Kathryn Comstock

@graciegirl Covert spy operations in the world of literature and theme are the best operations to have. 😉 I know exactly what you mean by that!

@sleepwalkingmk I think your revision of #1 works well and drives at what I was looking for. The character’s complete obedience to her parents is part of her personality, but stems from more issues than just the theme, which is why I don’t think it’s part of the answer to your FQ.

Also I’m a huge fan of #3. It’s a very sympathetic answer that I…[Read more]

@graciegirl As long as it isn’t the full name of any famous person (whether living or deceased), overly abstract or silly, a penname is fine. 🙂

@bethanysinkyroses Yes–that would be fine! Ideally we’ll have people from all over the spectrum–some who have been here for a while and some who have joined recently, so that would be no problem.

@bethanysinkyroses Thanks for that conference recommendation! As Michael mentioned, we’ll need to talk as a team about how much of an investment it’s worth to attend these conferences, but I’d definitely love to attend more of them if we can make them financially feasible for us. I’ll add that convention to our list of potential conferences next year.

@sleepwalkingmk Good set of answers there. I might slightly alter the “family/parents” answer to focus more on the value of family than an un-nuanced approach to obedience, though. Whether you choose to always obey your parents or not seems to be a different issue than if you view them as the most important thing in your life.

How would you…[Read more]

@sleepwalkingmk Good set of answers there. I might slightly alter the “family/parents” answer to focus more on the value of family than an un-nuanced approach to obedience, though. Whether you choose to always obey your parents or not seems to be a different issue than if you view them as the most important thing in your life.

How would you…[Read more]

@timothy-young Like others mentioned, I think that’s a hard FQ to make work for a historical event. The question Daeus put down (“what is poetic justice if good people are so often punished?”) may work as a much better FQ for that story! If I were writing about that event, I would probably focus the story on the problem of evil and what it mea…[Read more]

@anne-of-lothlorien The answer is always yes. 😉

@jess-penrose This outline works a lot better! Two comments! First, it’s unclear–at least in outline form–how he better brings about justice by staying in London. Is there a bad situation there that he needs to try and rectify? Second, he seems to too easily switch from the second EiL to the third. your “beginning of venn diagram 2” moment seems…[Read more]

@perfectfifths If you’re doing a theme of trust as well, I would begin by creating a focusing question and five different answers for that FQ with regards to your theme of trust. I think that structure works well as a general arc for this kind of theme, though. How do you plan on splitting it up between books? Or, to put it another way, what will…[Read more]

@ethryndal Yeah, I’m beginning to wonder if you may be able to handle this easier if you had a slightly-different theme and focusing question. “God’s Gifts” may work better as a complementary theme to a different primary theme that’s slightly broader to be able to handle more of these different themes. Something like “the highest value in life”…[Read more]

@graciegirl Seems like the message is a bit vague. What does it mean to weigh it against what we know is right? Does that mean it’s a wisdom issue and sometimes we should value the heart over what we know is right? Does it mean that we should always value what we know is right over the heart? Or is there a complimentary relationship between heart…[Read more]

@jess-penrose

Yes–this is the method you want to be using to set out this kind of arc. This is why it qualifies as a complex character arc–there are a lot more key thematic points than there are otherwise.

The arc from the first EiL to the second works out really well, but it seems to deteriorate from there. I think you’re right that the…[Read more]

@perfectfifths That sounds great! Having your character wrestle through the conflict between those two EiLs should lead to some good realistic movement for her arc.

At the risk of leaking our future plans, we actually have a mini-course on this topic that we’ll be releasing in late July! 😀 I’ll second what everyone else is saying, and also throw out there that you need to create a character that audiences can readily empathize with. The more the reader can relate to the character and understand why they’re…[Read more]

@dragon-snapper Lol. Loved the addition of Michael as the overlord and the reference to Daniel in that section. xD

@jess-penrose Awesome. Nice work!