Greetings,

Yet another, we are almost done!

5. ‘When’ Stage

1. 1. When someone first meets your character, what does he know about him?

      First impressions are very important: what do people notice first about your character? A lot of times it is not representative of his real self, but it is very important to understand this aspect of his character.

   2. When someone works with your character for a while, what does he know about him?

      Working with someone really shows some interesting things. You learn different things about him than you would in other ways. It is almost like he is a different person, but not really. How does this apply to your character?

   3. When someone goes through a tragedy with your character, what does he know about him?

      Tragedies mold lives in ways nothing else can. It knits together, tears apart, and builds very strange relationships. How does your character handle tragedies with other people?

   4. When someone is an enemy of your character, how does he perceive him?

      Imagine that you only ever saw your character through a gauze of anger, distrust, and deceit. What would stand out to you? What weaknesses would you notice and try to exploit? What sort of an effect would your character’s personality have on you and your devious schemes to destroy him?

   5. When someone has been a friend of your character for years, what does he know about him?

      When a character finally opens up more than before, what do you see? What can you tell about him by adding up several years of experience with him? What rare occasions have enlightened you to some otherwise obscure passage in his life? How does he treat you?

   6. When someone has known your character all his life, or is married to him, what does he/she know about him?

      What are the deepest things that can be known about your character? What never comes to light, except to those extremely close to him? Even if no one is that close to him, say ‘What if’ and explore.

   7. What is there about your character that no one knows, and never will know?

      There are things about your character’s history and personality that only God and himself know. Sometimes not even he knows them. There will be very few things like this that you will be able to ferret out, and they will probably not go into the story, of course (it is possible to do it, but it needs to be done well). But they will lend depth to the rest of him. I would say this is hardest part.

It takes time to get to know people. And different people let others into their lives at different speeds and in different ways. This is a very important part of you character that you need to develop. It is dependent on many of the other things that we have already figured out, but it still has a lot of creativity left in it. Finding out the timing of your character is very important, so let’s go.

Keep going if you are trying this!

Greetings,

Next…

4. ‘If’ Stage

1. 1. What if your character’s religion was different?If your character believed something very different than what he does, how would he act with the other religion? If he was a catholic, what kind of catholic would he be? If he was an atheist, what kind of atheist would he be? If he was a Christian, what kind of a Christian would he be? Would he hold to this or that denomination? Would he tithe, go to church, or just act the same as before?
   2. What if your character lived in a different world?If your character grew up in our world (if this is a fantasy story), what jobs, skills, habits would he have? What if he grew up in Narnia or some other fantasy world that someone has created? What would be different about him, and what would be the same?
   3. What if your character had a different history (family, friends, etc.)?If your character grew up in a broken home, what would he be like if he grew up, instead, in a close-knit home? If his family had been from a different religion, or immigrants, or richer, or poorer, what would be different? If that girl hadn’t turned him down, if that friend had betrayed him, what would he have done?
   4. What if your character was a different gender?If your character is a boy, what would he have been like if he was a girl? If your character is a girl, what would she be like if she was a boy? This is a really hard one, but it provides some very interesting insights into your character, and into the opposite gender from you as well.
   5. What if your character had a different occupation or abilities?What if your character was an archer instead of a swordmaster? What if he was a policeman instead of a doctor? What if he was a king instead of a businessman? What if he was skilled at wrestling? What if he liked art?
   6. What if your character was from a different race or nation?What if he was a centaur? What if he was an Elf? What if he was from a different nation? If you are not doing fantasy (and of course there is only one race on earth), you can still look at the very different cultural people groups of our world and change that.
   7. What if your character looked different?Let us say you know that your character hates being short: what if he was tall? Change his appearance. If your character is a girl, this has more of an effect, I think, but not much more.

This stage will force you to violently separate your character from your perception of his circumstances and attributes: from everything that he has no choice about and some that he does. You will need to imagine what your character would be like if he was in a different place or if he was in a different situation or if he looked different, etc. You might not know what your character really is in many of these questions, but that just makes it easier. Simply try various combinations of these variables and see how your character changes, and what stays the same.

Have any of you got anything yet?

So how do you group youths Biblically?

Well, here at last is the long awaited post. I pray it will be worth the wait.

I will first begin with the word Youth. What the Bible thinks of youths, what they are, and what they should be.

