Young Writers Society

Okay, for a story I am writing I need to ask a couple of questions. This aren't exactly important to the storyline but things to think about and details to add in. Message me your answers if you want more infomation of just answer here.

1. What do you value over safety?

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom?

3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be?

4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality?

5. Which historical figures are the most inspirational to you?

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?

Um...that's all for now, I think. Looking forward to hearing your answers!

1. What do you value over safety?
My happiness. Being with my friends/family

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom?
Paper Towns- John Green


3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be?
Brielle

4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality?
compassion.

I don't really have a short answer for 5, so I'm just going to leave it blank.

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?
freedom.

1. What do you value over safety?
Too many things, my sense of safety is minimal.

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom?
This is actually a rather hard one, The Messenger, Markus Zusak.


3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be?

Ky


4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality?
I think philosophy maybe affecting me, this question is too vague and there are too many questions that follows it. Leaving this blank.

5. Authors? Yes. Historical figures? Tag complicated.

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?

I value all four of them to be honest, they all stand on the same scale for me.

1. What do you value over safety?
Hmm, I value justice over safety. So, say, if someone did something morally wrong, they should have to pay a penalty.(For ex.someone steals something valuable, they go to jail for a certain period of time, someone is in debt:pay it all back) That's why we have judges and courts to rule and decide,(E.g.The Supreme Court) and then let justice be forwarded and fulfilled in an orderly manner.

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom?
Finally by Wendy Mass-it's about this girl Rory and how she learns an important lesson about her age(and how everything goes wrong), and then at the end becomes more free and sure of herself. It's inspiring loving yourself.
Here is the link on Amazon,if you are interested.



3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be?
Linda (that is just my nn that is generally used for me at my house-my little brother made it up). My original nn was Linka, but my little brother wasn't able to pronoucne the letter/sound "k" so for every word he substitutes it for a "d" and that's how this is like my middle name.

4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality?
Regret-everyone lives with it, and it is a terribly suffocating feeling that sits in the gut of your stomach and that you can't get rid of. We regret out actions from the past, and history repeats itself.

5. Which historical figures are the most inspirational to you?
Harriet Tubman (I actually did a whole presentation on her in like fourth grade. She just acts on injustice(see number 1) and I really admire her for that.

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?
Safety-let's keep this world safe(and the children in it). That's the most important issue right now,because parents and children don't feel safe being alone on their road,or being left alone at home,or going to a grocery store, because there are dangerous people everywhere and a chance of injury anywhere. We really do need a safer world.

1. What do you value over safety? Family

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom? Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be? Cora

4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality? Love.

5. Which historical figures are the most inspirational to you? Marie Antoinette

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs? Unity

1. What do you value over safety?
I value freedom, human rights (basically the right to live) and retribution over safety. If it brought risk to me, I would still gladly seek legal retribution (as long as it was in my power) for those who restrict the humanity of or enslave others. If faced with a situation where education was unsafe, I would also value education over safety, for various reasons.

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom?
Hard one. I'd have to say most of the books I've read have inspired freedom in different ways—it's not hard to find messages you want to hear.

3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be?
R.A. It's not really connected to any full names I use, but it has its reasons.

4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality?
I have a few answers to this. The ability to love someone who's hurt you or others without forgiving or excusing what they did. The ability to love yourself. The ability to realize that something you've done was wrong in some way, and to learn and grow from that instead of simply categorizing it as "this, bad. that, good." There are a lot more, but I'm short on time.

5. Which historical figures are the most inspirational to you?
This is difficult. It would probably take a lot of thinking and explaining, because I have different reasons for a lot of people.

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?
Out of all four, if I could only value one? Freedom. They all have their downsides, in their extremes, but I would rather be free and at risk than be suffocated in safety, made uniform, or anything like that. In a way, I think that "beliefs" ties into freedom, because everyone has their own individual beliefs system, even among the same branch of the same religion. Everyone has their own moral compass and all that.

1. What do you value over safety?
Freedom

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom?
Fury by Salman Rushide. Metaphorically

3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be?
MJ

4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality?
All we do is sympathise.

5. Which historical figures are the most inspirational to you?
Dr.B.R Ambedkar

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?
Unity. I think unity outdoes the other three on comparison.

1. What do you value over safety?
Love. But maybe they are the same thing.

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom?
Call of the Wild. Jack London.

3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be?
Duchess.

4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality?
Kindness. I think this is a cultural thing but where I'm from, the vast majority of people are kind above everything else.

