Josiah DeGraaf

Thanks for the questions @audrey-caylin and @hope! I’ll be sure to address them at today’s meeting.

Also, everyone should have gotten the link in your email, but just in case anyone missed it, the Q&A will be going live at kingdompen.org/theme-mastery-qa

@ethryndal That’s awesome. Like I said to Audrey, it’s awesome to have role models you see and interact with on a regular basis–especially when they have to overcome struggles like chronic health problems. Great example!

@dragon-snapper Certainly! Here are three different answers I came up with.

– Pride is simply a way of recognizing your strengths and helps you build a confident persona.
– Internal pride doesn’t affect someone as long as they make sure they don’t act pridefully toward others.
– Pride is always destructive and will ruin all your relationships in life.

@jenali Haha, that’s great you’ve already been applying this to characters. Putting characters in a position where they can see the harms their actions are causing is a great way to induce change.

@jenali Yes; that is the unfortunate truth about what happens when you learn new concepts in the middle of the writing process!

The character arc outline here looks good. I like the fact that you included an example of someone he can look up to in the midpoint arc. Using other characters as examples is a great method of bringing about change, and…[Read more]

@jenali Great thoughts. I love your example of you and your siblings, because it’s definitely true! The people we spend a lot of time with have the ability to influence us a lot.

@jenali Looks like a good basic setup there that you’ll be able to develop after video 6.

Haha, yeah, that’s a tricky issue. We’ll be addressing that more in a couple videos later on in the course–one on writing non-protagonist major characters, and one on weaving multiple themes together into one story. I will say that it normally works best…[Read more]

@kate-flournoy Looks good! I like how the reaction sequence for the second scene makes it look like the king’s EiL is going to lead to disaster. Characters that stick to the right course of action despite opposition and seeming-defeat are awesome.

@audrey-caylin Ah–thanks for catching that! It should be fixed now. 🙂

@anna-brie Oh. xD Okay, yeah, I was thinking about The Land of Elyon series by Patrick Carman. So something completely different.

Yes, having multiple main characters definitely complicates things. We’ll be tackling that in a video later in the series–I’m actually scripting that lesson this week! So if you have any specific questions on having…[Read more]

@graciegirl @ethryndal I once had an extended google session on how long it takes to actually strangle someone (apparently it takes a full three minutes =P), what the proper techniques of strangulation are, and how long someone would be able to hear you if you were taunting them while strangling them…

…so yeah. Google may not trust me anymore. =P

@graciegirl Fiction writing is a great justification for making rather odd purchases. 😉

@warrioroftherealm I looked it up in a book I have explaining bodily injuries for writers and such (Body Trauma: A Writer’s Guide to Wounds and Injuries by David Page if you’re interested in looking it up). It said that the shoulder must be replaced into the socket “before the shoulder muscles go into spasm,” since then it will be more difficult…[Read more]

@ethryndal Yeah, negative arcs are rarer these days. If you can’t think of any you’ve read, that may be a good reason to pick a negative arc book up so you can see what it’s like. And @daeus had a good example as well.

@audrey-caylin Correct. Disaster can be anything from losing a physical fight, learning about a devastating revelation, failing to complete an objective, or anything else that makes things go poorly for the character.

And fantastic use of that in your story. All of that looks great!

@jenali Fantastic. Those look like great ways of bringing physical consequences into the equation.

@anna-brie I read that series a loooong time ago, but if memory serves me well, that’s a great example of a strong flat character arc, especially in the later books in the series. Thinking through your favorite flat character arcs in other stories is a great way of learning how to do it in your own story.

@audrey-caylin My current plan is to steal my sister’s copy of the book when I’m home over Spring break. 😉 That’s awesome that you were able to find it so clearly! Figuring out why an author chose to write a scene in a certain way is one of my favorite ways to apply and test what I’ve learned about writing.