“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his ( Read more... )

I've been thinking a lot about themes in stories and such. I have come to the conclusion that each story has a theme within it and that by trying to force a theme that isn't there onto a story is like putting a DVD into your VCR, sure it will go in there, but it doesn't make much sense ( Read more... )

The Pledge:  The magician shows you something ordinary.

The Turn:   The magician takes that ordinary thing and makes it do something extraordinary.

The Prestige:   Then bring the horror/excitement back home.

The three parts of a magic trick are much like the standard analysis of dramatic structure of Gustav Freytag except the rising ( Read more... )

I believe in traveling. Sometimes I let go and see new parts of the world; sometimes I want perspective on other cultures; sometimes I need to help others; and every time, I learn something.

A lot of travel, to me, is experiencing the little things: that some toilets have a flush button on top of the tank; that a toilet isn’t always lucky enough ( Read more... )

I listen to NPR on a fairly regular basis and heard this one in my car not too long ago. The concept was pretty cool and I have wanted to check the site out since then.

I liked listening to this article more than I liked reading it. You can hear growth through his pain. His voice embodies what it means to accept his obstacles and move forward. ( Read more... )

My Writing for Film and TV course requires me to post writing ideas and other homework assignments on a blog. Feel free to still respond to the entries if you wish, although I don't think many of my old readers still use LiveJournal ( Read more... )