@Wordsmith I very much doubt it. And I notice his writing isn’t that great either, which kind of tends to happen when you throw out all the proper standards and deliberately write contrary to them. I mean, if you’re such a great writer that your work can overshadow Tolkien’s — cos he had his influences and things, and I don’t think he’d say “Oh…[Read more]

@Karthmin yep. Tolkien is great. I’ve got a classmate, also a Creative Writing major, who says he’s only about average, but then he doesn’t think very highly of Lewis either, so I don’t think his opinion counts for very much. But it’s not just his technical skill at writing that makes him great (though having such a thorough grasp of the English…[Read more]

@h-jones, the Peterson quote is right on! Not that the Tolkien and catechism quotes are at all wrong either; they’re what I first thought of when I saw the title of this thread, but that’s a perspective that often gets left out. It’s why we write stories instead of doing apologetics. Nothing wrong with the latter, and if I weren’t a writer I might…[Read more]

@Karthmin, Monsters and Critics, in its very shortest form, is against people reading too much into works or trying too hard to interpret them or saying what the authour must really have meant — so things like turning Beowulf into a political or religious allegory, or valuing it as an historical document mainly, forgetting in all cases that it’s…[Read more]

@Hope-ann On Fairy Stories is essential reading for any authour, but most especially those trying to write from a Christian worldview — not limited to fantasy. Here’s a not-as-sketchy-as-it-looks link: http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2004/fairystories-tolkien.pdf. Be off with you. Quiz on Thursday.

This whole thread is deeply interesting, even the digressions on “who’d want to marry a writer?” (that perennial question) and group hugs. (I for one like my personal space and rarely give it up when I can help it to an ordinary one-to-one hug. Group hugs are just weird.) And I know exactly what @Hope-ann means when she says if you’re surrounded…[Read more]

@Elizabeth INTP with no math or science skill. That stereotype does bother me, because it seems to equate intelligence with being good at working with empirical data and, when you’re doing math, a very limited set of options. I like the flexibility of art, thanks, and I’m much too theoretical for my scientific friends’ liking sometimes.

Now, the…[Read more]

@the-inkspiller, I understand something of where you’re at — I’m rather melancholic, and being around happy people for too long has a way of making me pessimistic just to provide some balance or something. And I know what it’s like to be cynical about politics, looking for someone to take advantage of their place where they can Do Something and…[Read more]

I’ve been absent quite a lot recently: being counsellor at a week-long music camp (even though I am not at all musical), not being able to remember my password and then not being able to reset it, and I think there was something else? But I did win Camp NaNo, and I wrote thirteen thousand words last week, so I have been productive.

@The-inkspiller you will love Orthodoxy. (It’s the book he wrote after he published Heretics, a collection of essays about problems with modern philosophy, and people said, “It’s all very well to tell us what not to believe, but what should we believe in its place?” and partly autobiographical.) And probably Queer Trades. Is The Blue Cross one o…[Read more]

@Sarah-narnathron thank you for the lovely comment!

The acting thing is mostly because a profession which involves, not to put too fine a point on it, people pretending to be other people, the most successful being those who are best at deception, is kind of. . . off, somehow? And, yeah, you can point to how the kinds of people who hand around…[Read more]

I am. . . slightly overwhelmed by the enthusiasm here. I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually.

@Cassie-hartfinh favourite to read or write? I dunno. Lots of them have strengths and most have weaknesses. Most of what I own is fantasy of one sort of another. Favourite colour is a funny one. Usually it’s green but my current protag likes red, so I…[Read more]

@the-inkspiller, and I don’t even know Greek! Isn’t it a great feeling when someone gets an obscure reference you make?

Do finish the Chesterton anthology (which is it?). And tell me what you think, if you remember. He’s one of my favourite authours.

@The-inkspiller I’m glad I could help! Also, out of curiosity. . . Kyreleis. . . where does her name come from? Because it looks a lot like it could be a contraction of Kyrie Eleison, which given what you wrote about her in the first post is very interesting. Or just an accident?

And good luck with having to end up writing a very different story…[Read more]

@nuetrobolt, but the Head! It creeps me out.

How has Kate not showed up in this thread yet?

One thing I really like about all the introverts gathering on KP and here is that no one says “oh, you’re an introvert? But you don’t seem to have anything wrong with you” or “But you write long posts, it’s not like you’re shy or quiet”. Because we all know what being an introvert is (“recharging” by…[Read more]

@The-inkspiller ooh, another hist-fic writer, nice! What periods do you gravitate toward? And combining historical and science fiction could be awesome. I don’t have a head for science, myself, but I admire people who not only understand it but can make it enjoyable to read about. I suppose everyone read the Ender’s Game series before I did…[Read more]

If you wanted to play with foil characters, you could contrast her with another woman in the story by (not explicitly, of course) asking “what makes a strong female character? This girl who goes fighting, or [for example] the woman who bears half-a-dozen children of her own body and looks after them all while dealing with the effects of the Fall…[Read more]

@Mariposa. . . well, it’s not like I’m a science major. This way even the smallest things surprise me.

@Brie-donning I am always up for a discussion of Chesterton, and any time you want to read more, I’ve got lists of lists of recommendations, poetry, plays, fiction, non-fiction, essays, you name it, he probably wrote it.

@Literatureforthelight…[Read more]

@Carolyn-Matthews, INTP stands for Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Procrastinator (well, not actually the last one) — it’s an MBTI type. We’re stereotyped as computer-science people, although I am neither. @Kate-flournoy can tell you all about the types.

@Mariposa, probably one of the flying kinds — it’s the next best thing to being a dragon…[Read more]