The Fall

Expectation shattering opening sentence to follow-> 

 Given the amount of time I spend writing on Scriptural themes, your first response to the title of this post was likely something to the effect of, “Oh, it’s going to be a post about Adam and Eve and the fall of man; and the effects that we see today because of that, and how man is still falling. It will likely have some allusion to standards and how we keep from falling and should totally put me out of the mood for festive and cheerful thinking for the rest of the day…”. That’s probably not exactly what you were thinking… Okay, it likely wasn’t anywhere close to what you were thinking, but, if it was, here is my expectation shattering sentence:

This post is not about Adam and Eve and the fall of man.

I’ll bet you didn’t see that one coming.

No, I’m in too good a mood to talk of guilt, disobedience, depravity and whatnot. It’s actually Fall! I can’t believe we are finally getting consistent temperatures below 80. Sadly, 80° and beyond has been practically the entirety of the past 9 months for me. I’m what you might call a heataphobe(heat-a-phobe), at least, I’m what you might call a heataphobe if you used words like heataphobe… Which you probably don’t. Basically that means that I’m not a fan of hot weather, which I suppose I could have said just as easily by saying: I’m not a fan of hot weather… Oh well. So for me this time of year is wonderful. 

I’m also an introvert, at least I would really like to be. It’s very hard to be an introvert when you are a performer. Fall is one of the most interospective, mentally stimulating times I know of. The changing of the leaves, the old passing away, and the land being covered in frost and cold. It is very thought provoking….

He took one step into the path covered in crisp autumn leaves, pausing to smell the aroma of the frosted pine as the clean winter wind whisked across his face. It truly was spectacular, the Changing, all the colors, and the tides of wind. The warm and the cold, the bright and the dull, everything was so alive even as everything began to fade away. The hidden life, the shedding of the old to make room for the new, it was all so surreal. He barely noticed the orange sun as it melted beneath the whisps of a golden horizon… The world was turning, the life of the old was fading and the new was being born even now. New life. That was what it was all about… Times change, people, change, seasons change… Or do they. Was he the one that was changing, or was the world changing around him? Light was fading fast, but he knew that tomorrow would come before he had the chance to miss today. So he said goodnight to the trees and the sky and walked back down the path toward home. Home, that was one thing that never changed, it was always there, it was always warm. Home.

In the arms of Jesus you’ll find rest, and even as the world around you and everything you know begins to change, He will never change. Come home. It’s where you are loved, it’s where you belong, it never changes, it is always there for you to run back to. Home.

As alway, thanks for reading, enjoy your fall! Wait- I don’t mean that I want you to enjoy falling, not that you should fal and not enjoy it but-, Nevermind. Like, follow, share your thoughts and ideas, find me on social.

Twitter: @EJaredAllen

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—the anonymous novelist

Immortal Writing- Concept and Conflict

DAILY COMIC:  

A vile imagination, once indulged, gets the key of our minds, and can get in again very easily, whether we will or no, and can so return as to bring seven other spirits with it more wicked than itself; and what may follow no one know.

-Charles H. Spurgeon

While I’m still in the mindset of brilliant minds of the past, I thought I’d employ some quotes of great philosophers and theologians to emphasize the point of this post.

VERSE OF THE DAY:

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
-Genesis 6:5

Imagination is of the heart, now we’ve been through all of the rigamoral of the heart and its evil nature. I’ll not dive into it all over again, suffice it to say: the heart is decieteful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it? The heart is the throneroom of our soul. Jesus comes to live in our hearts because He wants to save our souls from spiritual siege.

LESSON: 

And we return with yet another episode of Imortal Writing, how to write good fantasy in a way that spans the pages of time. Fantasy is imagination, it exists inside of our minds and hearts, so how do we define imagination?

If the imagination is of the heart and not the mind, does that make it evil? Since the heart is evil, always seeking after its own, how can its imaginations, its imaginings be any different? In reference to the quote from Spurgeon in the opening of this post: Spurgeon was not a philosopher, he was a theologian; ology- meaning the study of, and theos- meaning God, Spurgeon was a student of theology and therefore a studier of God. And if studier is not a legitimate word, it should be, it is the most concise way to say what I mean.

I could preach several sermons on words and their faults, but not today. Today is a day for imagination: the institution by which all concepts are derived. 

CONCEPT:

Concept is the most basic starting point of an idea. A concept is a vague outline of a idea. Like the outline or skeleton of a story, a concept is the conjugation of many thoughts pulled together as if by magnet to form a singular idea. Every theory begins with a concept, every story begins with a concept, every character, every plot, every outline, every world, every sentence begins with a concept. And concept are generated and progressed faster than we can even imagine.

Wow, did I just make the statement that concepts are faster than imagination? Don’t we use our imagination to form fantasy concepts? True. But without a concept of what imagination even is, how can you work inside of it at all. Concept is the basest, most powerful item our mind possess in terms of thought and comprehension.

So, everything begins with concept, in life, in writing, everything begins with concept. 

CONFLICT:

Hand in hand with concept, conflict is essential to a story. In fact, I’d venture to say that there is no story without conflict of some kind. Conflict is the groundwork of the story, the apex, the thing from which everything else circles.

Think of a story as the solar system. Alright, now put conflict as the sun, in the direct center, then have the planets rotating around it on different orbits, at times we see some planets nearer to the conflict and at other times farther away, but they all orbit the conflict.

  
Something like that is what a story solar system should look like, and fantasy is not the only thing that can go in that outer circle, really, your genre should go in that circle. There is an added planet for romance should the solar system deem it necessary to the story.

But, you can see how even in this rough representation, storyline is the constistent closest planet to conflict. Almost always it is right beside conflict in its orbit, but when it is farther away, character planet comes right alongside conflict to compensate. Everything works out to keep the solar system, the fantasy universe in perfect balance.

CLOSING:
  

Imagination rules the world.

-Napoleon Bonaparte

But what you do with the world once you have it is what makes your story worth reading. Use your imagination, rule the world. Write your story, change someone’s perspective on life. Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.

As always, thanks for reading.

—the anonymous novelist