Spilling Ink: Law and Order, Special Writing Unit

Susan Mesler-Evans, regular contributor

LAW AND ORDER: SPECIAL WRITING UNIT
In the online literature community, writing based offenses are considered especially heinous. Online, the dedicated flamers who point out these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Only Sane People on the Internet. These are th
eir stories. 

*cla-CLUNK*

There are some writing mistakes I see online that really get under my skin. In a perfect world, these mistakes would be illegal and the perpetrators would be brought to justice immediately. Painfully. But there’s this thing called a “don’t go killing anyone” law, so writing a column about what I would do if I if I were in charge of this sort of thing will have to do.

LAWS OF SUSIE

1. Any person who fails to understand that a direct quote ends in a comma will be shot.
2. Any person who fails to capitalize when capitalization is called for will be shot.
3. Any person who fails to use the correct form of “to/too/two” will be shot.
4. Any person who fails to use the correct for of “there/they’re/their” will be impaled upon a ruler and then shot.
5. Any person who uses a foreign language where a foreign language should not be used will be smacked upside the head and then shot.
6. If said foreign language is used incorrectly, the offender will be forced to apologize to each and every one of the language’s native speakers personally. They will then be shot.
7. Any person who has a Mary Sue protagonist without a trace of irony shall be run over by a bulldozer. Their corpse shall be shot.
8. Any person who starts NaNoWriMo and quits for no legitimate reason (“my mother died” is a legit reason. “I can’t do it” is not.) will be yelled at by NaNo winners everywhere until they give in and keep writing until they finally hit 50k. Once they do so, they will be shot.
9. Any fanfiction writer who makes the canon characters act horribly out of character for no legitimate reason (“mind control” is a legit reason. “True love changes you” is not..) shall be beaten over the head with a Harry Potter book and then shot.
10. Any person who gives their characters new powers and abilities for no legitimate reason (“training and hard work” is a legit reason. “The plot demands it” is not.) shall be shot, shot again, and shot one more time just to be sure they’re really dead.
11. Any person who spends more than a couple of sentences describing what their character is wearing will be strangled with a designer sweater. The sweater’s bloodstained remains will be shot.
12. Any person who has their character use an old-fashioned weapon (like, say, a sword) in a modern or futuristic setting for no legitimate reason (“the sword was the only thing on hand” is a legit reason. “Swords are soooo cool oh my God” is not.) will be run over by a stampede of medieval knights who have been transported through time. If they survive, they’ll just be shot.
13. Any person who introduces an interesting subplot and doesn’t give it the conclusion it deserves will be pitied by Mr. T and then shot.
14. Any person who introduces a romantic subplot when a romantic subplot is not necessary or desired will be forced to watch the Twilight movies on an infinite loop, but will also be given a gun with one bullet in it. Oh, and the movie screen and DVD player are protected by bulletproof glass.
15. Any person who has their villain make a half-assed, badly written, illogical return to the good side will be locked in a room while wearing a shirt that says “STAR WARS PREQUELS ROCK” with a bunch of Star Wars fanboys who have loaded guns.
16. Any person who creates their own language for their story must have a glossary for themselves so they can remain consistent in what each word means. If they fail to comply, they will be given a red shirt and transported to the Star Trek universe. Should they become a major character, like Scotty, and thus relatively safe from being killed off, they’ll be brought home and shot.
17. Any person who fails to create a real, sympathetic, flawed-but-still-likable protagonist shall be forced to accept all calls from telemarketers for the rest of their lives. They will be shot once they start contemplating suicide.
18. Any person who fails to create a real, believable, enjoyable villain shall be forced to wear body glitter and shout “TWILIGHT RULES!” at a Harry Potter convention. If they refuse to do this, they will be shot.
19. Any person who makes typos in their stories shall be taunted by the French and then shot.
20. Any person who refuses to listen to constructive criticism will be locked in a room and forced to listen to crappy pop songs on an infinite loop for all eternity. The only books are trashy romance novels. The only TV show is G3 My Little Pony. The only window is locked, with a good view of people listening to classic Beatles, reading epic fantasy novels, and watching the Big Bang Theory and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Sometimes, shooting just isn’t enough.

