#1 – Characters Need to Hurt A good story matters. A good story touches the reader’s soul and changes it, just a little. A good story matters because it touches the reader’s soul and changes it for the better. Which
Choosing details is a critical part of writing a narrative. They can make or break a scene, can build a character or destroy him, can draw the reader in or break his suspension of disbelief. This is true in all
The last entry in this series tackled the beginning of my published novel; this entry turns to the beginning of a short story I don’t believe I’ve ever published, though I’ve shown it to some people. It’s old, just under
Have you heard of Twilight? The financial success of the series cannot be doubted. Its writing? If it has a claim there, it rests in creating a successful blank-slate everyman protagonist (or everywoman). The same can be said for many
Theology and writing have a sometimes fraught interaction. Art has an apparent opposition to theology, if we consider how awful preachiness can get, how making a story into a tract makes it a very bad story. At the same time,
There’s been some buzz of late vis a vis the American national debt. Fiscal conservatives, including some brands of libertarians, are all against expanding it. Most people will admit to being less than ecstatic over enlarging the debt, even though
Tautologies, we all know, are useless; definitions, meanwhile, are useful. Yet a definition, once we get down to the brass tacks of it, is very nearly a tautology; both sides of the equation, ideally, have not only the same meaning
The problem of the world is that it doesn’t cultivate righteousness. Modern society is, as I laid out last week, hostile to God, hostile therefore to healthy relationships between men. This isn’t unusual, historically, but it still means we need
It is the long-fostered ambition of mankind to find the ultimate principle by which he may bring the right order to the world, the principle by which he may order reality to his own benefit. This is the essence of
This is Part Two of a series (I, II) on the origination of fascism and communism within liberalism. Last week we considered the nature of philosophical-intellectual lineages, introduced the two liberalisms, and defined fascism and communism. We pick up this