Josiah DeGraaf

@kate-flournoy That makes sense. That is a tricky path to weave. Haha, didn’t realize there was another book that came before this one! But that’s a good way of setting up theme for a series.

@jenali I completely agree! Those types of stories are my absolute favorites, and are a great example of theme making a lasting impact on a reader. Can’t believe I never mentioned that aspect in the video! Great thoughts.

@shaina I completely agree! Those types of stories are my absolute favorites, and are a great example of theme making a lasting impact on a reader. Can’t believe I never mentioned that aspect in the video! Great thoughts.

One other thought as I’ve continued to think about the Denholm ending is that you probably want Harold to decide to resist Eldred’s arguments even after everything seems against him so that he then gets rewarded for the right choice by Denholm coming in. Otherwise, if Harold has completely succumbed to Eldred’s arguments, Denholm’s entrance may…[Read more]

@kate-flournoy Wow. Just reading a summary of that climax is beautiful. I am a firm believer of the fact that the climax makes or breaks the story’s climax, and at least on paper, you certainly seem to have that climax down. Other elements may need some work, but you’ve got the core down beautifully.

My one thought on the climax is that Denholm…[Read more]

@hope I see. Yeah, this gets into the tricky parts of fiction writing where everything isn’t as analyze-able as we might like it to be. =P I could see it as being either a second related EiL, or simply her deciding to expand her current EiL to include more than it did otherwise. In gray areas like this, you should probably go with whatever makes…[Read more]

@hope That’s a great point that hasn’t been brought up yet! Those sorts of instructive moments can definitely change someone. They’re a bit trickier to use in novel form since it’s really easy for that to become a preaching moment, but I think it can be done when you do it in a way that’s true to the instructor’s character. I think I discuss that…[Read more]

@hope That seems like a good character arc–I like it! I’m not completely sure, though, on what distinguishes the beginning experiment from the transitory experiment. Is it just how she applies the experiment, or are the experiments themselves different?

@anna-brie Creating Character Arcs is my favorite book she’s written so far on writing. I have both books in paperback and find myself referring to them quite frequently, so that would probably be a good investment to make.

@anna-brie Ah; I get what you’re going at then. I agree that respecting authority seems to tie everything together.

@dragon-snapper Hmm… Yes, I think you’ll want to make a couple adjustments to that. One thing about a focusing question is that I think it should be a bit broader than you currently have it. The issue with the answers you have is…[Read more]

@audrey-caylin I think that would be a good way of doing it. In that case, it would probably more be the first step she’d be taking, and one you would develop more in the sequel.

I would say the novel as a whole would still be a positive character arc even if half of it is a negative arc. If you think about it, you can really divide a novel into…[Read more]

@anna-brie Those look like a good set of focusing questions and answers. And I agree that it sounds like you really have two different (but related) focusing questions there. I think my favorite wrong answer for the first focusing question is #2 since sympathetic but wrong answers have the potential to create really complex and powerful themes.…[Read more]

@anna-brie Glad to hear that this video helped you distinguish your theme from your message! And yes, Weiland’s advice on character arcs is great for uniting plot and character. She has some of the best resources out there for that topic.

@anna-brie Haven’t read the book myself (tho I think one of Jaye’s books is sitting on my Kindle somewhere…), but that seems like a pretty good breakdown. Some themes are definitely hard to describe in one or two words. It could be that you actually have two separate themes that are being woven together as well in the book (we’re not covering…[Read more]