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oh my goodness, you’re hilarious!
Man is born for the fight, to be forged and molded into a sharper, finer, stronger image of God
Nice memes!
My favourite is the Dipper/Alan one about the Aphid repellant.
Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to see the stars.
Also, why does that racoon picture have an expression that so fits what I know of you? lolololol.
Dunno. He way too chubby to be me though.
My signature quote is a modified quote from Andrew Peterson. The full version is the following:
Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to show how beautiful is the prick of light.
I had to shorten it so that it would fit.
Here is the link to the page I pulled it from: A note to parents
Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to see the stars.
*screams* he’s back!
I just meant the look on his face. lol.
Oh cool! I will be saving that one into my collection!
Man is born for the fight, to be forged and molded into a sharper, finer, stronger image of God
@ellette-giselle @keilah-h @theducktator @whalekeeper @stephie
I’ll leave Shadow and Loopy out of this since I haven’t heard from them on here for quite a while.
I am now ready to talk about my magic system. Why is it the way it is? Well to understand that, we need to start talking about book two. I am going to have to spoil it a bit, but you will soon see why.
“You may be done with magic, Alan. But magic is not done with you.” – Character I have yet to decide on.
One of the themes of book two will be fighting sin, with magic being an allegory for it. Magic is going to attack Alan in several ways, and he’s going to be fighting back, doing his best not to give in. One method it will attack him by is intrusive thoughts. And this is one area it will succeded in (sorry Ellette).
Have you ever had it where your trying not to think a bad thought, and it seems that the harder you try not to think it, the more you do? Seriously. This isn’t something bad, but try not to think about a pink elephant right now. Now most of these intrusive thoughts, I would rather not write down on paper. Why? Well, because since they are not things I want to think, in case I encourage myself to think them more, I much less want to write or read them. The idea with my magic system is to show a character struggling with some thoughts that are harmless in his world, but are harmless in ours. I also thought the idea that there would be immediate consequences that are apparent to everyone around him interesting. Another theme of book 2 will be not separating yourself from others when you know you sin and that sin can hurt them. (Alan is going to have to learn to not to worry about thinking magic spells and to trust in The Helper to assist him in this.)
You might ask, why not just deal with this problem in the way of ‘so and so thought a bad word.’ Well, my thoughts with that were that it would put a barrier between the reader and the character, making it harder to understand him. If we know what the character is thinking, we can relate to him more and it makes it more real. This is why I included the descriptions of the spell images in the book. Again, I thought a benefit of writing fantasy is that I could come up with something dangerous to the characters but harmless to us. (Although I recognize that I may have recreated that barrier when the narrator explains that he is going to share made-up spell images instead of the real ones.)
Lastly, why are my spell images creepy? Well, since magic is evil, I did want the reader to know that. So that when Alan going back to using magic, you know what he is doing is wrong. Also, if it is something more unusual, then it will make sense how Alan managed to avoid thinking it when he had forgotten all the spells he knew.
I’ve thought back over my magic system, and in order for it to be the way I need it to be in this story, this is what is required of it.
- The magic system must be thought-based. No actions or words will be used for casting them.
- Using the magic corrupts the user’s body, twisting it into a crow-like monstrosity.
- I feel like there was a third thing I had to keep, but don’t remember it. It wasn’t the exact thoughts that trigger the magic though.
Other than that, I can be flexible with the rest.
So what are your thoughts on this magic system? Since I want to write a story with a way that deals with intrusive thoughts that more people can be comfortable with reading, I want to know how I can make more of you comfortable with it. (I do recognize that there will always be someone out there who will be disturbed by it, but I don’t want to go any further with it than necessary). The way the spell images are currently is not necessary. My sister thought one of the issues was that the images sounded like they could be real. Would it help if the images were more normal than creepy (for example, maybe something as simple as a horse running as a substitute of the real image (though that could become confusing if Alan actually thinks of a horse running and nothing happens.))? Do you just think I should hide the images altogether?
Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to see the stars.
Okay, to me it wasn’t so much that the images were real/unreal/creepy/cute/etc.etc. That’s not what matters to me. what matters is letting the reader picture what Alan is picturing when that thing is sinful. I mean…. ugh….. how to put this……… okay, one thing is that if there is any book that we are reading and the character start to speak spells or words that create spells, even if it was something that seemed harmless, we tend to get rid of that book. Witchcraft and magic-spell-casting are not to be taken lightly. I honestly think it would be best to leave the imagery out.
This makes me think of Corinthians 8.
…However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
Maybe I’m being silly, but there are a lot of “silly” people I know regarding thoughts in this area. I think for the sake of those readers you should leave the imagery out. We know Alan well, and we can know him even better. If we lose that connection point with being to sympathies over his sin, then so be it. Your character being real to the reader is not worth wounding the reader’s conscience.
Put it this way, if you were working with a character who was once a prostitute before she was saved, you wouldn’t write flashbacks of her life before her salvation that concerned scenes in that area of her sin. Why? To protect your reader (and yourself). I know that’s a big jump from what you’re writing in one way…. yet it’s also not in another. God groups those who cast spells and deal in magic in with some pretty bad things.
