tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87439684228259249472024-03-12T17:42:18.419-07:00C. Alex SmithScience Fiction WriterC. Alex Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06481659795205916663noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-61816844020831600702020-07-05T15:33:00.003-07:002020-07-06T19:21:54.512-07:00Story Wonk: Magicians S1E3<h1 style="text-align: left;"><font color="#7b1fa2" face="georgia">The Magicians S1E3: Consequences of Advanced Spellcasting</font></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgQI9JSbDzlqwjtjuZV92v8Ao9NrDXur3UgopmFA4chtSRSbVbboQRb5t8odRTQtV5mgGDhmRBgDC6g_5tpMpIkfdFqR0ZwXYBOqJynAB63qE29O5s1hCrQLNPZc1C9w2468MMERMTvJpEwWudY4tcfzFPS6ARdb1wzOwjm=s350" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="232" data-original-width="350" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgQI9JSbDzlqwjtjuZV92v8Ao9NrDXur3UgopmFA4chtSRSbVbboQRb5t8odRTQtV5mgGDhmRBgDC6g_5tpMpIkfdFqR0ZwXYBOqJynAB63qE29O5s1hCrQLNPZc1C9w2468MMERMTvJpEwWudY4tcfzFPS6ARdb1wzOwjm=w640-h424" width="640" /></a></div><font face="georgia"><br /><br />First Aired 2/1/16<br /><br /><b>Directed by</b><br /><br /> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002433/?ref_=ttfc_fc_dr1">Scott Smith</a><br /><br /><b>Writing Credits</b><br /><br />Created for TV by<br /><br /> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1571148/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr1">Sera Gamble</a><br /><br /> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0573695/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr2">John McNamara</a><br /><br /><br />Written for TV by<br /><br /> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0969782/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr3">Henry Alonso Myers</a><br /><br />Story Editor<br /><br /> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3593780/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr5">David Reed</a><br /><br />Based on<i> The Magicians</i> by<br /><br /> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5107819/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr4">Lev Grossman</a><br /></font><h1 style="text-align: left;"><font color="#7b1fa2" face="georgia">Narrative Drive:</font></h1><p class="p11" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;">This episode is all about the stakes. It drives home the message that the world of magic is dangerous. Just having the talent for magic can kill you … or even worse. In some ways you begin to wonder if learning magic is even worth it. Just casting a spell can corrupt a person into a monster, overpower a person into a monster, kill a person accidentally, or just change you into someone else. This isn’t a Harry Potter version of magic. With each revelation we are left to wonder which of these many characters will end up as monsters or dead or changed. The suspense starts subtly but it will last throughout the entire series.</p><p class="p12" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p11" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEi-Dd7bai_I_bGxCWIw62dvzkmzLBI16Lcf0gAsfAqVdg8xvxR3af65dUwi0hYOasEcx9BUnSGZhuhGZrtRameHcynMch4zvLx8sqjq5VZMgW4Q7pW_ZQu10YRgbdQGkNdKnW6LYEo4Lqg97DOgcs9w3fAZSrQfy6s22lzm7siKSpD17arw_RGOnoJjHuP44ow-9xrGazwFYv7fag=s600" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEi-Dd7bai_I_bGxCWIw62dvzkmzLBI16Lcf0gAsfAqVdg8xvxR3af65dUwi0hYOasEcx9BUnSGZhuhGZrtRameHcynMch4zvLx8sqjq5VZMgW4Q7pW_ZQu10YRgbdQGkNdKnW6LYEo4Lqg97DOgcs9w3fAZSrQfy6s22lzm7siKSpD17arw_RGOnoJjHuP44ow-9xrGazwFYv7fag=s320" width="320" /></a></div>Another driving force that lasts through the entire series is the conflict between the Brakebills magicians and the hedge witches. This conflict provides tension in a myriad of ways in different episodes. We are encouraged to pick a side in this dispute, but which side? Both sides make eloquent arguments. The back and forth tug provides the tension.<p></p><p class="p12" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p11" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;">This episode provides foreshadowing for a number of upcoming episodes. We learn what a Niffin is. Margo’s enigmatic personality begins to come more in focus. We see Penny struggle with hearing too much of what is in other people’s minds. We learn that Quentin knows all the words to some Taylor Swift songs.</p><p class="p12" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><h2 style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 13px 0px 0px;"><b>Writer Take Away:</b></h2><ul class="ul1"><li class="li14" style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Stakes:</b> You just can’t have tension or narrative drive without stakes. For the stakes to feel real, they must be shown. Thus Charlie foreshadows his sister’s fate.</li></ul><ul class="ul1"><li class="li14" style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Conflict</b>: To provide grinding tension throughout the story provide two groups whose approach to the issue at hand is equally valid. The reader will feel obligated to side with one or the other side. However, the two sides provide a push-pull sensation as the advantages of each side come clear. No one need “win” this conflict. The point isn’t who is right, it is that the two sides can’t agree.</li></ul><ul class="ul1"><li class="li14" style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Series</b>: Not the type of series that results in a number of seasons or novels in the same setting but the plot structure series. This is the type of structure J. K. Rowling uses to create her stories. She has several subplots going throughout each novel and she keeps track of which ones appear in each chapter. The result is that it keeps the reader asking what will happen to a number of characters. In this episode we see the series about Niffins, Emily Mainstream, and Travelers. When these issues come up again it creates excitement for the reader. For a comprehensive course on series see <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Stuart-Horwitz/e/B00AN2D09I?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1593977556&sr=1-1">Stuart Horwitz’s</a> three books on the subject.</li></ul><p class="p16" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(148, 55, 255); color: #9437ff; font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><span class="s2" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><b></b></span><br /></p><h1 style="font-family: palatino; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 13px 0px 0px;"><b><font color="#7b1fa2" size="5">Character Arcs:</font></b></h1><p class="p18" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(148, 55, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This episode provides a lot of the foundation for the rest of the season. It exemplifies each of the characters strong points and their flaws.</p><p class="p19" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(148, 55, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p20" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEinThyphenhyphen8oveNfJo3s0Dou68EpT6xUHRcRvyhRuqMkOnf9ijJzYQjwIUnxF61ws9u1pyqm6YnaLSHiBiNTvPAIAmusyNsDBJXcIBrN5LAHOKWM8rO-pFN9MiQKuoZnKYHFfGfvR9ZBCymJaKcUmhDiyX0S6HgpAkfS85YhHn2PDMRsldmg5VmAIfkM6iYO-5Rh5IlcK7TMLjcIW9PcgRBpQFNp-ngoAnNgvGW6FQB_ttzYO-8pU-xQ0T92UiCFugjrx3OH_-WViwRhqhYoxcpFOHUBg=s700" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEinThyphenhyphen8oveNfJo3s0Dou68EpT6xUHRcRvyhRuqMkOnf9ijJzYQjwIUnxF61ws9u1pyqm6YnaLSHiBiNTvPAIAmusyNsDBJXcIBrN5LAHOKWM8rO-pFN9MiQKuoZnKYHFfGfvR9ZBCymJaKcUmhDiyX0S6HgpAkfS85YhHn2PDMRsldmg5VmAIfkM6iYO-5Rh5IlcK7TMLjcIW9PcgRBpQFNp-ngoAnNgvGW6FQB_ttzYO-8pU-xQ0T92UiCFugjrx3OH_-WViwRhqhYoxcpFOHUBg=s320" width="320" /></a></b></div><b>Quentin</b>: Quentin was the hardest for me to figure out. Initially his flaw was his unwillingness to grow up and take adult responsibility. It was also his inability to fit in with society. He didn’t grow out of those flaws as much as coming to Brakebills negated them.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><p></p><p class="p21" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p22" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">So now what is the flaw that he needs to overcome? In this episode he runs into Julia with the hedge witches. He admits he didn’t tell anyone at Brakebills about her nor will he. He tells her it is revenge for the way she treated him. She did seem to tease him sexually and to pester him about taking on adult attitudes. So perhaps Quentin does have a vengeful streak. But it also seems that Quentin is almost afraid that Julia will somehow work her way into Brakebills. Since coming to Brakebills himself he has been accepted and made friends. Is he worried that if Julia comes to Brakebills his friends will be so struck by her they will abandon him? Or perhaps he just enjoys</p><p class="p22" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;">feeling special in a way Julia is not “special.” Either way, he is hoarding magic from his former best friend. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="p22" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;">Quentin’s flaw, then is selfishness. He wants magic for himself. He needs to feel special, or more special than Julia.</p><p class="p21" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p20" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgdGCddDyDUmUDSvMEhYDvolGYXtf0leiFzp4zwF0IeEuH4TQFOPvHbMHUN6qi9pMPJbNcWhUPSYrYQ7T3yie4hAuszFnCPQEu2dA4rMoxTSSLCb9PciIiJCDr-FYFBqYDqR4O28B1sOaH6opKy8U1WqKrFtpEez4YgS0ybffoN81bc8UqCJEte2Z43CJzNZOlFJ2PIyG-VxoYTwAwnkoWdcasSYtUnv2eSYK62hI9JLhyJqGZHlFllMGpY9v7nGQjKlJxPA3lEcZlI=s720" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgdGCddDyDUmUDSvMEhYDvolGYXtf0leiFzp4zwF0IeEuH4TQFOPvHbMHUN6qi9pMPJbNcWhUPSYrYQ7T3yie4hAuszFnCPQEu2dA4rMoxTSSLCb9PciIiJCDr-FYFBqYDqR4O28B1sOaH6opKy8U1WqKrFtpEez4YgS0ybffoN81bc8UqCJEte2Z43CJzNZOlFJ2PIyG-VxoYTwAwnkoWdcasSYtUnv2eSYK62hI9JLhyJqGZHlFllMGpY9v7nGQjKlJxPA3lEcZlI=s320" width="320" /></a></b></div><b>Julia</b>: Still acting as the foil for Quentin, Julia’s trajectory is the opposite of his. Where he is making friends, she is ignoring her friends. Where Quentin has a budding romance with Alice, Julia alienates her lover. Julia is sinking into the pit of obsession. No wonder she uses addiction as her excuse with her boyfriend. You do have to admire her determination though. She has pursued magic at all cost, but her strength of will has slid over a cliff into obsession.<p></p><p class="p23" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0px;"><b><br /></b></p><p class="p23" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0px;"><b><br /></b></p><p class="p23" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0px;"><b>Alice:</b></p><p class="p24" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0px 12px 36px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"Use magic in anger, and you will harm yourself much more quickly than you will harm your adversary. There are certain spells... if you lose control of them, they will change you. Consume you. Transform you into something not human. a Niffin, a spirit of raw, uncontrolled magical energy.”—Henry Fogg</p><p class="p21" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p20" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiU-FaLbH50OJLi_2y__J7feDJgKtFvCbdP_PYkd4NXKrBXOEiXGBtpiN2B3OKqZ2Y6vrx_GaTOj5kVBoV8L7U7nRHjZDgVK6iM47Bs2gMB76X-qcKPnxwtPYfQle-yioJ2h-ZC0sO4HimMebFu2TjNlv1Kgzsgcu0kIYMAIsd1Qyv-VFpNq_cSO3any6fWJZgSSrAGXWdNPnHO-B4q71l5RN0P5MZ2Qjjb=s600" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiU-FaLbH50OJLi_2y__J7feDJgKtFvCbdP_PYkd4NXKrBXOEiXGBtpiN2B3OKqZ2Y6vrx_GaTOj5kVBoV8L7U7nRHjZDgVK6iM47Bs2gMB76X-qcKPnxwtPYfQle-yioJ2h-ZC0sO4HimMebFu2TjNlv1Kgzsgcu0kIYMAIsd1Qyv-VFpNq_cSO3any6fWJZgSSrAGXWdNPnHO-B4q71l5RN0P5MZ2Qjjb=s320" /></a></div>Alice’s strength is her magical ability. She outstrips everyone with her ability. Her weakness is her overconfidence. Even unexperienced Quentin can see that what she plans will result in another death—likely her own.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Alice is unwilling to see not because love of her brother blinds her, but because her over confidence in her abilities blinds her. In some ways she is the opposite of Julia. Julia was also overconfident until she was rejected by Brakebills. That rejection broke her mind and set up the obsession to have magic no matter the cost.<p></p><p class="p21" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p20" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Alice also shows us that she has a trust issue. Despite Margo’s best efforts Alice will not trust her or become friends with her.</p><p class="p23" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0px;"><b>Eliot: </b></p><p class="p24" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0px 12px 36px;">“Hedge witches. Amateurs. Magical D-leaguers. Sad and desperate people. Once one of 'em offered to blow me for a spell. It was barely worth it.”—Eliot Waugh</p><p class="p21" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p20" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So far Eliot has seemed the most organized and mature of the students. Eliot finally provides us with a believable character flaw. He is an Ivy League Snob. He also gives us a hint of something else. He is in search of the missing book because without it there will be an investigation of the cottage party culture. Eliot seems very fearful of the end of the Physical Kids Parties. Why? Is he afraid of going back to being a regular student rather than the host of the most incredible parties on campus. Is that what props up his ego?</p><p class="p21" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p20" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Margo</b>: This is her second attempt at befriending Alice and she has failed again. Her strength may be gossip. Her weakness is that gossip doesn’t provide opportunity for deep friendship. She may be smart, beautiful, clever but she is not trust-worthy to Alice. She is able to get men’s attention but she can’t quite make a female friend.