Writing

We've seen them in movies, comics, shows, and in most fantasy/sci-fi outcast stories. The non-human character. The robot, the alien, the animal, the personifications. Once they are established to have human emotions, the audience always falls in love with them, faster than they would a human character. Why is this? Why are we more attracted to the inhuman than the human?

Young adult novels are a definite force to be reckoned with. Some books are completely timeless, such as The Giver, anything Judy Blume, Series of Unfortunate Events, and soon to be (if not already) anything apart of The Hunger Games and Divergent series. These books are made into movies and fall into the hands of generations following their primary release. Some are even then instilled as required reading. How do young adult novels withstand the demands of time and generations? What keeps them so relevant and readable? What books can you think of that have done this well? Explore that.

With all of the metaphorical language in poetical writings, is there a line to be drawn when it comes to interpreting said writings? English classes go into great detail about a Freudian style psychoanalysis of a single word in a passage or verse, often extracting a five-page essay's worth of details from the arrangement of fewer than ten letters – is this extreme?

Many writing help sites suggest that starting a blog can launch your writing career. Others suggest that spending too much time tending a blog can stunt your literary growth in terms of productivity. So where do you draw the line? Is there a way to manage both or should a fledgling writer focus solely on writing the stories they want to write?

Where do you go for your news? Somewhere renown for legitimacy like The Huffington Post and The New Yorker, or perhaps somewhere mainstream like Buzzfeed? No matter the reputation of the site I've noticed one recurring thing: errors. Grammar errors, spelling errors, syntax errors. These are all extremely popular media sites, used by millions of people every day, and yet there seems to be no one taking the time to proofread or edit their articles. Where did all the editors go? Are media sites cutting editorial costs or is the flow of content too great for them to handle? Do popular sites even have editors?
Have we reached a point in our society where language standards are lacking to the point where it doesn't matter? Do people even care? As a writer, this is a topic near and dear to me and I'm sure to a great many others on the Artifice because we aspire to self produce worthy content. Give me an article with a definitive answer about the decline in quality writing for various magazines/newspapers and whether it's worth our time to try so hard? Has there been a recoil from dedicated readers over the decade or have such practices actually opened up their client base?

Since the beginning of language man has entertained himself with storytelling. These anecdotal stories and most popular chronicles at that usually follow the same exact 'hero's journey' formula. But does this form ever truly encompass humanity? We are constantly exposed to the hero's journey and the outcomes of the triumph of one side or another (good or evil, man vs. Nature ect), but does humanity exclude the reality of the accurate human experience for the sake of mass amusement? Analyze why the hero's journey could possibly not truly represent the nature of humanity and why this particular set of storytelling guidelines translates so well to an mass audience who will most likely never amount to heroic status.

Discuss how the lack of complete explanations regarding supernatural, science fiction, etc. and how this lack of development on the logic can enhance the telling of a story. It is probably obvious but movies don't always explain the whys and how comes of their story.Being vague is often a necessity because who can fully explain how city-sized spaceships hover over cities, annihilating them soon after (Independence Day)? Leaving the premise open seems like a necessity in film for this reasoning.

Of course, vagueness often comes in different amounts and should be explored. Book based film's like Harry Potter have little vagueness because of spectacular world building outside the films. On the flip side however, films like the recent hit animation Zootopia require the viewer to accept the premise and move into the story.

So what is the importance of leaving the unexplained just that, and what is its value to storytelling?

As we all know, when you write something, you put yourself "out there." You put your work up for criticism. We all dream of everyone loving our writing, and be respected, or loved, or both. A simple "good work" can make your day. However, your writing is not that special. People will disagree. Some will not like it. Others will hate. How do you deal with that? Answering this question would be the thesis for whoever wants to pick this topic.