Kathryn Comstock

@jenali That’s awesome to hear! 😀 It definitely opened up my view of storytelling as well when I realized that several years ago. Haven’t read The Last Unicorn, but it sounds like a good example. Isabella is definitely both in Northanger Abbey, and I agree that she’s more of an influencer. On a side note, isn’t Northanger Abbey just a fantastic…[Read more]

@jenali Great example! Charlotte and Elizabeth are great foil characters in Pride and Prejudice. Those sorts of foils can definitely work very effectively.

@jenali Looks good–I like how the scenes build on each other to hammer on Brigen’s inability to succeed with his EiL.

@jenali Great! What aspects of this section have been harder to understand? Is there anything I could be explaining better?

@jane-maree Awesome. Sounds like an effective foil then.

@jenali I like the characters there, especially Shriah’s alternate take on strength. What are the negative repercussions of the Allie’s decision to flee and Shriah’s stale mate? Often poetic justice will include more than simply a failure to do something.

@jenali Excellent work! While I haven’t read the book, you outlined the scenes really well and seem to have a really good grasp of what’s going on. This assignment is more time-intensive than the other assignments, but I’ve found for myself that when I do this, I not only understand the story I’m analyzing a lot better, but I also get a much…[Read more]

@jane-maree I see the post, so it sounds like you found some way to post it successfully. 🙂 Good characters. I like that you’re drawing from the theme itself and not merely from the focusing question. Does Tain draw the MC closer toward the notion that he should fight for his freedom before the MC sees how it turns out for Tain?

@jenali That’s exactly what I was looking for. Great analysis!

@cloudy Those sound like some good thematic starting points! And you can certainly write strong themes without making your story explicitly-Christian. Our marketing director wrote a post earlier this year defining the basic principles of theme that you may find helpful on that front: https://kingdompen.org/a-new-focus-for-2017/ I’m right there with…[Read more]

You can definitely have good stories without a love interest. Now, I should probably mention that, from what I’ve heard, publishers tend to prefer stories with love interests for marketability purposes. As an author, if you get to that point where you’re negotiating with publishers, you may have to fight to keep love interests out of the story.…[Read more]

You can definitely have good stories without a love interest. Now, I should probably mention that, from what I’ve heard, publishers tend to prefer stories with love interests for marketability purposes. As an author, if you get to that point where you’re negotiating with publishers, you may have to fight to keep love interests out of the story.…[Read more]

@cloudy Sounds like a fun premise! Have you thought at all about what themes you want to be tackling in the book?

Welcome to the site, @cloudy! What’s the premise of the current story you’re working on?

@That_Writer_Girl_99 Got it. The early stages of planning can be my favorite part of writing a novel at times, so that’s a great stage to be in!

If you’re looking for more resources on this topic, one of our writing team members wrote a good article about how to outline a novel a couple months ago that you may find helpful:…[Read more]

@that_writer_girl_99 I’m jealous now. 😉 Nice catch! Neat story idea there too. How far along are you in the planning process?

@audrey-caylin Could you say that the story explores the potential tension between truth and forgiveness and that much of the story is about showing how these two themes actually connect together at the deepest level?

@hope No… it’s on my reading list and I really hope to get to it at some point!

@audrey-caylin That sounds like a solid plan right there. Weiland’s resources are excellent on that front! And yeah, I definitely find for myself that it generally isn’t till the second or third read that I can really pick up on all the thematic stuff that’s going…[Read more]

@jenali How does this conflict manifest itself thematically? Does the conflict seem to have any effects on the protagonist’s character arc?

@shaina How does this conflict manifest itself thematically? Does the conflict seem to have any effects on the protagonist’s character arc?