Josiah DeGraaf

@jenali Awesome–thanks for making all that clear. Those look like good foils. I especially like the potential for interplay you have within the antagonists, specifically thinking about Manel and Tekal’s similar views on loyalty. Does Manel take a similar course of action to Tekal (giving gifts) to obtain loyalty, or does he use a different tack?…[Read more]

Thanks for letting me know what works for you all! Sounds like it’s harder to find a good date for everyone this time around. By any chance, would the 19th or the 21st at the same time work any better? If enough people say by Sunday night that one of those times would work better, we’ll do that. Otherwise, we’ll do the 13th or…[Read more]

@jenali Detailing those physical consequences there helps to clarify the poetic justice on that front. Looks good!

@jenali Ah–sorry for not seeing this before! Thanks for the tag. Both of those look great!

@jenali Got it. Thanks for the feedback!

@delightinlife Audrey and Jane had great thoughts on things you can change about a story to make it appear fresh again. I’ve read stuff from several different authors who experience the same thing, and sometimes this can be an unfortunate side effect of thinking about a project too much before working on it! There’s an old blog post I wrote on…[Read more]

@jenali What’s the focusing question and message of your book, and what’s your character’s EiL, just so I understand everything that’s going on in your story?

@jenali That’s awesome to hear! 😀 It definitely opened up my view of storytelling as well when I realized that several years ago. Haven’t read The Last Unicorn, but it sounds like a good example. Isabella is definitely both in Northanger Abbey, and I agree that she’s more of an influencer. On a side note, isn’t Northanger Abbey just a fantastic…[Read more]

@jenali Great example! Charlotte and Elizabeth are great foil characters in Pride and Prejudice. Those sorts of foils can definitely work very effectively.

@jenali Looks good–I like how the scenes build on each other to hammer on Brigen’s inability to succeed with his EiL.

@jenali Great! What aspects of this section have been harder to understand? Is there anything I could be explaining better?

@jane-maree Awesome. Sounds like an effective foil then.

@jenali I like the characters there, especially Shriah’s alternate take on strength. What are the negative repercussions of the Allie’s decision to flee and Shriah’s stale mate? Often poetic justice will include more than simply a failure to do something.

@jenali Excellent work! While I haven’t read the book, you outlined the scenes really well and seem to have a really good grasp of what’s going on. This assignment is more time-intensive than the other assignments, but I’ve found for myself that when I do this, I not only understand the story I’m analyzing a lot better, but I also get a much…[Read more]

@jane-maree I see the post, so it sounds like you found some way to post it successfully. 🙂 Good characters. I like that you’re drawing from the theme itself and not merely from the focusing question. Does Tain draw the MC closer toward the notion that he should fight for his freedom before the MC sees how it turns out for Tain?

@jenali That’s exactly what I was looking for. Great analysis!

@cloudy Those sound like some good thematic starting points! And you can certainly write strong themes without making your story explicitly-Christian. Our marketing director wrote a post earlier this year defining the basic principles of theme that you may find helpful on that front: https://kingdompen.org/a-new-focus-for-2017/ I’m right there with…[Read more]

You can definitely have good stories without a love interest. Now, I should probably mention that, from what I’ve heard, publishers tend to prefer stories with love interests for marketability purposes. As an author, if you get to that point where you’re negotiating with publishers, you may have to fight to keep love interests out of the story.…[Read more]

You can definitely have good stories without a love interest. Now, I should probably mention that, from what I’ve heard, publishers tend to prefer stories with love interests for marketability purposes. As an author, if you get to that point where you’re negotiating with publishers, you may have to fight to keep love interests out of the story.…[Read more]

@cloudy Sounds like a fun premise! Have you thought at all about what themes you want to be tackling in the book?