battle

Of Towers, Castles and the Battles Writers Wage…

The Rook, Tower or Castle in the game of chess speaks to boundaries.

Towers and Castles of the medieval era served not simply as homes, but also places of protection, that place to which rulers, those of their court, and the soldiers guarding them retreated and from which they waged battle.

The Tower provided a place from which the sentry or guardsmen could look out and view those coming to do battle or offend–those who sought to defeat the monarch and occupy her or his home.

Each time we set out to write a story or novel, we wage a war.

Of Towers, Castles and the Battles Writers Wage… Read More »

Of Dimensions of Experience, Mystery and Feet of Practicality…

Climax follows a time a crisis.

As the story heads for resolution the protagonist must decide how she or he will evidence not only their survival and triumph of the great battle she or he has fought, but how they will manifest those that shift in consciousness, that change of heart, in a way that will allow the experience to remain alive within them.

Then, and only then, can she, or he truly know the victory over death whose roots lie in fear, doubt and disbelief.

So many times we sabotage ourselves into thinking that we less than what we are.

Likewise we ground our identity of who we are and our purpose in life on the erroneous belief that we do not matter, and that what we have to offer means little if anything.

This is often the case for writers and artists of many kinds.

Of Dimensions of Experience, Mystery and Feet of Practicality… Read More »

Of Agape, Climax, and Transubstantiation…

With the passing of crisis come celebration, perhaps a love scene. Survival or resurrection from death provides the central character a wider scope of consciousness.

Personal concerns no longer drive the protagonist. Those of the community dominate her or his thoughts and actions instead. Agape love now influences their choices and behavior.

Personal suffering has yielded a greater respect and understanding of those aches and pains that affect, and beset the collective. From this emerges empathy guided by the wish to heal.

Of Agape, Climax, and Transubstantiation… Read More »

Of Crises, Experience and Goals…

Surviving a crisis bestows special knowledge garnered and held by few.

It also grants admittance into various orders of wisdom yielded by experience.

Every novel or story a writer crafts tells the life of a certain crisis, and chronicles a central character’s survival of that crisis. The process of writing that novel flows out of an upheaval, the completion of which involves many obstacles that reach a crescendo of conflict and tension.

Of Crises, Experience and Goals… Read More »

Of Clarity and Understanding, Guide and Map, Epiphany and Plot…

Reaching that point where the protagonist has made the change, we, as writers feel differently.

We see the world of our novel from another level.

Ideally we come to hold those dimensions of personality regarding our central character(s) come in greater clarity and understanding.

And yet this is also a place where we can get to know ourselves better as individuals, not simply as persons who write.

Of Clarity and Understanding, Guide and Map, Epiphany and Plot… Read More »

Of Cause and Effect, Twin Universes, and Sacrifice…

The protagonist’s decision to act constitutes a cornerstone moment in the life a novel.

It signifies the shift from the beginning or set-up of the novel to the middle characterized as a process of action and reaction, better known as cause-and-effect. Still others term this area of the novel, and quite aptly, causality-and-build.

Cause-and-effect emphasizes the action and reaction quality representative of midsection of novels, the heart and lungs of the story.

Causality-and-build by its very words points to the uphill movement of the story towards crisis and climax that involves story and character arc.

Of Cause and Effect, Twin Universes, and Sacrifice… Read More »