</p><p class="p21" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p20" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg7AZNNGeWz-7yngc4BbW0ZUfDc1LZ09hDuV-H1NuWWEpubBjMYmQuvz4yrYvl-6yALlmpmhopAR-wJf3Fx72_dxxgt2i4lRX2mjBVEY_eDuka91GUl0yZtkWOvbPzkwcvvUIOAhzMwr5ZkGtEtol-S3_ZXphv-mwQ7I5XXdP_pzXy64UK8IflsGN76Rx1tygWZwrhV2OlLANIL1q3jN8A=s744" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="744" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg7AZNNGeWz-7yngc4BbW0ZUfDc1LZ09hDuV-H1NuWWEpubBjMYmQuvz4yrYvl-6yALlmpmhopAR-wJf3Fx72_dxxgt2i4lRX2mjBVEY_eDuka91GUl0yZtkWOvbPzkwcvvUIOAhzMwr5ZkGtEtol-S3_ZXphv-mwQ7I5XXdP_pzXy64UK8IflsGN76Rx1tygWZwrhV2OlLANIL1q3jN8A=s320" width="320" /></a></b></div><b>Penny</b>: Fogg forces Penny to say he needs help with learning to control traveling. Penny is unwilling to accept help. That might be quite a flaw in this environment. The flip side, is that he is self sufficient. When he travels to Asia, he isn’t waiting to be rescued, he is finding a way back home. That is a pretty big plus for a magician.<p></p><p class="p21" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p20" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Kade:</b> She is resourceful. She uses battle magic to get into the Physical Kids Cottage. Her flaw is her betrayal of the Physical Kids. She stole a book from the cottage. Somehow hedge witches are controlling her and forcing her to steal for them.</p><p class="p21" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p20" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Fogg</b>: He seems to be concerned for all of his students. He isn’t necessarily able to keep them safe as they are being picked off in each episode.</p><p class="p25" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><h2 style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 13px 0px 0px;"><b>Writer Take Away:</b></h2><ul class="ul1"><li class="li20" style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Strengths and Flaws</b>: This episode painted each character with a strength and a corresponding flaw. The flaw will be overcome by lessons learned and growth as the story progresses. What are your characters strengths? If you take that strength too far, what does it turn into? Think about Julia. Determination and intelligence are great strengths but taken too far they become obsession. For Quentin he loves magic and has a natural talent for it. But now he is hoarding it away from Julia. How can you show your character’s strengths and flaws? How can different characters bring out the best and worst in your characters?</li><li class="li20" style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Give everyone a part to play.</b> The books are much more centered around Quentin. The TV series allows for more points of view and so the support characters are getting richer development. That fills the series with even more fascinating plot lines and characters to root for.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></li></ul><p class="p25" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><b></b><br /></p><h1 style="color: purple; font-family: palatino; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 13px 0px 0px;"><b>Theme</b></h1><p class="p27" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0px 12px 36px;">”Being a magician has always been, in part, about accruing power. Power over yourself, the elements. Power over the future, the very world that exists around you But power, as you all know, does not come cheaply. There are reasons we teach this curriculum precisely the way that we do. Skipping around, focusing on all the wrong things, lack of guidance... These are all extremely dangerous. There are certain energies, certain spells, which are far too powerful for one magician alone. If you lose control, it will turn against you. It will kill you. It will consume you. Change you into something else.”—Dean Fogg</p><p class="p12" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p27" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0px 12px 36px;">“Magic is not something to be dicked around with.”—Dean Fogg</p><p class="p12" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><h2 style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 13px 0px 0px;"><b>Power</b></h2><p class="p12" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><b></b><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg9JuZO6n3SDTgn5Llb09dGDFVA3x5DbQuJ_EgikTu7fd6ZjLeByajb_zm8POVwm78xbfV13jTDSU1mh7-rNlHN1ptixUk_Hlx8zxD6uqyyxGsLYzYRIwv8ty5Xr8-Ek6fziosv0TSDqJ9C8Awn93gktS9s9aztlUcqQDBVxIHB3rj6_B8d8NVtq6LDuLYT4L1QUEUmZOYQ9MihVlLvFFBHc9uQuTCRAnJAe13yUyV_EpkN1EPvbGBoQ4QFDWTcmy_R2NRQws3FIaiG3VmM9O9pNP2mlZi4G4J9uMw=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg9JuZO6n3SDTgn5Llb09dGDFVA3x5DbQuJ_EgikTu7fd6ZjLeByajb_zm8POVwm78xbfV13jTDSU1mh7-rNlHN1ptixUk_Hlx8zxD6uqyyxGsLYzYRIwv8ty5Xr8-Ek6fziosv0TSDqJ9C8Awn93gktS9s9aztlUcqQDBVxIHB3rj6_B8d8NVtq6LDuLYT4L1QUEUmZOYQ9MihVlLvFFBHc9uQuTCRAnJAe13yUyV_EpkN1EPvbGBoQ4QFDWTcmy_R2NRQws3FIaiG3VmM9O9pNP2mlZi4G4J9uMw=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><p class="p11" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;">Figuring out the theme of a fantasy story frequently revolves around figuring out what magic represents to the author. In the last episode we were told magic is pain. In this episode Dean Fogg goes out of his way to tell us magic is power and thus it is dangerous. Human beings have an odd relationship with power. We are all obsessed with it to some degree but we also recognize it has negative side effect. It takes a great deal of storytelling to constantly remind us that too much power is undesirable. Therefore power and its corrupting side effects are a common theme in stories.</p><p class="p11" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p11" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(128, 0, 128); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;">In the real world this is a little like money. Money also represents power. A little is a good thing but too much has a corrupting influence.</p><p class="p28" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><h2 style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 13px 0px 0px;"><b>Hedge-Writers</b></h2><p class="p29" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><span class="s2" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><b></b></span><br /></p><p class="p30" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;">In this episode Quinten learns about the long standing conflict between Hedge-Witches and Classically-Trained Magicians.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p31" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p30" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The term <i>hedge witch</i> is an homage to the wise women of old who often lived on the outskirts of villages, beyond the hedge. One side of the hedge was the village and civilization, but on the other lay the unknown and wild. Hedge witchcraft is usually practiced by solitaries, and involves deep study of plants and the natural world. The hedge witch learned her practices from older family members or mentors, and honed her skills through years of practice, trial, and error. Hedge witches typically find magical intent in routine, day to day activities, and living mindfully.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgPAZ1jQkXNFZnP-8YYIhEymPRqn3XmG4gTCW-4MqVnv4Ia01olPKz60MO_InQWPn8QSSj_y4JnW7wK_gjOgznXXgbNuiSM-sImRygsClRpTEwcLF6MJGI2PkIMoVj3NHZs-VNKR5H4KgIrVbYO6EJtDF59ggVDdNAPbz2xakw9VDBlbTNmpv-ot3426ctZtmoriZrIm9U8a1pAUlMLB8RdXT3TGpUDDkesWUxmuFGvRjirhydJjBSPmyOZ-fraEUhevn44QV-KKyKsQqca16OF4wS3M2HXQz1zx6eywpgRVyHUsFWaLawb7JiAwt_7-hkuA6K7_YpvY3irKf9Y7SZRdQ0=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgPAZ1jQkXNFZnP-8YYIhEymPRqn3XmG4gTCW-4MqVnv4Ia01olPKz60MO_InQWPn8QSSj_y4JnW7wK_gjOgznXXgbNuiSM-sImRygsClRpTEwcLF6MJGI2PkIMoVj3NHZs-VNKR5H4KgIrVbYO6EJtDF59ggVDdNAPbz2xakw9VDBlbTNmpv-ot3426ctZtmoriZrIm9U8a1pAUlMLB8RdXT3TGpUDDkesWUxmuFGvRjirhydJjBSPmyOZ-fraEUhevn44QV-KKyKsQqca16OF4wS3M2HXQz1zx6eywpgRVyHUsFWaLawb7JiAwt_7-hkuA6K7_YpvY3irKf9Y7SZRdQ0=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p31" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p30" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;">The entire subplot of Hedges vs. Brakebills reminds me of something I am experiencing in reality right this minute. I came to Arizona a few years ago just as the state wide writer’s group collapsed. I am older and the sole financial support for my family. I could not quit and go to the university setting to get an MFA in writing. I have always had to rely on writing groups and websites and books to teach me the craft of writing. So I joined with others to recreate a writing group in the state of AZ. There is a university in my town, so I invited students and teachers from the university to come to meetings or hold workshops. We were snubbed by those connected to the university.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p31" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p30" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 18px;">I get the feeling that hedge witches are writers who write fantasy or other genre works. Did Lev Grossman come across the attitude that only classically trained recipients of an MFA who write literary works should be able to address the human condition in fiction? It feels like that to me.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhoVz3d6zDnaGid3bZbDds5YtftMWDkvkzvPAiglTCUY92qph1t4p22IJrQIlMtEP8AOfj8uswWG3pV-N6CWhiefWkLEYuayVKty-8DhZO5A-3LGqhgwxPvWNTObiZoMZY_Yw-3gQysu5_ZF30r4Royq3MIYWxNqliocEE=s480" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="480" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhoVz3d6zDnaGid3bZbDds5YtftMWDkvkzvPAiglTCUY92qph1t4p22IJrQIlMtEP8AOfj8uswWG3pV-N6CWhiefWkLEYuayVKty-8DhZO5A-3LGqhgwxPvWNTObiZoMZY_Yw-3gQysu5_ZF30r4Royq3MIYWxNqliocEE=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><p class="p28" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p31" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><h2 style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 13px 0px 0px;"><b>Women Don’t Need Rescuing</b></h2><p class="p33" style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhN8fBE9x5y6YhVZuhD9tN-OE8bJksIvQ0_95R9Rb5GDPAr-HjHcKsMaCkbX1VEA5GSbqME51_Xq0o3ctBDuLH-VJIpcveJgRGyHT24xpWT8JfuBLtPTf8XO6wsuVlEt6ixezRRzXR6ht5SgSLo9jw-ncWnHkJzWCgpi36kzwxuA7IkJ2jriZzd1lIUa1Cgl2otb5TUXKRrB0g=s500" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhN8fBE9x5y6YhVZuhD9tN-OE8bJksIvQ0_95R9Rb5GDPAr-HjHcKsMaCkbX1VEA5GSbqME51_Xq0o3ctBDuLH-VJIpcveJgRGyHT24xpWT8JfuBLtPTf8XO6wsuVlEt6ixezRRzXR6ht5SgSLo9jw-ncWnHkJzWCgpi36kzwxuA7IkJ2jriZzd1lIUa1Cgl2otb5TUXKRrB0g=s320" width="320" /></a></div>This is a theme that will be resonant throughout the entire story, at least in the TV series. It wasn’t as prominent in the books. The trope for fantasy fiction usually puts men in the driver seat. They do all the interesting things and act as heroes in the end. Women are just love interests or there to be rescued.</div><p></p><p class="p34" style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p35" style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The first couple of episodes lulls you into thinking that the show will follow that well worn path. But then Kade jumps in and confronts the Beast with battle magic.</p><p class="p34" style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p class="p35" style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As Sera Gamble said of the Magicians in April, 2019:</p><p class="p36" style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px 0px 12px 36px;">“Sometimes being a hero means admitting that your girlfriend’s a better magician than you! In order to move the story as far and as deep as we want to on The Magicians, we have to make it really clear to the audience that we’re not interested in telling the same old fantasy story, and that it’s actually about the people you might expect to be off to the side.”</p><p class="p35" style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Magicians is putting that trope on its head. With each episode in each season the women are becoming the ones to watch as they act heroically when the men back off. Most of the women eventually rescue themselves and that is one of the reasons I really loved the TV series.</p><p class="p35" style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhWLfHZIM67B3pV74HlcL3npQhG38v5yF6fnemR1VfnsQZsLhhfvwCtzTV19d-g-deCvjSjhua8kTZlUzbwbTgrO4kZkapJreRw18Ne_WNa439JOIwMnnLZZNJtX1umRnyY66NxK_5z9IL8K2GbIz6Dz9nFJTMPMN5bNbPWhxIzsXCrfXSXYz76Ka4P1xo3wgnSsxbaqXaOTvuwkDT8OXrwMRP1mM1JiL1uqDk2Zzj0KVO2z7rEvrUHOLInNhNAMZeEz1J223-qhrKLBejIqGVqi-g1E61vSwHF2qA9ETyokMpTzunc6vGT-5nTCg3skDJqmGVn2p28IozMsBCq2OkxbZkFvDQHk8jtQQuZ=s1820" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1213" data-original-width="1820" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhWLfHZIM67B3pV74HlcL3npQhG38v5yF6fnemR1VfnsQZsLhhfvwCtzTV19d-g-deCvjSjhua8kTZlUzbwbTgrO4kZkapJreRw18Ne_WNa439JOIwMnnLZZNJtX1umRnyY66NxK_5z9IL8K2GbIz6Dz9nFJTMPMN5bNbPWhxIzsXCrfXSXYz76Ka4P1xo3wgnSsxbaqXaOTvuwkDT8OXrwMRP1mM1JiL1uqDk2Zzj0KVO2z7rEvrUHOLInNhNAMZeEz1J223-qhrKLBejIqGVqi-g1E61vSwHF2qA9ETyokMpTzunc6vGT-5nTCg3skDJqmGVn2p28IozMsBCq2OkxbZkFvDQHk8jtQQuZ=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><p class="p35" style="font-family: palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p28" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-55729663151301726912020-06-05T12:26:00.000-07:002020-06-05T12:26:31.646-07:00Story Wonk: Magicians S1E2<div class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 30px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>The Magicians S1E2</b></span></div>
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<b>First Aired 1/25/16</b><br />
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<b> Directed by</b></div>
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<span class="s2" style="color: #5c418b; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002433/?ref_=ttfc_fc_dr1">Scott Smith</a></span></div>
