Josiah DeGraaf

@audrey-caylin Every time you use that book, you remind me that I really need to read it. =P Great work!

Welcome to the forum, @Rachelle! Glad to hear you were able to find us through Brett and Jaquelle. What areas of writing are you particularly trying to grow in at the moment?

@kate-flournoy Ah; good question. Yes, I’m just trying to exclude the characteristic moment, mash moments, midpoint, and resolution scenes. Any other scene is fine!

@r-j-wordsmith Welcome to the site–glad you’ve found us! I have seven younger siblings and was likewise homeschooled so it sounds like we have a similar background. 😉 And excellent choice with Count of Monte Cristo there. My favorite book is probably a tie between that and Brothers Karamazov.

@r-j-wordsmith Welcome to the site–glad you’ve found us! 🙂 I have seven younger siblings and was likewise homeschooled so it sounds like we have a similar background. 😉 And excellent choice with Count of Monte Cristo there. My favorite book is probably a tie between that and Brothers Karamazov.

@jenali Fantastic question. Secular stories can definitely have a theme just as much as Christian stories, and I think you’ll find that often the best secular stories out there are those that have strong themes.

I would distinguish secular and Christian stories on two fronts: with regards to the depth of their themes and with regards to the…[Read more]

@hope Nice! I like that a lot then. You do a really good job of weaving both Experiments in Living together in a way that, at least on paper, looks like a good, gradual transition.

@anna-brie That looks much better. And yes–the important thing is that you have it settled in your head. Some themes aren’t as easily analyzed in this format, but it sounds like you know where you’re headed, so all of that looks good.

@jenali Yeah–that looks great! I particularly like the contrast between moral strength and the strength that…[Read more]

@jenali Yeah–that looks great! I particularly like the contrast between moral strength and the strength that only God is able to provide. Moral strength is probably the most tempting answer to Christians, but it is definitely true that the only way to find enough strength is to rely on God’s strength.

@ethryndal So if I understand you correctly, at the midpoint her change is that she understands that both elves and humans can be either ‘worthy’ or ‘worthless’ instead of putting humans automatically in the ‘worthless’ camp and elves in the ‘worthy’ camp?

@hope Can you also post the Experiments in Living for this? I’m assuming this is different…[Read more]

Welcome to the site @kayla-joy! One of my biggest pieces of advice for you to avoid cheesy/cliched plot is to read as much in the genre as possible–both popular works and good works (which aren’t always the same thing. =P) The more you read in a genre, the more you’ll understand what plot lines are cheesy or cliched–and you’ll also get the…[Read more]

@hope Go for it!

@hope Absolutely! Sometimes I wish that one major event would be enough to change how I live, but unfortunately, that’s not how it works. =P Working a series of events like that into a novel is a fantastic way to replicate that in storytelling.

@anna-brie Ah–I got you now. 🙂 Great job with thinking through how your character would justify their actions!

@anna-brie Those look like a really good set of Experiments! I like them a lot. Could you develop a bit more, tho, how #1 leads to that consequence? I’m not completely sure I’m seeing the connection.

@anna-brie Using other author’s characters for inspiration is great. And being able to put yourself in their shoes like that as an ENFP is awesome! Understanding characters who are very different from you is crucial to being a skilled author, and it sounds like you’re on the right path. 🙂

@anna-brie Yeah, writing with multiple themes can be a tricky. When we polish this course, we may need to move that lesson closer toward the beginning since a lot of people here seem to be working with that. My recommendation here, though, would be to only focus on the theme of righteousness here and the specific message you’re drawing from that,…[Read more]

@gideon-sowdon Daeus took pretty much everything I had to say, so it looks good now! And great idea to think about using an autobiography in addition to a fictional story. Seeing these principles in real life like that can be really helpful for learning how to apply them in your own storytelling.

@audrey That’s awesome–especially since your role model is someone you can see and interact with on a regular basis. 🙂 And yes–I absolutely agree with you on the superhero front!

@audrey-caylin Yeah, Mockingjay especially certainly has a negative arc. In addition to the ones I mentioned in the video, King Lear (really, all of Shakespeare’s tragedies), Oedipus Rex, the Dark Knight, and Morte d’Arthur are all examples of good negative arcs.