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~ A random repository of how-to-write and geekery, with an occasional snippet of accidental wisdom.

The Upstairs Archives

Tag Archives: a tale of two cities

I Have Loved the Stars Too Fondly

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Story Dynamics, Tales from Selay'uu, Tales of a Wandering Bard, Uncategorized

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

a tale of two cities, a wrinkle in time, baroness emma orczy, c.s. forester, charles dickens, doctor who, horatio hornblower, j.r.r. tolkien, madeleine l'engle, original stories, short stories, star wars, the lord of the rings, the scarlet pimpernel

Call this a tribute to all my favorite characters–I was thinking back on all my favorites and I noticed that my very favorite characters all tried and failed at some point, but kept on trying. Their victories were by no means constant, and their successes were not always total.

So here is my tribute to Horatio Hornblower, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Martin the Warrior, the Doctor (though this sounds much more like Eight than like Eleven), Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Charles Wallace Murray, Meg Murray, Sydney Cotton, and all my other favorite characters.

Enjoy.


They all pity me. I can tell.

I’ve got all the scars and bruises and broken bones I earned by my trouble, I skirt the edge of madness, and sometimes I seem to be invisible.

Sometimes, they ask me why I’m like this.

“It couldn’t be helped,” I say.

After all, if I told them the full truth, they wouldn’t stop to listen.

Sometimes, when you reach out to touch the stars, you fall and fall hard. Not all your leaps of faith will be successes.

Of course, since they pity me, they’d never see the truth. The truth is this: I tried. I did my best and sometimes it just wasn’t enough. Reduced to this shell of a man as I am in their eyes, they would only see the futility of the struggle. Never its nobility.

The very core of the truth, condensed and concentrated, is that I do not regret one moment.

I do not grudge one bruise, one scar; not the shattered bones or the bleeding knuckles or broken skin. If I had my live to live all over, I’d do it all again. I’d risk it all. I’d step out without knowing if I had a safety net. I’d run farther and fight harder without knowing if I’d win or not. I would seize every chance, take every risk in hope.

I have lived more fully than any of them. The path of least resistance is not one that is by any means enviable. It’s safe, certainly—but it is not satisfying. Not to me, in any case.

I would not give up one second of this. I do not regret one moment of this.

Some things are worth failing for.

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TCWT December 2014: Learning from the Masters

08 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Story Dynamics

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

a tale of two cities, blogging, brian jacques, c.s. lewis, charles dickens, dee henderson, fahrenheit 451, g.a. henty, irene hannon, j.r.r. tolkien, lord of the rings, madeleine l'engle, ray bradbury, redwall, sir arthur conan doyle, story dynamics, teens can write too blog chain, the silmarillion, writing

We’re back again!

I am so sorry, I’m posting this a day late. I had planned to schedule it, but… well, let’s just say that though I know better than to excuse myself to my instructors at college, you guys might actually forgive me if I say that work and college conspired to destroy ANY plans I had for this week. AT ALL. Also, late happy St. Nicholas’ Day and on time happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!

I know it’s been a while since I posted for the Teens Can Write Too blog chain, but I had good excuses. Crazy college and a new job made me take a hiatus from blogging for a while. I kind-of almost want to change to a history major, but I’m going to hang on with what I have now–I figure that if I want a history degree later, I can get a history degree later by transferring credits and attending part-time. Besides, I don’t think you need a degree to go to history conventions and get in on that conversation. History people are awesome.

Well, that’s enough about that.

On to the prompt!

Over the years, I have learned a lot, mainly by following the example of other authors. Remember how there’s that annoying little thing where your writing tends to mimic the style of the last author you read? Well, that’s part of it. But only part of it.

From The Lord of the Rings and the Redwall series, I learned about style and pacing. In Redwall, the style is very concrete, and the pacing is quick; when you get to the crises of the books, it’s a hard-hitting series of events leading rapidly up to the climax. The Lord of the Rings is paced slower and has a bit more of an ornate style. I have had my style compared to Tolkien’s *glares at Iris, sitting in the audience*, but I tend to prefer Jacques’ pacing.

From Irene Hannon, Dee Henderson, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I learned the value of not broadcasting your plot twists all over the place. Normally I have intuitions about whodunit, but in these cases I could not see the villain until he was right in my face. Genius.

