My Personal Obsessions

A blog by Oregonian in General

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About this blog

A selection of topics I'm particularly interested in, stuff that causes me to spend much too much time surfing the internet or buying books.

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Plot Planning (for Camp FFT

Plot Planning (for Camp FFT)

Plot Planning I thought long and hard about what to say about plotting, and I have concluded that there are as many ‘right’ ways to handle plotting as there are kinds of authors. There are not only differences in the ways we as authors want to structure our stories, but also differences in what the various readers want to read. So what is your plot? There’s no such thing as a story without any plot. The plot is whatever you choose to have happen in your story.

Oregonian in Plot Planning (for Camp FFT

September 1, 2024

Character Development Advice (for Camp FFT)

I'll address myself to one aspect of character development - the necessity to avoid putting the character in all the same (or very similar) scenes, acting and reacting in the same way every time he appears in the narrative. We get an initial impression of him in his first scene and learn nothing new about him thereafter. He always does and says XYZ in all of his scenes. This is not "character consistency," it is "character paralysis." Even minor characters who appear in few scenes do not

Oregonian in Character Development Advice (for Camp FFT)

September 1, 2024

Bastille Day

I began celebrating Bastille Day nine years ago when my granddaughter, who was born in Paris and lived her first six years in Africa, came back to the United States. She is a dual American-French citizen because her father is French, so it seemed appropriate as well as fun. July fourteenth is always sunny and warm (it doesn’t rain in summer here), so we put tables out on the lawn where the trees provide shade from the sun, and have a lovely dinner for about a dozen guests, my version of Fre

Oregonian in Bastille Day

February 16, 2024

Chancel Drama

When I was a child it was common in churches at Christmas time to present the annual Christmas Pageant during a Sunday worship service. The younger children of the church would be dressed in costumes to play the roles of the characters in the Christmas story – Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus (a doll), shepherds, sheep, Wise Men, angels. As a preschool-age participant, you started off in a small role, a sheep or a small angel, and over the years, as you grew, you worked your way up to a major role, Mary

Oregonian in Chancel Drama

February 15, 2024

Ancient History

One of my big interests, dating from my early childhood, is archaeology and ancient history. Why? Maybe because it gives us a glimpse into the lives and cultures of people who lived so long ago, the deep origins of who we are today, the mind-boggling discoveries that are constantly expanding our knowledge of what happened hundreds and even thousands of years ago. The puzzles that we are solving, or at least coming close to solving, year by year. The Mycenaean script called "Linear B" was dec

Oregonian in Ancient History

February 14, 2024

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