Josiah DeGraaf

@anne-of-lothlorien The first “I don’t know” is Mackenzie; the second is Rolena’s sister who came along for the ride.

@jess-penrose You may be setting a record for how quickly someone has worked through this course! 😉

Silmarillion is a great book for finding negative arcs in, though you’re correct that Melkor is the villain of the story and not really the protagonist. Children of Hurin is another great example. I’m really fuzzy on the details of Children of…[Read more]

@jess-penrose Haven’t read that series yet (though I think I have the first book on my Kindle), but it sounds like the character arc does exactly what it’s supposed to do there! When readers feel like they’re growing right along with the character, you know you’ve done your work as an author effectively!

@jess-penrose Got it. Makes sense! Actually, thinking about my comment on your homework for lesson 5, perhaps the difference between your MC’s beginning and closing arc is that initially the MC just believes that everything must be sacrificed for justice, and he doesn’t add the “as long as it is not unjust to do so” clause until the end of the…[Read more]

@ethryndal How would you say Emolas is connected to your story’s theme? I.e. what does he consider to be the greatest gift?

I think it may be tricky to have Sley’s EiL come out effectively in the story as one doesn’t normally think of justice when they think of the greatest gifts. However, I think that some well-placed lines of dialogue could…[Read more]

@jess-penrose

Good questions. I would personally try to sketch out the general character arc of the entire trilogy, but keep it rather general at this point. Enough so you know where you’re headed and where you’ll be building off of this first book, but not so much that you’re getting bogged down in details.

With regards to this outline, I would…[Read more]

@jess-penrose Glad to hear you’ve been finding this so helpful. 🙂 Those are good thoughts. Often we are unwilling to change until we’re forced to change, which is why it’s crucial to have a relevant plot in our stories that will do the work of forcing changes in the protagonist.

@jess-penrose Yep–that works! The physical problem doesn’t need to happen to the protagonist as long as it still affects the protagonist.

@jess-penrose By “not require atonement of itself,” do you mean that we shouldn’t commit injustice in order to bring about justice? Or do you mean something else? I’m a bit confused on what you mean by that.

@ethryndal Yes–looks great!

@jess-penrose I like the irony of the MC realizing that he deserves justice as well. Is there a way you could bring about a physical component for the MC’s poetic justice as well? That seems to be the main thing you’re missing.

I like the nuanced version of #4 here–it resolves the potential issues I was seeing with it in the other topic.

@jess-penrose I like the irony of the MC realizing that he deserves justice as well. Is there a way you could bring about a physical component for the MC’s poetic justice as well? That seems to be the main thing you’re missing. I like the nuanced version of #4 here as well–it resolves the potential issues I was seeing with it in the other topic.

@jess-penrose I like the irony of the MC realizing that he deserves justice as well. Is there a way you could bring about a physical component for the MC’s poetic justice as well? That seems to be the main thing you’re missing. I like the nuanced version of #4 here as well–it resolves the potential issues I was seeing with it in the other topic. 🙂

@ethryndal Good observation there. I think that’s generally true of the more prominent foil characters in literature, although you get pretty good diversity on whether the foils are right or not when you start looking at less prominent foils in literature.

@ethryndal Sounds like some good adjustments to make on the thematic front. How would you say Lotch and Noyarc would answer your story’s focusing question? It looks like their EiLs are pretty close to functioning as answers to that question (especially Lotch’s), but Noyarc’s may need a couple small adjustments to fully answer that.

@jess-penrose Yes–it’s very freeing as an author to know that you can write about meaningful topics in a powerful way in a way that isn’t preachy to the audience. Hold that goal and that anti-goal in mind, and both should be powerful motivators for you to study and master themes!

Sorry I’m late on interacting with you all on this! The KP staff had a work retreat this weekend and I fell behind on keeping up with these…

@dragon-snapper

My biggest recommendation would be to consider the different ways Christians might honestly answer that focusing question in the way they live their lives. While most Christians may know…[Read more]

@jess-penrose Great motives! Sounds like you’ll especially enjoy one of the last lessons in the course on how to write explicitly Christian fiction in particular. Most of the course will focus on how to write meaningful stories from a Christian perspective effectively, but that lesson will particularly focus on writing in the “Christian fiction…[Read more]

Welcome to the site @lifeofkatie! Congrats on being roped in by some of our most enthusiastic forum members. 😉 Haven’t read any Spurgeon yet, but he’s on my list of theologians to read!

Late to the party, but welcome to the site, @jess-penrose! Glad to have you here with us. 🙂