There are several senses to the various words translated as Youth in the Bible. There are relative meanings, specific meanings, and rather abstract meanings. Some words in certain contexts mean someone before they reach puberty. Other words in other contexts mean someone under forty. Others mean the time of life between pre-adolescence and manhood. I will focus on this last.

There are many attached connotations to the concept of youth in the Bible. These include, but are not limited to:

Newness, Strength, Immaturity, Lawlessness, Foolishness, Weakness, Inexperience, Arrogance, and Sinfulness.

1 Samuel 17:33 And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou [art but] a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.

Psalms 103:5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Proverbs 7:7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

Isaiah 40:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

2 Timothy 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Quite a nice collection there. But they make sense. A youth is someone who is coming out of childhood, but isn’t all the way out yet. He is new to responsibility, and therefore makes mistakes. He is closer to the sins of his childhood, and has not grown battle hardened in the wars against his soul. However, he is not tired out physically. He has not had decades of weary labor and illness to wrack his frame, and he is very able to withstand hardships in his body. His flesh is strong, wherein is his strength… and his weakness.

This is an overview. A generalization. Many youths are mature at a young age, due to good training and/or premature hardships. Many adults are worse than I described above. But in general, these are the natural tendencies of the time of youth.

Does this mean that we have an excuse?

Does this mean that we have no hope?

God forbid!

This means that we know our enemy. This means that we know our gifts. This means that we know our calling: to stop being youths.

We need to mature. We need to grow strong in the battles of this world. We need to gain experience and wisdom. We need to war against our flesh and train it to be a willing and submissive tool to the will of our Heavenly Father and His Kingdom.

1 Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

What is Paul saying here? He is saying two things: 1) Don’t let your youth be a stumbling block to your ministry, and 2) Be representative of (and therefore uphold the standard of) the Church and Christ in every area of your life.

Paul gave Timothy no breaks: he expected him to be as mature and godly as the rest of the church, as Christ.

In other words, Paul wanted Timothy to act not as a youth, but as a man.

So that is our goal as youth: to mature out of it. To learn, to grow, to strengthen, to reach, to excel, to work, to strive, to master, to challenge.

Well, what does the Bible say about grouping?

Proverbs 13:20 He that walketh with wise [men] shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

This verse is representative of a common theme through the Bible: you become like those you walk with, or group with.

Therefore if you want to become a good programmer, you hang out with good programmers. You will gain access to their resources, to their wisdom, and their experience, and will become like them until other aspiring programmers will begin to hang out with you.

The same goes for youths and maturity.

If we are to mature, we need to group with those who are more mature than us. If we are to grow, we need to group with those who are more grown up than us. If we are to reach, we need to group with those who are taller than us. If we are to master, we need to group with those who have mastered more than us.

Not with our peers.

Suddenly you may be seeing where I have been going (or perhaps the more perspicacious of you already noticed it), and you are suddenly saying: “But that is what youth groups are! They are where all the youth group together under a teacher so that he can teach them what is applicable to them.”

Let me ask you this: Are they grouping with him, or with each other under him (or not under him as the case may be)?

Any amount of honest examination will tell you that youth groups are groupings of youths with youths, categorized and separated by peer class. There is insufficient supervision, insufficient leadership, and insufficient mentorship.

The proper/best ratio of mentor to youth is 1/1 (at least while the mentoring is going on). The farther you are from this ratio, the less effective it is. Therefore the concept of Youth Groups is utterly the opposite of what the Bible wants.

The Bible wants mentors, fathers, pastors, families, not youth groups. (By the way, if you are going to attack me and say that this applies to Sunday School too, you are right, it does.)

Youths need to be with their families, learning the same things they are learning: how to be a father, how to be a mother, how to be a good parent, how to work, how to be an adult. In youth groups they are generally learning how to be a youth: not good.

Hope you are either really good and mad, or really excited.

With joy and peace in Christ,

Jay Lauser

P.S. In case you are wondering, the title is a pun off of SQL.

