Introductions and Rules of Conduct

The following posts are primarily about stories, reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, or the English language in general; but will occasionally cover other topics of the author's interest. Readers must know that the author is a born-again Christian, which will determine both the worldview/bias of the author and the general direction of the blog posts.

Any comments made are expected to be respectful, but by no means utterly compliant. If at any time the reader disagrees with the author, said reader is encouraged to leave a comment clearly expressing that disagreement. That said, the author asks that the visitor read with an open mind, evaluating the content of the post on it's own merit before commenting. If the author feels that the resulting comment is unnecessarily offensive, disrespectful, or provocative, the comment will be ignored and/or removed.

The purpose of this blog is to provide thought food for those interested in or thinking about the mechanics and presentations of story-crafting. Bear in mind that the author is an ever-growing student of storytelling and will therefore make mistakes he will gladly (with some embarrassment) acknowledge.

~The Wordsmith Rules of Conduct

All formalities aside, I do hope that any of my brother or sister story lovers reading this blog will find something they can take away and think about, even if only to find an argument against it.

Tentative Structure


I intend to write somewhat along these lines:

Amateur Apologetics -- Pastor Voddie Baucham Jr. once defined apologetics as knowing what you believe, why you believe it, and being able to properly communicate that belief to other people. Posts with this label will mostly include my thoughts and opinions on biblical matters

Bible Readings and Reasoning -- Under this label will be Bible texts selected on my whim and some hopefully helpful comments on said texts.

Craft Talk -- Here I will talk about what I am learning in terms of the craft of writing. The intended focus will be on novel writing, but occasionally I will talk about the craft of other forms of writing.

Definitions and New Words -- I'm always trying to improve my vocabulary and posts with this label will share my attempts with the world.

Everything About English -- This blanket term includes lessons on grammar, occasional word histories, and reflections on how language works and is used in the world today.

Fiction Reading, Writing, and Thinking -- When I have the time, I will combine all of the above labels in a post that analyzes a piece of text discussing its construction, audience, and biblical merits.

Greatest Quotations -- Winston Churchill once encouraged men with poor education to devour books of quotations. And while I can honestly say that I have been blessed with an better education than many in my country, I have a soft spot in my heart for words of wisdom. Every now and then, I will post a quotation that I disagree with and expect my readers to disagree with, but I'll try to point out any positive aspects I may find that would lead me to post it.

Let's see what we can come up with.