The Introverted Detective

   Today you'll see some of my 1920's research. Partly because I need content and partly because I need to watch more of these movies for speech patterns and reference. I'm hitting two birds with one stone, in other words. Sit back and enjoy my review of the silent film The Gold Rush starring Charlie Chaplin, released in 1925.  Courtesy of Letterboxd The Gold Rush is a silent film, starring Charlie Chaplin, about the Great Gold Rush of Alaska. Below is my review of it, mostly because I need to watch it for research and partly because I want to watch it and need an excuse. The movie begins with a card talking about the gold rush. It is mostly visual comedy, cards with words, and piano music. You can't watch it with your ears while working. Visuals are the film. You miss everything by not looking up at the screen. Keep this in mind with all silent films.  Storytelling As usual, they use music, cards with text, and silent acting to get all of it across. It proves you do...

I'm writing a time travel draft. Because of this, I'll be buried in research for a while (and I love it). Also because of this, today's blog is all about writing time travel. Let's get into the time machine, shall we?  Courtesy of Daily Express With a new genre for me to write comes new rules. Time travel is not to be written by the seat of your pants. You have to do the leg work for your setting, with some suspension of disbelief because time travel (as far as we know) doesn't exist. It is highly suggested you dive into the research further than you think you need to. Why? Because historians may pick apart your storyline. With alternate futures you have more liberties to take. It depends what you do and how you write the time travel methods.  Considerations and What to remember You can let the story take you different places if you want (you just have to do work on the backend of it to fix other issues). Or you can outline it. It is up to you. It may work better to...

If you know me personally you know I'm not one to make a lot of eye contact. It's an intimate thing, even between friends. Let's talk about eye contact and what it really means to get eye contact.  Courtesy of Glam Some people have issues with eye contact not being made. For those people, I'd say that you've not had much experience with introverts. (Don't say shy to an introvert, by the way.) Please don't label people who make less eye contact with flirting either (cough cough, elementary school). Maybe they just don't want the intimacy of making long periods of eye contact. It isn't an easy answer. While some people won't make eye contact while lying, others can look you straight in the eye and lie to you. It depends entirely on who you are talking to and their personality.  Personality aside, eye contact means a lot. It can mean sexual attraction, hatred, lying, shame, and lots of other emotions that the body language attached will clarify. Add...

 This blog is about how to write your faith into your stuff without sounding like you write for Hallmark. Of the five inspirational suspense books I read in my book cleaning, two were good enough to read to the end. Why? Because the other three preached instead of writing dialogue or they just weren't my jam. Today we'll discuss how to write Jesus into your fiction well, without turning off readers who want natural dialogue.  Courtesy of Pxhere.com First, you have to know I'm Christian. If you are not I'm not going to shove it down your throat, but you have to know this is about Christian faith and not any other faith. You've been warned. Let's start the journey.  I am never opposed to Christian themes and talking about Jesus in fiction. What I am opposed to is badly written dialogue and badly written faith-based fiction. I love Jesus, but I am turned off by books that make faith sound like "everything is cupcakes and rainbows because Jesus saved me and all...

Let's talk about sensory overload, when everything is too loud and only you are bothered by it. Fun? No, but the world is not getting any quieter for you. And most of the time we don't say anything about it. Today I'm diving into the science of it, why it happens, and what we can do about it.  Courtesy of Deviant Art by GhostlyStatic Like I said, we often don't say anything about it. The office conversations might be traveling down your hall, the music down the hall might override your focus music, and you might hear multiple conversations simultaneously. Oh, and you might even turn off your focus music to lower the stimulus you hear.  The truth is the world doesn't lower the volume because we are overwhelmed by loud sounds all at once. It doesn't lower the volume for introverts, either. We simply adjust and cope the best we can. Introverts may even be some of the population dealing with sensory overload. I know I do every time I go to my evening job. So much co...

 I'm getting people on Twitter (X) and Instagram who are advertising services. I have even purchased some services from these people. What we need to talk about is when people get pushy and how we deal with it.  Courtesy of yoursalesmaven.com While some people understand you aren't just the money they make, others just want a sale - and they want it right now! In my DMs, a good half of the salespeople who reach out are these pushy salespeople. I give credit to those who have not tried to shove me into a sale. Those people might get my money later on (for real, they might).  Online and in-person are two different problems, though. You see, I can stop responding to pushy people rather easily in my DMs. I can even block pushy salespeople in my DMs. In-person interaction is not as easy to deal with. We'll talk about general advice and what to do when someone is standing in front of you.  We'll also talk about why pushy sales practices don't work. I have elaborated as to...

 DNF stands for Do Not Finish. Today we're looking at what everyone says about not finishing the books you pick up and why people don't finish books.  As I clean up my overstuffed bookshelves I openly DNF books. As I do the read-it-or-unhaul-it challenge I've learned to DNF what I don't like. Today we're discussing what makes someone DNF a book and the pros and cons of doing so. Please note we're talking about leisure reading and not school/work project books.  Sadly, you can't DNF a book for a school or work project. The best way to suffer through a book you hate is to read the cliff notes first and then skim it. It is easy to find most cliff notes for school book reports because most schools use almost the same novels. It just depends on what is actually online and what isn't.  When You Should DNF  Sometimes you aren't sure whether you should give up or not. Is the book going to get better later? Am I just overreacting? Does the plot pick up the pa...