Hello!

I've been lurking on this forum for some time now...I originally found a link here several years ago, but after reading just a few topics I didn't return and eventually forgot the address and the name. But the things I had read here stuck in my mind - you know how it is when you read a book quickly and then move on to the next one without much reflection, but bits and pieces from it keep popping up in your mind and eventually you realize, "You know what, that was a really good book"? That's what it was like! So a month or two ago I decided to go look for that forum that had stuck with me so much, and thankfully I managed to find it again I'm looking forward to joining in...your forum seems to have a lovely blend of friendliness and serious, thoughtful debate that's rare to find on the Internet.

A bit about me...my name is Alison, I'm a 16-year-old American girl, and I live overseas. I've always wanted to be a writer, but I'm a world builder more than anything else - I can't help myself from world building, but I can go for months without writing anything. I'm also interested in a multitude of other things - knitting, programming, linguistics, music... I don't actually read that much fantasy, but I've enjoyed what I have read, and pretty much anything I write would be classified as fantasy anyways since it's usually set in an imaginary world! At the moment I'm working on a novel that I started during this month's Camp NaNoWriMo. It's called And Then We Can Finish the Story, and my basic idea with it was to have a story with three accounts of the same events, showing how you could look at one thing in many different ways. The main character (and narrator) is trying to deal with some things in his past, and being a logical, orderly, academic type, he decides to do it by figuring out what really happened based on those accounts. And then there's a convoluted subplot involving a character who has acquired quite a mind of his own...he started out as a friendly, helpful young man that I wasn't even sure I would include, and now he's turned out to be over-ambitious, a little deceptive, involved with some of the most dangerous aspects of local politics, slightly creepy, tremendously devout, and a little crazy. I love him.

Anyways, I had one question about how this forum operates...what's the policy on thread necromancy, so to speak? That is, is it okay to add to a topic whose last post is very old - say, several years old? Obviously I can't expect the people originally involved in the thread to still be around, and so on, but is it fine to revive a dead topic if I have something to add to it?

Thanks a lot for running this lovely forum! I can't wait to get involved. And there's a good example of the kinds of long posts I always end up writing.

Hello Alison Welcome to Holy World ! I am a recent member too and until now I've had a very good time here (and intellectually stimulating ^^) And between us, you can perfectly revive old topics (I've done so myself héhé) and it is all the more interesting because people who started it come back and make new observations -sometimes to express how their opinion has Evolved...Besides, many old topics are so fascinating it would be a pity not to develop them a little further...Anyway maybe it was illegal to revive a dead forum and I am an outlaw -but I haven't been arrested yet

In what part of the world do you live exactly ? And what are your favourite themes to draw upon when you write ?

Welcome Alison!

Oh, another major world builder! Welcome by the way!

Yes, old threads can be resurrected, though active users will probably be the first ones to reply to your post. =)

Welcome to Holy Worlds, Alison! Any thread that isn't archived can be revived, no matter how old it is.

Who are your favorite authors? And what kind of music do you like?

Welcome Alison! I'm pretty new here myself.Sounds just like me.

Thank you, everybody! I feel very welcomed. Thanks for clarifying about reviving topics - it will be fun to see what goodies I find going through the pages of old threads!



I was born in the Middle East and I've lived there my whole life. I only speak a little Arabic, though. As for themes I like to include in my writing, it varies! Last year I was stuck on worldviews - how different people can look at the world differently - and I was exploring various ways that love could go wrong...so lots of romances that ended horribly! Now I'm writing more about old philosophical and religious questions like the problem of evil, though I'm still kind of stuck on ways that love can twist. In my current novel, for instance, I have a love triangle that ends truly miserably. (I kind of hate love triangles so it was fun to do.) The same novel, actually, is kind of a response to the themes in a book series I read recently, A Series of Unfortunate Events. ASoUE basically says that you can never understand everything and you can never be sure that what you're doing is right. (It sounds kind of lame summarized that way, but it is much more eloquently presented in the actual books.) I'm hoping to work a Christian response to that into my story. Actually, I recently posted an essay on my blog that also has to do with the themes of ASoUE and the themes of my story - the last paragraph basically sums up the main point of my novel: http://sheesania.com/moral-dilemmas-and-human-weakness/

Is it bad that I work out all my themes and symbolism and whatnot before writing a novel? I usually see writers advise that you should write your rough draft first and then see what themes come out naturally... But I want to have the theme worked out beforehand so I can know where to take the story! Anyways, maybe this is a good topic to bring up on another subforum.



