Hi All,

A week or two ago, I posted in an earlier lesson about a new video that was all the rage on Youtube -- a Harry Potter fan parody of Uptown Funk called Dark Lord Funk. That we are nearly 8 YEARS removed from the release of the last HP book, and 4 years from the last movie, says a lot about how the Harry Potter fandom is still going strong.

For your assignment: Fantasize a bit. Put yourself in the position that you have a massive legion of fans...or at least enough that they're congregating online and playing with your world. How do you feel about that? How are you going to respond?

Also, have any of you played around in fandom? Did it help you in establishing your own stories?

Note: When this lesson was originally written, JKR was still giving out her fansite award. She stopped that when she started focusing on her new works.

Susan

“Ignite Your Fiction”
Concluding Remarks
By Sally J. Walker

Note: I know there is another week for anyone to post comments, questions or exercises for feedback, but I wanted to get this posted because I will be at Writer's Conference this weekend.

I am an Intentional Liar! I create works of fiction, untrue stories. My job is to spin such a credible tale that the reader vicariously experiences the events of the story. My success is proportionate to the reader's mental recreation in my untrue world thus escaping from the real world.

Classic and contemporary literature takes the reader one giant mental step beyond escapist entertainment. Fine art literature so graphically depicts human experience, the reader is forced to evaluate life’s meaning and consequence. Transcending the simple storyteller's craft, literary fine art emerges when a story's characters demonstrate a revelation about the human condition. It CHANGES the reader’s life perceptions.

What is craft? What is art? And why must writers and readers recognize the difference? One word differentiates and explains it. Purpose. Whether well crafted or immaturely lousy, stunning art or commercial trivia, every single written work grows from a purpose.

The editor or the reader then has to evaluate that effort as good or bad, craft or art. So, who cares? The writer, of course! The person who wants to communicate a purpose.

There are four levels of creativity that can be used as “benchmarks” for every creative effort, ANY creative effort, be it writing or basket weaving, painting or theatre:

1. Poorly Crafted: Either created by a raw beginner or a person who carelessly throws something into the world with little understanding of the art form’s fundamentals. School children being introduced to visual art and hack storytelling are two examples.
2. Simply Crafted: With a basic knowledge of an art form’s rudiments, the creative person works to create a simple, basic example that is appreciated by an audience who appreciates direct simplicity. Generally, sit com television shows, children’s cartoons and high school essays can be seen as examples.
3. Well-Crafted: The craftsman who studies the art form, utilizes fundamentals smoothly and works on nuance and meaning is the one who finds satisfaction, marketability and recognition for excellence. Commercial advertising, majority of modern music and instrumentalists, as well as repeated best-selling novelists are examples.
4. Fine Art: The highest level of creativity is the one that touches the heart, spirit, soul of the beholder and makes that person aware of a quality of life unrecognized until that moment. Most artists KNOW they strive for well-crafted, but rarely will they achieve the magic that is fine art. Why? Because a power, an unexplainable force contributes to the piece of art which will connect with another human being. Not all pieces of art, mind you, just some. There are folks who may say only educated elitists, academics or qualified critics can identify fine art. I proclaim, no! Each of us is the judge of fine art that touches our own humanity and it has nothing to do with longevity or mass consensus about the artist! Yes, art, music and literature classes have taught us the names of those creative artists who came before and achieved this level of excellence, like Mozart, Van Gogh, Cather and on and on. It is NOT longevity that identifies their work as fine art; it is the fact that their work continues to move our souls and makes us more attentive to our place in this life.

Personally, I consider my own work as well-crafted. Well, since about 1990 anyway. About then was when I moved from simply crafting to stretching my writing efforts, incorporating new concepts with subtlety, seriously working to make each piece better than the one before. I've worked hard and taken nothing for granted, especially my reader. I OWE that person my very best effort.

Identifying a novel as a well crafted piece of fiction means the writer skillfully used proper grammar and all the Principles of Storytelling including the proper plot structure of a beginning that creates curiosity about the welfare of characters and establishes the writer's credibility to relate an engrossing story, a middle where the reader will be empathetically involved in the worsening affairs of the characters, and an ending that satisfies the reader's sense of logic and resolves the story's problems.

Throughout the well-crafted novel, the writer must develop a main character or protagonist for the reader to care about, an environment of time and place the reader can vicariously experience through the senses, and a concrete opposition to the main character goal thus the reader's empathy for the character's conflict and the resultant struggle. The novel's plot or story events have to be rendered in a chain of logical causality where one happening results in the next and so on until the ending is inevitable. And finally, a well-crafted work demonstrates the principle of unity wherein every element, every sentence, every word contributes to the whole. The puzzle is complete. To eliminate or change anything in the final work would destroy the story.

Obviously, this delineated craft of storytelling can be taught. Even elementary school children can learn simple craft, as I have explained. They certainly can be discerning readers or listeners when story elements are awkwardly misused! Both beginner and experienced craftsman understand they must follow the guidelines, a far from simple goal of craft.

So, Writer-and-Student-of-Writing, where are you on this climb to excellence and what is your goal?

I hope this course has helped you to analyze and grow your own writing. If I have helped one of you to better understand your own process then my purpose is fulfilled. I appreciate feedback on what worked and what didn't throughout this course. Feedback--positive AND negative--is the only way I can improve my explanations next time around. Thank you for the privilege of sharing with you these past four weeks!