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<b>Writing Credits </b><br />
Created for TV by<br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1571148/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr1"><span class="s2" style="color: #5c418b; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Sera Gamble</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0573695/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr2"><span class="s2" style="color: #5c418b; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">John McNamara</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Written for TV by</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1571148/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr3"><span class="s2" style="color: #5c418b; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Sera Gamble</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Story Editor</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3593780/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr5"><span class="s2" style="color: #5c418b; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">David Reed</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Based on The Magicians by</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5107819/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr4"><span class="s2" style="color: #5c418b; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Lev Grossman</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: purple; font-kerning: none; font-size: x-large;"><b>Narrative Drive:</b></span></h2>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The last scene of Episode 1 we see the Beast recognize Quentin. In this episode, Quentin wakes on the floor of the classroom with an investigator asking him questions about the Beast. We learn in rapid flashbacks that Fogg offered Jane’s watch to Quentin. Quentin took it by magic and manages to hit the winder. The Beast stumbles away and the freezing spell is broken. The students can move.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Kade is the only one to confront the Beast directly with battle magic. The Beast knocks her out.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Penny kneels over Kade to protect her but he has little to offer in protection. Alice doesn’t confront the Beast head on but stands to the side looking small and does a spell to kill moths. Since the Beast wants his identity to remain secret he is forced to retreat into the mirror.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">That is obviously a tense and exciting scene. Sure I have to hang around to see if we will have another scene like that.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">The rest of the episode is about the investigator finding out about the seance (summoning), who was involved, how that relates to the Beast, and bringing them to justice. That threatens Quentin with expulsion from Brakebills. So the tension for the rest of the episode is in the presumption that Quentin will lose his chance to be a magician.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Writer Take Away:</b></span></span></h3>
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<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Sell it</b>. You don’t just need to get your main character up a tree and throw stones at him, you need to sell to the reader/audience that the stones hurt. When Quentin confesses to Elliot about the summoning, Elliot acts as though it is a foregone conclusion that Quentin will be caught. He offers Quentin a spell to make his mind impenetrable. Then he tells him that he will find him after he is expelled. The rest of the characters also act as though Quentin’s days at Brakebills are numbered.</span></li>
<li class="li15" style="clear: right; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Confess</b>. This entire episode runs on confessions.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Quentin confesses to Elliot that he was involved in a summoning.</span></li>
<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Elliot confesses to Quentin that he killed a boy.</span></li>
<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Alice confesses to Margo that she never took the entrance exam. She stole a key to Brakebills instead.</span></li>
<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Margo and Alice confess to each other that families are toxic.</span></li>
<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Penny confesses that the voice in his head had been teaching him magic and he thinks it is the Beast.</span></li>
<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Quentin confesses to Julia that he didn’t know how she felt until now.</span></li>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Backstory is always difficult to get into the story without making it boring. Here we see confession after confession of backstory secrets and it never gets old. Of course you got to have a reason to keep something secret and a reason to divulge the secret.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Quentin</b>: Quentin made several major leaps in his arc last episode. He went from isolation to making friends with Elliot and Margo. He went from being unengaged with his life to being fully invested in learning magic. He went from fearful, cautious, and restrained to taking a risk with Alice. So it is no wonder his arc slows down a bit in this episode while he wrestles with the probability of his expulsion.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><span class="s1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/the-magicians-103-consequences-of-advanced-spellcasting.jpg?resize=400%2C400" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The Magicians: The Source of Magic Review | Den of Geek" border="0" height="200" src="https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/the-magicians-103-consequences-of-advanced-spellcasting.jpg?resize=400%2C400" width="200" /></a><b>Julia</b>: Last episode Julia evolved in an equal but opposite direction from Quentin. She went from mature adult to childish belief in magic. She was on the sanctioned path of an upper class American when she slid into dealing with the underbelly of magic. She went from well adjusted to depressed and desperate. In episode 2 her desperation pulls her deeper into the underbelly of magic. Like Quentin, she must pass a test to join the hedge witches. She does pass this test.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Alice</b>: In this episode Alice remains largely angry and distrustful. She repels Margo but when Quentin approaches her self preservation forces her to befriend him. So she goes from self imposed isolation to friends with Quentin.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Elliot:</b> Still seems the most in control of the characters. Gives advice and solace to Quentin. And manages to be funny at the same time.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Margo</b>: Tries but fails to befriend Alice. For the first time we see a crack in Margo’s facade. She is just as socially hobbled as the men in the story. Sure she has male friends, but her life seems strangely devoid of any female companionship.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Penny</b>: Angry at Quentin (I’m unsure why.) Penny is also angry at himself for being the victim of the Beast inside his own head. But he shows his true colors when he kneels by Kade in an attempt to protect her from the Beast. He is brave. And when he finds out that he has been tricked by the Beast, he is willing to leave Brakebills to protect the others. So he has gone from cares about others to cares enough to put himself on the line. And yet, Penny is the one who sells out and fingers Quentin for what they all did. This starts the long standing animosity between the two men.</span><br />
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<b>Kade:</b> By far the biggest reversal. In episode one this character was deprived of a backstory and she acted childishly in class. Remember, this is a graduate level education. The students should be in their mid 20s. Kade heckles Alice when she is called before the class and then draws unflattering cartoons of people in the class. She seems less mature than the rest of the students and less serious. These details make her easy to write off as an unimportant character: Merely the love interest of the important character, Penny. In this episode we see how wrong we would have been to write her off. She is the only character who directly confronts the Beast. When they are interviewed by the investigator, Kade stays the course and doesn’t confess any knowledge of the summoning. She is brave, cares about others and clearly has more resources and magic than the others. The combination of putting her in the background in Ep 1 and bringing her out with such force in Ep 2 feels like a delightfully surprising twist<b>.</b></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Fogg</b>: He has lost his eyes and his hands are broken. Angry at Jane for getting him and Brakebills into her mess. But he continues to be in the mess and work with Jane. So he expresses concern for his students but fails to actually change anything to protect them. He is ineffectual. As the parent figure for all of Brakebills I feel like this is another dig against the adult world.</span></div>
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<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Wrap your Protagonist in Foil</b>. Julia still represents what Quentin would be in a world without Brakebills. If Quentin is kicked out of Brakebills will he become as desperate as her? Probably more so. And he would become just as consumed by the hedge witch world. We can see all that when we look at Julia and it makes us fear for Quentin. We feel more concern for Quentin because we see his future in Julia. That’s how a foil works.</span></li>
<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Nobody wants to be friends with a depressed character.</b> Quentin is first shown to us as an isolated, unengaged, depressed individual contemplating suicide. That’s wonderful backstory but an unengaged character is hard to root for. In fact they are hard to watch at all. So I am not surprised the writers gave Quentin large leaps forward in episode 1. That brought him into the magical world and made him fully engaged. Now you can root for him and feel concerned that he might return to his previous state. If you have a depressed inactive character, you might have to start the story at the point that they become engaged for some reason and then tell their backstory in flashback.</span></li>
<li class="li15" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Create a Crowd Pleasing Twist by Hiding one of your Characters</b>. Just as Quentin and Julia traveled a long way on their arcs in episode 1, some characters traveled very little. Or they were deprived of an arc at all. By making Kade seem like a walk-on character instead of a main character she is hidden from view. We don’t care about her. We don’t keep track of her. Then she bursts out of her walk-on shell and throws battle magic all over the place. It’s like she went to a phone booth and came out in a cape. She provides a great scene turn as the students begin to fight the Beast off.</span></li>
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<span class="s1" style="clear: right; float: right; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><span class="s1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><a href="https://a.wattpad.com/cover/97107010-352-k11385.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Magic Comes From Pain | #BattleTheBeast - bayaningbituon - Wattpad" border="0" height="320" src="https://a.wattpad.com/cover/97107010-352-k11385.jpg" title="" width="204" /></a>Last time I theorized that Lev Grossman may have been disappointed with the adult world that produced works of fiction exemplifying a just world to children but then failing to create such a world for their own children to live in. In this episode we see that several of the characters have issues with their neglectful parents including Alice, Margo, and Quentin. We also see that the stand in parent for Brakebills, Dean Fogg, is ineffectual at protecting his students in the long term. They are being brought into the adult magical world before they are ready.</span></div>