UUtopia Service 4/26/2012: All of Us Under One Moon

My Avatar, Freda Frostbite, leading the service in the sanctuary of
The First Unitarian Universalist  Congregation in Second Life

**Pre-Service Music**
“Moonlight Serenade” composed by Glenn Miller, performed by Carly Simon

“Moonglow” composed by Will Hudson, Eddie De Lange and Irving Mills, performed by Carly Simon

“To The Moon And Back”  composed by composed by Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones, performed by Savage Garden

To access this service in its properly formatted form, please see All of Us Under One Moon

“La Luna”  composed by Ennio Morricone, performed by Sarah Brightman

Scende la notte, tranquillità Piano il buio respira Solo la luna veglierà Con argento ci coprirà Dal grande cielo splenderà Solo la luna veglierà La luna della notte Dolcemente ci proteggerà La luna della notte Dolcemente ci proteggerà Scende la notte, e lei è la Su tutto'l cielo lei regna Con gentilezza lel guarderà Illuminando la sera Con gentilezza lel guarderà Illuminando la sera La luna della notte Dolcemente ci proteggerà La luna della notte Dolcemente ci proteggerà Luna non veglierà FuggiràLuna scomparirà Night falls, silence The darkness breathes quietly Just the moon will be awake It will cover us with silver It will shine from the great sky Just the moon will be awake The moon of the night Will sweetly protect us The moon of the night Will sweetly protect us The night falls, and it is thereIt reigns over the whole sky It will watch uswith kindness Illuminating the eveningwith kindness Illuminating the evening The moon of the night Will sweetly protect us The moon of the night Will sweetly protect us The moon will not be awake It will fleeThe moon will vanish

(A bell is rung, calling this far-flung community together.)

** Announcements **

Hi y’all.  I am Freda Frostbite in Second Life, Stephanie Mesler in the solid world.  I will be your guide and preacher this evening.  

An order of service is available in notecard form by saying “oos” in local chat.  You can get a notecard or you can just follow along in local.  

Tonight’s service will be streamed in audio and scrolled out in text.  You will need to have audio enabled in your SL browser and on your computer in order to hear what is going on.  You will also need voice enabled, as I will be using SL voice for the spoken portions of the service.   If you are unable to hear audio in SL, the spoken portions of the service will continue to appear before you in local, as they are now.  

Welcome to the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life, FUUCSL as some of us affectionately call it.  

To visitors, a special welcome.  We are thrilled to have you with us tonight.  Please feel free to IM any of the congregants in attendance here if you are in need of assistance in following the service or if you would like more information about UUtopia, Unitarian Universalism, or Second Life.

If you are not familiar with Unitarian Universalism ("UU"), a single service is not enough
to experience the diversity of ideas and styles of interaction that we offer,
either here in SL or in RL.  Please come again.

You might also wish to look at UUA.org. or consider joining the group
Unitarian Universalists of SL to receive regular announcements.

Also please check out fuucsl.org, our web site.  There you can find minutes from meetings of our leadership group as well as the texts of previous services and an events calendar.  There is also a streaming events calendar at the main entrance to this sanctuary.  

We are always looking for members of our community who wish to get more involved.
If you would like to try your hand at leading a service, please contact
a member of the Leadership Group – their names are available in the notecard dispenser
in the welcome area.  We are also open to suggestions and volunteers for new community activities.  

If you are interested in renting a parcel here in UUtopia, Second Life’s Unitarian Universalist region, please IM Zyzzy Zarf.  There is a nifty neato map of the region in the community building just outside this sanctuary.  That map will show you which parcels are currently open for rental.  

Please join us after the service for coffee, conversation, and dancing – a venerable UU tradition!

Are there any other announcements?

** Lighting the Chalice  and Opening words**

(the chalice is lighted)

Come to us all who are broken...
Come to us all who are laden...
Find strength here in safe and supportive community...
Know that this place can be your home...

Come to us in joy and in anguish...
Come to us in peace and in turmoil...
Let this light warm your heart and guide your mind...
Know that this place can be your home...





** Joys and Concerns **

Now let us prepare our hearts to receive the joys and concerns,
hopes and sorrows, fears and dreams of those present here tonight.  .
If there is something that has recently happened to you, happy or sad,
and you would like to share it with us, now is the time.
We invite you to share your joys and concerns in local chat, when you are ready.