From G.A. Henty, I learned that it’s okay to take detours. (Okay, Tolkien does that too, but I read Henty first.) Adding in side plots to prolong a quest+character development for side characters=an equation for 300 pages of a good read. (Don’t hate on me. 50k is all well and good, but I like books that are 150k or 200k, even. I read The Lord of the Rings in nine days straight and actually finished reading The Silmarillion.)

From A Tale of Two Cities, I learned the value of keeping up with history and using a cultural and historic background to my advantage. Realism is the name of the game, and while you’re simulating realism, it helps to be knowledgeable about the real history behind it.

From Fahrenheit 451 I learned the importance of keeping calm through criticism. (Don’t ask me how; that’s just the lesson I took away from it. I pick up on odd things sometimes.) I’m not used to being criticized in a negative light. If you’ve been reading my blog, and especially the comments on the posts, it’s only been once or twice that I haven’t received abject praise. I don’t know if that’s because I’m good at what I do or if I have a feel for what my audience likes or if they just can’t find anything to criticize. But it’s hard to be criticized since I’m so used to praise. I just have to find out what’s relevant, and not let the rest get to me.

From C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle, I learned that it’s okay to write the tough books, the ones that might get you hated on. You might be shocked to see how much criticism gets to me, even if you’ve known me forever, but I learned from reading Lewis’ and L’Engle’s works that you have to just kick fear in the teeth and write it. You’ll be surprised by how much support you garner.

You have to write the book that wants to be written, and if it’s too difficult for adults, write it for children. ~~ Madeleine L’Engle

5th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

6th – http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/

7th – https://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/

8th – http://introspectioncreative.wordpress.com/

9th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/

10th – http://kirabudge.weebly.com/

11th – http://whileishouldbedoingprecal.weebly.com/

12th – http://randomosityofeden.wordpress.com/

13th – http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/

14th – http://www.alwaysopinionatedgirl.wordpress.com/

15th – http://www.juliathewritergirl.wordpress.com/

16th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

17th – http://horsfeathersblog.wordpress.com/

18th – http://unironicallyexcited.wordpress.com/

19th – http://theboardingblogger.wordpress.com/

20th – http://stayandwatchthestars.wordpress.com/

21st – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

22nd – http://fantasiesofapockethuman.blogspot.com/

23rd – http://lilyjenness.blogspot.com/

24th – http://oliviarivers.wordpress.com/

25th – [off-day]

26th – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/

27th – http://missalexandrinabrant.wordpress.com/

28th – http://www.pamelanicolewrites.com

29th – http://jasperlindell.blogspot.com.au/

30th – http://maralaurey.wordpress.com/ and http://theedfiles.blogspot.com/

31st – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for next month’s chain.)

Oh, are you still here?

I apologize again for posting late. Don’t stick around here, though! Head right over to the next blog and don’t miss out on their post!

Thanks for reading, and God Bless!

Pirates and Writers and Bedsocks, Oh My!: The Sunshine Award

08 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Story Dynamics, Tales of a Wandering Bard, Uncategorized

≈ 29 Comments

Tags

a tale of two cities, arthur ransome, award, baroness emma orczy, bbc merlin, bbc sherlock, being christian, bible, blogging, brian jacques, c.s. lewis, castaways of the flying dutchman, catholic culture, charles dickens, christianity, college, doctor who, g.a. henty, humor, insanity, j.r.r. tolkien, john flanagan, lord of the rings, madeleine l'engle, randomness, ranger's apprentice, redwall, robert louis stevenson, roman catholic, sherlock holmes, sir arthur conan doyle, small rants, space trilogy, star trek, star wars, swallows and amazons, the chronicles of narnia, the scarlet pimpernel, time quintet, treasure island, who framed roger rabbit

You should be seeing a big bright happy picture here, but you're not. Scotty is on it already.

I hope you are having a bright and happy day. Because this is a bright and happy picture. And I finally figured out how to insert a picture into a post without downloading it onto my computer! Yay me!

Anyway, Proverbs31teen has awarded me with the Sunshine Blog Award. Which is rather unexpected, ’cause the only award I’ve ever received before was the Liebster. (Four or five times, now. I’ve lost count. :-P) For this one, the rules are rather simple. Five facts about you, answering five questions, setting up five more questions, and nominating five other bloggers. From what I can tell, you don’t have to really nominate people with a certain number or less or more than a certain number of followers for this one, so this should be much easier. *crosses fingers, hoping she didn’t just jinx herself*

First of all, the five facts:

