Josiah DeGraaf

@aratrea I think most people have readings from St. Vincent Milay is they take American Lit or an overview course. I had never heard of Amy Lowell before taking my literature classes, though, and I read a lot of classics. I would guess that she is lesser known than some.

@that_writer_girl_99 My favorite fiction author is Beatrix Potter, hands…[Read more]

@aratrea Yes, exactly. I also enjoy poets like Amy Lowell and Edna St. Vincent Milay, and other women who wrote during the period. Their writing has a slightly different feel to it than that of the men who were writing at the time, and that’s interesting to me. I think for writers in general, it was an era of knowing the rules so well they…[Read more]

Thank you all for your kind welcome. 🙂

@winter-rose My favorite novel is Little Women, but anything by Eleanor H. Porter is at the top of my list as well. I also have a copy of the Complete Poems of Robert Frost and the Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter, both of which I adore.

@aratrea Ooh, good question! Broadly speaking, I like the modern…[Read more]

@Kina-Lamb
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Thank you @aratrea for your suggestion and for the article! One of the points in the article that particularly stood out to me, was remembering why you wanted to write the book in the first place. Sometimes over the frustration of figuring out how to write something I want and not what I don’t, I can forget why I wanted to write that particular…[Read more]

@aratrea
Sorry about that!
Captain Manel uses force of strength to gain the loyalty, if you can call it that, of his men. And he uses power to keep them loyal.
My attempt is to make Teren’s EiL close to correct, but not quite there yet. Since he believes that as long as you keep the greater good of the people in mind you will make the right…[Read more]

@hope Ooh, what are timesabers. They sound cool.
@aratrea Glad you liked it! 😛 *bows* The Wiser.

@Aratrea 19th and 21st both work for me.

@aratrea I’m traveling again on the 21st. There’s a slight chance I might be able to make the 19th, but I won’t know until a lot closer to that date.

@Aratrea The 19th won’t work, but the 21st, afternoon or evening would.

@Aratrea my future course? Since I’ve already gone through all my next ten ideas and mapped out their themes in excruciating detail, I suppose you mean more futurely than that… um… continue? XD Pick other stories to pieces and keep learning and applying as I do, hopefully.

Seriously. There are no words for how amazing this was. I am…[Read more]

@Aratrea my future course? Since I’ve already gone through all my next ten ideas and mapped out their themes in excruciating detail, I suppose you mean more futurely than that… um… continue? XD Pick other stories to pieces and keep learning and applying as I do, hopefully.

Seriously. There are no words for how amazing this was. I am…[Read more]

@daeus Aha. Would like some more ice cream long with the sequel? 😛
@christi-eaton Hahaha! Yeah…I’m not even sure why I asked that question. 😛 Shall I say its unanimous?

Okay, as there will be an angry mob chasing me if I do not write a sequel, as it would seem, I clearly need to write one. I already have some ideas, but if any of you have…[Read more]

@aratrea
The focusing question is, how do you be a good leader of your people?
The message is that to be a good leader you must be trustworthy and you must make decisions that are for the good of your people not just good for yourself.
Teren, the MC’s, EiL is that if a leader keeps the greater good of the people in mind he will do the right…[Read more]

@aratrea
When Allie flees an unwanted situation she is not thinking of anything but her perceived need to get out of there. Because of that she ends up in a dangerous situation. One that is threatening her life, and threatening the lives of the other characters who go after her.

Shriah’s stalemate would keep the rebels from going anywhere. They…[Read more]

@aratrea

@aratrea No, I don’t think there was anything in particular that you could have explained better. You do a great job of explaining it and all of the examples helped a lot.
I think what was the hardest to understand was putting the scenes and story together. I am good at concentrating on one thing at a time, but when I need to think about two…[Read more]

@aratrea Northanger Abbey is an amazing book! It is actually my favorite of all of Jane Austen’s books. I love it so much, mostly because I feel like Catherine is me. She is very, very relatable.
Oh yes, there should be much more characters who pretend they are a character in a story. 🙂

I decided to start doing another WIP because quite frankly I don’t have enough characters in my original one to do this…..
So! This story’s theme is what it takes to be a good leader.

Captain Manel: He is the father of the main characters fiance. He is loyal to Teren, the MC, only because it will get him what he wants, a foot in the political…[Read more]

I never before realized that antagonists could technically be good guys…. A whole new vista of storytelling has opened up!

Book One: In The Last Unicorn one of the antagonists is the love interest to Amalthea. He is keeping/distracting her from the story goal, which is to free her people. He is an antagonist who you wouldn’t think of as one at…[Read more]