Category: Author’s Notebook
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Breaking Free – Notes re Notre Dame Uni and UAC
I made two phone calls to Notre Dame (Prospective students) and to UAC, to engineer the plot: Notre Dame Uni Currently Law students need an ATAR of 75.4 to get into Law. Academic fees are $16992 per year and can be covered by HECS/HELP for national students. There are some clubs on campus. The Student…
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The Shattered Heart Mirror
I intended to go in a different direction with this train of thought, but I came up with something useful and interesting, I think. I don’t write novels for entertainment. I write them as stories of deep, deep transformation. I’ve been a little worried that the story of Em (Manessa) will not have the depth…
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Anything that ended with “man”!
Fireman, policeman. I guess they are the only things I knew of that ended with ‘man’, and I only said it because that’s what the neighbours said. Then I wanted to be a pastor. I remember kneeling by my bed and having a serious talk with God about it. I finished the prayer with a…
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Emergency Mode v.s. Routine Mode
In Emergency Mode, you’re rarely able to say “no” to anything, because all your resources are focused on merely staying alive. You lurch from one crisis to the next. It’s in Routine Mode that you are able to set goals that go beyond survival. You can plan ahead and look at your purpose. I am…
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Can you plot a story backwards?
This is the Freytag Pyramid, which breaks narrative into its parts. Normally, we start at the beginning of the story on the exposition and follow through cronologically to the end, the denouement. (It’s Fronch, so don’t say the ‘nt’ on the end, of course.) I set myself a challenge of plotting a narrative that has…
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Restyle Your Handwriting – Journal
Feedback please!!!! I’m about to launch some handwriting journals that teach you to “Restyle Your Handwriting” and “Refresh Your Identity.” The plan is to put them up on Kickstarter or similar. These 64 page handwriting books (A4 size) step you through a series of exercises, to train you to freely write in the new handwriting…
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Sleeping in her car, the attic room (Smoothing out the plot kinks)
I wove the plot together in the last few days and it works well, but it’s not a 10/10. Yet. There are kinks at the 3/4 mark where I know I’m forcing the plot instead of letting it play out. It’s too quick. It needs more space. Consequently, I’ve let the plot outline sit for…
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Breaking Free – Supporting Character Sketches
24 March – I’ve changed the working title from “Escaping Well” to “Breaking Free.” Simple plot, complex characters. That’s what we’re going for. I’d love to hear your comments: Which character is more fun? Who do you like more? These two characters have a significant function in the story, but they don’t have a strong…
This is Jotham - Author 