  1. I snarked above, but unless your computer is not functioning correctly you probably can’t see it. MWAHAHAHAHAH.
  2. Apparently my sense of humor is somewhat impaired; my dad thinks Who Framed Roger Rabbit is hilarious and I don’t even find it remotely funny. (All joking aside, if you don’t want your childhood permanently ruined and your innocence prematurely stolen, do not watch that movie! It is evil incarnate!)
  3. Hot dogs, bratwurst, and fish fillets all taste different when eaten on a bun. Which raises the question, how much of the taste of your hot dog is the actual hot dog, and how much of it is the disgusting stuff they bake into the bun (and in the hot dog, too, if you bought the cheap ones)?
  4. Apparently you have to send your information into this college’s website several times before it accepts you… *sigh*
  5. As you can probably tell, my life is defined by job searching and college prep at this point.

And now, to answer the five questions…

  1. You’ve got one day left of your life. What would you want to do? I think I would like to go to Mass with all my friends, and maybe meet a few of the people I know on the Internet whom I’ve never met in real life, and spend the rest of the day with my family.
  2. Pirates or ninjas, and why? I’m told this is a “thing” now… I’m going with Sherlock on this one. Pirates, I think. Mainly because I mostly don’t know about ninjas, except that they make really popular Halloween costumes, and my only experience of ninjas is really from “Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu” (GO ZANE!), which is probably kind of sad, come to think of it… Besides, on the side of the pirates, I’m a big fan of Robert Louis Stevenson.
  3. If you were turned into one of the Avengers, which one would you be most like? Some people I’ve talked to said Captain America. Others said Bruce Banner. I have never seen the Avengers movie, so I don’t really know.
  4. What are your top three favorite Bible characters, and why? Oooh, John the Baptist, Moses, and Paul. (Our Lord TOTALLY goes without saying! And the actual apostles!!!) I’m sticking with more “secondary” characters, though, because, well, these people didn’t get much hype compared to the main players. Anyway, all three of them were amazing men who were rather outspoken but very courageous, and each had a message to get out. Moses is awesome because he’s a prefigurement of Christ, John got beheaded for telling Herod “no, you can’t marry your brother’s wife!” (and he also was preparing the world for Christ’s coming!), and Paul was a tireless preacher of the Gospel. (What is it with me and people who were beheaded? *smacks head against wall* Smooth, Erin, real smooth…)
  5. (I’m going to be evil, too) What is your favorite book? Do you mean right-now-favorite, long-time favorites, or all-time favorites? (I have a lot…) Of course, the Bible goes without saying. 😉 For all-time favorites (drum roll, please!) it’s a tie between C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle and Lord of the Rings. I love The Last Battle for its beauty, apocalyptic feel, the resonances with the Book of Revelation (or Apocalypse, which is a totally better name in my opinion!) For shortness’ sake, though, I normally just say “LOTR FOREVAR!” and leave it at that. Probably ’cause LotR has about ten times as many pages… Long-time favorites? All the Sherlock Holmes books, Baroness Emma Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel and its sequels (and Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, because I can’t very well forget Sydney Carton when we’re in the French Revolution, can I?!),  Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons books, Brian Jacques’ Redwall (and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, which probably would top this list if I were seriously counting,) C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy and Chronicles of Narnia (in fact, anything by Lewis), Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet (I think that I like Madeleine L’Engle’s stuff because it reminded me of Lewis, and I have always loved Lewis), and the works of G.A. Henty (though sometimes I just want to re-write the endings because it would have been TOTALLY better with a different happily-ever-after GAH!). For my right-now-absolute-favorite? John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series. (YAY GILAN! AND HALT! AND WILL!!!) What can I say? I couldn’t live without books…

Finally, for my five questions:

  1. If you had to choose between the Doctor, Sherlock, Merlin, Luke Skywalker, Matthias, Jim Hawkins, and Sir Percy Blakeney to go on an unexpected and otherwise completely unpredictable adventure with, who would you choose?
  2. Who would you be more likely to say “You’re weird!” (complete with exclamation point) to: Obi-Wan, Anakin, Sherlock, Watson, the Doctor, Merlin, or Halt? (If you would be most likely to say “You’re weird!” to Halt, then you have my undying respect. Either you are very brave, or just plain crazy.)
  3. Do you wear socks to sleep in? (You’d better bet your fluffy bedsocks you do, young’un, wot?!)
  4. What is the best plot you’ve ever had that originated in a dream? (Yes, a sleeping dream. Daydreams don’t qualify. Sorry, Sir Percy.)
  5. Have you ever been to Boston in the fall?

