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Author Topic: Anyone read Ender's Game?
Cindy
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I love Ender's game. Card did an excellent job creating realistic characters, and there's conflict. However I have a question about it.

I love this book. And there are at least two elements from the book that I want to use in my own.

Anyone know in each chapter, there's like a paragraph in bold text. With nothing but dialogue. It's the part of the book that makes me want to keep reading. It's when Graff and this guy, (I forgot his name) are spying on Ender and using them for their military purposes, doing everything they can to make him a potential commander of the army.

(I want to try that too, because first of all, just for fun, and two, there's this assassin organization out there that's making my MC do their dirty work. And it give some small backround information about how my main character came to be. I thought maybe, a chapter intro would give them the impression that those people are evil.)

I'm not sure, but I think the purpose of the intro in Ender's Game is just to forshadow what Commander Graff will do to Ender. And it makes me ask myself if Graff is to be trusted.

The biggest challenge of this: Writing a chapter intro, puts me at serious risk of an info-dump and it's much easier to make the dialogue stilted.
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Questions: What sort of POV is this book in? I thought at first that I was deep into Ender's mind, but there was a scene between the brother and Sister, so I now will assume omnisicient.(I could be wrong.)

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Element #2: Throughout the book, the author writes exactly what Ender was thinking. By showing us not telling. I thought, hey, maybe that's a good idea! I could use that as an way to get as deep into my MC's mind as possible. But it's very easy to tell, and also it might come across as redundant.

For example, I've written it this way. Mt MC thought process are in parenthesis.

http://docs.google.com/Edit?id=ddgfj8tv_28d7rfdbg7
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If possible, could you tell me how Card pulled this off?

My attempt at imitating Ender's Game.
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107198

and here ( I have a link to google documents. It will take a while to submit the link.)

I wanted to email Card myself, but the thing isn't working.

Help needed really bad.

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T:man
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HAS ANYONE READ ENDERS GAME? who hasn't read anyway read "Enders Shadow" too great story all about my favorite character Bean!

I definetly recomend emailing card if it don't work keep trying or email papa janitor?

Not so sure try making thread in Books food films and culture morepeople post their and this is definetly relevent.

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Noemon
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quote:
Anyone read Ender's Game?
Hm...the title rings a bell. Who's it by?
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Nighthawk
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I'm waiting until they make the movie so I can read the novelization. It'll be so much better in paperback.
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Scott R
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Ender's Game is written in 3rd person, limited omniscient.

OSC has written a fantastic book on character and viewpoint. Coincidentally, it's titled, Character and Viewpoint. I highly recommend it.

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odouls268
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I read O Jogo Do Exterminador.

Seriously. I even got it signed.

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Peter13Wiggin
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Uh. Hello. Who hasn't read it. I've read all of the books that focused on the war in the Ender books.
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BlueWizard
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It is not necessary to keep your story limited to one point of view. The reason a single point of view is recommended, is because people do such an atrocious job of multiple points of view.

Frequently point of view will shift to another character, and you won't even realize it until you've read several pages. Or point of view will keep shifting back and forth to the point where you simply can't keep track.

So, multiple points of view can be done, if you are careful to make it clear that the point of view has shifted, and equally clear when it shifts back.

Card does this by making the chapter prelude clearly not Ender's point of view, and keeps the prelude very distinct from the rest of the chapter. In some cases, he shifts the point of view to Valentine and/or Peter, but you are always clear whose mind you are in, and that is the important thing.

JKRowling does this too. In several books, she has chapters that are completely out of Harry's mind and point of view. For example, when we get the first chapter starting at the Riddle house. Or when we get an early chapter in the muggle Prime Minister's office, or at Snape's house. But, it is crystal clear who we are with, and who is establishing the point of view.

I've use multiple points of view in my own writing, very amateur-ish, and I think I have made the POV transitions nicely. I try to make it clear whose mind you are in and equally clear when the POV shift back to the main character.

So, to accomplish the task at hand, you need to make sure it is crystal clear to the read who and/or what is establishing the POV at the moment.

Steve/bluewizard

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Stephen Sunday
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Oh they're already writing a book about that Ender's Game movie that's coming out? Damn that's jumping the gun!
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L_mustang94
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I love that book. Where did you guys first read it?
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Noemon
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quote:
I love that book. Where did you guys first read it?
1205 Kentucky Street Apt. 3
Lawrence, Kansas 66044

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Steve_G
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47°57'17.69" N 116°34'38.41"W Elev 2233 ft
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rivka
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[Laugh]
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Shawshank
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Ender's Game.

