201 Pentecost 25: First Draft 2
"Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil…Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us.” ~ Psalm 90
First Draft 2
Writing for Life, Change and Heart Welcome to second installment of First Draft, an ongoing pit stop where I share what I’ve learned about writing great stories. This is week two of a three week run while I work on the next chapter of Earth, among other things. Here we go: Onto the Thumb Rules Last time we established three rules and one infinite thumb rule. This week, Thumb Rules 1-4 1. Use scenes and sequentials. 2. Create clear scene goals. 3. End scenes with setbacks. 4. Sequence scenes to the Arc. Yes, but what is the Arc? The “character progression arc,” or the hero quest, is a meta-frame consisting of the Hook, the Complexification, the Darkness, the Big Dawn, and the Climax. It is inside this meta-frame that rules of the game are: 1. Raise questions. 2. Answer them. 3. Scale the conflict. 4. Heighten the stakes. 5. Make love to the subplot. 6. Discover your inner child. In the end, these four Rules of Thumb, the Arc, and the six Rules of the Game, are all you really need to write an exceptional story. You don’t even need these. Like almost all things, you only need practice. So ramp up the risk’o’meter and discover change, complexity and contradiction at work for you in this weeks workshop: First Draft - Writers’ Workshop Step 2 “Master the Muse” – Do-It-Yourself Assignment #2 Play along at home with the First Draft Writers’ Workshops. You’ve decided who your hero is. You see your villain in living color. Now, your hero, your villain and your muse walk into a bar, or perhaps out onto a veranda overlooking the sea in some swanky Bond-style hideout. You decide. It’s your story. Jolt your imagination with the potent scent of exotic swerve and you’ll be off to the races. Here’s your prompt: both hero and villain are in love with your muse, but they cannot fight for the muse. They must strive to win the muse’s heart in a 15 minute timed free write. Set a timer. Get a paper and pen. Don’t stop. Don’t look back. Edit, question and debate yourself later. There are no wrong answers. There are no stupid stories. This is only a first draft. Make sure to rely on your answers from last time for inspiration. Save what you write again. Next week we’ll use it for our third workshop to practice editing and hunting for value in a first draft, as well as how to turn free writing into scene design. Until then, if falling in love with your muse presents moral dilemmas to your hero or villain, (boys only fall in love with girls, etc), then shift the prompt to the following: the muse is a neutral party who must be convinced to pick a side to join for some very good reason you already know. Don’t hold back. Don’t think. Don’t plan. The thing about your Muse is that she (or he) has a lot more up the sleeve than the thinking part of you realizes. Dig in, and see if you are not pleasantly surprised by what you unearth. Go. Till angel cry and trumpet sound, The Mad Christian
Odds and Ends
Marriage, Sex and Family
Author and analyst Seamus Bruner joined The Federalist last week to discuss how the über wealthy use their money for a globalist agenda. Many now know of the secret 2009 meeting of a small group of billionaires who called themselves “The Good Club”. While Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey and others met to discuss how they could tackle issues facing the world - climate, disease, education and economy - Bruner says one of the main drivers from the get-go was how to slow global population growth. He argues that money from The Good Club has been used to promote basically anything that undermines the family and procreation. Abortion, contraception, women working outside the home, small families in the name of climate, etc. It’s not a call to despair but to prayer. It’s helpful to be aware of the schemes of man, but God’s plans are never scuppered by humans, even those with a lot of cash. (The Federalist podcast, The Guardian, Population Research Group)
The US Congress has voted against forcing foster parents to adopt the state pronouns of children. (The Blaze)
A Tennessee town has banned indecent exposure and lewd conduct. California governor Gavin Newsom has called it a “ban on being gay in public”. Quiet part out loud? (Not the Bee)
Speech and surveillance
New York Governor, Kathy Hochul says her state is working with social media companies to “collect data” and ramp up “surveillance efforts” in order to keep people safe. Hochul said her administration is working to combat “hate speech” such as incitement of violence and direct threats to others, which last we checked were already against the law. The announcement by the Governor has raised concerns that New York is moving closer to the harsh model seen in places such as Scotland, where speech “likely to stir up hatred” is a Public Order Offence. As free speech organisation FIRE noted, the nation’s founders recognised that “prohibiting ‘evil counsels’…would backfire” because hate speech is a moving target. (Post Millennial, BBC, FIRE)
