YES, Sarah! I loved this article of yours SO. MUCH. You warned that it would be much more serious than your normal blog posts, but it was exactly the sort of article I’d expect from you. Witty, engaging, down-to-earth, and brilliant. I am so excited to read more of your articles here at Story Embers!!

Killing main characters needs to happen more often. That may sound brutal, and my heart breaks as I say it (thinking of all the main characters I love and will defend with my own life if necessary), but it is very, very effective and helps make a book have more of an emotional impact. My favorite books are ones that, more often than not, make me…[Read more]

Very good post; I’ve wondered about this and how to effectively SHOW the gospel, not preach it in books. I, as a Christian, can’t stand preachy books, because to be painfully honest, they are dull and hard to enjoy reading.

I read the comment in which you talked about allegory and symbolism, and I think I prefer symbolism because it still…[Read more]

@the-inkspiller I think I may have read the same roll call! I’ll probably have to end up using one of them. Right now, the marshal that appears in my story shall remain nameless. 😀 I never knew that about Oklahoma! That’s interesting. U.S. Marshals do not seem to have lasted very long anywhere. Thank you for your help!

I thoroughly enjoyed this post. Though I’m not enough of a writer to even consider writing intricate, massive stories, someday I’d love to come close enough to imitating Tolkien to have people say that it just barely reminds them of LOTR in terms of world building and memorable characters and beauty. That would be enough for me. 🙂

Oh my…[Read more]