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Also, in this world, we are flatly told that magic=pain. In fantasy, magic is almost always an allegory for something in our lives. John Granger makes a pretty good argument that magic in Harry Potter is love, particularly self sacrificing love for all humanity. Narnia has similar themes. In Philip Pullman’s books I feel like magic is innocence. I don’t believe I have encountered a fantasy in which magic is pain. I feel like Lev Grossman is saying something very different than other fantasy writers. I keep searching for what he is telling us.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-18002201413576839302020-05-31T09:07:00.006-07:002020-05-31T09:27:05.754-07:00The Magicians S1 Ep 1<div class="p1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Hi <i>Magician</i> Fans.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6VbaB0TY0rSbtf6pIIN_NX9_lFU4C_gkNVlsAhVz1fc2HmHHUqOJYp3nhfCeFqcmSoQLR_4QA76eeyOq20Fmbz8Vwv-1hWnar9J_CdL8gbeC8hyphenhyphendfOQZo5z3Qmq6C0DNch0-N-9vcsrZd/s1600/2019-12-05.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="317" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6VbaB0TY0rSbtf6pIIN_NX9_lFU4C_gkNVlsAhVz1fc2HmHHUqOJYp3nhfCeFqcmSoQLR_4QA76eeyOq20Fmbz8Vwv-1hWnar9J_CdL8gbeC8hyphenhyphendfOQZo5z3Qmq6C0DNch0-N-9vcsrZd/s200/2019-12-05.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I’m a struggling writer and a huge fan of the <i>Magicians</i>, both the books and the SyFy series. I’m the cofounder of <a href="https://flagstaffwritersconnection.blogspot.com/"><span class="s2" style="color: blue; font-kerning: none;">Flagstaff Writers Connection</span></a> and I’ve taught young writers the <a href="https://flagstaffwritersconnection.blogspot.com/2018/12/Self-Editing.html"><span class="s2" style="color: blue; font-kerning: none;">basics of writing fiction</span></a></span><span class="s3" style="color: blue; font-kerning: none;">.</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> I’m older—57 yrs old. I’m a life long fan of speculative fiction and I’ve read countless fantasy novels. What I want to know is how did Lev Grossman and the series writers compel me forward into their story world so well? I also want to know how they created characters who seem so vivid and how did they make me believe those characters grew and changed? I’m embarking on a project to answer those questions and use this excellent story to propel my own abilities forward.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Similar to the <a href="https://writelikerowling.wordpress.com/"><span class="s2" style="color: blue; font-kerning: none;">Write Like Rowling</span></a> project, I plan to comb through each episode and each chapter looking for the answers and sharing my findings with you. If you are also a fantasy writer, you will likely find this interesting. If you are a fan, I’m not sure you will like the posts. It might be a little like finding out how sausage is made. Regardless of whether you are a writer or mainly a reader, I welcome<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>your comments on my findings, even the negative ones.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Currently I am reading book 3 of the series so I’ll start my analysis with the TV series. I’ll add chapter analysis on my re-read after I finish book 3. As I proceed, I’ll be keeping notes on my <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1udn34OPtGgVT0i-Qls8w0OKgMLOzHorfbP4JqPkQrnE/edit?usp=sharing"><span class="s2" style="color: blue; font-kerning: none;">Story Grid</span></a>. I’ll also post these discussions on <a href="https://calexsmith.blogspot.com/"><span class="s2" style="color: blue; font-kerning: none;">my blog</span></a> and my personal <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cherrie.a.smith/"><span class="s2" style="color: blue; font-kerning: none;">FB page</span></a>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Being a writer is a little like being a close up illusionist. Writers, good writers, understand the deep psychology of their readers. They know how to fool the brain into believing it is seeing or feeling things that aren’t there, to believe what isn’t true. I’m watching for that sleight of hand in each of these episodes.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Episode 1: Unauthorized Magic</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Directed by </b></span></div>
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<span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2648685/?ref_=ttfc_fc_dr1">Mike Cahill</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Writing Credits </b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Written and created for television by</span></div>
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<span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1571148/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr1">Sera Gamble</a></span></div>
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<span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0573695/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr2">John McNamara</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Based on <i>The Magicians</i> by</span></div>
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<span class="s4" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5107819/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr5">Lev Grossman</a></span></div>
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<li class="li1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b></b><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>What compelled me forward?</b></span></li>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj-1ZsgJQ1CB0E6wpGU-VmFnFHaX54592XpB9t8efXjjF1cR4AVDFmPPwjlcIPyiMsZ9ovRjl-Po_gUBjS1Aj-zUK2s5_dvneZmCopBTSM0kuO71LYuvo8R7lf92ygs15dSzw6-KMZI_aZW1gdV-1oBPbX09zfc-xuUSwFb5AoG=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj-1ZsgJQ1CB0E6wpGU-VmFnFHaX54592XpB9t8efXjjF1cR4AVDFmPPwjlcIPyiMsZ9ovRjl-Po_gUBjS1Aj-zUK2s5_dvneZmCopBTSM0kuO71LYuvo8R7lf92ygs15dSzw6-KMZI_aZW1gdV-1oBPbX09zfc-xuUSwFb5AoG=w200-h113" width="200" /></a></div>In this episode, Gamble and McNamara, worked to hook me right away. The first scene shows the loud, chaotic world of New York City. The sky is gray and there is dirty snow on the sidewalk. Suddenly a door opens and we glimpse a green lawn and a bright summer day. Birds are singing. Dean Fogg strolls through the door and it slams shut behind him. He sits at a bench and reads a paper. A woman (Jane Chatwin) approaches and tells him “it” has started. She drops a huge moth on his newspaper. Fogg quickly covers the insect. She continues to warn him that things are happening sooner than anticipated and he has to get his group trained before they are discovered. No names are mentioned. In fact no specifics are mentioned at all. Near the end of the scene Jane gives Fogg a clock. Then she asks about “your boy.” Fogg looks uncomfortable and in the next scene we see Quentin in a mental health facility.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">What draws me in is the sense of secrecy and danger. I have no idea what these two are planning. At this point, I don’t even know whether these two are good guys or villains. In fact it is the lack of information that makes me curious and I have to continue watching to figure out what these two are talking about.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Likewise, the end of the episode propelled me into the next episode because it leaves me with so many questions. Who (what) is this Beast? Why so many fingers? What does he want with Quentin?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Writer’s Take Away:</b></span></div>
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<li class="li1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Create a sense of danger with body language and subtext or just murder and mayhem. Fogg covers up the moth quickly so it isn’t seen by a passer-by. They discuss someone who is starting something that is clearly antagonistic to these two. Jane stresses that their group needs to be ready soon or suffer some sort of setback. She gives him a clock “in case things don’t go well.” In the final scene, things do not go well.</span></li>
<li class="li1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Don’t tip your cards. What makes the first scene compelling is what we don’t know. We don’t know who or what is the antagonist they are prepping to overcome. In order to discover what they are discussing I have to keep watching. Likewise, in order to see what the Beast is and what it wants, we have to keep watching the series.</span></li>
<li class="li1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Honor the fans of the genre, even at the beginning. When Dean Fogg walks through the door from Brakebills there is an air of separation between Fogg and the mundane world. Immediately I want to know more about the world with the summer’s day and birds chirping.</span></li>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Quentin</b>: When we first meet Quentin, he is being assessed by a psychologist for release from a mental health facility. We learn from the psychologist, from a fight with Julia, and from flashbacks to the last party Quentin attended that he is awkward, isolated, and that Julia is his only real friend. He is desperately in love with her despite her boyfriend. We find out that Quentin retreats from his life into the childhood fantasy books <i>Fillory and Further</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">In the <i>Magician</i> books, Quentin is definitely unhappy with his life but he is not in a mental health facility. While walking to his Princeton (Yale) interview he muses, “All of it just confirmed his belief that his real life, the life he should be living, had been mislaid through some clerical error by the cosmic bureaucracy.”—<i>The Magicians</i>, pg 5. And at the interview, “It was a liquor cabinet. A big one, there was practically a whole bar in there. Quentin reached back past the ranks of softly jingling bottles and felt the dry, scratchy plywood at the back just to make sure. Solid. Nothing magical about it. He closed the door, breathing hard, his face burning in the darkness. It was when he looked around to make absolutely sure that nobody was watching that he saw the dead body on the floor.”—<i>The Magicians</i>, pg 10. Grossman knows his potential fans. Is there a one of us who hasn’t fantasized how we are really made for something better, brighter, more adventurous? And if we just pushed hard enough we could …</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Julia</b>: Despite her boyfriend, she clearly cares for Quentin. She works to get him to move forward with his life including interviewing for Yale and trying to get him to ask a girl at the party out. She is frustrated by his refusal to grow up and his retreat into depression and into his fantasy world. She feels he needs to grow up. But immediately after she berates Quentin for not dealing with reality, she finds herself magically transported to the entrance exam at Brakebills. When she fails the test, she begs for a second chance. She says she can’t go to Yale when she knows a University of Magic exists. So we find out that Julia was once as engrossed in fantasy as Quentin but has suppressed her feelings successfully to become an adult. In many ways she is as dysfunctional as Quentin. She is hiding her true self, and when it comes boiling to the surface she is as alone as he. More so, as he rejects her request to ask Brakebills to test her again. Her desire to be a part of the magical world will be her vulnerability throughout this season.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Fogg</b>: Dignified, slow walk. With Jane he appears to try to keep her more down to Earth. With Quentin he needles him until magic explodes from Quentin at the thought of going back to his troubled life. Then Fogg asks Quentin to give up his medication despite the fact Fogg agrees with Quentin that everyone self medicates. That gives us a clue about Fogg’s vulnerability. But we also see Fogg heroically face off with the Beast in an attempt to save his students. What makes Fogg fascinating is this dichotomy in his character. Brave and knowledgeable but also broken and alcoholic.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Jane</b>: We see her as a child and an adult. She seems flighty and close to panic. Fogg is astounded that she believes they can change fate. She confronts Quentin and convinces him to take a risk. Her childish enthusiasm and belief that she can outdo fate will act as her vulnerability.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Elliot</b>: He assumes a mentor position for the newly matriculated Quentin. He seems sophisticated and suave. He looks like he has it all together, including preforming magic. In retrospect, of course, Elliot has a whole host of vulnerabilities.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Margo</b>: Talks and acts like a party girl. Easy to overlook her in these first few scenes and she feels like a throw away character. She defers to Elliot, so that might be where her vulnerability lies.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Penny</b>: The second of our angry characters. He seems to have a chip on his shoulder about his race and the series makes great fun of that anger. He might be over compensating for the confusion hearing voices causes.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Kade</b>: Also seems angry or at least bitchy. At this point we don't know what she might be angry about. Again, she is a female character who is easy to overlook. She isn't really granted a backstory and she acts childishly.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Writer’s Take Away</b>:</span></div>
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<li class="li1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Give your perfect fan a place in your story. Quentin is awkward and his friends don’t really get him. That makes him a supremely lonely man. He takes refuge in books and in his magic tricks. Lev Grossman’s perfect fan would have a long history of reading fantasy fiction. They are likely guilty of taking refuge in books to sooth themselves when the real world is a little rough. They are likely to identify strongly with Quentin and when in his POV they feel like they are in the story themselves.</span></li>
<li class="li1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Make your protagonist(s) vulnerable. Quentin has a long history of unstable mental health. His parents ignore him and he is in danger of losing his only real friend, Julia. He is an extremely vulnerable man. We feel for him. He didn’t cause all these issues with some sort of misbehavior, he has just been unlucky. It is hard to watch a person who isn’t intentionally “bad” suffer. We want his luck to turn around and when it does, we silently rejoice.</span></li>