** Offering **

A freewill offering is a sacrament of a free Church.
This fellowship is supported by the voluntary generosity of all who join with us.
There is an offering plate in the pool in front of us.
Please be generous in support of this UU fellowship.

** Musical Interlude **

“Moondance” composed by Tuomas Holopainen, performed by Nightwish


** The Word**
“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
Anton Chekhov

“I have seen the movement of the sinews of the sky, And the blood coursing in the veins of the moon.”
Muhammad Iqbal

“If the sun and moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out.”  
William Blake

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
Buddha

**The Sermon**

The night this sermon started to write itself, there was a sliver of a moon in a clear sky visible over Florida’s east coast.  It was windy and unusually cool for Florida in late April.  That little sliver of moon shone brighter than I think I have ever seen before, so brightly that it cast a pale light up the side of the moon that faced us on Earth.  

It’s usually the full moon that inspires poets.  It is the full moon that gets credit for all manner of events ranging from the scientific to the artistic to the romantic. We blame the full moon when classrooms full of children are unusually energetic and when psychiatric wards fill to capacity.  Werewolves come out when the moon is full and women’s cycles are drawn along with the tides to climax.  

But this sliver of silver grabbed me.  I was glad to be seeing it with my partner, though I don’t think I pointed it out.  I wondered if my daughter in Ohio was seeing it too or my father in Wisconsin.  What about my online friends who live in other parts of the world?  Had that same silvery moon appeared for Emil in Serbia or Jennifer in France?  How about Blood in Australia and Alic in Scotland?  Would my friends further west see it when night fell on them?  I hoped they would.  I hoped this moon would be part of some experience we all shared even with thousands of miles and several time zones between us.  

There is something deeply important about common experience.  Friends, lovers, families and entire communities bond because of shared experiences.  I think that is true for all societies, from the tiniest communion between mother and child to the patriotic bond of any nation.  There is a reason my daughter understands my choices; we have a history of shared events.  The same can be said of black Americans and Palestinians and Brownie Scouts in Pack 972.  

Some institutions, like churches and garden societies, will tell you their members are bound by their common beliefs and goals.  I won’t dispute that but I think it takes more than common opinion and ideals to tie people together.  It takes shared experience too.  I believe we may be drawn to certain societies and relationships by exhibitions of shared philosophy and desires, but it takes common experience to cement the deal.  

I am not sure I am being clear so let me offer a couple of examples.  I met the best friend I ever had in college.  I knew right away we had shared interests and goals because our majors were the same and we had chosen many of the same electives.  When we were auditioning for parts in the same musical, I thought we had enough in common to work together toward the goal of getting parts in the show.  But we didn’t become real friends, the kind that stay friends always, until we were cast in that show together and underwent an artistically transformational process together.  

Another example.  My family lived in a neighborhood in Amsterdam NY when I was growing up.  We had a lot in common with our neighbors.  Everyone had kids and cars and wanted bright futures.  But my family moved before we really became part of the community.  We never bonded because we never shared experience with the rest of the community.  

I have worked for or joined more than a dozen religious communities in my life.  In some cases, I shared no philosophical ground with the institutions that employed me.  Still, I shared experiences with my coworkers and the members of the choirs in which I sang or conducted.  I made some lasting connections with those communities in spite of our disparate beliefs and goals.  On the other hand, there were a couple of organizations with which I did see intellectually and politically and philosophically eye to eye.  In a couple of those positions, there was never really an opportunity to share experience.  I worked as a cantor or soloist and never associated with anyone but the accompanists assigned to me.  The result is that I do not stay in touch with members of those communities.  

I think the same can be said of those who attend services here in UUtopia.  We are often drawn here by a knowledge of the beliefs Unitarian Universalists share (on paper anyway).  These can be summed up in the seven principles of UUism.  

The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

In a way, these are not such lofty principles.  They boil down to seven phrases that describe  a way of living together and living in the world that has been espoused by organizations since the dawn of institution building humanity.  But we all know they are much easier principles to espouse than to live.  And I truly doubt that espousal alone could hold a community, online or elsewhere, together.  