5. Which historical figures are the most inspirational to you?
Michael Collins. Constance Markievicz. Elizabeth I.

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?
Safety, and unity.

StellaThomas wrote:1. What do you value over safety?
Love. But maybe they are the same thing.

@StellaThomas I disagree with that statement above. Just like @Lavvie said,if these two things were the same,then why do we have two separate words for them? In my mind and for me, love and safety are two completely different things.

This is the definition of safety

Safety-the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury.

Safety is not feeling fear that when you step outside your doors, there will be a dangerous gunman on your sidewalk/street. Police officers and forces should be monitoring this. Safety is feeling that wherever you are,nothing bad will happen to you by someone.It's having ensured definite protection and a relieved feeling in the mind.Safety is making sure that (your) child follow the rules and protects himself from harm(for ex.wearing a life jacket or not putting their fingers in the middle of doors)

And love, well, love is love is love and it's hard to describe. One thing that I do know is that, love won't protect you from outside threats and danger that is lurking everywhere in the world.It's not enough to withstand something that you can't control.

Just look around,all it take is to turn on the TV(and watch the news channel) and you really see how we all are so "not safe".

Pretzelsing wrote:

StellaThomas wrote:1. What do you value over safety?
Love. But maybe they are the same thing.

@StellaThomas I disagree with that statement above. Just like @Lavvie said,if these two things were the same,then why do we have two separate words for them? In my mind and for me, love and safety are two completely different things.

This is the definition of safety

Safety-the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury.

Safety is not feeling fear that when you step outside your doors, there will be a dangerous gunman on your sidewalk/street. Police officers and forces should be monitoring this. Safety is feeling that wherever you are,nothing bad will happen to you by someone.It's having ensured definite protection and a relieved feeling in the mind.

And love, well, love is love is love and it's hard to describe. One thing that I do know is that, love won't protect you from outside threats and danger that is lurking everywhere in the world.It's not enough to withstand something that you can't control.

Just look around,all it take is to turn on the TV(and watch the news channel) and you really see how we all are so "not safe".

Well, I think you're right. After all, at the end of the day, love is the safety of being capable of loving and safety is the love for yourself.

Discussing people's answers (while fascinating) is a bit off-topic. If you'd like to discuss the difference (or non-) between safety and love, I'd recommend creating a new topic in the Debate forum.

With that said, getting back on topic:

1. What do you value over safety?

A lot of things. Safety is pretty low on my list of valued things, and I tend to value things like freedom, seeing results, opportunities, knowledge, and novel experiences, which involve either a lot of uncertainty or taking risks.

I think it's worth noting that there's a difference between recklessness, which is the taking of unnecessary risks or being unaware of those risks, and fearlessness, which is the taking of risks with full awareness of them and their consequences.

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom?

I'm not sure what you mean by "inspire freedom". Freedom is incredibly subjective, and depending on what kind of freedom you're looking for, there are different books which are appropriate. If you're thinking freedom of thought, there's philosophy; if you're thinking freedom of choice, then a variety of books of all sorts is necessary; if you're thinking political freedom, then books with a political bent would suit.

I think it might be a good idea to consider what kind of freedom(s) your story is focused around.

3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be?

I am terrible with names in general and would leave it up to someone else to do all the codenaming, otherwise everyone would have codenames that are somewhere between descriptive and inherently embarrassing with a strong naming scheme.

My poor Pokemon will happily demonstrate: Piddle (Pidgey), Puddle (Ditto), Muddle (Muk), Paddle (Lapras), and many, many more.

4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality?

Empathy. The ability to see yourself in others, and the ability to place yourself in their situation.

5. Which historical figures are the most inspirational to you?

I tend to admire pioneers of their fields, especially in the arts and sciences. Marie Curie is a classic example, and people like DaVinci and Archimedes. There's a lot of interesting characters, and my favorites are those who tried a little bit of everything because they could.

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?

I already mentioned this in my answer to the books that inspire freedom question, but there's many different kinds of freedom, and there are many different kinds of unity and beliefs. The way this question reads, it seems like you're setting up a dichotomy between safety/freedom and unity/beliefs when that isn't necessarily the case. For example, people can be united despite differing beliefs; it only takes a single core belief to unite people, and outside of that core belief, there's no reason they wouldn't have different beliefs.

