Author: Justin Turpen

Writing as a Hobby [Almost two years later]

/ Justin Turpen / 2 Comments

20,198 words. The attempt at a novel I referenced in my last post ended with a corner. I had written an outline for the story but a few chapters in I shifted into discovery writing and discovered myself a corner. I’ve heard many authors say that writer’s block can be your subconscious letting you know there is a problem with your story. This was me.

My story was a Hero’s quest. In my mind it was a mixture of the structures found in the Odyssey and The Children of Hurin. In each of the first three chapters the story jumped years forward until it brought us to the first big conflict I had outlined. The whole of the story spanned decades.

These first three chapters I really enjoyed. I had built a world and characters I was proud of and then wrecked their lives like authors enjoy doing. I brought about solid motivation for the protagonist to propel him through the story. I also had strong reasoning and rationality behind the antagonist. But in the end I lost track of why the story gripped me.

In a last ditch effort to save the story I spent months working on, I returned to my outlines and threw out two chapters I had written – confident that I could figure a path forward. I found a path, but it did not excite me like it did when I started. Perhaps I should have pushed through the slog. I didn’t. Instead, I took a five month Hiatus from writing.

I changed careers – from High School History teacher to an Instructional Designer.

My wife gave birth to my daughter.

A pandemic in other parts of the world came to my home.

My parents got Covid.

One of my friends passed away.

An itch in the back of my mind followed me through it all. Write. write. write. I watched Hamilton for the first time when it came to Disney+. I was inspired by “My Shot” and reached out to one of my friends who wrote for a living. He too was looking for a creative outlet and we started what has become my writing group.

I’ve since written a short story and submitted it for competition – an achievement I’m proud of even though I didn’t win.

I’m now working on a longer short story. For a different competition. I’ve completed its first draft and am now working on a polished second draft. Its working title is Adrift and you’ll likely hear about it from me.

That’s the update. I’ve not given up. If you are working toward a similar goal, I hope you won’t either. Every author proceeds the very same way. One word at a time.

Thanks for reading.

Why does History even matter?

/ Justin Turpen / Leave a comment

“Why should I care about some dead guy who lived a thousand years ago?” How many times have history teachers been challenged on the importance of their subject? From personal experience I know that I get that question once or twice a year from my most frustrated students. What are some common complaints about secondary history education?

  1. History is just a bunch of dates and names
  2. History is not relevant to my life
  3. Why should I study this stuff, its all online, I can look it up
  4. History is content not skills and thus doesn’t contribute to my future career.

First, History is just a bunch of dates and names if you consider a cake just a bunch of sugar and flower. While this complaint is more likely caused by teaching methods history teachers use it does fail to see the broader picture. It is up to the history teacher to lead student to this fuller more beautiful view of History or to guide them to discover it themselves. If all we do is ask student for dates and names it is no wonder why students say this.

Second, History is relevant to our lives. Can you function without memory? I would argue that you can’t. If you can’t function without memory than do you suppose that a society can? History is the collective memory of society. It may not always remember things correctly, and it may forget some things, but nonetheless our species would be running around in circles if we never remembered anything. You can’t learn without memory, you can’t truly live.

Third, the argument that you can always just look things us is lazy and imperceptive. It also speaks to a misunderstanding of the nature of history. All works of History are made through the lens of interpretation. Since we will never know exactly what happened in the past it is the job of historians to use what evidence they have to reconstruct what the story. While some historians try to remove their bias, it is impossible to completely remove it. By saying “I’ll just go look it up” you ignore, or are ignorant to the fact, that what you are reading is an interpretation. Without being exposed to history you are accepting information that is biased as fact and, most likely, accepting wikipedia as the authority and sole interpretation

Lastly, History is uniquely situated to develop the skills of individuals. Specifically, History allows its learners to see cause and effect relationships. History exposes students to the idea of multiple causation and how our actions have ripple effects to those around us. This can lead to skills in analysis. Writing and argument are both core to history. Taking positions and using evidence to back your claims is one of the most transferable skills history has to offer.

What do you think? Have you heard these complaints before? Is there any you would add? How would you respond to these complaints?

Thanks for reading!

Writing as a Hobby

/ Justin Turpen / Leave a comment

One of the oldest goals I developed for myself goes all the way back to middle school. I had just found out that books were interesting and dove headlong into J.R.R Tolkein’s the Hobbit, Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman’s Dragonlance series, and Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire series. My love of reading only grew in High school where I set a specific “bucket-list” goal for my life. I decided that I wanted to publish a book.

“… a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” 
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

This pursuit of writing has led to multiple forays into writing novels. At this point I have started at least seven different novels. Ranging from an auto-biography, a sci-fi novel, and multiple fantasy and fiction novels.

Currently, I’m working on a fantasy novel that is inspired by both the city-state system of ancient Greece and the latin language. I’m trying to root the basic plot in contemporary issues that readers may care about. In addition I hope to keep the book grounded in important fundamental human questions. I find that sometimes fantasy and sci-fi authors lean to heavily in the setting and world-building and I think the core of a reader’s experience is their ability to relate or identify with the underlying characters.

My biggest struggle seems to be keeping the discipline to write regularly. I go through fazes of intense focus on writing and then lose it all a few weeks later after I hit a wall in the text or hit a busy season at school. Now that I have finished my master’s degree I hope to pick my most recent novel back up and get the words rolling.

I don’t claim to be an expert at writing and will undoubtably make mistakes as I continue this journey of making this hobby into something more. I plan on documenting my progress and process to achieve this goal primarily to hold myself accountable, but also to see if others are looking to do the same.

Thanks for reading.