Inkling Explorations Link-Up // September 2016

(Note: if you're interested in participating and new to the blog, you can find our link-up explanation/guidelines + more buttons here. :))

This month's selection is: A picnic scene in literature or film

And... *drumroll* my entry is the climactic Box Hill scene in Austen's Emma. (Highly surprising, I know. ;D) It's incredible on so many levels and, if you'd like to read more, I did write a wee bit more about it HERE for a certain Emma party -- once upon a time. (Also, feel free to leave a comment over there, too. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!)

Tell me! Have you read or seen Emma? And what do you think of this scene?

Just leave your own link here in a comment and I'll add it to the post! (Also please note: I'm adjusting the schedule a little for this month, so if your link is left later in September I'll probably be adding it to the post sometime in October. :)) I can't wait to see your selections!

Entrants:

Brona Joy ~ Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

Kathy ~ At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

MovieCritic ~ Nanny McPhee Returns

*How to do it*

1. Post the Inklings button on your sidebar.

2. Do a post on your own blog relating to the month's selection/subject (a literary excerpt as short or as long as you like AND/OR—if specified that month—a screencap from a film with an explanation of how the scene builds/develops the story). Link back here somewhere in your post.

3. Come back here and paste your link in the comments box and I'll add it to the post. Then enjoy visiting and reading everyone else's contributions!

That's all there is to it!

Up next month: A scene with characters setting out on a journey/adventure in literature or film

Inkling Explorations Link-Up // August 2016

(Note: if you're interested in participating and new to the blog, you can find our link-up explanation/guidelines + more buttons here. :))

This month's selection is: A description of a lady's dress in literature

My entry for this month comes from a long time, loved-to-absolute-bits-and-pieces favorite, Augusta Evans Wilson's (aka "Augusta Jane Evans") A Speckled Bird:

"Three hours later she saw her trunk carried downstairs. When the clock struck eight, she was dressed for her wedding. The gown ordered for the club german was a trailing, ivory crepe de Chine, and where lace ruffles met on the corsage she fastened a spray of white lilac from the bouquet Mr. Herriott had sent. No gleam of jewels marred the white perfection of face and figure, but her dilated eyes burned like brown agates when the light smites them." 

Wow, I love this story so much....! (Suffice to say, it's entirely clean. And very intense. And very romantic. And there's MUCH remaining to be said on it. ;D)

Just leave your own link here in a comment and I'll add it to the post! (As with July, since I'm getting this up rather late this month, feel free to post your entries into September. :)) I can't wait to see your selections!

Entrants:

Erudessa Aranduriel ~ The Wheat Princess by Jean Webster

Miss March ~ Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Movie Critic ~ Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Rose ~ Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

*How to do it*

1. Post the Inklings button on your sidebar.

2. Do a post on your own blog relating to the month's selection/subject (a literary excerpt as short or as long as you like AND/OR—if specified that month—a screencap from a film with an explanation of how the scene builds/develops the story). Link back here somewhere in your post.

3. Come back here and paste your link in the comments box and I'll add it to the post. Then enjoy visiting and reading everyone else's contributions!

That's all there is to it!

Up next month: a picnic scene in literature or film

3 Things I Love in a Good Story // Victoria

from Victoria

1. Atmosphere

This one is a little hard to explain, but it's critical to a good story in my opinion. Atmosphere is the tone, the aura, the ambiance, the feel of a particular place or land or setting in a story. Think of the glorious, majestic security and beauty of Rivendell in The Lord of the Rings, the coziness of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver's home in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, the drafty, echo-y mystery of Thornton Hall in Jane Eyre, the earthy, rustic comfort of the Gargery's Forge in Great Expectations. It's not something you pin down exactly, or point to a particular passage and say, "There it is -- there's the atmosphere." It's woven into the fabric of every description of a place in a story. Sometimes it runs through the entire story, but usually the atmosphere is connected to a particular place or building in a tale. And then there's the overarching feel of the entire book, made up of a string of individual atmospheres like diamonds on a necklace. I find that (second only to the characters) atmosphere is what keeps me coming back over and over to my favorite books.

2. Characters

I know that lots of other bloggers have already used "Characters" as one of their top three in this series, but I really do think it is absolutely indispensable to a good story. I mean, try to even imagine a truly fantastic story with weak, wooden characters. It's nearly impossible. Characters are usually what we remember most about any good story. Humanity, honor, humor -- all play a part in making memorable heroes. But even villains or side characters or characters that only show up once can all be memorable. As long as they are believable, have realistic dialogue, and accurately reflect humanity in all its complexity, characters can feel as real as flesh-and-blood people that you actually know. And maybe most importantly, they can impact your life forever -- who hasn't been influenced in some way by a hero they read of as a child? I wouldn't be the woman I am today if I had never met Gandalf, Aslan, Mr. Knightley or Dym in the pages of a book.