It is the experience of living together in community, of walking together as we seek, find, create and maintain community that binds us.  I count some of you here tonight among my best friends.  I know you and love you because we have walked together for some period of time.  We have shared the growth and development of this community, its ups and downs, its celebrations and its losses.  We have suffered together when some among us have clashed and rejoiced as some grew bonds that went beyond this virtual space.  Some of us here are bound and likely to stay bound for good, even if Uutopia one day folds or  Second Life itself dissolves. Yes, it was a commonality of belief and goals that drew us together, but it is shared experience that keeps us together.  

So back to the moon.  I looked at the moon a few nights ago and thought of my lover and my daughter and my father.  I also thought of all of you and of all my friends everywhere.  It occurred to me that recently there has been a lot of talk about what divides us.  Are we democrat or republican, libertarian, independent, socialist, communist, or some other ist?  Are we gay or bi or straight?  Male, female, hermaphrodite or transgendered?  Rich or poor?  Atheist, agnostic or theist?  What color are you and where was  your mother’s mother’s mother’s mother born?  Do you speak with an accent or has your speach been homogenized by 21st century media?  Are you a college graduate or self educated?  Were you born with a silver spoon in your mouth or did your house have no spoons at all?  

I can go on and on listing divisive questions, ways that we define who WE are and who THEY are, sometimes even who I am and YOU are.  These divisions are real, there is no doubt.  The world is not one.  I am not you.  We are not they.  Male is not female and black is not white.  We are who and what we are because of our experiences and those of the people that made us and surround us.  The world is a diverse and fascinating place so it is easy to see why we are all so different from one another and maybe why we are so eternally divided.  There is very little that I, a privileged fat white lady from western New York, shares with a latino teen on Manhattan’s upper west side, much less a buddhist monk who has lived his life on the side of a mountain in Tibet or an sudanese girl who has been given away to settle a family debt.  

Here is the startling truth I came to when looking at the moon.  We will never be one.  Never.  And that’s okay or at least it can be if we can do two things:  the first is to honor our differences instead of deploring them.  If possible, be grateful that we are not all alike and thank whatever it is we thank for the diversity that keeps life interesting.  The second is to celebrate the few things we do share.  There are not many, but there are some:   the air we all breath, the earth which is home to us all, the sun that gives us energy, and, yes, the moon.  

I will close the sermon with a quote from Sojourner Truth, “Those are the same stars and that is the same moon that look down upon your brothers and sisters and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us and each other.”

 
**Discussion, if there is to be any**


**Extinguishing the chalice**

Please join me in saying the following:

We extinguish this light, but do not darken the world.
We extinguish this light so that we may return to the world, carrying with us the light of this loving fellowship wherever we go and in all we do.  
Let us bring a light of hope, clarity, and love to the world beyond this virtual one.

(The chalice is extinguished.)

**The Benediction**
Go, now,  in peace to love and serve the world.  

**Music and Dancing!!**

“Moonlight Feels Right” composed by Michael Blackman, performed by Starbuck

“Bad Moon Rising” composed by John Fogerty, performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival

“Blue Moon” composed by Richard Rodgers, performed by The Marcels

**A Poem For Your Pleasure, even though Slightly out of Season**

Faerie Moon
by Stephanie Mesler

Merry meet and merry part.  Merry meet again.  
Merry moon in the merry sky over May’s mad, magic morning.
Middlin’ hours when men  mourne the loss of many fancies
pass til dawn in mottled snores, maroon and cobalt dreaming.
Milky moon fore the milky way illumines all around me.
Mist and mystery melt away in Spring’s  full lucent mooning.
Morning dawns as moonset chances allow the sun its sway.
Make awake and face the day!  Elusion’s a futile reverie.
Merry meet and merry part. Merry meet again.  
Merry moon from the merry sky quits May’s magic morning.
***************************************************************************
And another because I can.  