And now, I hereby wish to nominate:

Iris, because she’s awesome and encouraging and clever and reckless and everything a best friend forever should be!

Liam, because I couldn’t hit him with any Liebster awards. >:-D (If you were wondering about exactly how many times I’ve received the Liebster award, now, it’s four.)

Rachel Carrerra, because her work is amazing!

Shiekiah, because she deserves it and has written amazing stuff and draws amazing art and I really wanted to say thank-you-for-the-awesome-Bound-to-the-Flame-commissions 😉

Coruscantbookshelf (aka Rosalie), because she got me started blogging in the first place. 🙂

Thanks for reading this post all the way to the end. Thanks for nominating me, Proverbs31teen! Have a great day, everyone, and God Bless!

The Mad Tea Party, Old College-style

04 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Tales of a Wandering Bard, Uncategorized

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

a tale of two cities, alice in wonderland, c.s. lewis, charles dickens, humor, lewis carroll, old college, parody, portergirl, satire, secret diary of portergirl, selay'uu (sort of), technology humor, the chronicles of narnia, what have you, writing

With heartfelt thanks to PorterGirl for the loan of her characters, Charles Dickens because Sydney Carton is awesome, and apologies to Lewis Carroll for mangling his dialogue and mistreatment of a scene from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Mad Tea Party

                For some reason, the sky was mauve. It wasn’t even sunset. The sky was just… mauve. The roses were chartreuse, giving the Queen of Hearts something else to scream about. And the lilies were electric blue. (As anyone who has gardened or studied horticulture much at all can attest, certain flowers are not ever naturally blue. You can see at once how strange this was.)

Deputy Head Porter admired the gardens as she passed. It wasn’t every day that you saw chartreuse roses and electric-blue lilies, though lime-colored zinnias were becoming more common. She ducked under an abnormally tall sunflower with bright red petals and nodding faces and came to the gate in the hedge. The gate led to a path, which led up to a charming little house, with a tree growing next to it. And under the tree stood a huge dining room table, on the grass. Curiously, Deputy Head Porter pushed the gate open.

Senior Tutor, Junior Bursar, and the Dean were all seated, scrunched together, at one end. As soon as he saw her, Junior Bursar thumped on the table with a large spoon, bellowing, “No room! No room!” The Dean was too busy trying to keep his toothpick-and-card tower from collapsing due to Junior Bursar’s enthusiastic table-thumping to say much, and Senior Tutor, who, Deputy Head Porter thought, must be more than a little deaf, was asleep.

“Do you ever talk at less than a bellow, old boy?” the Dean asked. Junior Bursar ignored it.

“There is plenty of room,” Deputy Head Porter said firmly and sat down a few seats away from the others.

“Have some wine,” the Dean said, absentmindedly, as he added turrets, battlements, and a cornice to his tower.

“I don’t see any wine,” Deputy Head Porter replied, staring at the other end of the table. There was one other person at the table; she had missed the fourth person before, due to the other’s position hidden by the hedge. The fourth person at the table was dressed like Sydney Carton, complete with cravat and a damp towel wound around her head like a turban. Stranger still, though, was the fact that she had a partially unfolded card table set up around herself like a screen. She was scribbling away busily.

“Don’t mind me,” this strange apparition said. “I’m not important.”

“Would you like some tea?” Deputy Head Porter said, politely.

“Oh, yes, please,” the stranger said. Deputy Head Porter began to prepare a mug for her.

“There isn’t any wine,” said Senior Tutor sleepily. (1) Junior Bursar snorted.

“What is the velocity of an unladen swallow?” he asked. (2)

“It is in direct proportion to the wind direction and momentum and indirect to the number of minutes the swallow has been flying,” said Miss Sydney Carton. “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”

“You’ve spilled ink on both,” retorted Junior Bursar.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little bat,” Senior Tutor interjected sleepily.

“Is he drunk?” asked Miss Sydney, who apparently was spending less of her attention on her writing than she had been before. (1)

“No,” said Deputy Head Porter, with solid conviction. Sydney flicked a rock at the carafe full of pink lemonade, toppling it over and drenching Senior Tutor.

“Eh, what?” said Senior Tutor, before collapsing back into dreamland. The Dean completed his tower, and Deputy Head Porter obligingly took a picture of it with her cell phone. Sydney flicked another rock at the tower, which for some reason, did not collapse. Then she threw her pen at it. It stuck there, leaking ink over the playing cards. Everyone promptly forgot about it.

