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C.S. Elston

Worshipper, Husband, Author, Screenwriter, Home Cook, Fan

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The Kind of Stories I Most Enjoy Telling

January 12, 2018 By C.S. Elston

 

 

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I did a #MounceChat interview on Twitter back in November and a participant, Racheal Colby, suggested I turn some of the questions and answers into blog posts. This is the second time I am taking her advice. The second question I was asked was, “What kind of stories do you most like to tell?” Here was my response:

I’ve always had a wide array of tastes. I like music from just about every genre (as is evident in a number of my blog posts) and the same is true of books and movies that I read and watch. So, of course, that greatly influences what I write.

As a screenwriter, I had the opportunity to try my hand at just about every genre out there. I hope that the same can be said when I’ve written all of the books I’m going to write. However, so far, with only three books under my belt, I have pretty much stayed in the fantasy lane. Not Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones type of fantasy – although I am a big LOTR fan – but fantasy nonetheless.

My first book, The Four Corners, I’ve always put in the same category as the Narnia books. Others have compared it to Bridge to Terabithia and A Wrinkle in Time. I hadn’t read either of those when I wrote it but, I’ve read the latter since and I can see why that comparison has been made.

The Four Corners starts with a family that is falling apart at the seams. The parents have essentially fallen out of love with one another and the oldest child, their daughter, is practically raising her younger brother on her own. When the young boy, Kinsey, hears the word “divorce” finally uttered in the midst of a screaming match, the emotions he has been bottling for years finally explode out of him and open a door that transports him to another world. When his sister and his parents go looking for him, they are transported to that world as well.

In this strange place, controlled by a demon named Raum, they are all separated onto different islands where they meet other people in their own gender and age categories who are also separated from their respective families. This gives them the opportunity to realize how much they love and miss one another and it becomes a story of finding their way back to one another.

My 2nd and 3rd books are a little trickier when it comes to finding comparisons. They are each part of the same series and I haven’t found too many novels that I think are accurate comparisons. They blend elements from stories in other media forms that I think work better. An example would be the 1995 movie Powder and even some comic books like Spider-Man, Superman and the X-Men.

In a nutshell, each of the first four books in the series are stand-alone stories about one person per book who begins to develop the ability to control an element. The first two are Tyler, who controls earth, and Rio, who controls water. Next will be Mattias who controls fire and then Amanda who controls the wind. It’s their journey in discovering who they are and why they were created. Their purpose is to show this fallen world that miracles still happen and that God, who gave them these abilities, still loves us.

But, I also have books I plan to write that are nowhere near the fantasy genre. I just haven’t gotten to any of them yet. I’m a planner by nature so, I already know the next 5 books I’m planning to write and one of them does happen to be one of those from outside of the fantasy genre.

Stay tuned . . .

Filed Under: About Me, Blog, Home, My Books, Writing Tagged With: A Wrinkle in Time, author, blog, blog posts, book, Books, Bridge to Terabithia, C.S. Lewis, Chat, comic books, comics, demon, earth, fire, Game of Thrones, God, Kadosh, Kinsey, Kinsey Snyder, Lord of the Rings, LOTR, miracle, Miracles, Mounce, MounceChat, movie, movies, Narnia, powder, Racheal Colby, Raum, screenplay, screenwriter, Snyder family, Snyders, Spider-Man, stories, story, Superman, the four corners, The Gift of Amanda, The Gift of Mattias, The Gift of Rio, the gift of the elements, The Gift of Tyler, twitter, twitter chat, water, wind, writer, writing, X-Men

My Favorite Thing About Being A Writer

October 20, 2017 By C.S. Elston

October 20, 2017

By

C.S. Elston

 

 

One of the many questions that I’ve been asked repeatedly is, “What’s your favorite thing about being a writer?” Surprisingly, it’s not an easy one to answer. Perhaps that’s because, on any given day, my answer changes depending on my mood, my latest project or for countless other reasons. However, a handful of answers do seem to come up a lot.

I love that writing gives me a voice. People can express themselves in many ways. That’s one of the numerous things that makes any kind of art so great. For me, it’s through writing. Everyone has something to say and I have the privilege of saying it through writing.

I love that writing lasts. We don’t have videos of events that happened thousands of years ago but, we do have written accounts. Homer and Dante didn’t make movies but they did write The Odyssey and Inferno. The written word is a timeless tradition that I am very proud and honored to join on any level that I can.

I love that writing takes me and others on adventures. As I flesh out a story, I get to go on the adventure with the characters. When I write in “The Four Corners” series, I get to go to a fictional world called Kadosh. “The Gift of the Elements” series has taken me as far away as Japan and will eventually take me to both Chile and Finland. Then, when I finally finish and send the story out into the world, others get to go on those same adventures. I, for one, think that’s awesome!

Perhaps more than anything else and, therefore, the answer I give the most often and would probably pick as the number one reason if forced to narrow it to only one, is that I love that writing means I get to create something new. I love to create. It’s also why I enjoy cooking so much. In both cases, you start with nothing but an idea and wind up with something you hope is wonderful when it’s all over. And, in both cases, you can bet someone will let you know how wonderful (or, conversely, awful) either way.

Granted, the building blocks you use aren’t completely original to just you. With cooking, the ingredients come from somewhere. Even if they come from your own garden, you must thank God for sending the sun and the rain. And, with writing, the same is true. You’re building off your life experiences and the things that have inspired you. After all, as creators, we’re all actually imitators when it comes right down to it. In fiction, we’re imitating real life. In non-fiction, we’re documenting real life. And, the truth is, we’re all just imitating the original creator anyway.

The process can be a minor taste of hell at times but, in the end, we all hope it’s worth it. And, for me, so far, it always has been.

 

(BACK TO LIFE OF ELSTON)

Filed Under: About Me, Blog, Home, My Books, Writing Tagged With: author, book, book series, Books, Chile, dante, Finland, Four Corners, Gift of the Elements, homer, illiad, inferno, Inspiration, Japan, Kadosh, odyssey, readers, reading, screenwriter, stories, story, the four corners, the gift of the elements, the illiad, the odyssey, writer, writing

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