You're also inherently tying freedom to risky behavior, which isn't the case either. Freedom, especially of choice, involves having the choice between taking a risk or avoiding it, as well has having the agency to carry out that decision. A truer dichotomy would be freedom/coercion.

With that said, freedom is the one I value as the type of freedom I value would encompass the other three by allowing all the choice of which they value.

Kyllorac wrote:6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?

I already mentioned this in my answer to the books that inspire freedom question, but there's many different kinds of freedom, and there are many different kinds of unity and beliefs. The way this question reads, it seems like you're setting up a dichotomy between safety/freedom and unity/beliefs when that isn't necessarily the case. For example, people can be united despite differing beliefs; it only takes a single core belief to unite people, and outside of that core belief, there's no reason they wouldn't have different beliefs.

You're also inherently tying freedom to risky behavior, which isn't the case either. Freedom, especially of choice, involves having the choice between taking a risk or avoiding it, as well has having the agency to carry out that decision. A truer dichotomy would be freedom/coercion.

With that said, freedom is the one I value as the type of freedom I value would encompass the other three by allowing all the choice of which they value.

The general idea of the story is that there was a war a century or so ago and a dystopian government has taken control. The control is totalitarian as in they control your job, your love life, the names of your children, where you live, who you befriend. The idea of the government is that the beliefs, choices and wants of the one are outweighed by the those of the many and need to be surpressed.

The government isn't considered a bad thing since (as seen in really dictartorships and such) nobody knows another way, government propaganda (basically brainwashing)

The MC ends up getting kidnapped by a group of rebels and finds out all the horrible things the government are doing behind closed doors.

In a seemingly perfect world where you are living a perfect life, without any really freedom to choose what you do, but still, you have a job you enjoy, people you love-in that world what would you do when discovering the mass murders, destruction and lies the government has actually caused?

Do you stay with the government for safety and unity or stand up for those who are ultimately doomed because of the government?

I'd don't really expect clear cut answers since they aren't really easy questions which, I suppose, highlight the confusion and tossy-turny feeling the characters are feeling throughout the story.

I would question why, if the people living under the totalitarian regime are happy despite the lack of freedom, any rebels exist. How is it even possible for dissent to arise when the government has such complete control, and why aren't there less destructive ways in use to counter dissent? Brainwashing techniques exist and are effective even without sophisticated technology, so how do those play into the means the government uses to control the people?

You're going to need solid answers for the conflict to be believable, otherwise it will feel contrived to make A Point about freedom versus security.

Kyllorac wrote:I would question why, if the people living under the totalitarian regime are happy despite the lack of freedom, any rebels exist. How is it even possible for dissent to arise when the government has such complete control, and why aren't there less destructive ways in use to counter dissent? Brainwashing techniques exist and are effective even without sophisticated technology, so how do those play into the means the government uses to control the people?

You're going to need solid answers for the conflict to be believable, otherwise it will feel contrived to make A Point about freedom versus security.

The government has done a lot of bad things but they aren't known by the everyday people. The most drastic (and recent) one is a mass murder by one of the high-circle members children (they aren't tested or controled the same way everyone else is). Heaps of people died and it disturbed the flow of the system but it was covered up and blamed on survivors.

Books have been banned at points in time (not currently) historical figures practically erased from history and people have been killed for speaking out against the government.

The rebel group Liberty, also isn't all good in every sect. I don't want them to seem like that classic 'hero' type rebel since thats not an acurate depiction of the real world but anyway...I don't think it's 'freedom versus security' but more how can we be safe if we don't get to chose.

It isn't really like a clear here are the bad guys and here are the good guys (for a large part of the story the MC thinks the rebels are the bad guys) but something more similar to actually war and rebellions (I'm a history nerd so...) and how this government is actually corrupt.

StellaThomas wrote:1. What do you value over safety?
Love. But maybe they are the same thing.

2. What books do you believe inspire freedom?
Call of the Wild. Jack London.

3. If you needed to come up with a codename what would it be?
Duchess.

4. What do you consider the most 'human' quality?
Kindness. I think this is a cultural thing but where I'm from, the vast majority of people are kind above everything else.

5. Which historical figures are the most inspirational to you?
Michael Collins. Constance Markievicz. Elizabeth I.

6. Do you value safety, freedom, unity or beliefs?
Safety, and unity.

Thanks. I'm glad you took this as a more personal questionaire than how some people took it as direct writing advise. I need to see different opinions on things to help create characters with the story and this was really helpful. I'm also liking Duchess as a codename and I might actually use that. Thanks a bunch!