:new: Updated 04/03/18
Big update! We've not actually had a full Literature "week" for PE in a long time, but we are starting to plan towards doing so this year, firstly a publishing week and then some future ideas. These articles no matter how old are still very useful, so please bookmark this and come back!
Over the past few years, projecteducate (https://www.deviantart.com/projecteducate) has worked hard to provide educational articles for various art forms. Within literature, we've seen our fair share and we've used our own group CRLiterature (https://www.deviantart.com/crliterature) to manage these articles to ensure as much of the community can see them. However, sometimes we miss people and that's a shame because th
How to Write Better Character Emotions by illuminara, journal
How to Write Better Character Emotions
The following is a technique for writing deeply-felt character emotions, as described by Donald Maass in his book The Emotional Craft of Fiction. It's the single most valuable thing I learned about writing fiction in the last year.
Step One
Pick a moment in your story when your character feels something strongly. Identify that feeling and write it down. Then dig deeper. What else are they feeling? Write down that second feeling. And what else are they feeling beneath that? Writing down that third-level emotion. You should now have a list of three emotions.
Example:
Fear
Vulnerability
Loneliness
Step Two
Work with feeling #3 and examin
Please Note: due to changes in story direction and situations beyond my control there may be accidental references to "Tincture Abbey Stables" residual in this or other texts from this project. I am in the process of updating everything to Trinity Abbey, so please know that Tincture = Trinity if you come across it.
Part One
A Body Feels As Its Been Through the Wars
Chapter One
Gaelen
He moved through the stone as if there was nothing beneath his feet, tumbling out of control and spinning around in a swirling vortex of emptiness. The blackness swallowed him whole as it streaked past, the only illumination being from tiny pinhead lights, and
Adding Character FLAWS by OokamiKasumi, literature
Literature
Adding Character FLAWS
-----Original Message -----
Characters have to have flaws, but sometimes it's a bit hard to add those flaws in.
-- Concerned About Characters
First of all...
What is a character Flaw?
A character's Flaw is a crack in their personality and/or talent. Something that both helps them AND harms them. Kind of the way true artists (and brilliant nerds) tend to also be serious flakes, and really socially awkward. This is actually because they spend so much time perfecting their talents that they simply aren't around people enough to correct their social skills. 'K?
Now then...
Where do you Put a Character's Flaws?
A character's greatest stren
----- Original Message -----
How do you develop an idea? How do you come up with the details behind stories? Do you get them from reading books? Do you get them from modern concepts? Or do they just come to you (if so, lucky you XD)? How do you develop the world in which it takes place? People or settings first? Do you include cults/religions/mass groups? How do you come up with these groups?
-- Thoughtful Writer
In other words, what you want to know is:
How do you build a Story from an Idea?
Let's begin by breaking this huge pile of questions down to smaller, bite-sized pieces...
How do you develop an idea?
I start with a Climactic Event
Hello Sarah. Look at your man. Now back to me. Now back at your man, now back to me.
Sadly, He is not me, but if you stopped dating lady scented men and switched to sparkly, it could be me.
Look down, back up, where are you? You’re in a labyrinth, with the king whose hair no other man’s could be like. What’s in your hand, back to me. I have it, it’s a crystal that will show you that dream you love.
Look lower. You now dream of jewels. Anything is possible when your man sparkles and smells of peaches.
I’m on a horse.
Nonessential Prosthesis
By Aaron C. Richards
The pain comes in waves like a hole in the head. A hole in the head. A hole in the head. And as each wave comes I wish I was dead. I wish I was dead. I wish it was dead.
Then the overlord comes around and everything changes. It’s all “Hail Spectrum”, and “Song of Ages” and “Whose thrum is loudest to please the queen?” I’ve been waiting a long time for my chance to please the queen. But my thrum is weak. The prettiest sounds I make are inside my head: the one place that the hive doesn’t seem to be able to get to. Because the only place darker
The light in the priest's study was dim. It was never good to have too many candles close to all the books. The single candle on his desk had been burning for hours into the night already. He had not realized how long he had been sitting there, reading up on one of the old stories of the Gods. He was so focused on his reading, that he was not aware of anything around him.
When the light in the room grew stronger, he thought one of the younger priests had come to tell him to go to bed. But on a new moon's night, sleep had never come easy. The dark night sky unsettled him. Even as a young boy, he was scared of the dark spot, where the moon usu