Favorite authors...man. I don't really know. I love Brandon Sanderson as an author but I haven't really read that many of his books - just his rather obscure Alcatraz series, and Steelheart because it was the only Sanderson ebook my library had - so it's probably a bad idea to go around saying he's my favorite author. I also enjoy most of what Andrew Clements writes, and Lemony Snicket is good too. And there's C. S. Lewis, naturally, though I need to hunt down more of his nonfiction. I recently read a book by G. K. Chesterton, too, that made me want to immediately go and read something else by him...and then I also like Charles Dickens. I generally have trouble picking favorites...

I almost never listen to music, actually. I enjoy classical music but I'm not that knowledgeable in it and I don't really listen to it on my own. My sister and I like dancing to the soundtracks of the Super Mario Galaxy games and Super Paper Mario, though... But I really enjoy playing music - I've only been studying music seriously for about a year, and I love it. The only problem is that I can't keep myself from writing music even when I don't have the skills to do it. Three-instrument song in sonata form when I've never studied anything beyond basic chord structure? Sure! But I'm nuts like that.




Oh yay! I joined this forum more for the world-building than the fantasy writing, though I do hope to do more fantasy writing myself. What are your worlds like? Do you have multiple ones or do you mainly stick with one? Or am I supposed to ask such questions in private messages...?

Weeeellllllllcome, sheesania! So glad you found us again! I hope you enjoy yourself--because... you can never leave, so...*shrugs* *bestows a frilled lizard wearing a fez*


So it isn't just me who has that happen!! Wooo!!

What do you like to knit?

Is said lizard a variety of gecko? I love geckos. Particularly those wearing fezes.


Haha! I think our best characters always get minds of their own, eh? I'm a bit concerned since he was supposed to be the central believing character, the paragonal exemplar of true goodness, and then he got this deceptive side. Though now I think he's actually a better symbol of a true believer - he's flawed and sinful, but ultimately relies on God.


Lace shawls! I'm obsessed with them. They are so much fun to knit - so geometric and mathematical and lovely - and they look so pretty when they're done. Except I never wear them. I have some pictures on my website, if you're interested, though I need to put up more: http://sheesania.com/category/knitting/ I've also knit sweaters, socks, doll clothes, scarves, etc., but lace shawls are the recurring favorite.

I've checked out your site, a little bit, and.... o.o You need a badge that says 'professional world builder' to pin on you. Yes.

I haven't read anything but a negligible percentage of your blog posts, but I enjoyed the ones I read and I hope I'll be able to explore more in future.

Anyway, welcome!

That sounds fascinating. I love stories like that. How far are you on it?

Which one was it? Chesterton is one of my favorite authors, and I snagged practically everything he wrote a little while ago, though I haven't finished reading it all yet.

I have a couple different worlds, and one is actually a whole universe, with the focus on just a few of the worlds in it... you can PM me if you want more details.
I second this.

I need to read Sanderson! Lewis is one of my favorites, and I also enjoy Chesterton.

What instrument do you play?

Thank you, guys! But I can't be a professional world builder because I've never been paid. You could make me one, though, if you started paying me. Seriously, though, on my website you don't see all the holes and impossibilities that are scattered throughout my world thanks to my eight-year-old self. If I was really serious, I would get rid of some of my old work and redo it...but I can never get rid of anything I've created. So ultimately I forgo believability in order to please myself, and that's how I always do things - the joy of the creating above the final product. So in that way I'm not serious enough about my end product to be really good...but I don't care, it's too much fun!


I've gotten through the first account, which is a short prophecy of the events to come. Here's another manifestation of my obsession with symbolism and parallel: there are, in the end, three accounts in the story - one in future tense (a prophecy), one in past tense (an account the narrator wrote himself some years ago), and one in present tense (the account he finally writes showing what he believes to have really happened - he has some philosophical reasons for writing it in present tense). So I've gotten through the future-tense account, and I've also introduced my awesome side character. But I need to go back and rethink some stuff before I continue...my narrator is, at the moment, a bit too...angsty. I also need to figure out how exactly I can show instead of telling when it's his journal, and generally in a journal you'd write, "I feel sad," not write a long description of an event that shows you're sad. But I do hope to continue.