“What a dull bunch of layabouts you are,” the Dean said, staring purposefully around the table. Vindictively, Junior Bursar squeezed lemon into his tea. The Dean didn’t notice. “What was happening before?”

“Nothing,” said Sydney Carton.

“Let’s play a game, then,” said the Dean. “Deputy Head Porter, what would you like to play?”

“Truth or Dare,” Deputy Head Porter said, feeling adventurous. Sydney Carton coughed, though whether to disguise a chuckle or her own surprise may never be known.

“Miss Carton,” the Dean said, “would you like to go first?”

“All right,” said Sydney. “Truth.”

“Do you ever stop writing?” Junior Bursar interposed, before anyone else could speak. Sydney leaped to her feet and hurled her card table off the dining table with a loud bang. It disappeared in a flash and puff of smoke, and Sydney snarled an imprecation at no one in particular.

Startled momentarily awake, Senior Tutor asked, “are you really a mathematical genius?” Sydney sat back down and sighed, smoothing her trousers out.

“We may as well make the rule that Truth answers a question from the field, so long as any question—but not all questions—may be refused, but everyone must agree on a Dare,” she said, much calmer now.

“Was it Junior Bursar who made the card table disappear?” Deputy Head Porter asked.

“Have you ever won a game of chess,” the Dean said, thoughtfully. Sydney grimaced.

“No, no chess victories,” she said. “Junior Bursar did not make the card table disappear; that was my doing. It was an accident!” she protested. No one contradicted, but no one particularly believed her. “As to being good at math, yes, well, according to the tests. But after a point, it’s all a muddle, and I lose interest.” She fixed Junior Bursar with a stern eye. “As to writing, no, in fact, I don’t ever stop writing. It’s addictive.” She leaned slightly back in her chair. “Your turn, Junior Bursar.” However, Junior Bursar seemed to be distracted. He had pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and was staring at it, hitting various icons and then holding it up to his ear. Deputy Head Porter looked at him oddly.

“Is there a problem, sir?” she asked.

“I suppose,” he snapped. “What day is it?”

“It’s the fourth.”

“Two days slow,” the Dean marveled, looking over his shoulder. “Whatever have you done to that poor mobile, Junior Bursar?”

“Senior Tutor is asleep again,” Junior Bursar commented with interest.

“Red herring,” snapped Sydney impatiently, at the exact same time as the Dean. “Jinx! You owe me a soda!” Sydney shouted. (3) Everyone ignored her.

“Wait. It says the exact same time as it did five minutes ago,” the Dean noted. “It’s stopped.”

“That’s impossible, it’s a mobile,” said Junior Bursar.

“Maybe it’s broken,” said Deputy Head Porter, helpfully.

“My watch broke once,” remarked Sydney. “It’s always six o’clock now.” Satisfied with her witticism, she stood up and recited her party piece.

Twinkle, twinkle, little bat,

How I wonder what you’re at.

Up above the world you fly,

Like a tea tray in the sky! (4)

                Suddenly, the gate flew open and in marched Lewis Carroll himself. “Are you enjoying yourselves?” he asked, cheerfully.

“Very much,” said Deputy Head Porter politely. Sydney busied herself with her pencil, as her pen was still stuck to the Dean’s card tower.

“Good,” Mr. Carroll said. He glanced at Sydney. “Charles Dickens is looking for you, you know. You’re going to catch it when he finds you!” With that, Mr. Carroll left.

“Hasn’t anyone heard of cosplay?” Miss Sydney grumbled, as the others leaned back, aghast. Lost for words, the Dean picked up his cup and tried to sip at his—now overly sour—tea.

The mad tea party dissolved in absolute chaos a moment later.

Footnotes

  1. See “The Committee for the Prevention of Drunken Behavior.”
  2. I have never seen Monty Python. I just thought this quote was hilarious.
  3. This is something my dear friend Iris says when we say the same thing at the exact same moment.
  4. This one is actually a bit more complex. To quote “Lewis Carroll: Photographer”, by Helmut Gernsheim, Chanticleer, 1949 (found in “The Annotated Alice,” annotations by Martin Gardener, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2000,) “At Christ Church the usually staid don relaxed in the company of little visitors to his large suite of rooms—a veritable children’s paradise. There was a wonderful array of dolls and toys, a distorting mirror, a clockwork bear, and a flying bat made by him. This latter was the cause of much embarrassment when, on a hot summer afternoon, after circling the room several times, it suddenly flew out of the window and landed on a tea-tray which a college servant was just carrying across Tom Quad. Startled by this strange apparition, he dropped the tray with a great clatter.” Frequent readers of Secret Diary of PorterGirl will catch the reference, and why I included this particular piece of trivia.

