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Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual.

Frank Herbert (Dune trilogy)

 

Lesson 5 - carry a cat

I'm not quite sure what happened in this lesson. I took very few notes:

  • Don't give observations to people that they couldn't actually make eg small person seeing bald patch of tall person
  • Telling of a story: narrator, characters, author
  • Psychic distance (did I hear right?): start landscape, drill down, use description which might apply to narrator or character
  • 1st person: think about what the character sees, not what the author sees. Make POV choices and stick to them
  • Don't put the important part of a description last eg hat, boots, clothing, gun!
  • "Walk in the space" when you write
  • Don't mix metaphors - use any metaphors consistently

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