3. Self-Sacrifice

Think through every compelling, stirring or touching story you've ever read or watched. I don't care if it's How to Train Your Dragon, Sense and Sensibility or The Lord of the Rings, nearly every story has a pivotal scene or theme of self-sacrifice. It doesn't have to necessarily be a matter of life and death, but it always involves someone giving of themselves or laying down their own good for the good of another. Joe Gargery giving his life's savings for Pip, Aragorn riding to the Black Gates for Frodo, Tony Stark taking the missile meant for Manhattan in The Avengers, Flynn Rider choosing Rapunzel's life over his own in Tangled -- self-sacrifice is everywhere. It's kind of ironic to find this in a world that claims to hold a survival-of-the-fittest Darwinian worldview. As a Christian, though, it's easy for me to understand why writers and directors all throughout the world find themselves creating stories of self-sacrifice, book after book and movie after movie. It's because it reflects the life-changing, earth-shattering self-sacrifice of Christ Himself. In a laying down of self so monumental and unbelievable as that of the Maker dying for His creation, the crucifixion of Christ became the single most important event in the history of the world -- whether certain humans throughout history choose to acknowledge that fact or not. Because of Christ, self-sacrifice (like truth, honor, love and good triumphing over evil) has become an ever-present theme throughout literature and film throughout the ages.

Note from Heidi: Thank you so much for sharing, Victoria! :)

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And... would you like to share three of your favorite things in a guest post? You don’t have to be a writer to qualify! This series is by story lovers for story lovers.
For post specifics/guidelines you can see the initial post here, then send Heidi a quick email at ladyofanorien(at)gmail(dot)com. (Don’t be shy. I’d love to have you! :))

Inkling Explorations Link-Up // January 2016

(Note: if you're interested in participating and new to the blog, you can find our link-up explanation/guidelines + more buttons here. :))

This month's selection is: A New Year or 'new beginning' passage in literature

I've highlighted this passage before on my personal blog, but it's such a favorite it immediately won hands down for this month's entry. ;)

“Outside darkness stayed, darkness and snow and ice, as if it would stay forever.

"So no one in Greenwillow was prepared for the morning when it came, not in a slow snowy dawn, but with the sun shouting up over the hills and catching a million mirrors of ice storm, as if the music from a harp had been frozen and splintered and flung from the west and the east and the north and the south. The great trees were sheathed in ice, and so were the tiniest meadow grasses. Branches glittered and cracked under their frozen weight, and small autumn seed-coats turned to diamond stuff.

"The sky was as blue as the first dawn itself, the one that woke Adam, and there was a fresh powdering of snow that had fallen before the ice began to creep. It was next to impossible to look abroad for the dazzle, and the Reverend Birdsong stood on his doorstep and shielded his eyes and felt very near to bursting with God’s wasteful glory and this new Creation. Charity the cat came out beside him, walking very daintily in the cold, looked at the snow, sneezed in protest and withdrew to the warm hearth. Birdsong rubbed his hands together and crowed.” Greenwillow by B.J. Chute

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Just leave your own link here in a comment and I'll add it to the post. :) As always, entries are open through the end of the month and I can't wait to see your selections!

Meredith ~ Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol

Hamlette ~ L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables

Olivia ~ C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces

Natalie ~ K.M. Weiland's Behold the Dawn

*How to do it*

1. Post the Inklings button on your sidebar.

2. Do a post on your own blog relating to the month's selection/subject (a literary excerpt as short or as long as you like AND/OR—if specified that month—a screencap from a film with an explanation of how the scene builds/develops the story). Link back here somewhere in your post.

3. Come back here and paste your link in the comments box and I'll add it to the post. Then enjoy visiting and reading everyone else's contributions!

That's all there is to it!

Up next month: A scene involving a disguise in book or film

Inkling Explorations Link-Up // December 2015

Here's for our December Inklings! (Note: if you're interested in participating and new to the blog, you can find our link-up explanation/guidelines + more buttons here. :))

This month's selection is: A Christmastide movie scene

My decision making process this month has been complicated (read 'undecided'), but I finally opted to go with this gorgeous, wintery scene from the classic Lady on a Train with our heroine, Nicki Collins (Deanna Durbin), singing 'Silent Night' long distance to her father in San Francisco.

A murder mystery set in New York at Christmastime, Lady on a Train is quite scary in places and -- with the positively perfect balance of frightfully funny moments and adorable romance -- it's one of my favorite Deanna Durbin films.

Not to elaborate on the costumes and hairstyles...

And I already mentioned the humor, right? I thought I did... :)

And the humor plus the drama.