Moonlight
By Stephanie Mesler

Supple blue curves roll in the moonlight.
Made of water and light and air,
one can see her all the way through.
Transparency reveals
what matters.
Deep crevices conceal only fragments
of that which is held dear.  
She moves circuitously,
arms outstretched beside her,
the ecstatic dance of old black baptist church ladies
buried long ago in Arkansas fields.
Her voice is that of generations,
rich with overlayed experience,
pain and joy ringing out together
a raucous tintinnabulum
heard from plain to plain,
until crashing against mountains to east and west.
Only the cries of vanquished warriors can be heard above the din.  
She is capacious,
commodious,
comprehensive.  
A substantive use of skin and bone,
she is the welcome cushion one seeks at life’s end.  
This woman is both real and not real.
She is simultaneously irrefutable fact and essential chimera.
Can she be contained?
This is the question asked, then answered.
Were you attending?  
Or had you drifted?
Will the answer be repeated?
in time for redemption,
reparation,
restitution?
Rigid black lines thunder in the moonlight.
Made of water and shadow and air,
one can see her all the way through.
Transparency reveals.
What matters?

Preaching Thursday: All off Us Under One Moon

Dancing at the end of a weekly service in Second Life's UUtopia.

Please join us Thursday for this weekly service in UUtopia, Second Life's Unitarian Universalist region.  This week's service will be led by Freda Frostbite.  The sermon title is "All Of Us Under One Moon."  Pre-service music will begin at 6:15 PM SLT which is Pacific Time.  All are welcome!

Tuesday Haiku Throwdown

MY TURN:  

Voices in the wind

float above a river bed

crying for spring rain

NOW YOU:

About Writing: Dealing With Works in Progress

Some of my writings will always be works in progress, never reaching the status of completed works.  As of today, I have 12 incomplete poems, four incomplete short stories, two novels, and a play in my files of works in progress.  I have found over the years there are some practices that help keep the number of incomplete pieces to a minimum. 


1. If one work has a deadline that demands it push your other work out of the way, try working on both projects at once, even if the project without a deadline can only be given a few minutes per day.  Better some contact with a project than none.  Nothing thrives on complete neglect.  


2.  If that's not possible, return to the original work within 24 hours of completing the high priority assignment.  In the case of writing, absence does not make the heart grow finder.  


3.  Whenever a project is completed, before starting something new, take a look at your incomplete works.  I seem always to have several of them filed and waiting for attention.  I never look at them when working on something that is perking along healthily.  But DO return to them whenever there is a lull in your creative force.  Often, I find that the breather I have given a project pays off with new-found focus some time later.  


4.  When a writer hits the proverbial wall with something, meaning that the work was compelling right up to the point where the author realized she had no idea where she was headed, don't be too quick to consign the file to the annals of your incomplete work.  Sit with it a while.  Literally.  My job as a writer is to keep the page open even as it defies me to write another word.  Sometimes I find that if I show my fidelity to an assignment by staying with it even as it mocks me, something in the silence clicks and I am able to move forward.  


5.  Read your work in progress out loud.  Often, for me, that is the way back to the core of a plot and the hearts of my characters.  Hearing my characters speak reminds me of who they are and where they are going.  


6.  When I am really desperate to see an undertaken composition progress and none of the above techniques are working, I bring in outsiders.  I have to be really desperate to do this because I am not usually very receptive to the artistic input of others.  I am not ashamed to admit that, where my own work is concerned,  I am convinced that I know best.  But, once in a great while, it has really paid off to hear what others think I might do with a piece.  For the record, it is very rare that I hand over a copy of a manuscript to someone else to read in my absence.  If I resort to seeking outside help, I take the work to a writers' workshop of some sort and share it there.  That way I hear several opinions in a short period of time and no one person can see herself as my work's fixer.  


6.  If I find I just cannot make a story move or a poem sing, I accept that for the moment and put the work aside.  It does not mean I will never return to the piece, only that I have given it all I have to give and need a break from it.  Think of this as trial separation, not as divorce. 


And now, having given y'all the pep talk I needed myself, I return today to one of my own works in progress.   Wish me luck!  

