Josiah DeGraaf

Welcome to the site, @f5a8c3e92! I can very much sympathize with school getting in the way of writing. xD The story of my life anymore is how much college work I can push off/ignore in order to find time to write. Great author list there as well. I espy many of my favorites on that list, particularly Austen. Do you have a favorite Austen work?

@anna-brie Got it. Sounds good then!

@ethryndal Ha–yep, haven’t heard of it, but it sounds like a good example!

@jenali Looks like a good set of minor characters there! I like the fact that you have a foil situation with Teren’s house and the country as a whole. Those kinds of comparisons can make for effective theme development.

@jenali I would generally agree with that as an overall principle. I will mention, though, that with short stories you also have less space, so sometimes I think leaving minor characters undeveloped can make more sense in a short story given how little space you have to work with.

I haven’t read that book, but it sounds like a good example!…[Read more]

@jenali Got it. Sounds like a good arc for her then. With that piece in place, all of that looks good!

@anna-brie

Yeah, when you make the plot goals secretly dependent on the thematic goals (which it looks like you’re doing here), the plot doesn’t always align as clearly with the character arc moments as it would otherwise. Sometimes you’ll want to look to a minor theme to keep the rest of the plot relevant, as it looks like you’re doing with…[Read more]

@anna-brie Elanor and Marianne definitely constitute a good foil in Sense and Sensibility. Keep looking for examples and I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with more!

@delightinlife That’s awesome! Glad to hear you’ve been finding more of your inspiration. 🙂

@jenali That looks like a good contrary set-up to explore the elements of leadership from the perspective of someone who doesn’t view themselves as a natural leader? What would you say Jenali’s starting EiL is about what makes a leader a good leader?

Also, it’s nice to learn the meaning behind your username. 😉

@jenali A sharp betrayal like that can set up a very good theme on loyalty and could definitely make Melat the best possible opponent for Teren on that front. The more you dig into his desire to see a unified people, I suspect the more compelling his motivations will be as a villain. Nice work.

@jenali Yes–the villain can absolutely have a positive arc! I would point to Darth Vader as being a prime example of that trope, but there are others as well.

That sounds like a great example of a well-done villain. Giving a villain very human desires and motivations like that is a very effective way of creating a sympathetic villain who will…[Read more]

@jenali So it sounds like we even have some inter-connected foils there as Manel and Tekal foil each other in addition to the protagonist on that front. I like that. And that makes sense with regards to Teren and Xandley’s EiLs. Both of those positions can be painted really sympathetically, and if you do it right, that should make for a really…[Read more]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! We’re going to schedule this for April 13th (that’s this Thursday) from 3-4 PM EST. I know this time doesn’t work for everyone, but I hope to see many of you there! Check your emails later today for the link.

@audrey-caylin @dragon-snapper @ethryndal @overcomer @aella @hope @anne-swiftblade @gideon-sowdon @anna-br…[Read more]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! We’re going to schedule this for April 13th (that’s this Thursday) from 3-4 PM EST. I know this time doesn’t work for everyone, but I hope to see many of you there!

@audrey-caylin @dragon-snapper @ethryndal @overcomer @aella @hope @anne-swiftblade @gideon-sowdon @anna-brie @jane-maree

@feedingmygoldfish Oh, neat. I’m trying to remember if I’ve read either of those poets in my college courses (I’m currently finishing up a degree in literature), but am coming up blank. =P Poetry has never been my strong suit, so I have a much harder time remembering what poets I’ve actually read and studied. xD

@feedingmygoldfish Ah; nice. So Fitzgerald, Hemingway and the like?

@feedingmygoldfish Welcome to the forum! Glad to have you with us. Do you have any favorite literary time periods as a quasi-English major?

@dragon-snapper

“You only ever show up to tell me things I don’t want to hear!”

This has got to be my new motto. xD Nicely done. I laughed while reading it.

Analyzing other stories for theme lessons that you can apply to your own stories is an awesome course of action to take. Since last summer, I’ve kept an excel sheet of all the stories I’ve read/watched and the storytelling applications I can glean from them, and that’s been incredibly helpful in my own journey as a writer.

I’m always thrilled to…[Read more]