What think you all? Have you seen Lady on a Train?

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Just leave your own link here in a comment and I'll add it to the post. :) As always, entries are open through the end of the month and I can't wait to see your selections!

Jillian @ a room of one's own
Naomi ~ The Christmas Proposal in Downton Abbey
Hamlette ~ Two (Merry?) Little Christmases
Eva ~ christmas at stalag 17
Natalie ~ A Christmas Eve Wedding
Faith P. ~ "It's a Wonderful Life"
Olivia ~ The Nativity Story

*How to do it*

1. Post the Inklings button on your sidebar.

2. Do a post on your own blog relating to the month's selection/subject (a literary excerpt as short or as long as you like AND/OR—if specified that month—a screencap from a film with an explanation of how the scene builds/develops the story). Link back here somewhere in your post.

3. Come back here and paste your link in the comments box and I'll add it to the post. Then enjoy visiting and reading everyone else's contributions!

That's all there is to it!

(And note: you can visit here for blog buttons and links for previous months. :))

Up next month: A New Year or 'new beginning' passage in literature

Inkling Explorations Link-Up // August 2015 & New Must-See Buttons!!!

As this is our fourth Inklings month I decided it’s high time to mix in some new buttons!

How do you all like them? :) Feel free to use any—or all five!

And our topic for this month is: A scene happening on/at/around a train or train station 

July specific notes: Selections can be from either books or films

And you can probably all guess my choice.... ;) Yes, indeed—the ending scene in the '04 North and South! (And a couple notes: while I love both versions of N&S, the following specifically applies to the BBC '04 adaptation with Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. Also, I’m actually lifting this post almost entirely from my review which you can read in full here.)

~     ~     ~

And now for our North and South scene in which the themes of the entire wonderful story are captured to brilliant perfection. 

First, the train appears throughout—beginning and ending the film, tying it completely and richly together with its portrayal of continuation and change—and while the ending scene (with its kissing at a public place) may or may not be historically accurate, from a story perspective it’s dazzling. 

In the beginning, while hoping to remain settled, Margaret finds herself uprooted to a new and completely foreign world. And with that catalyst (even as she tries to remain fixed within herself) the ground is pulled from beneath her by the inescapable rushing forward of life. Everything she had deemed simple and immovable—her world, her entire family, even her own mind, opinions, and (at last) emotions—are caught in that great unstoppable impetus. 

From the beginning there’s a ripeness and maturity about her. Yet with that softness there’s also an inflexibility—a resistant immobility—dyed into her very character and desire for a solidity of place, for the clearly delineated safety found in habitual routine and a clearly defined social world. There’s safety in stagnation... while change can involve both danger and heartache. 

But real change generally comes unasked and unlooked for. 

Margaret learns she cannot box herself and she cannot box others in closely defined categories. Yet one of the greatest things I love about the story is that—changing—she doesn’t lose who she is. Lovely and gracious, she’s still Margaret, but—growing in humility—she learns also an active, diligent rest. 

So comes the train station at the end. The station—that stopping place in the forward push of life and progress—that place with the dizzying potential for a full face, 180-degree turn. The stopping place encapsulating those few, tangible, epic—fully historic—moments in life that completely reorient us, changing everything. Yet again. 

And arriving at such a stopping place Margaret reaches forward to the future—finding tried and tested strength to lean on—finding again a field of rich fulfillment and labor.

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As always, entries are open through the end of the month and I can’t wait to see your selections! Remember, you can write as little or as much as you like. And don’t forget to check out and share one of the new buttons!

Naomi @ Wonderland Creek
Inkling Explorations in Gone With the Wind @ a room of one's own
Hamlette @ The Edge of the Precipice
Rose @ An Old Fashioned Girl
Natalie @ Raindrops on Roses & Whiskers on Kittens

*Rules*

1. Post the Inklings button on your sidebar.

2. Do a post on your own blog relating to the month's selection/subject (a literary excerpt as short or as long as you like AND/OR—if specified that month—a screencap from a film with an explanation of how the scene builds/develops the story). Link back here somewhere in your post.

3. Come back here and paste your link in the comments box and I'll add it to the post. Then enjoy visiting and reading everyone else's contributions!

That's all there is to it!

Up next month: A Funny Story Opening in Literature

3 Things I Love in a Good Story // Hamlette

from Hamlette

1 – Characters I Want to Be Friends With 

No lie -- this is make-or-break for me. If I don't want to be friends with at least a few of the main characters and hang out with them, I won't be re-reading or re-watching this, which means I don't love it, or even like it much. I realize this is highly subjective, as no one can really predict what will make me want to be friends with a fictional character, but there it is.