It was The Man Who Was Thursday. I actually stayed up late reading it (I have never, ever done this before) and then when I finished I couldn't sleep and began to wonder if it was my new favorite book. It has so many twists it's ridiculous...and even when I anticipated some of them ahead of time, I eventually became convinced that they wouldn't happen, and then they did anyway. And there were moments there that you only get very rarely with a very good book, where you suddenly feel for a moment like the universe has been turned upside down and you suddenly understand something. Very, very awesome. I have a copy of Orthodoxy on my Kindle which I'm hoping to read soon...have you read that? In particular, Chesteron's love of paradox really, really, really appeals to me...throughout my life I've gotten used to seeing very different things, being very different things, and enjoying their difference, so it really resonates with me.


His Alcatraz series is completely brilliant IF you go for talkative narrators and a large dose of silliness...and you don't mind the fact that the fifth and final book may never be written, which is truly tragic. Steelheart was okay - the writing, plotting, etc. was pretty good, not amazing, but it just wasn't my thing. It will probably improve with later books, though - Alcatraz certainly did. By the way, he has one of his standalone books, Warbreaker, available on his website for free: http://brandonsanderson.com/books/warbreaker/warbreaker/ I haven't read it yet (I'm saving it!) but it got good reviews. In general he's very good at plotting (particularly endings), developing magic systems, and messing with old plot devices. He definitely has down how to write a good story...I just wish sometimes that he'd use his stories more to develop ideas, make points...


I play piano most seriously, but I also play pennywhistle (not really in an Irish style, though) and survival guitar, e.g. just how to play chords so you can lead worship decently. Someday I may want to learn a normal orchestral instrument, though. Do you play an instrument?

Thanks for the link!


I play guitar. I like to write songs with it.

'Profession: a principal calling, vocation, or employment'. (And generally speaking, something that is not merely mechanical but requires skill or learning.)

Maybe you'll get there, you know... world building is awesome, and not everyone is good at it. Your books can be pretty awesome with a world like that to back them up. * grins * I'd pay for a story with really good world building like you're going for.

Mhm, I see what you mean... I'm always impressed when someone can be subtle about emotions even in story-aware first-person. I think a lot of it ends up being what they don't say. And the things they do, too. Wislawa's poem 'Identification' is very much... good. Doing that kind of thing.

How much of a word count do you have?

YES. I hoped it was that one. I grew up on Chesterton, kind of, reading his 'Father Brown' stories, but it wasn't until I came across 'The Man Who Was Thursday' that I suddenly realized I needed to dig into his work more. Not that that was the only thing I got from that book. I know exactly what you mean about the twists.. and the universe turning upside down.. and understanding things. Especially the end, and Sunday. It's a wild book.... It's one of my favorite books.

Not yet. I've been reading his book about what he saw in America, first – it's fascinating seeing what an Englishman – and an Englishman like him – thought about America. I loved his talking about hotels and inns, and about the advertising in New York. Of course, he wrote it a long time ago, so it's not the same now, but... still. 'Orthodoxy' is next on my list.

Yes. Exactly. It's like everything he says is a story twist, almost. Somehow it makes the things he talks about so clear for me.

'Professional: That is carried out for money, especially as a livelihood.'



Okay, fine, the dictionary I was looking at also listed another meaning: 'Professional: Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession.' You win.


Yeah! There are moments in my story where I feel that I did the subtle-emotions thing pretty well, but mostly it's kind of awkward. However, I had the idea to redo the story as letters - he's still writing a journal, but he's writing it as letters to somebody. This would give him a reason to be a bit more restrained. The person he's writing to would also be from another country, so I could explain some more things about the world, and she would be an important character in the past events...so as his opinion of the events and her role in them changes, his tone in his letters to her could change interestingly too. Maybe I could even have a neat twist near the end or so where he stops writing to her and is writing to somebody else instead...Actually, I really like that! *looks furiously for writing notebook*

I'm afraid I've never heard of Wislawa...


Right now it's about 30,100 words. But a lot of those words need to be cut out.