For those who were wondering, yes, I am the bashful, impatient, ridiculous Sydney Carton cosplayer. It wasn’t an intentional self-insert. At first, it was actually supposed to be Lewis Carroll himself in the fourth chair, but then the card table made an appearance (and eventually disappearance) and it turned out to be me… Aslan save us all. (Does it count as Mary Sue-ness if the self-portrayal is deprecatingly honest?)

Authors Must Take Sides (And a Few Notes on Speaking Out)

16 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Story Dynamics, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

a tale of two cities, author, charles dickens, insanity, long rants, mark twain, politics, rambling musings, story dynamics

It’s true. While much of the population can beat about the bush as far as moral dilemmas and controversies go (though it’s annoying when they do that, I’d rather be attacked ferociously by a troll than see an insipid someone who goes mmm-hmm and tries to agree with everyone on everything!), we of the storytelling subculture must take sides on controversy and then fight our viewpoint.

Why? The answer is wholly expedient… (And also advocated by Saint Paul…) In two words: Lukewarm books.

No one wants to read a lurid story where no one takes a stand for what they believe in, where everyone breaks their moral codes every three seconds, where there are only shades of gray and no black and white whatsoever. Though I admit that it’s difficult to write a good story without gray shades (not without sounding preachy and being too-sweetly allegorical, which I abjure right along with Tolkien, applicability for the win! WHOO!), it also makes no sense for people not to take sides. If people didn’t take sides, there wouldn’t be a conflict.

And as such, the author must take sides, too. An author must write the right and wrong into the story, and to write right and wrong, the author must at least temporarily believe in right and wrong. (I’m all for permanency, myself.)

Though in real life, people who speak out are either told to shut up or are ignored, in fiction people love ’em. Characters who take a stand are characters with charisma, characters who can be leaders. Characters who will carry away the reader with them.

This post has a bonus; a few short notes on standing up for your beliefs and rights in real life. First of all, the most important rule on standing up: It’s okay to be angry and outraged over a severe issue; this is called righteous anger. But while you’re protesting the issue, control it, and definitely don’t show it. People listen to calm and steadfast speaking-out; anger only provokes more anger. (This is true in every context, by the way.)

Second, if you’re speaking out about a controversial topic, one that “nice” (aka tepid and dissembling) people don’t mention in polite conversation, you will most likely be ignored, or blushed at and then ignored. If you’re in the right, people are likely to get angry when you impinge on their comfort zone, so if you see anger, it most likely means that either you’re being obnoxious (which is a big no-no,) or you’re doing something right. So what do the entrenched-in-error people do? They hide their anger so you can’t see that you are doing something right.

Third, you don’t want to go for ad hominem attacks. An ad hominem attack is, basically, attacking someone’s character, rather than respectfully disagreeing with them. This is the worst possible way to go about changing people’s minds, which is basically what you’re trying to do. Forget about politics–this is about people you know every day! This is grassroots. Eventually it’ll get into politics. Change comes about slowly, whatever the current presidential administration may say. (Madame LaFarge makes her point well in A Tale of Two Cities. I rest my case.) So don’t attack people! (You may notice I just made a joke about the continuing goals of the Obama administration, making fun of their plans rather than them directly. This is called Republican humor, and might be taken as an ad hominem attack by oversensitive, besotted liberals… who, sadly, do actually exist… *sob*… 😛 … but it really isn’t. I just humorously disagreed with their goals and ideas, I said nothing about the administration’s actual members, themselves. It may be “off-color humor,” but you’ve got to admit, it isn’t mean humor.) Also, if you libel celebrities, it’s a surefire way to start a war, and that is NOT WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO.

Fourth, if people do get angry over what you’re saying, when they stalk off in a huff, call cheerily after them, “Thanks for the discussion! It was AWESOME!”, “God bless you!”, “Have a great day!” or equivalent. It confuses people, and it’s FUN. It’s called heaping coals of fire on their heads, and it changes minds. It’s also a naughty pleasure for impish Christians.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this post, my mischievousness, my bad political jokes, and whatever else in here that was funny (I probably didn’t intend the last category as humor, but who cares?!) Mark Twain rules. (If you got the Dickens and Twain references in this post, I will love you FOREVAR.)

Thanks for reading, and God Bless! (see what I did there? X-P)

Kenobi out.

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