Shaina

@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]

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

KeePers everywhere!

1,000 strong. That’s my goal.

I am thrilled to announce the launch of the new Reader Behavior Survey. If you haven’t already read through this thread, the Reader Behavior Survey is a survey I put together that asks readers detailed questions to probe into how they think and what influences them. “Why?” you ask. Well, these…[Read more]

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

@Northerner I have no idea where my first post went. Here. Have it again.

Okay guys.
@Hope gave me a book with three of G.K. Chesterton’s novels in it as an early birthday present, and though I have only read one of them so far it completely blew my mind.
It was The Ball and the Cross.

Has anyone else read it? If so, can we please discuss how…[Read more]

@jenali oh yesss. I read that book last year and liked it quite a lot. It had a really interesting concept.

@jenali Good for finding an outside-of-the-box example. 😉 Haven’t read the book, but the brief description there sounds like it matches the method!

@jane-maree That looks good and makes a lot of sense to me. 🙂 What parts of your story’s structure are you still wrestling with?

@jenali That looks pretty good. My one concern would be that Brigen should be more seriously considering trusting in the Creator at the midpoint, not at the climax. If he only considers and tries to live this out at…[Read more]

@Jenali Oh, yeah, that’s always fun. I have a hardened character with a pointy personality,and her name is Shar.

Another thing I do is take a word and write it backwards, then add or subtract letters till it sounds nice.

@jenali @dragon-snapper I totally agree! I really like J and L names for heroes. Lately I’ve been noticing that I have a lot of J & L names in my WIP…so I might need to pay a bit more attention to that. 🙂

Meanings of names are also SUPER important to me. I always look up any name I like for a character to see what it means first, because…[Read more]

Thanks so much guys! I haven’t abandoned you; my laptop went AWOL for a space there… XD

@R-J-Wordsmith @Jenali

You glance down at the notebook in your lap only to find it covered in elegant, foreign symbols, and the pencil in your hand glowing with a faint blue light.

@jenali That sounds like a great example. I love how many mothers are being mentioned in this thread!

@jenali That does sound like a depressing book. Course I guess that isn’t exactly new to Dickens. =P Good example. Sometimes catharsis means giving another character a positive fate if the negative arc character can’t achieve any epiphany.

@jenali For girls’ names, I usually like the letter’s A and J, though it varies. A lot. 😛

@jenali Thank you so much for your input! Ariszi is actually a boy’s name but I’ve often thought it sounded a bit girly myself. 🙂 As for the pronounciation you were very close. I always figured it like ‘Uh-riz-ee’. Thanks again! This has been most helpful 🙂

@jenali Haha, that’s great you’ve already been applying this to characters. Putting characters in a position where they can see the harms their actions are causing is a great way to induce change.

@jenali Yes; that is the unfortunate truth about what happens when you learn new concepts in the middle of the writing process!

The character arc outline here looks good. I like the fact that you included an example of someone he can look up to in the midpoint arc. Using other characters as examples is a great method of bringing about change, and…[Read more]