I don't think I've ever heard of it. What's it about?

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Dr Strangelove
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Is that the book about some punk kid playing silly games with a bunch of other punk, smart aleck kids who think they're soo smart? Psh. I don't even remember if I've read that. Though if I did it may concievably have been on March 23rd in the iddle bedroom/couch in the living room of 570 Columbus Av. Orange City, Florida 32736. But that's just if it I read it [Wink] .
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Shawshank
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Sounds boring. Smart kids playing games- what is it like some chess master that's like 11 years old or something?
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Achilles
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Read it? Bender's Game won't even be out until Dec. 08.
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Noemon
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I don't need to read it; I've lived it.
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Dr Strangelove
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[Laugh]
quote:
Originally posted by Noemon:
I don't need to read it; I've lived it.

You win.
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Noemon
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[Big Grin]
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Lyrhawn
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Wait a minute...someone did a remake of Searching for Bobby Fisher set in space?

Sounds cool, but the title? Ender's Game? Who's it published by, Milton Bradley? Try something flashier or more dramatic like:

Hymenoptera Wars

Ender's Crucible

The Ender Chronicles

Or since it's a remake, a simple Searching for Ender, which, given the actual plot of the book is fairly spot on.

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L_mustang94
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Wait. Where did all these books come from.
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Flaming Toad on a Stick
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Wait. Where did all of YOU come from?
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ketchupqueen
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*can't resist laughing, but feels slightly evil*
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T:man
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..............................................................................................
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DDDaysh
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You know, I have to wonder, is there anyone on this site who HASN'T read "Ender's Game"? Surely it's possible...
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ketchupqueen
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My four year old hasn't.

To be fair, she is just starting to read.

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DDDaysh
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Sure - showing off your little Enderina! MY 4-year-old is still stoically refusing to learn more than his "favorite letters" in the alphabet.

Still, aside from people young enough to actually be IN Battle School, it seems unlikely to me that anyone who's been here for more than a week hasn't read it.

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rivka
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We have had a few over the years, folks who have joined Hatrack because they knew other Hatrackers rather than having read any of his books. And we've definitely had some who had read only some of his books, and not EG.

I believe all have been successfully corrupted at this time, although it took way longer than a week. [Big Grin]

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DDDaysh
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lol... So I suppose it is possible!

I actually refused to read Ender's Game for almost 5 years because all my friends kept telling me I HAD to read it. I was a stubborn thing as a teenager and figured if everyone was telling me to do something, then I just wouldn't do it!

It took being 400 miles away from anyone I knew, as a lonely grad student to finally change my mind. I'm sure glad I did...

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ketchupqueen
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quote:
Sure - showing off your little Enderina! MY 4-year-old is still stoically refusing to learn more than his "favorite letters" in the alphabet.

To be even more fair, we are actively homeschooling, and the main thrust of our homeschooling efforts is focusing on learning to read and write (on the theory that once you can read and write, all other learning is easier and able to be more self-directed.)

We're using this for reading and this for writing, and so far it's working out pretty well for us.

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Steve_G
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we tried using that book, but discovered our children are too stubborn to learn from their parents. When the kids are at school they are model students, at home they cry, throw fits, and make life generally unpleasant. We've since learned to let them do their structured learning at school, and then we use guerrilla techniques at home.
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DDDaysh
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Oh, my son is perfectly happy to learn almost anything involving patterns and puzzles, but he's being extremely stubborn about language. He does some of it at school (with more or less success depending on the day), but at home it's almost impossible. He truly does have "favorite letters". A is his most favorite, because it starts his name. However, if I show him a flashcard of a letter he doesn't like, or try to just sit down with his alphabet puzzle, he'll only pick out the letters he likes (which does NOT perfectly correlate to the ones he knows) and refuse to even look at the rest because "that's not my favorite letter".

It's really pretty strange, since he absolutely loves having books read to him and even pretending to read books himself. I've thought about just skipping the alphabet and going strait to sight words, but I don't know if that would be a good idea. I might look into the books you posted though, especially the handwriting one. Handwriting was always torture for me, and even my little cousin (who is much more dexterous than son) is having a very hard time with it in Kindergarten this year. The bigger a head start I can give the boy, the better. Thanks!

I guess this really ought to be in the other section, but oh well...

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