Republican presidential candidate, Nikki Hayley drew backlash from GOP colleagues this week for saying she would ban anonymous posting on the internet if she took office. Hayley said verifying every account would end threats to national security posed by foreign bots. Critics said her program would be like the top-down surveillance used by the Chinese Communist Party and that it was “blatantly unconstitutional”. (Reason, ABC News)
An amendment brought by Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) to prevent “kill switches” in cars from 2026 has failed. Massie says the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” passed in 2021 allocates funds to implement technologies to assess “driver impairment”. Massie says the technology has many ways it could fail and that the impact on civil liberties is significant. (Breitbart)
Politics
Freshly-minted House speaker, Mike Johnson attempted to thread a needle, avoiding a government shut down last week. Speaker Johnson used a “suspension of the rules” to bring a measure to the floor, which was approved by a majority in the House. The stopgap continuing resolution will fund the government into mid January 2024, when the issues will come up again. But at least everyone can enjoy their holidays… (WNG)
The spending bill did not include $100bn requested by the White House for Ukraine, Israel and the US southern border which pleased some Representatives but not others. Hold-out Republicans want to use the threat of government shutdown as leverage to secure government funding cuts but Democrats “want to boost environmental and education funding.” It's hard to see how the parties can come to a long-term compromise between those visions…When it comes to spending priorities, the two parties "aren't just different, they're oppositional." (The Week, Vox)
Speaker Johnson has made all footage from the January 6th riot available online for the public to see. This action gives anyone the “ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials.” (Just the News, Committee on House Administration)
Xi visits California
President Biden met with China’s leader Xi Jinping last week in California. The presidents agreed to engage in “direct and clear communication” and take each other’s phone calls. Although President Biden upset a bunch of people when he referred to Xi as a “dictator” during a press conference, commentators seem to think the meeting went very well. China agreed to crack down on the production of fentanyl ingredients within its borders and President Xi suggested they might be able to spare some pandas to replace the ones recently sent back from San Diego Zoo. It is Xi’s first visit to the US in six years and Gavin Newsom was able to clear out San Francisco homeless encampments just fine to spruce the place up a bit. (BBC, ABC News, Not the Bee)
“Great wall of skepticism”: During his visit, President Xi addressed a dinner attended by tech titans and heads of commerce in a bid to address the “deep uncertainty American business leaders feel about the direction of China’s policies and its economy — which has slowed dramatically in recent years.” (Politico)
Also in Cali: California defunded its police force to the tune of $120M, one reporter found out where the money went and it’s about as wild as you’d imagine. (Dolores Park)
Religion and the Church
Dr Päivi Räsänen, Lutheran and member of Finland’s parliament has been acquitted of hate speech charges, several years after posting Bible verses online. Speaking on Issues Etc podcast, she said though the impulse in such a hostile environment is to self-censor, she exhorted Christians to speak more. Dr Räsänen says the aim of those who brought the case against her is to shut down anyone who would speak against the LGBTQ agenda through the intimidation of lengthy litigation. (WNG, Issues Etc)
Tributes poured in last week for Frank Borman who died recently. Borman was one of the first men in space, flying on the Apollo 8 mission. On Christmas Eve 1968, Norman read from Genesis 1 in a radio broadcast from space. (The Federalist)
Economy
Another credit rating agency has downgraded its economic assessment of the US to negative. Moody’s Investor Service said the growing deficit and chaos in Congress had lead it to deem the US’ outlook “unstable”. While investors didn’t seem too fazed, one economist said, “Deficits do matter..and at some point, we're going to get to a point where investors really lack the confidence that the government will pay them back.” (Investopedia)
The IRS has adjusted income tax brackets. (WNG, Intellectual Takeout)
The IRS says the gross tax gap — the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid – will continue to grow, highlighting the importance of “more compliance efforts.” (AP)