<li class="li1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">If you want to take a character arc to the pinnacle of growth/change, start as close to the bottom as you can. Margo seems more like a walk-on character than a major character. In fact she is the sidekick of a sidekick. She is shallow and defers to whatever Elliot says. Easy to overlook her. In retrospect, this makes her character at the end of the series seem to have made super human growth.</span></li>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><b>3. What is the Theme?</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">All right. I lied. I have a third question I’m trying to answer. Lev Grossman is quite famously an atheist. I get the feeling that he wrote these books in response to the Christian themes in fantasy literature, especially in C. S. Lewis’ <i>Chronicles of Narnia</i>. We can see the similarities even in this first episode. The Chatwins are a group of estranged British children who discover Fillory in the back of a grandfather clock. That is essentially the plot of <i>The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe</i>. Fillory is a magical land, much like Narnia. And Fillory has monsters and danger, just like Narnia.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I don’t have a writer’s take away for this yet. I can only see the similarity between the two series at this point. I do think that Quentin and Julia’s unhappiness is perhaps representative of children who read the Narnia books and thought the world would be a just place but found out otherwise. They represent a deep mistrust of the adult world that created those books but was unable to create a world that reflected Narnia’s sense of right and wrong.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-339675934964191372017-01-05T18:52:00.000-08:002017-01-05T18:52:04.983-08:00Brainstorming [Reprinted from Content Cathedral]<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #006885; font-family: "avenir next demi bold"; font-size: 32px; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES REQUIRES PLENTY OF SNACKS.”--JAMES SCOTT BELL</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next demi bold"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">GOING AFTER IDEAS</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Schedule a regular idea time, once a week at least; a few hours a month</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Get a quiet spot and achieve a relaxed state where you can let your imagination run free</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give yourself 30 min on uninterrupted time</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do a writing exercise or two, You can use the list below. Use Random Numbers Generator to pick an exercise at random.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let your imagination come up with anything it wants and record EVERYTHING on paper or a computer</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DO NOT CENSOR YOURSELF. Just let the ideas pour into the computer in whatever shape or form they want to. DO NOT JUDGE.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have Fun. Lots of FUN.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Save ALL your ideas.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After 2-3 sessions assess your ideas</span></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next demi bold"; font-size: 18.6667px; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NURTURING THE IDEA</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scan through the recent ideas for the month and pick one or three and write a hook, line, and sinker</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Hook—The big idea in the opener that will grab a reader browsing on the Internet or in a book store.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Line—A tagline that grabs like “In space, no one can hear you scream.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Sinker—What might sink your idea? Disadvantages of doing pursuing idea.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next demi bold"; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Answer the following questions</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Has the type of story been done before?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-What can you add that will be unique?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next demi bold"; font-size: 13.3333px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep brainstorming until you have something no one else has.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Is the setting ordinary?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Are the characters cliché?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-What sort of character would have a fresh perspective on this story?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Brainstorming again.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Is the story “big enough” to grab a substantial number of readers?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-What would make it bigger?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-How can you raise the stakes?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-One of Bell's three “deaths”?</span></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Is there some other element you can add that is fascinating?</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="200" longdesc="https://www.random.org/integers/" scrolling="no" src="https://www.random.org/widgets/integers/iframe.php?title=True+Random+Number+Generator&buttontxt=Generate&width=160&height=200&border=on&bgcolor=%23FF9933&txtcolor=%23660000&altbgcolor=%23FF9900&alttxtcolor=%23330000&defaultmin=1&defaultmax=&fixed=off" width="160"></iframe></div>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="11"></col><col width="85"></col><col width="527"></col></colgroup><tbody>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #fefefe; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #fefefe; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Name of Ex</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #fefefe; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Task</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Free Write</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Choose a topic, idea, question you would like to consider. It can be a specific detail or a broad concept-whatever you are interested in exploring at the moment. Start with your goal in mind, stated as a question: “What can I write a story about?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write for 10 minutes non-stop on that topic. Use a timer. Most cell phones have a timer function on them but a kitchen timer will do.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you get stuck and don’t know what to say next, write “I’m stuck and don’t know what to say next…” or try asking yourself “what else?” until another idea comes to you. Do not concern yourself with spelling, grammar, or punctuation, just speed. Your goal is to generate as much as you can about the topic in a short period of time. Get used to the feeling of articulating ideas on the page. You can repeat this exercise several times, using the same or a variety of topics connecting to your subject. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Experiment with writing on a computer and long hand on paper.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read what you have written to see if you have discovered anything about your subject or found a line of questioning you’d like to pursue.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Morning Pages</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First thing in the morning, ask yourself what you most want to write about. Write down whatever comes to mind. Float on the stream of your own consciousness. If your hand is tired, write it down. If you think this is stupid and you can’t believe you’re doing it, write it down. Whatever. No censorship. Just write for 10 to 20 min. It’s ok if it’s messy or makes sense only to you. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Experiment with writing on computer or long hand. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reread what you wrote to see if there is anything you would like to pursue.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Great warm up to your daily writing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Noodle the News</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For one week record short snippets of news on a 24 hours news channel or the headline and the first few lines of stories on print news. Do not go into depth. Just get a slightly expanded headline.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Ask “What if . . .?” to each article.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Ask TV shows and commercials “What if. . . ?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Let your mind roam free</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Write down the What Ifs on a master list (See Evernote: https://evernote.com)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Put the list aside and come back to it in a few days and develop some of the What Ifs that sound promising a little further.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Titles</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make up cool titles then write the book to go with the title.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Go through a book of quotes and jot down interesting ones to use as titles.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--List several words at random drawn from the dictionary and combine them to make a title</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Take the first line from novels and make up a title (Fist line of Dean Kootz novel is “Janice Capshaw liked to run at night.” Possible recombinations: She Runs by Night; The Night Runner; Runner of Darkness; Night Run)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The List</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Choose a topic, idea, question you would like to consider. It can be a specific detail or a broad concept-whatever you are interested in exploring at the moment. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--On a piece of paper list all the ideas you can think of connected to your subject. Consider any idea or observation as valid and worthy of listing. Make the list as quickly as you can. One or two word reminders of past scenes of your own life, random thoughts, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Set your list aside for a few minutes or a day. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Come back and read your list and do the exercise again. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Issues</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I think arresting fiction is written out of a sense of outrage.”--Robert Ludlum</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Since we cannot expect truth from our institutions, we must expect it from our writers.”--Edward Abbey</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What makes you outraged?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Abortion</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Environment</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Gun Control</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Politics</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Talk Shows</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Cell Phones</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Find an issue you care about—that makes you mad.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Choose a side. Defend your moral argument.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now come up with the good arguments for the other side.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Come up with characters who might care about each side of this issue.</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 149px;"><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Watch It</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First thing in the morning ask yourself, “What do I really want to write about in this moment?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">List the first 3 things that come to mind</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Close your eyes and let your mind show you a movie. Sit back and watch. Don't try to control it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Start writing. Don't think about plot. Keep writing for 20 min.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Repeat every day for 5 days.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take a day off then then highlight the parts that turn you on</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 93px;"><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hear It</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Put on a piece of music that moves you. Nothing with lyrics—movie soundtracks work well.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and let the music show you a movie.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stop and record what you've seen on paper or on computer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can also use this technique to write planned scenes</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 187px;"><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Character First</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Develop a Dynamic Character and see where s/he leads you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Visualize the first person who pops into your head and describe them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Recreate a person you know and give them a different occupation or change their sex.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Create a character based on the obituary.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Put that person in a setting and see what they do.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ask:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--“Why is the character acting this way?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--“What is the worst thing that could happen to the character I just created?</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 75px;"><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steal from the Best</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Originality is the key to plagiarism.”--William Noble in Steal This Plot.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take a story you like and switch it up in some way: Change the character or the genre.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Add your own original take on the story.