Mark Kamibaya

@mark-kamibaya The Sons of Katie Elder is DEFINITELY a great movie. Really, really, really, really, really, really, really….good. *considers adding a few more ‘reallys’.*
As for being scared of snakes, you at least have a lot of warning before Kaa enters and she is not made to be jumpy. I am totally petrified of snakes too but I watched it at…[Read more]

@mark-kamibaya
Wait…are you a Harry Potter fan? I love Harry Potter!!! What are your favorite characters? Books? Movies?
Sorry, I’m those are some of my all-time favorite books/movies. 🙂

I also love the Lord of the Rings movies (of course), Princess Bride (like I said before), National Treasure, Oceans 11, and the new movie Zootopia was…[Read more]

@mark-kamibaya Haha. You see, I haven’t yet seen Fireproof or Courageous so maybe War Room isn’t has good as those two. Going from Facing the Giants to War Room was pretty impressive. And I love any movie that makes me cry. Plus the movie has a great lesson on the power of prayer and how God really does answer it.
You’ve got to watch the new…[Read more]

@mark-kamibaya The Inkheart books are even better. The first one seemed a little slow because the movie quickened everything so much, but I still liked it and I loved the next two. Inkdeath was my favorite.

Yes I’ve seen the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies. They are pretty good. I’ve seen the Martian too. A few objectionable parts, but…[Read more]

@mark-kamibaya, unfortunately, the long wait time on publication is normal for an E-Magazine. 2 months is actually on the shorter end for this industry. However, we would like to make that process as short as possible in the future. In addition, we will likely start letting everyone know the monthly themes several months in advanced so that you…[Read more]

JUST ONE???!! *holds head, groans* @Mark-Kamibaya um… can I pick twenty? What?! Why not??
Oh dear… okay… hm. I really like It’s a Wonderful Life. For flat-out timeless, that’s probably on the top of my list. There are others I really love, but that one never gets old.

@winter-rose
Of course it is :). I’ll post the link here once it’s up if I can remember…sticky note time. (mid-late December most likely. I’m shooting for the fifteenth. Because… I don’t know. I like the number fifteen?)
Yesss! Eeek, if someone didn’t go over my work… that’d be a nightmare. I’m planning on it :).
How fun! 😀 I’ll go check…[Read more]

Okay, I laughed reading these! Especially @hope and @daeus 😀 Thanks everybody! @mark-kamibaya @emma-flournoy @kate-flournoy (looking back it might have been dangerous to tag the siblings… (Whoops) I think I have it now! (It’s all for a short story where one good kid is trying to get coal for Christmas because their family doesn’t have…[Read more]

Ooh, such a lovely topic! @Mark-Kamibaya thanks for starting it. I missed it initially because I’m on vacation and wifi is spotty, but you may rest assured I have not abandoned the forum. 😉
As for my favorite structure/arc… well, it really depends. I don’t think I have an absolute favorite. The two I primarily use are Hero’s Journey and…[Read more]

Thank you, @mark-kamibaya! That was very helpful; same to you, @jess. By family, I mean who are their parents, what happened to the parents and what significance are the parents to the character and the story, and does the character have any siblings?
Jess, That has been added to the list! Thank you!

@mark-kamibaya: Haven’t read McKee yet, but he’s rather high on my reading list. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to his book soon. Since I’m not as familiar with competing structures, because of how broad the three act structure is, my view tends to be that most stories work well with following that basic structure, albeit with certain tweaks…[Read more]

@mark-kamibaya

I’ve only really studied K.M’s system actually. I like it because it’s fairly simple (once you get to understand it), the plot points make it easy to lay out the pacing for a novel, it is easily tweaked to fit any of the three character arcs, it corresponds directly to the character arc itself, and I’ve been able to observe it in…[Read more]

Does the Hero’s Journey count as one (e.g. Star Wars)? That’d probably be my favorite if I had to pick one. That being said (as is probably evident from the fact that I write free-verse poetry), I’m a lot like @hope in that I just kinda go with whatever is happening in the story. If it follows a structure, great. If not, it’s not a huge concern as…[Read more]

I’m afraid I don’t know very much about story structure, @mark-kamibaya . I know that it exists, and I’ve heard of the 3 Act story structure, but, so far anyway, I haven’t really studied it much …

Thanks @mark-kamibaya. 🙂 You should write a book on how to write a novel. You would be good at it. 😉 And yes, this writer is a big pantser. (which is really strange because I always plan things out in “real” life)

@Mark-Kamibaya @Jess

Remember: Premise is what makes the readers pick up the book. Plot is what keeps them reading. Character is what makes them pick up the book a second time. And for the record I find that I always remember the characters most.

Yes, yes, yes.
So much this.

Hi! I’m back again. Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I have the background info now. What do you think? I’m trying to make it not cliche-ish. 🙂 Thanks a billion! 🙂 🙂 🙂 @emma-flournoy @hope @bluejay @julia-r @overcomer @anne-swiftblade @mark-kamibaya @dragon-snapper

A long time away in a galaxy- just kidding. 300 years…[Read more]

Wow, everyone. Thanks for all the ideas. I think I can come up with something…

Why are both of Jaxes parents missing? Is he the main character? Is he more important than the others? Is he the key to unraveling a mystery, possibly the mystery of the missing parents?

@anne-swiftblade, So I was thinking that one parent was switched over to the…[Read more]

Hi, @Mark-Kamibaya, good to see you.

You’re right that overviews are essential, but I was arguing that they’re way too easy to overuse and that it’s best to always be critical of them.

To clear up what I was saying in my own novel, I was talking about any place in the novel where I overviewed events as if they happened in the past instead of…[Read more]