Greetings,

Next part…

3. ‘Why’ Stage

1. 1. What axioms and definitions influence your character’s decisions? Everyone has certain unique definitions and fundamental assumptions that act as the foundation for his beliefs. For example: materialists define science in a way that excludes God, and this affects their use of science dramatically: they will not allow a divine foot in the door. What are the assumptions, dogmas, and biases that your character has as an integral part of his nature?
   2. What does your character believe about origins and how does that influence his decisions? What does your character believe about where we all came from? What does he believe about creation? How does he view his beliefs? How does it affect the way he acts and makes decisions? Does he believe that a god created everything, or does he believe that everything made itself? Was it long ages ago, or only recently? Does he believe that we cannot know?
   3. What does your character believe about afterlife and how does that influence his decisions? What does your character believe about what happens when we die? Do we just vanish into oblivion? Do we have another chance? Do we reincarnate? Are we faced with a judgment day? How does he see this as affecting his life? Does he care?
   4. What does your character believe about law and how does that influence his decisions? What is your character’s source of morals? Who does he hold to be the authority? Whose commands does he respect? Does he value authority at all? Does he consider the Bible (or whatever is in your world if this is fantasy) to be the revealed Word of God? Does he let any of this impact his life or decisions?
   5. How does your character’s family influence his decisions? What was the situation with your character’s family? How did his parents bring him up? Did he know his parents? Was he the oldest, the youngest, an only child? Maybe he was abandoned, and didn’t know his parents? These all affect a person a lot, and will provide experience from which he draws to help him decide how to react to the world. How does he allow these circumstances to influence him?
   6. How do your character’s friends influence his decisions? Does your character have friends? What kind of friends are they? Where are they leading him? What do they want him to be like and act? Are they close, or distant? Do they like him, and how does he perceive them?
   7. What religion does your character subscribe to externally? Not everyone actually believes in the religion that they claim to practice. We have already settled what your character believes, but what does he subscribe to, or practice? He might be an atheist, but maybe he acts like a catholic because he likes the traditions. Why does he act religious? Does he act religiously at all?

Everyone has a worldview: a set of beliefs that defines how they make their decisions. Everyone also has a history of circumstances that works with those beliefs to influence how and why they act the way they do. These two facets of your character make up the Why of their actions and decisions. You need to understand this part of your character intimately or else he will be very shallow indeed. Remember that not everyone is consistent or predictable (actually, no one is), so do not be too picky about making sure that he makes complete sense. The important part is that he makes sense to himself.

Are you liking these?

Greetings,

Each year on All Saint’s Day (November 1st) we celebrate Christian Sainthood by doing skits and recitations of various things relating to saints. Last year, I, Patrick, and Juliet (the three oldest, if you are wondering) did a first: we made a radio drama.

This was of course our very first attempt at anything of the sort: our first score composition, our first script, our first use of Audacity (the program we used), and a few other random assorted related firsts. It turned out alright for all that, though, we think. So we are sharing it with y’all to see what you think of it and its message. Enjoy!

Greetings,

Here is the second stage.

2. ‘What’ Stage

1. 1. What is your character’s Extroversion(E)/Introversion(I) preference?

      Everyone has a preference for how they interact with the world and where they direct their energy. Is your character energized by being with other people (E) or by being alone (I)? Does he prefer breadth (E) or depth (I)? Does he act (E) or think (I) first? Does he tend to think our loud (E) or to think things through inside his own head (I)?

   2. What is your character’s Sensing(S)/Intuition(N) preference?

      Everyone has a preference for the kind of information they naturally notice. Does your character trust what is certain and concrete (S) or inspiration and inference (N)? Is he oriented to the present (S) or the future (N)? Does he value realism and common sense (S), or imagination and innovation (N)?

   3. What is your character’s Thinking(T)/Feeling(F) preference?

      Everyone has a preference for how they make decisions. Does your character step back and apply impersonal analyses to problems (T), or step forward and consider the effect of actions on others (F)? Does he value logic, justice, and fairness (T), or does he value empathy and harmony (F)? Is he motivated by a desire for achievement and accomplishment (T), or by a desire to be appreciated (F)?

   4. What is your character’s Judging(J)/Perceiving(P) preference?

      Everyone has a preference for whether they prefer to live in a more structured way (making decisions), or in a more spontaneous way (taking in information). Is your character happiest after decisions have been made (J), or by leaving options open (P)? Does he set goals and work towards achieving them on time (J), or does he change goals as new information becomes available (P)? Does he prefer knowing what he is getting into (J), or does he like adapting to new situations (P)?

   5. What are the weaknesses/strengths of your character?

      Each personality type has inherent strengths and weaknesses. These vary from person to person, depending on how strong his type preferences are. What is the unique signature of your character in his strengths and weaknesses?