War
Israel has raided Gaza’s main hospital, reportedly finding a Hamas commander and weapons. (BBC)
Reports are coming in that an agreement has been reached between Israel and Hamas to pause fighting and free several hostages this week. (Reuters)
Analyses of how the Hamas attack took Israel by surprise continue. James Meigs from the Manhattan Institute says Israel military were made complacent by high-tech defence systems and did not take human intel seriously. (Commentary)
Hamas cheerleaders are all over Instagram, apparently. Also, young American Tiktok-ers startled everyone by sympathizing with Osama Bin Laden, sending Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” viral. Videos of young people comparing Bin Laden and the US government (both terrorists) racked up millions of views, with some concluding that America deserved 9-11. Perhaps they missed the bit where Bin Laden tells Americans to convert or die? (Quillette, CNN)
Over a quarter million people have marched in Washington in solidarity with Israel. (Twitter)
Technology
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been ousted from his job. Co-founder and president Greg Brockman stepped down shortly after. It is not entirely clear what’s going on at the company whose ChatGPT has been going gangbusters. Just in: Altman has been tapped for a new role at Microsoft. (CNBC, The Guardian)
A system to compare “hallucination rates” in Large Language Models (i.e. when the machine produces something that is false). (Vectara)
Commonsense Media, a non-profit best known for rating movies to help parents choose for their kids, has warned that several AI products, including Snapchat’s My AI, DALLE, and Stable Diffusion are not appropriate for children. (Tech Crunch)
Climate and the Natural World
Virtual fencing: a new frontier for farming? (Ambrook)
Tales from “back to the land” movement in the 1970s. (Ambrook)
Japan has gained a new island after a volcanic eruption under the sea piled up ash and rock. The island may remain or disappear back into the water. (The Guardian)
The Arts and History
How clocks shaped our world. (BBC)
Everything in Central Park is by design. (YouTube)
Health
A new study claims that contact tracing had little to no effect on the spread of covid. (Twitter)
Extended school closures during the pandemic have been linked to increased youth suicide. (Epoch Times)
Americans are not walking. (Axios)
Personal growth as a video game: two ways - growth through suffering or growth through revelation. (Linked In)
Stories from Far Away
Libertarian candidate Javier Millei has won the presidency in Argentina. With the nation facing over 140% inflation annually, his plan to save money involves dissolving quite a few government departments and ditching the peso. (DW, Twitter)
A very large crowd has turned out in Madrid to protest Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Sanchez is accused of selling out the country to remain in power, offering to form an alliance with regional separatist groups. (Twitter)
A very large crowd has also turned out in Paris to protest anti-semitism. (WNG)
Quick Hits for the Eyebuds
🎹 The largest musical instrument in the world is an organ!
📼 The magnetic magic of 3M
😆 Completely organic pest control
🎂 The birthday paradox
🦃 Don’t deep fry your Thanksgiving turkey!
🧵 Quilt bot will turn a photo into a [very stylized] quilt pattern
💨 Wanted: world’s fastest driver
💸 What if money had an expiration date?
🌰 Acorn weevil power drillin’
A Good Word: Links from the Show Notes
On this week’s Stop the White Noise (YouTube, Rumble) Jonathan and Meridith spent a bit of time discussing attention, distraction, creativity and focus. Also, encouraging your children in their faith and the music in Hebrew:
Married to Distraction: How to Restore Intimacy and Strengthen Your Partnership in an Age of Interruption by Edward M Hollowell, Sue Hollowell and Melissa Orlov
What Your ADHD Child Wishes You Knew: Working Together to Empower Kids for Success in School and Life by Dr. Sharon Saline
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Author) Richard Pevear (Translator)
Loving God with All Your Mind: Thinking as a Christian in the Postmodern World by Gene Veith
Way of the Warrior Kid: From Wimpy to Warrior the Navy SEAL Way(Way of the Warrior Kid Series #1) by Jocko Willink and Jon Bozak
Psalm 55
Our disclaimer: These are some resources the Fisks have found edifying, but as with all human-authored text, apply discernment liberally!
Sweetness You May Have Missed
This Week Preached:
Podcast Release:
Let us pray. Almighty and ever-living God, You have given exceedingly great and precious promises to those who trust in You. Dispel from us the works of darkness and grant us to live in the light of Your Son, Jesus Christ, that our faith may never be found wanting; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.