Actually, I do have some pretty basic things I like in a character. They need to be nice and helpful. I also appreciate characters who are loyal, sensible, and practical. A little quirkiness is nice, and I appreciate both sarcasm and sass a lot. But those are all gravy. I don't love characters who are not both nice and helpful. Now you know.

2 – Realistic Dialogue 

It needs to sound like things real human beings in that point in time would say. (William Shakespeare gets a pass for this one -- no mere mortal talks as well as his characters. But it would be nice if we did!) 

Also, I really appreciate it when an author tells me a character has an accent, say Scottish, and then lets me imagine the accent. I dinnae apprrreciate it when they mun go to verrrah grrreat lengths to wrrrite oot the accent -- ach, mon, it gives me a rrroarrring headache if I cannae rrread it easily.

3 – Happy Endings

And by that, I mean endings that make me happy. I want moral balance restored to the universe at the end of a story -- good triumphs over evil, etc. This is why I consider the ending of Hamlet to be happy -- good has triumphed, even if at great personal cost. If evil wins, or if good kinda wins but evil is still lurking somewhere, then it's not a happy ending, to me.

(Note from Heidi: Thanks so much for sharing today, Hamlette and I heartily concur with every one of your points! ;))

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Would you like to share three of your favorite things in a guest post? You don’t have to be a writer to qualify! This series is by story lovers for story lovers.
For post specifics/guidelines you can see the initial post here, then send Heidi a quick email at ladyofanorien(at)gmail(dot)com. Don’t be shy. I’d love to have you!

Inkling Explorations Link-up // July 2015

Inkling Explorations is an exciting link-up for any and all story lovers who love discovering treasures in everything they read—whether it's in an old favorite or something crisply and deliciously new on the shelf.

It's completely optional (you can enter some months and not in others) and it's open to entries from literature and film—and with selections from fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, romance, action, poetry, even sometimes non-fiction! The range is pretty much limitless. (Note: Entries will be moderated, however, and must be clean, edifying, and suitable for all ages.)

*Rules*

1. Post the Inklings button on your sidebar.

2. Do a post on your own blog relating to the month's selection/subject (a literary excerpt as short or as long as you like AND/OR—if specified that month—a screencap from a film with an explanation of how the scene builds/develops the story). Link back here somewhere in your post.

3. Come back here and paste your link in the comments box and I'll add it to the post. Then enjoy visiting and reading everyone else's contributions!

That's all there is to it!

July Topic: A well crafted animated film climax

July specific notes: Film entries only this month. Also, an addendum! As you can see above, I've added one other quick thing to Step #3. After pasting your link in the box below, leave a quick comment as well so everyone who's already posted is able to keep easily and quickly updated on new additions. :)

And my July selection is… 

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. 

Incidentally, I’ve been planning this selection all month, but it also perfectly coincided with the wrap-up for the Ring Around the Rose link-up, so I’m hoping to tag along a little with that here as well. (If you’d like to see more on the link-up, visit Jenelle’s or Hayden’s blogs here and here where they also link to the other authors.) 

And now, Beauty and the Beast! 

First seeing this as an adult, I was actually thrilled almost to tears by the depth of the ending. The central theme—self-sacrifice/the true nature of love—goes on to resurface in both Tangled and Frozen and other more recently released favorites of mine, and is given a fresh and deeper turn in each. It’s self-sacrifice and the true nature of love closely tied as it is to transformation and resurrection. 

There’s something going on here—particularly potent and heady. 

For tied to that death and resurrection, the people we care about are taken to the breaking point. A protagonist is taken to his limit. It’s a reminder of what makes great story. A reminder (for me, as a writer) to go all the way—the umpteenth mile to the very edge—to go beyond the edge. 

Because it’s beyond the edge for the characters—but it’s not beyond the promise. It’s when everything is darkest (i.e. “how in the world or out of it can a promise be fulfilled if the one who received it is lying dead?”), it’s when the ground has just been cut from under us—that the mystery of fulfillment comes. 

As Tolkien put it, “The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is one true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially “escapist,” nor “fugitive.” In its fairy-tale—or otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief. 

“It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears, when the “turn” comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art…” On Fairy-Stories 

(In fact, as Tolkien himself goes on to say, in essence, insofar as fairy tales clearly mirror the truest and most magnificent Story of all, they are themselves one of the highest forms of art.) 

And there, good friends, are a few of the reasons why I love the ending of Beauty and the Beast and consider the Disney version to be masterfully well told! 

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And your entries here!

Olivia @ Meanwhile in Rivendell
Courage & Sacrifice -- Hamlette @ Hamlette's Soliloquy
Natalie @ Raindrops on Roses & Whiskers on Kittens

As always, entries are open through the end of the month and I’m looking forward to seeing your selections! 

Up next month: A scene happening on/around a train or train station in book or film