A note on working notes -

I share these with others simply because I find them useful for myself. Most of these ideas are gleaned from others and some are what simply makes sense to me and original. Click on the links for further information.

Blessings,

MJ King

Mythical Reality

❝ Trust your original voice! While considering feedback from others is crucial, and learning and absorbing relevant techniques from other writers can be valuable, remember that your voice and words are unique. Trusting your writer's instinct will set you apart from your peers and ground you throughout your journey into story telling. ❞

The Mythic Method

In Irish mythology, a Silver Branch was used as a passport to gain access to the 'Other world' and 'Silver Branch perception' is a return from there to perceiving this world as if for the first time, with new eyes.

(A telling that inspires action.  Tell, Listen, Retell.

(Giambattista Vico - Ideal Eternal History)

1. Mythos = Telling and Immersion - Seraph Hunter series, Four Kingdoms cycle, De Danann cycle, Midnight Sun cycle.
2. Philos = Analysis and Reflection - where people think about and discuss what they have just heard and its relevance to their own world. Seraph Hunter Clubs.
3. Mythos + Philos + action = become the Bard - in whatever medium fits - writing, painting, story telling, poetry, music, website creation or some other form of action. The point is to become the storyteller. Seraph Hunter Fan Fiction.

The Idea of the Mythic Journey

When people journey through the realms of Seraph Hunter, they experience a freedom to explore things and truths that cannot be examined in normal, everyday life. 

Thus, like being a world traveler, after immersing themselves in these supernatural realms, they return with a different perspective on everyday, natural life. 

Moreover, compared to logic and argument, Seraph Hunter functions differently; the stories work through revelation and emotion (a personal journey of feeling) transporting the reader into a greater reality - allowing them to touch upon eternal truths.

Seraph Hunter is Mythical Reality expressed in words:

1. Our world is a subset of a greater, more profound reality. 
2. This larger reality can only be accessed through a mythical retelling of it. Any less of a framework is inadequate to encompass what actually exists beyond our five senses and intellectual comprehension.  We cannot fully know Seraph Hunter through natural means,  it is a revelation.

SHADE Your Characters

Warning: For those with Pandaphobia, this image may be triggering

The goal of every masterful story is to create, in the reader's mind,  an experience indistinguishable from real life - making it so close to reality they actually live it. Like an artist painting a 3-dimensional scene on a 2-dimensional canvas, a great writer tricks the reader's brain into believing they are experiencing real life from the pages of your book.  This is the essence of Real Fantasy. 

Readers like getting as near to the Reality Threshold as possible - they enjoy imagining that their fictional story is real. Memories from stories can even last longer, because of their emotional impact, than real life events. 

Create Amazingly Developed and Nuanced Characters with: 

SHADE

(Like making a two dimensional pencil drawing jump off the page through contrast)

1. Strongly Characterized - Characters which want something specific that resonates with the reader. 
   1. Like a character on a stage, communicate to the reader “this is what this character wants and this is why they can't have it. Cause them to experience the tension this character is feeling right at this moment.” 
2. Highly Developed - Let the character’s backstory reveal their internal drives and motives.
   1. Create a deeply developed backstory for each of the main characters. Delve deep into their history and reveal what made them who they are, why they want what they want, while being relevant to their current choices and actions. 
3. Archetypal - Characters that draw upon and tap into universal archetypes. 
   1. The Innocent, The Caregiver, The Lover, The Sage, The Every-man, The Explorer, The Creator, The Magician, The Hero, The Jester, The Rebel, The Ruler. 
4. Deeply Inspirational  - hooks into the readers' basic motivational systems. 
   1. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs -physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization.
5. Exhibits Identifiable human Flaws  and frailties everyone has - Make them relatable.

Top 10 Fantasy Books With Strong Female Characters

Galaxy Quest example. I knew it!

Justin: Grounded cognition - Inner dialogue draws the reader in close to your character. You want the reader to “live the character's life - to feel like they are actually present in their world.” It feels so real to the reader that it generates emotional experiences in their minds and bodies exactly as real life does - producing the types of stress responses they feel in a similar situation. Do everything you can to support and enhance the reader's lucid dream - strive for mesmerization. Write about your characters honestly.  Lower yourself fully into their lives, be in there with them, let them resonate with you and they will resonate with your reader.   

Cognition includes all forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem solving. Along with affect and conation, it is one of the three traditionally identified components of mind (id - instincts, ego - reality, superego - morality).

Grounded cognition proposes that modal simulations, bodily states, and situation action underlie cognition. The four E’s of cognition

Cognition Definition:

• The mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.
• That which comes to be known, as through perception, reasoning, or intuition; knowledge.
• The act of knowing; knowledge; perception.

Knowing Definition:

Possessing knowledge, information, or understanding.

Natural Perception Definition:

The process of perceiving something through our natural body through our five senses.

Spiritual Perception Definition:

The process of perceiving something beyond our natural reality, through our spiritual body, with our the five spiritual senses :

1. Spirit sight - Visions, dreams
2. Spirit hearing - the voice of God
3. Spirit touch - Sensing spiritual beings
4. Spirit taste - Tasting good and bad
5. Spirit smell - Smelling angels and demons

Spiritual bodies are not subject to the natural constraints of time or space but move independently of each.  

1. Embodied cognition - Embodied cognition is an approach to cognition that has roots in motor behavior. This approach emphasizes that cognition typically involves acting with a physical body in an environment where the body is immersed.

2. Embedded cognition - Cognitive activity is not something that simply happens internally, but involves a continuous transaction between current states of the brain, body, and the environment

3. Enactive cognition - A position in cognitive science that argues that cognition arises through a dynamic interaction between an acting organism and its environment.

4. Extended cognition - Takes the idea that your mind is 'on' your smartphone literally. It says that human cognitive states and processes sometimes spill outside our heads and into objects in our environment. (R.R. Martin’s home is an example of this).

The only way a reader's brain can “interact” with the natural environment around it is through its body.  Therefore, an immersive story must provide its readers with the same sensory input that mimics natural world input as if it were really happening in order for them to “live it” and “fully engage” in the story world.  

I want people to latch onto Seraph Hunter and make it their own, feeling that they are part of the story.  (inspired by Jewel Staite)