Activity

@obrian-of-the-surface-world Dear goodness, we are not speaking the same language at all. That’s my bad.

Memorization of “writing rules” is a wholly different beast to purposeful and deliberate practice of writing. The latter is about active reading, deconstruction and reconstruction, creating exercises that move you closer toward an ideal state of proficiency, and organic internalization of the patterns that arise from the parts of writing that already resonate with you.

Let’s grab chess again. Ben Franklin taught himself to write and to play chess. He deliberately practiced writing by doing everything I mentioned above, largely through copy work. By internalizing the work of masters, he became a master himself. Franklin didn’t have that same opportunity in chess. He had a huge passion for it and both wrote famously on the game and played a ridiculous number of games, but he achieved no amazing skill.

You’re of course right that someone needs to cultivate a love for writing before they develop it as a skill, but in brutal honesty, a person who joins a niche writing forum with a screened membership application is probably already at the point of loving it.

And re this:

…If a particular story is by design, not intended for non-believers, do you think that makes a difference?

No, not in the slightest, and you completely miss my point. Whatever the objective (and rightly extremely high) value of knowing Scripture, I will perceive a character who acts as described in the described manner.

@write-owl Have you read The Children of Húrin? It’s my favorite bit of Middle Earth and I talk about it too much.