Spilling Ink: STOCK CHARACTERS: THE SEQUEL

STOCK CHARACTERS: THE SEQUEL
by Susan Mesler-Evans
A couple weeks back, I did a column on stock characters—certain character types that seem to pop up in media everywhere. Today, I’m going to talk a little more about stock characters, but instead of the kind that show up in young adult literature, I’m going to talk about the kinds that show up in mystery novels and films noir. Film noir (which doesn’t necessarily have to be a film) is a sub-type of mystery. It’s hard to explain, but I’ll give it my best shot. A film noir is a crime drama, usually written in the 40s and 50s, but there are plenty of more recent film noirs. One way to spot film noir is to see if the work includes these themes:

• Raining a lot. As in “oh my God, do the people in this city even know what a dry day looks like” a lot.
• Anti-heroes. (I’ll get to them in a bit.)
• Personal detectives and private eyes.
• Everybody smokes, because it makes them look more badass.
• A generally dark, cynical, and pessimistic outlook.
• It doesn’t need to have a sad or bittersweet ending, but that helps, too.
• Femme fatales. (Again, I’ll get to them in a bit.)
• The Mafia or something similar.
• Extremely sarcastic narration.

If the story includes four or more of the above, there’s a good chance it’s  film noir.

Now that we have that cleared up, on with the article!

1. The Anti-Hero

Examples: Nero Wolfe (Nero Wolfe), Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files), Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes)
He’s on the side of good, but he’s not a good guy. Not that he’s a bad person, per se. He’s just not the nicest guy in the world. He’ll do some pretty shady things for the greater good or to solve a crime. He has a cynical and disillusioned view of the world around him.

Like Batman.

The Anti-Hero is the mascot of the concept “nice is different than good,” to quote Mr. Sondheim. He usually takes the form of a private eye, hired by someone to investigate a crime, usually a murder or a kidnapping. A common element is to have the Anti-Hero be doing the investigation for the money, not because it’s the right thing to do. If the book is told from his POV, expect the narration to be totally sarcastic (and completely hilarious).

2. The Femme Fatale

Examples: Lara Raith (The Dresden Files), Rebecca de Winter (Rebecca), Estella (Great Expectations)
The Private Investigator is questioning a new suspect. She’s a beautiful, flirty young woman whose loyalties are in the dark. She could be innocent, but then again, she seems to have a few secrets. Did she do it? Do we care? Why is she wearing a mink coat in the rain? Where’d that jazz music come from?

There are two basic requirements for a Femme Fatale: she has to be morally ambiguous, and she has to be really hot. She usually plays one of two roles—the person who hired the Anti-Hero or one of the suspects. Either way, there’s a very real possibility that she committed the crime or is working for whoever did. She can be hired by the villain to seduce information out of the heroes and she’s often far too good at it.

One more thing: If the Femme Fatale is under 18 or so, she’s called a Fille Fatale (like Nina Callis from the Clique).

3. The Mobster

Examples: Too many to count from the Godfather, Harry Stark (The Long Firm), Marcone (The Dresden Files)
The villain. He’s involved in a gang, sometimes the Mafia, but not always. Expect him to be a ruthless killer and sometimes a borderline sociopath. He’s often the most charming and charismatic character, since villains are so interesting and in order to keep people fooled he has to appear normal. If the Femme Fatale is a villain, expect her to be hired by him, though sometimes, they’re rivals. That’s always interesting. If the villain is a Mobster, the story will probably end with a shootout.

4. Jaded Hero

Examples: Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files), Ed Exley (LA Confidential), Sam Vimes (Discworld)
Often overlaps with Anti-Hero, but I had to give the Jaded Hero their own section. The Jaded Hero knows that the world is a dark, cruel place. He knows that his job is likely to get him killed. He knows that he can’t trust anyone, but he continues to do his job anyway. Why? Because it’s for the best.

Like Batman.

Expect this character to be extremely sarcastic, even in the face of death itself. What separates the Jaded Hero most from the Anti-Hero is that the Jaded Hero is almost always a good person, while the Anti-Hero sort of skirts to border of being a not-so-good guy.

5. The Foil

Examples: Dr. Watson (Sherlock Holmes), Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet), Anthony Hope (Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
This guy is the opposite of the protagonist, especially if the protagonist is an Anti-Hero. The Foil is probably lively, heroic guy who is hopeful in a thoroughly cynical setting, though it can work the other way around. He often takes the form of a reporter or the private eye’s sidekick. He’s usually the idealist; he believes that most people are good and that the world is actually a pretty cool place. He’s often more than happy to investigate, especially if he’s a reporter. You know the reporter who goes to the suspect’s door for the scoop only to have said door slammed in his face? There’s a good chance that reporter was the Foil.

And so ends the sequel to Stock Characters. There will probably be more in the future, so for now, over and out.