</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 37px;"><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flip the Genre</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take the long standing conventions of a Genre and Flip them Upside Down</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Cowboys and Aliens)</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 280px;"><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">12</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Predict a Trend</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scan specialty magazines for immediate and long term trends that have not taken off yet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Who would care about this?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-What would that person do about it next year? In ten years?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-What would happen if all of society embraced this?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-What would happen if all of society rejected this?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Who would it hurt the most?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sources:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Scientific America</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Popular Mechanics</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Wired</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Time</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Newsweek</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-US News and World Report</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-USA Today</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 56px;"><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">13</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Research</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Research something you are interested in.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write down a plot idea as you research.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let the plot drive the research for a while.</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 19px;"><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">14</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><br /></td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 19px;"><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">15</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Obsession</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give a character an obsession and see what s/he does.</span></div>
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<tr style="height: 32px;"><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">16</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Opening Lines</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think of provocative opening lines and plot a story to go with it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">17</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prologue</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Come up with a gripping opening</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now the hard part=> Write the story to go with it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">18</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mind Map</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ready=>Write a word or a concept in a circle in the middle of the page</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fire=> Without thinking about them, allow you mind to write down associations and connections as fast as you can</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aim=>Scan the map for an idea Find a clock, watch, or timer to help you keep track of time. Put a word you’d like to explore in the center of a piece of paper and put a circle around it. As fast as you can, free-associate or jot down anywhere on the page as many words as you can think of associated with your center word. If you get stuck, go back to the center word and launch again. Speed is important and quantity is your goal. Don’t discount any word or phrase that comes to you, just put it down on the page. Jot words for between 5-10 minutes. When you are finished you will have a page filled with seemingly random words. Read around on the page and see if you have discovered anything or can see connections between any ideas. Open the dictionary to a random page, point your finger to a random word, and write it down in the middle of a piece of paper. Set a timer for five minutes. Ready? Go!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Using that word as a jumping off point, map out as many different thoughts from that word as you can. Don’t worry if they’re too small, too big, too ridiculous, too dumb, have no way to tie into a story.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The goal here is quantity, not quality, so turn off your inner editor and just keep writing down the thoughts. As you start building up threads around your anchor word, feel free to do the same to one of your spin-off words too, as they inspire you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the timer dings, look over the story idea web you've created. I promise there are seeds of new stories in there, so find them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">19</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Socko Ending</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Come up with the ending first</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Visualize a climatic scene</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Hear the music</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Feel the full range of emotions burst forth</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Add a character that will heighten the conflict</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Play around with other variations on the theme until something unforgettable happens</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now ask:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Who are the characters?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-What circumstances brought them here?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-How can I trace back the story to its logical starting point?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the very least, this exercise gives you some strong characters</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">20</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Occupations</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ideas based on researching intriguing work</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dictionary of Occupational Titles by US Labor [http://www.occupationalinfo.org/</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.occupationalinfo.org/]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">21</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Setting</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Get black on white.”--Maupassant</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Don't get it right, just get it written.”--James Thurber</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I was so desperate to write something, I was facing the wall of my study in my house in New Rochelle and so I started to write about the wall. That's the kind of day we sometimes have as writers. Then I wrote about the house that was attached to the wall. It was built in 1906, you see, so I thought about the era and what Broadview Avenue looked like then: trolley cars ran along the avenue down at the bottom of the hill; people wore white clothes in the summer to stay cool. Teddy Roosevelt was President. One thing led to another and that's the way that book began, through desperation to those few images.” --E. L. Doctorow about writing Ragtime.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Describe a setting around you. Just start.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">22</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Glimmers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Collect things that resonate with your emotions and write them down in the a file. Capture it as true to the moment as you can</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pick a time when you are not doing something else and think about what glimmered at you over the last week and write them down.=> Glimmer Dump</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let them cook in your mind for a while.=> Glimmer Simmer</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Go through them from time to time to use them for your writing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">23</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cube</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This technique helps you look at your subject from six different points of view (imagine the 6 sides of a cube and you get the idea). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take your topic or idea and </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*describe it, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*compare it, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*associate it with something else you know, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*analyze it (meaning break it into parts), </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*apply it to a situation you are familiar with, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*argue for or against it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write at a paragraph, page, or more about each of the six points of view on your subject. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">24</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journalist</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think about your topic in terms of each question a journalist would ask: Who? What? Where? When? How? And Why?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">25</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What? So What? Now what? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ask yourself, “What do I want to explore?” Write about that topic for a page or more. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read what you have written and ask “So what?” Write for a page or more. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally ask yourself, “Now what?” Write where you might go next with the idea.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Defining Terms</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although this suggestion is simple and may seem obvious, it is often overlooked. Write definitions for key terms or concepts in your own words. Find others’ articulations of the terms in your course readings, the dictionary, or through conversations and compare the definitions to your own. Seek input from your instructor if you can’t get a working definition of a term for yourself.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">27</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Summarizing Positions</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes it’s helpful to simply describe what you know as a way to solidify your own understanding of something before you try to analyze or synthesize new ideas. You can summarize readings by individual articles or you can combine what you think are like perspectives into a summary of a position. Try to be brief in your description of the readings. Write a paragraph or up to a page describing a reading or a position.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Metaphor</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Metaphors or similes are comparisons sometimes using the words “like” or “as.” For example, “writing is like swimming” or the “sky is as blue as map water” or “the keyboard wrinkled with ideas.” When you create a metaphor, you put one idea in terms of another and thereby create a new vision of the original idea. Sometimes it may be easier to create a metaphor or simile may help you understand your view of an idea before you can put it fully into sentences or paragraphs. Write a metaphor or simile and then explain to someone why your metaphor works or what it means to you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">29</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Personal Circumstance</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes ideas come clearest when you can put them in a frame that is meaningful to you. Take a concept from your reading assignments and apply it so a situation in your own life or to a current event with which you are familiar. You may not end up using this application in your final draft, but applying it to something you know will help you to understand it better and prepare you to analyze the idea as your instructor directs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Writing Prompt</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a ton of great writing prompt sources out there, from websites to entire books of them. Use them! They can stretch your thinking in new directions and give you story ideas you might not find on your own.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Write Practice (http://thewritepractice.com/) offers a prompt right here on the blog weekly, or check out our 14 Prompts ebook(evernotecid://8F008973-FC9A-4BE3-A384-79E2CA75F3E0/ENNote/p3363#). Another one of my favorites is DIY MFA’s Writer Igniter (http://diymfa.com/writer-igniter). Seventh Sanctum runs a huge number of various prompt generators. Take your time and explore their site: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index.php</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reversal</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reveals your deepest assumptions about something</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write 3 fundamental assumptions that define what you are working on </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now reverse those assumptions and ask yourself how that could be true</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brainstorm several ways to make the reversal true for every assumption</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Example:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Auto Mechanic</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3 Assumptions: Fixes Cars; Charges Money; Specialized Skill</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Special Skill:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reversal: No special skill</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Working in his own garage and really shouldn't be?