The Journey is the Way
Got this from the talented Trevor Rines and it reminded me of a writer’s group I sat in on online this week. One of the writers was speaking about trying to write “against the tropes”, and anyone who knows me, certain contemporary words tend to get my hackles up (you notice I didn’t say “triggers me” ) The thing is, …
How do I Write More in my Journals?
Following up on my last post some folks find it hard to get going. The process of journal writing is the process of discovering, uncovering and sometimes recovering.To do this effectively you need to follow the steps.Step 1: ListingList everything that comes to mind. This is called free association. Therapists have used this term for decades. For example, if I say the …
The Therapeutic Journal
This year I’ve begun all my classes with Journal writing. I get students to begin by taking some prompt that is very nebulous and listing whatever comes to mind. I’ve focused these journal prompts in three areas Mind(M), Practices (P), and Ethic/Morality/Spirit (E). So, you may have a prompt that says “Justice (E)” or “10 Weeks (P)”, or “Schooling (M)”. …
Imagino-Cred
It’s the late-1970’s and I’m downstairs watching a black and white Admiral TV that my parents had handed down from my Grandparents. It was old even for us by about two decades, but like so many things back then, they were built to last. I crept downstairs as quietly as the century-old wooden staircase would let me, and made myself …
12 Zodiac Characters to Polarize
According to Aliza Kelly’s article in Allure: “Every sign brings something to the celestial table. Here’s what you should know about the zodiac signs including strengths, weaknesses, and how they think.” So let’s see how we think about polarizing these as characters: Aries: The first sign of the zodiac, Aries loves to be number one. Naturally, this dynamic fire sign …
Principles of Art Design (Polarization)
In another attempt to polarize your cast of characters in a story, let’s consider the other aspect of art identification- the principles of design. Previously we looked into the elements of art. Remember the key to polarizing is to be consciously aware that your characters should react uniquely to different situations in your story. Here are the eight principles. Balance: …
Elements of Art (Polarization)
I am constantly fascinated with orders and organizations of groups, mostly because the grouping units MUST be different enough to warrant their inclusion in the larger grouping. And those different enough represent an opportunity for polarization. So let us look at the seven elements of art and see how they could utilized in polarizing characters. We will have to try …
Your Character’s Spirit Animal (Polarization)
Always looking for new options to polarize characters. your intrepid Jack has discovered the writings of Coryelle Kramer whose speciality is animal communication. Ms. Kramer has identified what she considers to be six animal dynamics. Look at her list here: The Direct & Demanding The Rule Breaker The Energetic The Sensory The Shifter The Transcendent Now consider what they may …
The Seven Wandering Heroes
The incredible Department of Nerdly Affairs Podcast recently had an episode about the concept of Murder Hobos. I don’t normally like these kinds of terms because they originate from something I’m going to call Cynical Tropism. I was struggling with entitling this new form of criticism because while it is certainly a modern phenomenon, it’s not the same as Modern …
In Rod We Trust
Anyone who has heard me speak of my writing, know I owe a great deal to Rod Serling. His Twilight Zone was a launching platform for my imagination. I would set my alarm for one or two in the morning once a week to see reruns in the early hours. When my black and white television warmed up, and I …