Josiah DeGraaf

@gideon-sowdon Oh–haha. This is what happens when you skim a forum post–you miss the important line that says they don’t have electricity. >.< Going for some sort of chemical reaction sounds like the best route then.

@jane-maree Haha! Well good on you for being able to discover it in one of the hardest chapters then. 😉 Does the clash in that chapter change the characters at all in their arcs, or do they remain pretty dead-set in their ways at the end of it?

@kate-flournoy That’s awesome–glad to hear that. Once you’ve finished the course, I may have to ask you to give us some version of the “every lesson has made me realize something crucial about my story” line for us to use in our promotional materials for this course. 😉

Is the message of your story that the reason for man’s existence is to…[Read more]

@gideon-sowdon Mechanical arms and legs actually already exist to some extent… The technology probably isn’t sophisticated as the technology in your world, but I’ve honestly been surprised by how sophisticated the technology currently is. I’d research what people currently use to power them.

@audrey-caylin Yes–that is definitely the danger of using Method #1. But I agree. The more different you make their initial situations, the more depth you can get with this arc!

@audrey-caylin Looks good. I agree it’s probably the closest to #2 since they both are dealing with very different aspects of the same problem. The arcs don’t have to happen simultaneously, so the way you’re doing it sounds good. 🙂

@audrey Looks good. I agree it’s probably the closest to #2 since they both are dealing with very different aspects of the same problem. The arcs don’t have to happen simultaneously, so the way you’re doing it sounds good. 🙂

@hope Looks good. I like how you’re subdividing the minor themes there between the major and primary categories.

@hope Yeah; I hate it when books get to that length. xD Novel length expectations can be very annoying at times. =P I was just curious on that front.

@hope Oh, I like that. A very nice blend of similarities and dissimilarities like that can create really strong foils. You even get some of the benefits of Method #2 as well since while they may both intellectually believe the same things (and thus have the same character arc) in practice they seem to live according to different EiLs, if I’m…[Read more]

@overcomer Haha, that makes sense. Sounds like you’re on the right track! You may find it worthwhile to jump ahead to the ‘How to Handle Multiple Themes in One Story’ lesson in the last module of the course, as that’s where I really address what to do with stories like yours that have multiple themes. Some aspects of the lesson may rely on…[Read more]

@hope Both of those are awesome ways to connect major characters! I love it.

@hope Nice work. I like the similarities between Hilith and Cedric on that front. Are they both family members?

@kate-flournoy I like that development for Eldred not liking hope for that reason. Nice character development there. All those minor characters look good with their Experiments in Living.

Yeah, that’s a pretty insane word count there. =P I have no idea how I’d even begin to write a book that long!

@audrey-caylin Nice–that seems like a very effective way to make him the best villain possible for her arc as she struggles to learn forgiveness. I would say he fits the Tempter type the best.

@overcomer All those theme/focusing question pairs look great! For that last set of focusing questions, they all seem to stem from the common theme of heroship.

@dragon-snapper @daeus @jane-maree How’d I ever get associated with a frog? O.o

@dragon-snapper Star Wars is an example of space opera. Your story could be planetary romance or generic SF, tho. I guess I mostly wanted to clarify if it had a large space element or not.

My hands-down favorite sci-fi series is the Ender’s Game Quartet by Orson Scott Card. Be forewarned that there’s some language in the series, if that bothers…[Read more]

@dragon-snapper What sub-genre of sci-fi are you looking at writing? Hard sci-fi? Space opera? Steampunk? Something else? I haven’t written much sci-fi, but I’ve read a decent bit, so hearing what type of sci-fi you’re looking at writing would help me know what to best recommend on the reading front.