Deuteronomy 18:9-12
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.(Sorcerers just got grouped with people who offer their children as sacrifices to idols.)
Revelation 21:8
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”Revelation 22:15
Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.Soooo….. I get what you’re doing with your magic system, and I think that it can stay. However, I think that it should really be taken into account how serious this is, and if we have to lose some of the understanding of Alan’s character because you don’t tell us of the imagery, then so be it. As a reader I will thank you more for leaving the images out then I would thank you for making Alan more real to me. There are plenty of other ways to do that, even if it takes a little more work.
So, yeah. There’s my thoughts. I’m probably alone on this stance, but this is what I believe.
I hope none of this came across as harsh. Sometimes I hate email-type correspondences because of the lack of body language/expression/etc.etc. So please know that what was written here was done so in all sisterly love as a fellow Christian.
Man is born for the fight, to be forged and molded into a sharper, finer, stronger image of God
I didn’t have a problem with the magic images. Since this is fiction, I don’t think readers will attempt to do the magic, since it is evil, and unless the images are actually based on occult magic, I don’t see any harm with the reader picturing them.
🎵For our blessed lady's sake, bring us in good ale!🎵
@linus-smallprint I’m between @theducktator and @ellette-giselle on this, but I can’t explain now. Gotta finish my school work first, then I’ll get back to ya.
"When in doubt, eat cheese crackers."-me to my charries who don't even know about cheese crackers
@theducktator @linus-smallprint
My thoughts are not that a reader will be tempted to use magic. It’s just the fact of putting those images in their mind. Same as why we don’t write super graphic scenes or Rated R type scenes. It’s not that we’re worried the readers will graphically kill someone or commit adultery if they read it, it’s the fact that you are putting those images in their mind, and– as is one of the big points in Linus’s book– thoughts and images are powerful.
Man is born for the fight, to be forged and molded into a sharper, finer, stronger image of God
The difference with the graphic murder/adultery thing is that those are real, while Linus’ magic system is made up. Thinking about murder and adultery is different than thinking about pretend magic.
🎵For our blessed lady's sake, bring us in good ale!🎵
Yes, but magic is real too. The Bible says so.I think one of the most dangerous things we can do is view it as unreal and harmless.
Man is born for the fight, to be forged and molded into a sharper, finer, stronger image of God
I might write a fuller explanation about what I believe about this matter (taking into account what Ellette said about putting images into the reader’s mind), but the gist of it is that someone is always going to be bothered by this.
Linus has made a very harmless representation of magic. This is just imagery of humans developing animalistic traits, which is present throughout the entire book. Similarly to the concept of murder, you can portray something in a story without trying to advertise it as a fun activity. He is not causing anyone problems unless they make it into a problem.
I think he should keep it, and if a reader is bothered by a few descriptions of what Alan is imagining (which is not real magic in the slightest), they can just put the book down.
At some point, you just have to let it go, because not everyone is going to like it.
#ProtectAdolinKholin
I’m aware that it is real, and I would never go to a seance or something, but this particular magic is made up, and it isn’t like occult magic. I do think that fantasy magic in general is harmless, (though most of the fantasy I read is Christian and/or middle grade so it doesn’t get that dark), though maybe not this one since it is specifically supposed to be evil. I still don’t understand how imagining random images would necessarily harm you, as long as you aren’t attempting to actually do the magic. Basically, what Whaley said. She worded it better.
🎵For our blessed lady's sake, bring us in good ale!🎵
So, yeah. There’s my thoughts. I’m probably alone on this stance, but this is what I believe.
Well thank you for sharing them. I’m very glad you did. Sometimes I get the feeling that some of my readers think something I write is overly weird/wrong, but don’t tell me because ‘it’s just his thing’ or ‘you do you’. There was something in my first draft that I had a feeling my readers were all thinking about one thing in my first draft and it was only after pressing my friend that I was able to get his honest thoughts. I eventually decided to remove this. So I am very glad that you weren’t afraid to bring this issue up and voice your thoughts. I encourage you to continue doing this in the future.
I do see your concerns and you have some good points. I want my book to be one glorifying to God, not a stumbling block to you or other Christians with similar concerns. I’ll think over what you said and others say and pray about it before I make my final decision. Just know that even if I end up disagreeing with you in the end I still really appreciate that you voiced your thoughts.
I hope none of this came across as harsh. Sometimes I hate email-type correspondences because of the lack of body language/expression/etc.etc. So please know that what was written here was done so in all sisterly love as a fellow Christian.
Understood. I know exactly what you mean here, online conversations are weird.
Thank you for your thoughts as well.
All right, I will await those.
Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to see the stars.
@ellette-giselle @keilah-h @theducktator @whalekeeper @stephie
One question I forgot in my feedback file under Worldbuilding:
Any topics you recommend I research to improve worldbuilding and make it more realistic?
Also, I somehow completely forgot to add Stripe to my list of characters I’m most eager for feedback on.
Sometimes it is necessary to paint the sky black in order to see the stars.
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