Category: Writing Advice & Philosophy
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Popularity and Art Quality
You’re driving in your car listening to the radio, and that new pop song sensation comes on… for the five-hundredth time this week. And while everyone else seems to start tapping their feet to the beat, this song makes you want to rip off your ears. Awful. You get to class and your teacher tells…
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How (NOT) to Kill Off Characters
You’ve seen it coming a mile away. They’ve hinted at it for the past thirteen episodes. Your favorite character has kept throwing themselves into the heat of the fray. He’s gotten some bumps and bruises, but he’s always come out okay. He tries to hide how badly the injuries are affecting him, but you know.…
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Why Do Things Suffer from “Sequelitis”?
I recently finished reading The Books of Mortals series by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee. The series grabbed me right away with its fascinating premise: far in our future, humanity discovers the genes that control human emotions. In the name of creating world peace, one group bio-engineers a virus that infects the entire human race.…
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Is There Such a Thing as “Good Art”?
Whether you’re a writer, painter, architect, actor, or any other kind of artist, you’re going to encounter people discussing good vs. bad art. People constantly argue over styles or what techniques work best. In college classes, they teach the proper methods for producing art and highlight some of the “great works.” But here’s the thing:…