   6. What is your character’s love language?

      Everyone has a primary way that they perceive and give love. People also have secondary and even tertiary languages with which the communicate love. This is very important to understand. There are five languages of love: Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch, Acts of Service, and Gifts. What are your character’s primary and secondary love languages? Read the book for more info.

   7. What is the story of how your character’s personality changes?

      Everyone’s personality changes as they grow, mature, and go through major events in life. This is a unique signature. How does this affect your character? How does he change as he goes through life and major events?

Now we can get into the nitty-gritty. What is your character’s personality? Now, most people would write a simple paragraph or a sentence talking about how their character is either ‘impulsive’ or ’steady’ or ‘a strong leader.’ Maybe they are irritable or proud. This is okay (and better than many things that I have seen), but nowhere near what we are going to do here. We are going to develop your character using the Myers-Briggs type indicator and the Five Love Languages. If you are not familiar with these, you need to be: for your own life if not for your writing. The best thing to do is to get the books about them (there is way too much for me to explain here): try Do What You Are by Paul Tieger & Barbara Barron-Tieger and The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. Much of the descriptions below are paraphrased from descriptions in the books.

Have fun! Let me know what you think.

Greetings,

Here is the first section of our Character Fractalling System.

1. ‘Who’ Stage

1. 1. Who is your character as described in one sentence?

      Write one sentence giving an overview or summary of your character. This is generally pretty hard to do (and that is good), but it is very helpful. It will not cover everything in the character by no means. It will simply give you a snapshot view of the character. Do not include anything about what the character looks like! That is not what this is for. Wait patiently for that.

   2. Who is your character as described by several key words?

      Take several key words from the sentence in the last step. Now think of some other words that might help describe your character abstractly. Is he more like Lightning, or more like an Ember?

   3. Who is your character as described in one paragraph?

      Take your key words and expand them into a paragraph of several sentences. Remember that this is not primarily a description of your character’s appearance, but his persona, his inner self. You can also put some of his history in here, if they are vital to his existence and explaining him.

   4. Who is your character as described by several key phrases?

      Take several phrases out of the paragraph that you just made that seem to be key to your character. Stuff like ‘fighting for liberty’ or ‘enveloped in shame’ are good. Then make some more that you couldn’t fit into the descriptions so far. Make a list.

   5. Who is your character as described by several paragraphs?

      Now you get to write a whole page or more (or less) about your character! Take your key phrases and expand each into a full paragraph talking about that particular aspect of your character. If this is getting repetitive, not to worry, that is how fractalling is done! Don’t lose your steam: keep right on going!

   6. Who is your character as described by several essence maps?

      Alright, this is where it gets confusing, maybe. Hopefully not. Understanding essence, meta-essence, and essence mapping is very very useful, and is crucial to these last two steps. If you can do it, do it, because it will help the rest of your development of your character tremendously. Anyways, take each paragraph that you wrote in the last step and create one, small (or large if you wish), essence map for it. Each essence map will give you a glimpse into that facet of your character that will be invaluable to you. If you really do not get essence and are starting to liken it to a hulking, slimy monster that wants to stir fry your mind in molasses, skip it. Just write down a list of similes or metaphors for each paragraph.

   7. Who is your character as described by an essence map?

      Now write one big essence map for your character. You should already have a bird’s eye view of your perception of him, and so this should not be too hard if you understand essence mapping and meta-essence at all. If you still cannot bring yourself to make an essence map, just give a very artistic description of your character’s personality and character and etc. using lots and lots of similes and metaphors (don’t let yourself focus on the character’s appearance, remember).

This is the first and most foundational of all the stages. This is where you create an abstract character to work with. You are mainly creating the material with which to create a character, if you will. If you have a general idea of your character, no idea at all, or even if you already have a well developed character, then this step needs to be your first step (which pretty much exhausts the possibilities, hence our placement of it at the beginning). At the end you will have an abstract, summarial view of what the character is going to look like after you are done with the fractalling. But expect this to change: this and all other steps are subject to revision from later steps!

Have fun!

Character Fractalling System

We just made a system for fractalling out deep characters: characters that will make your story stand out from everyone else’s, and which will make your readers want to read it again and again. A truly deep character will not only be able to make any plot fascinating to read, but will make plots that are fascinating in their own right. Good fiction is character-driven, no matter what the genre, and so that is why we developed this system for aiding you in making your own deep characters.

