

All this basically adds up to it being something that would be rated highly by most that watch it, even though it may not be a lot of people's absolute favourite.