You've Mastered the Basics--Now What? Part 2

Part 1 - Part 2

Welcome back to my guide for intermediate-level Neopian Times story writers! In part 1, we discussed why it’s important to plan ahead, as well as a big ol’ stack of guidelines for getting your prose to read right. Now that we’ve got the technicalities down, let’s start talking about story.

The law of setup and payoff

One of the fundamental tenets of a cohesive, emotionally satisfying story is the law of setup and payoff. It states: Don’t set up for something that doesn’t pay off, and don’t reveal a payoff for something you haven’t adequately set up.

What it means is, plot twists and other events that significantly impact/alter the plot are great—but you can’t suddenly introduce something drastic that doesn’t tie in with the story at any other point beforehand, and you can’t act like you’re building up to something that never happens.

 I dunno. One day I was drawing an RTG and this popped into my head and I just had to draw it.

The 70's was a groovy time for space exploration, man.

(I draw a shocking number of RTGs. Such is the life of a space geek artist.)

The line between supporting your kid growing up and just plain kicking them out can be blurry sometimes.

An Argument for the Chinese Dragon Taking Inspiration from Sauropod Fossils

As one of those insufferable people with an interest in both paleontology and world mythology, I'm fascinated by the origins of mythical creatures, and I really believe fossil finds inspired or at least fueled monster legends around the world. I got to reading about the origins of the Chinese dragon and realized that it actually has quite a bit in common with sauropods. I decided to write an essay elaborating on this and breaking down a Han Dynasty scholar's account of folk descriptions of dragons to show some possible similarities with sauropod skeletons.

It's okay if you think I'm full of beans. All this is just wild conjecture. Maybe someday we'll find some good evidence one way or the other.

An Argument for the Chinese Dragon Taking Inspiration from Sauropod Fossils

The Chinese dragon 龍 long is an unusual mythological creature that does not appear to be a clear chimera of extant animals in the manner of other mythical beasts such as the gryphon (lion and eagle), the cockatrice (snake and rooster) or Makara (deer or elephant and fish or dolphin). The form of the long was solidified very early in Chinese history and has not deviated from the base ancient design in over 7000 years.

This remarkable consistency in describing and depicting the long from a very ancient date, coupled with the presence of sauropod remains throughout China, makes it plausible that the Chinese concept of the dragon was heavily influenced by ancient discoveries of articulated sauropod remains. Some of the oldest descriptions of long incorporate multiple features that fit sauropod skeletal anatomy, further lending support to this idea.

 

 Ever notice how the player characters' moms are just totally fine (eager, even) with their 10-year-old going off on their own in a world full of dangerous creatures? Okay, Mom, I get it, you want to be an empty-nester while you're still in your 30's.

 I made this graphic for my Redbubble store, simply because every time I hear the name Sarkastodon this is where my mind goes. Non-Ice-Age prehistoric mammals need more love anyway. Pop culture keeps forgetting that there are 61 million years of really interesting evolution between dinosaurs and the Pleistocene. 

I also wanted to render a prehistoric carnivorous mammal with a little bit more of a unique color scheme than I usually see. So much paleoart tends to make extinct carnivores either look like leopards or like tigers, but there are a lot of other coat colors and patterns a mammal can have.

I'm probably the only one who thinks this is funny, I know.

 The other day I was reading about a group of birds called the jacanas, at least one species of which (the comb-crested jacana) has a really interesting parenting behavior--if the male, who is primarily responsible for raising the chicks, thinks his brood is in danger, he scoops them up under his arms and runs away carrying them. If you see a jacana doing this, it looks utterly bizarre until you realize what's going on.

So, naturally, my next thought was that it would be great to see a dinosaur doing this. Here's Struthiomimus being a good dad and carrying his brood to safety.

I'd like to point out that even though some dinosaurs appeared to have been born precocial, or able to move and feed themselves right after hatching, that does not imply no parental care in the species. Many modern species are born precocial simply because their parents are always on the move and the babies need to get going ASAP, but they still receive plenty of upbringing. Consider nomadic herbivores like horses and giraffes, whose babies can walk within hours after birth but still spend considerable time being raised by Mom. So it's a mistake to find fully-developed dinosaur hatchlings and assume they were abandoned, sea-turtle style.

(I'd also like to point out that the closest modern relatives of dinosaurs - crocodilians and birds - both exhibit extensive parental care before and after hatching. There is no reason to think dinosaurs stupidly plodded away from their clutches and had no instinct for rearing the next generation.)

Dinosaur paleoartists, study bird behavior. You'll be glad you did.