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Charges Money</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Does not charge money</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Won lottery and fixes them for friends</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fixes Cars</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Does not fix cars</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Works at junk yard and tears cars apart</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Benefits:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Escape looking at the problem in a traditional way</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Frees up information to come together in new ways (De-familiarization)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think provocatively</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Breakthrough Approaches</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When a character is about to make a decision, consider looking at the opposite of what you planned.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">32</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Random Metaphor</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">De-familiarization--Approaching a well known event as though you have never seen it before</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use this on flat characters.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pick a random word (Noun)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">List properties of the Noun</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ask how the character is like the properties of the random noun</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Example:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bike Racer Character</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Random Noun: Canoe</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Canoe properties: Wooden, Unstable, Cheap, Has a history</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bike Racer Character</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wooden--unable to open up to people</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unstable--Quick tempered and unreliable</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cheap with teammates, tight ass</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Has a history--Family dynasty of racers and driven by father</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">33</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remix Ideas</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What follows are some ideas I’ve found to be important in my experience:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create time for solitude. In interviewing others, I found that solitude is the No. 1 creative habit of highly creative people. If you’re immersed in online distractions and other busy-ness, you’ll never have the space to consider the ideas you’ve gleaned from elsewhere, or think about how to remix them. So while connection is important (see other steps below), time for solitude is just as critical and often forgotten.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Search for interesting ideas. What are other people doing? Don’t read about the ideas of others so you can compare yourself to them and feel bad, but simply for the cultivation of interesting ideas. They’re all over, in blogs and online magazines, to the people you meet every day who are doing interesting things, to the friends and family you interact with regularly. Read a lot, observe more.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep an idea file. As you find interesting ideas, throw them into a text file. You don’t need to ever use them, but just keep notes. You can review this every couple of weeks, and see if anything sparks something for you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reflect on ideas, apply them to your field. Are you a novelist? Can you take ideas from your favorite books, like magical realism or suspense devices, and put them into yours somehow? Whatever your field, there are ideas from within your field, and other places, that could possibly be applied to what you’re doing. Take a few moments, maybe in the shower or on your commute or on a daily walk or run, to think about how you might apply these ideas to your projects. Then write them in your idea file — you don’t have to do these new ideas, but if they really excite you, consider it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Iterate on what you’ve come up with. Remixing a couple of ideas in new ways isn’t the end of the process. You might find new ideas to add to the mix. You might remix the same ideas in new ways. The process continues for as long as you continue to stir the pot, and could get better and better, so don’t give up on your stew.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Writing from the Middle Exercise</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write Open the Mind</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This exercise comes from Writing Open the Mind by Andy Couturier. Please check out his book. It is packed with ways to mine the cosmos for brilliance using the subconscious. I have no connection to any of the people, books, blogs or websites I recommend. I recommend only what worked for me, and Writing Open the Mind is a must have for any writer. It is crammed with exercises, all of which I have used and which have helped me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take a sheet of paper and turn it sideways. Think about a question in your novel you wish answered, a plot point you want to advance, or a vague idea you had for a novel. Write that at the top of the page. Under the heading write the following column headings: People | Concepts | Places | Questions | Emotions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, get an egg timer, or download one for your smart phone, or use eggtimer.com from the internet. Give yourself seven minutes and fill in the categories. Don’t worry about what you put in the categories, that is for your subconscious to worry about. Your job is only to keep your hand moving. Write as fast as you can. Put in a shopping list if you must but keep it going. Fill up the full seven minutes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Done? Now unfocus your eyes and circle 7 items from your page. Move your hand around to the different collumns but circle items at random, numbering them 1-7.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Great. Go for a walk. Wash the dishes. Play with the dog. Take a 30-90 min break. Do NOT watch TV, pay bills, update FaceBook, do your calculus homework. Don’t do anything that requires thought. This time is part of your writing. It only appears like you are goofing off. Maybe it even feels a little like goofing off. That’s good. Writing should be fun. While your conscious mind is playing, your subconscious is hard at work. You’ll see the results of its hard labor when you come back to your desk.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back from your break? Feeling refresshed. Great. Now you get to choose—computer or pen and paper. Either will give you something good, but they will give you different things. They access different parts of the brain.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are using pen and paper, put your seven items you circled at the top of seven pages of blank paper. Set your eggtimer for 25 min. Now write about the first item. Again, keep your hand moving. Even if what comes out has nothing to do with the topic, don’t worry about it. Just keep going. When you run out of steam, move to the next topic.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Random Title</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write a story based on a Random Title Generator. [ http://www.mcoorlim.com/random.html ]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mash Up</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pick two of your favorite books, movies, or TV shows and see what happens when worlds collide. There are endless possibilities if you try this trick yourself. What would happen if Cinderella were a science-fiction story? (Marissa Meyer’s Cinder.) How would your modern day Sherlock Holmes story read? What would happen if Goldilocks were a gothic story? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brain Transplant</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pretend you are a character from your story. Now describe his or her home. Then go outside. See hear and touch everything from the character's POV. Then have the character become your invisible friend. Point things out in your world that might be new to your friend.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shinrin Yoku (Forest Bathing)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Go somewhere with trees. A forest is best. Smell the air, feel the essence of the forest. When you are ready, let your character lead you to a tree. Place the character's hands on the tree and have him confess his deepest, darkest secret and fear to the tree. Record the confession.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snooping</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Go to a public place and eavesdrop on the people there. Take notes. Write down snippets of conversation. Write character description. Write setting. Make up a backstory for one of the people. Now put it all together in a story.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lost in Translation</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Listen to an unfamiliar song in a Foreign language you can't understand. Now write down your translation of the lyrics of the song. Free associate as needed. Estra points for writing jibber is and nonsense.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Treasure Hunt</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Go shopping with your character and let them pick the store. Then let them show you an object in the store. Let the character describe the object to you while you have your eyes closed. Feel it all over. Shake it. Rap it with your knuckles. Taste it? Finally, open your eyes and examine it. Now write a story or poem about it or fit it into the story you are currently writing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prognosticator</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use crayons, colored pencils, markers or paints to draw a picture of your character's life in 10, 20, 30 years beyond the end of the story.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">See It</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Draw the next scene of your story using crayons, colored pencils, markers or paints.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The End</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "avenir next"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write out 50 endings for the story. That will exhaust the internal critic and loosen up the subconscious.</span></div>
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</td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;">Rewrite Grimm's</td><td style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Follow <a href="http://thewritepractice.com/writers-block-grimms-fairy-tales/" target="_blank">These Instructions</a> to rewrite a Grimm Fairy Tale.</td></tr>
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</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;">Ray Bradbury</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "happy monkey" , cursive; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">Do what Bradbury did. Wake up every morning for a week and free associate a list of words (or images, or doodles, or whatever works for you). Give yourself 5 minutes and just write every word that pops into your mind without editing and without stopping. Then take one of those words (or a group of them) and use it as the basis for a story or character or plot. Don’t let yourself off the hook. Find a way to make it work.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">49</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">50</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">51</span></div>
</td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle;"><br /></td><td style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 13.3333px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">52</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">53</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-18051447868671425462016-01-16T12:03:00.001-08:002016-01-17T15:47:05.136-08:00Ep#8: Uprooted by Naomi Novik<h2>
Fans of #Fantasy will appreciate this new episode of #<a href="http://specfixpix.com/">Speculative Fiction Picks</a>:</h2>
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<a href="http://specfixpix.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Uprooted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://specfixpix.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Uprooted.jpg" height="464" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://ift.tt/1OoThIK">Ep#8: Uprooted by Naomi Novik</a>. Audible, Golden Globe, Heinlein Awards. Star Trek. Star Wars. TV+Movies. Batmobile. Gravitational waves. “Wow!” And other SciFi, Fantasy, Horror news, plus an excerpt of <i>Uprooted</i> by Naomi Novik.