The focus of this system is developing your character independently of his appearance, skills, or physical mannerisms. These are dealt with in due time and order, but these are not what makes great characters. You need to be able to have a real person in your story, someone who the readers can recognize and get to know like none other. Therefore, you need more than just their favorite food or their hair color or their preferred martial art system.

We avoided using genre-specific attributes and questions. It is very possible to use the system no matter what genre your character is going to be in.

We have set this up in seven stages with seven steps (or questions) each. This is to aid in natural flow, memory retention, comprehension, readability, and just for plain old fun. We are not saying that real people (or made up people) are limited to what we have here, or that everyone is somehow mystically made out of seven sevens (although that sounds cool). This is simply for your and our ease and organization.

I will be posting these sections one at a time over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

With joy and peace in Christ,

Jay Lauser aka Sir Emeth Mimetes

Felicitous greetings and salutations,

Reformer’s Unanimous is a faith-based addictions program dedicated to helping those bound by the shackles of sin to find liberty through Christ. They have assisted me greatly in the time that I have spent in their program and in the study of their materials. They have shown great wisdom in their understanding of the problems that beset us in our struggles in the process of sanctification. One of the bits of wisdom that Steve Currington, its founder and president, has propagated is the Ten Principles of RU. These ten principles are founded in Scripture, and are true and helpful to every Christian who is wanting to find Christ’s victory over sin in his life. Therefore, I am expounding these ten principles in a series of posts spread out over this month. This is the tenth.

GOD BALANCES GUILT WITH BLAME. ACCEPT THE BLAME FOR YOUR ACTIONS AND GOD WILL REMOVE THE GUILT.

There is a very important purpose to guilt: to bring you to brokenness at the feet of God. But most people will not want to do that. They want to get rid of that guilt and retain their pride. The only way they can do that is to pass the blame off on other people or circumstances. But this only masks the guilt for a short time: it does not remove it. And in the end, it only adds to it: for you are merely lying to yourself and others, which causes more guilt. Life becomes miserable.

Until you submit to God, accept the blame, bow at His feet, and humbly admit your wrongs.

Then God will remove the guilt, and you will be free. Only until you accept that you are the one responsible for your sins, will you be able to find liberty from guilt.

Contriteness is a good thing: you should be seeking it out, praying for it, desperately pleading God to lead you to repentance.

2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

With joy and peace in Christ,

Jay Lauser

Greetings,

My most profuse apologies to you all. I was supposed to post this yesterday, and I am only just now doing it. Therefore, I will give you two riddles instead of one. Remember to not post the answer in the comments, only your confusion. Email me your guesses.

Here is the one that I made up, let me know what you think!

“Abdullah was fat. He was so fat that every evening when he went out to peruse the market stalls of his city, he had to force his way out of the widest door in his small house. One day he had more trouble than usual, and was in great fear lest he would be unable to return through it if he ate anything while he was out. He wandered about for some time, doing nothing but walking, and eating nothing but a sesame seed that he inadvertently picked up. He returned late in the evening to find that, indeed, he could not fit through the door at all. He therefore spent all night in great discomfort on his threshold; until the morning, when he got up and entered his abode with the usual difficulty.”

Now here is the bonus one that I did not make up.

“You are a young man, intent on rising in the world. You are overjoyed one day to discover that you have been invited to join a very exclusive society, which membership would aid you inestimably. You accept and are instructed to go to the society that evening for your initiation.

“This initiation is quite simple, but risky. You are instructed to wait in the foyer until a bell rings in the hall where the entire society sits to judge. You are then blindfolded and led into the hall and up to a pedestal, whereon is a hat with two slips of paper in it. On one is written ‘Stays,’ on the other is written ‘Leaves.’ If you choose the one that says the former, you will be accepted into the society, and your future is assured. If you choose the latter, or if you speak a word throughout the entire ceremony, you are forever banned from membership, and are ignominiously kicked out the door, quite literally.

“As you stand in the foyer, waiting nervously for this ordeal by lot, you see a lifelong enemy approach you (who is a member of the society), and gleefully inform you that he has, unbeknown to the society at large, replaced the ‘Stays’ slip with a second ‘Leaves’ slip, ensuring your vigorous removal. As soon as he leaves you standing in shock, the bell rings, you are blindfolded, and led to your doom.

“Your puzzle is to defeat your enemy, and gain entrance into the society.”

Have fun!