@wordsmith
Active 4 years, 6 months agoForum Replies Created
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Posts
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@seekjustice – Your blog looks amazing! I also looked at your IG…and it too looks fabulous. I’m not on IG right now, so it’s hard for me to follow things there, but I did subscribe to your blog. Can’t wait to see things come it!
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@andrew – Awesome.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@andrew – Haha! You an say that again. Life certainly doesn’t always go as one might expect.
And that sounds really neat. I’m not a goldfish person, but I know the kinds of crazy detail that can go into niche business type things.
I’d love to read a thing or two. Here’s my email: buddy@buddylieberman-martialarts.com
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@taylorclogston – Thanks for that warning! I appreciate it.
Also…yeah, it is really interesting that he’s looking in the mirror while talking to her. I’d be willing to bet that’s a detail we’re reading into a bit too much, but it’s still cool!
Definitely super engaging writing as well.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@andrew – Here’s my entrepreneurial website: buddylieberman-martialarts.com
(Feel free to subscribe to my martial arts newsletter *winks*)
Do you have a blog where you show your non-fiction writing?
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@andrew – Okay first off, taking the career path of an entrepreneur is awesome. College is cool, but what you’re talking about is an underrated way of going about life. In fact, that’s what I’m doing right now. Go for it, man. And yeah, martial arts is a lot of fun to write about. Probably harder to make a career out of than gold-fish, but my favorite.
Is a goldfish shop actually what you want to own, or was that just an example?
Also, @seekjustice, do you have any public written materials on dogs, behavior, and training? Or is it just personal writing? Because, I am totally down for reading that stuff.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@andrew – Apologies for taking so long to respond.
Thank you!
I know this is a bit of an unfair response…but, my favorite non-fiction to write is anything that seems like it needs writing. Recently, that’s been martial arts. As a lifelong martial artist, I have a lot to explore in that field, and I’ve really enjoyed writing about it. I also really enjoy writing about writing itself.
That course looks pretty awesome. I looked up their website, and am wondering if you’re you getting college credit? Because that would be even more awesome.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@taylorclogston – I would add authors like Tolkien and Card to the list of those who mix structures extremely well. Card–with his highly philosophical approach–nailed the pacing and movement of Ender’s Game. And Tolkien uses the extensive layering of his setting to provide what’s necessary to follow the main character through not only a path of conflict and resolve, but an established world and history. Almost like everything around Frodo (the world around him) is moving in a more “Eastern” pattern while Frodo himself takes a “Western”‘ journey through that greater world and universe.
I would be curious to read IQ84 with that in mind. Often I find that main characters rely on what’s going on in the world around them to find purpose. In fact, Orson Scott Card takes an interesting look at this as he wraps his characters in the discussion of ethics and belief system, and makes them discuss how that belief system responds to what is at hand. Dostoevsky seems to do the same. So…does that opening of IQ84 serve as either a mirror for the characters? Or, does it instead provide a contrast for where the characters end up?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
(Also, thanks for the encouragement!)
@noah-cochran – Interesting thoughts, friend. I look forward to hearing more of your responses.Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@andrew – This is one of the most admirable threads I’ve ever seen on this forum. You have my respect. Yes–I have heard of people in the writing community giving non-fiction a hard time. I am not one of those people.
Though I’m sure my love of animals doesn’t compare with yours, I also have a high respect for you in that as well.
As for my love of non-fiction, not only do I enjoy it immensely, I’m basing my writing career off non-fiction as a non-fiction book writer, newsletter writer/blog writer, and probably other kinds of non-fiction that I’m not thinking of.
Also, the publishing company I’m working with will hopefully be publishing non-fiction in the near future… so, I’m sure I’ll get to come into contact with lots of awesome non-fiction then–and a lot of it that I didn’t write myself.
SO! What’s the course you’re taking?
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@r-m-archer – Thank you. I’m glad my words are sense-ful.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@taylorclogston – That story was an excellent read, Taylor! Truly excellent.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@taylorclogston – It does me so much good to see not only the way you’ve handled the topic, but also the discussion you’ve encouraged. So, my thanks to you.
Yeah. I don’t think we stand in a place to judge (in the ultimate sense) Western story telling–though it is arguable we have warrant to discuss and criticize any form of literature, especially as it builds us and others around us up.
I’d also like to think that the two general structures have so much overlap that the best of literature does overlap the two structures. Or, at least a lot of the best does. In the ideology that contrast and shared experience are the core of good stories, both structures need them. As R.M. Archer (@r-m-archer) pointed out, beauty, wonder, and conflict are some of the underlying truths of life…which means one aspect of them or another is going to show in just about any story. To use algebraic language, just as much as the fallen and corrupt world are constants in our world of variables, so also is God a constant. In fact, he came before it all.
The constants are the underlying structure of story. The variables are the changing shape of it.
So, thank you also, R. M. Archer.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@taylorclogston – Bravo! That was both extremely engaging and highly insightful. The contrast between typical Western structure vs Eastern structure is possibly one that writers should understand better than any other contrast–for in it lies every concept you discussed.
I’ve found that the Western structure hurts my brain, as a writer. It seems overly forceful when I want to lay my story down bit by bit, and asks for answers when I haven’t even considered having questions. If typical Western structure is the most correct way of writing stories, I am essentially lost unless some enlightenment strikes me.
Further, I’ve found a deep satisfaction from typical Eastern structure as employed by Dostoevsky in Brother’s Karamazov and A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles, and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.
Not only do I find these stories engaging on a level that many typical Western books fail to engage with me, I also find they expand my ability to perceive and understand through and across contexts more so than structures that lean heavily on the Western mindset.
High respect for you for researching for and writing this article. It was a pleasure to read such a well articulated take on literature and writing.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@taylorclogston – Reading it now and absolutely enjoying it. I love the research and exposition.Will come back with more complete thoughts when I finish.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
@imwritehere1920 – I’ve not seen the movie yet, but I want to! Also, for some reason I said The One And Only Ivan when I meant The One And Only Bob. TOAOI was amazing and beautiful, but TOAOB was masterful. As a sequel it is extraordinarily deep and meaningful, far surpassing its predecessor in my opinion.
Also, I have not yet read either of those books, but I am intrigued. Very. Thank you!
@josiah – If the bar for growth is in the secluded category of basic essentials, then I might agree. But when talking about the law of diminishing returns, I think “the returns” that mean potential growth remain just as high and don’t diminish.Every expert should ideally only see increasing depth in understanding nuance, contexts, and presentation. The teacher should become more like the student (with greater context). The expert becomes a child learning and playing (with more knowledge). This is one of the most essential patterns in not only creative endeavor but most any endeavor that humans sink themselves into.
I’m a teacher, and you’re a teacher. We both know the crucial nature of continued soaking up. AND we both understand and acknowledge that continued doesn’t mean constant. We understand that the best way to make continued soaking-up effective, is to not let the returns diminish. It’s pushing ourselves to the edge of comfort, soaking up more and more than we had, and never letting ourselves stagnate.
One of the key differences between an expert and someone with passing interest is that the expert can’t accept diminishing returns. He seeks those profits because that’s what it takes.
We know from Proverbs that knowledge and wisdom are calling out to us. Yet, we are responsible to seek out those calls and to unceasingly search for them.
While Proverbs deals very directly with insight and wisdom that deals with ethical dealings and right-standing before God, secondarily those principles apply to any kind of wisdom or insight that God sets in place for us to seek out and find. Given that Story Embers is based around the the concept of God and Christ in literature…I think we can hold ourselves to the same standards set by Solomon.
Published author, student in writing, works with HazelGracePress.com