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="30" scrolling="no" src="http://specfixpix.com/?powerpress_embed=442-podcast&powerpress_player=mediaelement-audio" width="320"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-74678562479881965382015-12-18T18:10:00.001-08:002015-12-22T15:28:03.148-08:00Ep#7: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiixAD3Hz8iiwlEvHbh7WdzQoxP-QqjBHMTdbELUnlRgWFqH1XDK-PUIgqI3652HB2mTWasVjSGFn89n_SCpkJ8F-j20OwY7u9x9NB-Ai3OpjyfUdeLGwaR7H2b48qRZTihVQK2YjBh4cZY/s1600/The+Water+Knife+graphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiixAD3Hz8iiwlEvHbh7WdzQoxP-QqjBHMTdbELUnlRgWFqH1XDK-PUIgqI3652HB2mTWasVjSGFn89n_SCpkJ8F-j20OwY7u9x9NB-Ai3OpjyfUdeLGwaR7H2b48qRZTihVQK2YjBh4cZY/s640/The+Water+Knife+graphic.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Hi fans of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. I just put up a new episode of <a href="http://specfixpix.com/">Speculative Fiction Picks</a>:<br />
<a href="http://ift.tt/1TVbpLz">Ep#7: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-55121416719693500292015-11-27T14:53:00.001-08:002015-11-27T15:16:28.402-08:00Ep #6: The Three Body Problem by Lui Cixin<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-rppMW7EUXsF-EVj3wbNj5IDflzfl1XZa_dSMiJ9dbPJw2fJwt-hLF5syENVDsZ_YIuKecbaZ1UIWZXkU6iPxfixoyjdI7ZBIZQVWCRrDdmg-TBum2gJsP6zqF4_Zdat18SXmYh0ecSP/s1600/The+Three+Body+Problem.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-rppMW7EUXsF-EVj3wbNj5IDflzfl1XZa_dSMiJ9dbPJw2fJwt-hLF5syENVDsZ_YIuKecbaZ1UIWZXkU6iPxfixoyjdI7ZBIZQVWCRrDdmg-TBum2gJsP6zqF4_Zdat18SXmYh0ecSP/s640/The+Three+Body+Problem.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Hi fans of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. I just put up a new episode of <a href="http://specfixpix.com/">Speculative Fiction Picks</a>:<br />
<a href="http://ift.tt/1So9wGK">Ep #6: The Three Body Problem by Lui Cixin</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-64744296056607850182015-10-18T10:00:00.001-07:002015-10-18T23:50:01.161-07:00Ep#5: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie<br />
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<a href="http://specfixpix.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Ancillary-Justice-Graph-750x512.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://specfixpix.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Ancillary-Justice-Graph-750x512.png" /></a></div>
Hi fans of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. I just put up a new episode of <a href="http://specfixpix.com/">Speculative Fiction Picks</a>:<br />
<a href="http://ift.tt/1RirI3L">Ep#5: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-34761815514919016762015-10-01T08:49:00.001-07:002015-10-01T08:49:32.649-07:00New in Speculative Fiction Picks:<img src='https://d1cmhiswqj5a7e.cloudfront.net/http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ow.ly%2Fphotos%2Fnormal%2FdhPid.jpg' style='max-width:586px;' /><br />
<div>"The Giver" "Lord of the Flies" and "Lord of the Rings" were all banned. See more banned #Science #Fiction. http://ow.ly/SGzDV<br />
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Pinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1iUkQz1">Speculative Fiction Picks</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>.<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/Pi7vdE">here</a>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-15244223315027758502015-09-30T19:13:00.001-07:002015-09-30T19:13:32.429-07:00Adventures in the Pacific Northwest on PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1MXUDfr" target="_blank">Botanica Pacifica</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ift.tt/1POM83Y" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1POM83Y" /></a></div>
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Date night at #WA State Fair in #PacificNW.<br />
Originally seen <a href="">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-26380947984607030122015-09-30T17:57:00.001-07:002015-09-30T17:57:17.092-07:00Adventures in the Pacific Northwest on PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1MXUDfr" target="_blank">Botanica Pacifica</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ift.tt/1P6fs7Y" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1P6fs7Y" /></a></div>
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See you in the #PacificNW next month.<br />
Originally seen <a href="">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-72324683267695321052015-09-30T12:20:00.001-07:002015-09-30T12:20:05.346-07:00New in Speculative Fiction Picks:<img src='https://d2zfw9brtww0cv.cloudfront.net/http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ow.ly%2Fphotos%2Fnormal%2FdhOYp.jpg' style='max-width:586px;' /><br />
<div>Some Science #Fiction Classics that were banned. http://ow.ly/SGzZY<br />
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Pinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1iUkQz1">Speculative Fiction Picks</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>.<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/Pi7vdE">here</a>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-5841027146216443282015-09-30T09:51:00.001-07:002015-09-30T09:51:27.289-07:00New in Speculative Fiction Picks:<img src='http://bookmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/ByKC0A_CAAAgUnW.jpg' style='max-width:586px;' /><br />
<div>Take your very own Banned Book Mugshot. Whether it’s "Harry Potter", "The Hunger Games" or "The Handmaid's Tale", grab a copy and take a selfie. If you are lucky enough to live in Flagstaff, AZ, Bookmans will proudly take a pic at their DIY photo booth.Use #BannedBookSelfie to get people talking about banned #Fiction! http://ow.ly/SE2rf<br />
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Pinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1iUkQz1">Speculative Fiction Picks</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>.<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1N1uoou">here</a>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-59504624442128616402015-09-29T09:57:00.001-07:002015-09-29T09:57:51.436-07:00Adventures in the Pacific Northwest on PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1MXUDfr" target="_blank">Botanica Pacifica</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ift.tt/1O5WnmY" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1O5WnmY" /></a></div>
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“Cases dels Cargols”, Barcelona, Spain…<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1ME7el0">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-55111162808333515782015-09-29T08:39:00.003-07:002015-09-29T08:39:47.452-07:00Adventures in the Pacific Northwest on PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1MXUDfr" target="_blank">Botanica Pacifica</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ift.tt/1LMBuvp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1LMBuvp" /></a></div>
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Blood Moon in Pacific NW 2015<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1WvDM57">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-23581434576700183722015-09-29T08:39:00.001-07:002015-09-29T08:39:46.623-07:00Adventures in the Pacific Northwest on PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1MXUDfr" target="_blank">Botanica Pacifica</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ift.tt/1LMBueL" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1LMBueL" /></a></div>
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Time lapse Blood Moon over Portland??<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1iZ2jl4">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-45696950159498764632015-09-29T08:23:00.003-07:002015-09-29T08:23:54.508-07:00Adventures in the Pacific Northwest on PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1MXUDfr" target="_blank">Botanica Pacifica</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ift.tt/1KIv91V" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1KIv91V" /></a></div>
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Blood Moon over Seattle 2015<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1juuCrA">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-34076535139676433362015-09-29T08:23:00.001-07:002015-09-29T08:23:53.609-07:00Adventures in the Pacific Northwest on PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1MXUDfr" target="_blank">Botanica Pacifica</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ift.tt/1KIv91R" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1KIv91R" /></a></div>
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Blood Moon Eclipse Time Lapse over Pacific NW.<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1juuCro">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-43359616640332722912015-09-29T07:53:00.001-07:002015-09-29T07:53:27.417-07:00Adventures in the Pacific Northwest on PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1MXUDfr" target="_blank">Botanica Pacifica</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ift.tt/1MXUEjs" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1MXUEjs" /></a></div>
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Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1KOyQ30">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-85135292593244377022015-09-29T06:49:00.001-07:002015-09-29T06:49:46.556-07:00New in Speculative Fiction Picks:<img src='http://specfixpix.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/I-Read.png' style='max-width:586px;' /><br />
<div>Get a Twibbon for FB or Twit declaring you read banned #Fiction.<br />
<br />
Pinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1iUkQz1">Speculative Fiction Picks</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>.<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1B1I4Vl">here</a>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-39050830100318949592015-09-28T07:19:00.001-07:002015-09-28T07:19:58.595-07:00New in Speculative Fiction Picks:<img src='https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3201/2298324787_180e2de61e_o.jpg' style='max-width:586px;' /><br />
<div>Learn more about banned #Fiction at http://ow.ly/SGAcW<br />
<br />
Pinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1iUkQz1">Speculative Fiction Picks</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>.<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1ya3FbW">here</a>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-87478826874406157562015-09-27T11:50:00.001-07:002015-09-27T12:33:06.944-07:00New on Speculative Fiction Picks at PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1iUkQz1" target="_blank">Speculative Fiction Picks</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/83/1a/3e/831a3ef0c2bd95de3fc962c8920d441a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/83/1a/3e/831a3ef0c2bd95de3fc962c8920d441a.jpg" width="231" /></a></div>
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I'm amazed by banned #Speculative #Fiction in my indie bookstore http://ow.ly/SGy6i. Some are my favorites. Any #banned books in your favs? http://ow.ly/SGybE<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1Vhpisu">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-7655661404322526912015-09-27T10:52:00.001-07:002015-09-27T11:09:17.191-07:00New on Speculative Fiction Picks at PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1iUkQz1" target="_blank">Speculative Fiction Picks</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/85/26/b2/8526b20f75d5d3190090ead2b9dad5b0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/85/26/b2/8526b20f75d5d3190090ead2b9dad5b0.jpg" width="91" /></a></div>
It's Banned Book Wk! Celebrate banned #Fiction by reading it. Post favorite banned books at #IReadBannedBooks.<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1Vhk6Fa">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-59729302292330304102015-09-27T06:05:00.001-07:002015-09-27T11:15:25.569-07:00New on Speculative Fiction Picks at PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1iUkQz1" target="_blank">Speculative Fiction Picks</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/97/18/a5/9718a58a9e7c713e087197b94fcd7f49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/97/18/a5/9718a58a9e7c713e087197b94fcd7f49.jpg" width="261" /></a></div>
By writing we bring to souls to wing.<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1iCVSTV">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743968422825924947.post-13659978290616882472015-09-26T01:14:00.001-07:002015-09-27T11:13:38.637-07:00New Writer Quote on PinterestPinned to <a href="http://ift.tt/1R7BQge" target="_blank">Quotes</a> on <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYvv2">Pinterest</a>:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/60/03/69/6003699fe565f3e3ef56e8fcdea90ccc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/60/03/69/6003699fe565f3e3ef56e8fcdea90ccc.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
But, on the other hand, every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe—a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. ~ Albert Einstein<br />
Originally seen <a href="http://ift.tt/1KVYw2e">here</a>.
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