Yeah, I was pretty sleepy and reading much too fast by the time I got to the end, so when I finished I was thinking, "Well, I'm not quite sure what happened and what it all means, but it sure was incredible and I MUST RE-READ IT." Right now I'm reading it aloud to my sister, in fact, so that should be good... The Father Brown stories, actually were part of an earlier year of the homeschool curriculum I use, but I never managed to get to them - my mom was reading too many books to me and so I was going too slowly through the literature assignments - and so now they're languishing in the middle of a very long list of books to read sometime. Someday...


Sounds interesting!


Yes! Some things are so much clearer if you accept and relish just how unfathomable they are.


Awesome! Writing songs is one of my favorite parts of music. What sorts of songs do you write? Instrumental, or with words? What genres? I've been known to write worship songs, but these days my songs are generally instrumental pieces meant to tell or illustrate stories.

Welcome!!!!!

Your story and characters sound like fun! I can't wait to learn more about them! I've just been reading some of your blog, and I must say, you're quite the dedicated world-builder! Great job on figuring all that out! You're also a very good writer from what I read, by the way! I hope you have phenomenal time here on Holy Worlds!!!!

While I occasionally experiment with instrument pieces, they don't usually turn out well. Mostly I write songs with lyrics, from rock to pop to worship.

Thanks Alias Ember! I'm already having a lovely time here.

Jonathan, your songwriting sounds neat! It's always nice to be involved with a variety of genres.

That's actually a very good idea... the restraint of writing it all to somebody would help a good deal with subtlety, I agree. I hope it goes well. * smiles *

Wislawa Szymborska... a Polish poet. She is beautiful.

Your own stories?

Erm, kind of. My variation on stories I've been reading, generally. So after reading A Series of Unfortunate Events I wrote something that I like to think is about losing your innocence and being overwhelmed by the evil in the world. Happy stuff. And then after reading another book in which there's a background conflict between the protagonist's parents, I wrote something that's kind of about a couple fighting when there's something much more sinister than they should be worrying about. So I suppose that's a way I can respond to a book while still creating something entirely new...

Yes, it is nice.

That's a cool idea. It seems like a good way of processing your influences from the books you've been reading and so on.

Hi and welcome to Holy Worlds! I've been noticing you posting around, and realised I hadn't said hello in your intro thread.

I am glad you came back and found us. It's been lovely to have some of our older threads resurrected. World building is my favourite part of writing as well. I can get far too caught up in world building, and not devote enough time to my writing. I just love the creativity!

I have played the piano as well, but although I passed my grade 5, I haven't kept up with it properly. I always found reading music hard, so reading music takes a lot longer than it used to! I also have a flute that my parents bought me, that I have never played. I would love to one day, but I have no idea when/if ever I will have the time to do so.

Anyway! Welcome again; sorry it's taken me a while to say hello!

Thank you Lady Elanor! I'm glad I found you guys again, too.


*jealous of how far you've gotten* It's taken me some time to learn to read music, too...but it's worth it when I have those astonishing and delightful moments when I'm listening to some music and I suddenly realize that I'm imagining the outline of the sheet music in my head. I can feel the general length of the notes, I can feel the general size of the intervals...It's like suddenly catching yourself thinking in another language, you know?

Anyways thanks for the welcome, and I look forward to more discussions with you all!

By the way, if anyone's curious, I just posted one of the songs I wrote on my blog: http://sheesania.com/an-inciting-incident-in-e-minor/ It's based quite loosely on one of the more serious subplots of the fourth Alcatraz book.

The other song I wrote, the one based on ASoUE, is here: http://sheesania.com/an-experimentation-with-chords-on-the-piano/

I feel a bit embarrassed showing my songs to people who are much more knowledgeable in music than me, but who knows, you might enjoy them.

Those are pretty, Alison. I especially enjoyed "an experimentation with chords in D."

Thank you.

Me too. It was simple but it was expressive and neat. I enjoyed both of them.

How long have you been playing piano?

A year and three months, now. When I wrote and performed "An Experimentation with Chords in D," I had been playing for 10 months. I haven't had nearly enough time to practice, though...

Neat. I loved the songs

I think I downloaded the experimentation music.

Ps.

I started a blog that I hope to keep up, since the last one bottomed out.

http://introspectivewalrus.wordpress.com/

Take a gander at it and subscribe! All my poems on here will be transferred to there.

Among other things.