Epics of India

The final story lab, and with it, my (and other writers') parting words: (questioning, taken from MaxPixel ) Make Trouble for Your Character "When in doubt, make trouble for your character. Don’t let her stand on the edge of the pool, dipping her toe. Come up behind her and give her a good hard shove. That’s my advice to you now. Make trouble for your character. In life we try to avoid trouble. We chew on our choices endlessly. We go to shrinks, we talk to our friends. In fiction, this is deadly. Protagonists need to screw up, act impulsively, have enemies, get into TROUBLE." -- Janet Fitch Without the characters, the story can't really happen. But a common pitfall I come to when creating characters is to make them too tame. Just as we sometimes need some suffering to grow, so they need that "push" of detriment to really spur their development. They a way to deal with my problems rather than a living, breathing part of the story they're in. Wh...

More advice to writers! I really love this website and all their quotes. Give Them What They're not Expecting "The advice wasn’t to me personally, but I recall hearing Jay-Z say something along the lines of, don’t give people what they want, give them what they’re not expecting. It’s what I’ve always believed and it’s powerful to have your philosophy endorsed. I never want to deliver a novel that I think people are expecting, I love the challenge of creating something unique and surprising. It’s so important to write with freedom." - CECELIA AHERN I think this is an important milestone in writing - the ability to subvert expectations. It's why some of the most beloved stories of all time are beloved. Yes, they are well-written, but they're also unique from their generic contemporaries. Who doesn't love a good plot twist? Or a story that causes you to go back and read it again and again to pick up the clues that were there the whole time? If the reader...

Man, I really like these quotes. (splash painting of a bird, from Pixabay ) All Art Comes from Love No one asks what Mozart means. Or an Indian raga or the little tripping dance of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to “Cheek to Cheek” in Top Hat. Forget about making things that are understood. I don’t know what Abba means, but I love it. Imagination is your creed; sentimentality and lack of feeling your foe. All art comes from love — love of doing something. JERRY SALTZ It's true - in every widely known piece of art, no one asks what it means , so much as they enjoy what it is . A skillful display of brushstroke, a layering of notes that make you feel a certain way, an exciting weaving together or words in a particular order that inspires you - there's just... something  about it that you enjoy. And it's not from understanding it, but from you sharing the same love the creator put into it. It's like they put so much love into doing something that it spills over...

I was expecting a bunch of long, drawn out articles that highlight writing techniques, with analysis on "exemplary" writing throughout history, but was pleasantly surprised to see it's just a page full of quotes and snippets from various authors. Here are some I really liked: You Develop Empathy As a writer, it's important to approach your work through the lens of someone who's on the other end. This allows you to consider how you want to forge your story into one that the reader can appreciate. As you do this, you will develop this sense of empathy. You can relate to what your readers are feeling, whether that be boredom, interest, excitement, etc., and can adjust your narrative accordingly. A Character is Never a Whole Person   This title really caught my attention - is he saying that characters aren't really people? Nope, not at all. The writer, upon developing a character, must know every detail about him or her, but then must selectively show specif...

The analogy of mythology being a "slurpee of knowledge" is really good. It takes a bunch of different educational principles, religion, history, etc. and casts them into a story that tries to explain them. My understanding of a "myth" is something that is untrue, but to many peoples and cultures, they are truth, used to explain phenomena that they had no understanding of in the past. I appreciate them touching upon this, the Greek background of the word, and how he actually defined the word: stories that have significance and staying power.  Consequently, mythology is the study of these myths. Concerning mythology, this dates back to ancient Greece and the Greek philosophers, where there was contention regarding attributing human attributes to the gods, especially the negative ones. With many denoting myths as lies, a dichotomy was able to be setup for the logos, the truth, of the Christian belief. Paul, in his Epistle to Timothy, implores his spiritual child not ...