Exalted 3e Writer Application

Greetings and thank you for your interest in writing for future Exalted: Third Edition books. We are presently in need of writers to fill assignments for The Realm, What Fire Has Wrought, and Towers of the Mighty. We are looking for writers who can handle the pressures of research and writing under a deadline.
Writing for Exalted requires a tremendous amount of time and work. We are very demanding and we push our writers to excel in composition as well as creativity. A writer’s job requires that they do constant reading and writing to keep their skills honed. Any weakness in this regard will show in a draft like bubbles in ink.
To be frank, it takes more than just knowledge of Exalted to get a job on the line. If you are not doing your diligence as a writer, it will show up in your answers to the questions below. Conversely, the electric snap of a new idea will hit us like the breath of life itself.
We can tell a writer who reads voraciously apart from one who doesn’t by their creativity, and we can tell a writer who writes frequently apart from one who doesn’t by the skill in their composition. Which is not to say that knowledge of Exalted isn’t important; but it is far easier for a good writer to freshen up on the setting than it is for someone who knows all about Exalted to take the rust off their writing.
Before I get to the questions, I want to impart two critical pieces of advice on how to write Exalted material.
1.	A writer’s job is to put conflict into the setting, never to remove it.
2.	A writer must be past the point of passing judgment on individual characters. It is not useful or productive to get wrapped up in this kind of thinking, because you will end up confused when you realize that the most “evil” characters in the setting have saved the world time and time again. As a writer for Exalted it is far more useful to understand a character’s motivations than to pass judgment on their actions. It also creates a stronger, more natural, unpredictable and exciting setting, rather than the biased axe-grinding of Second Edition.
Keep those clues in mind when you answer the writing prompts at the bottom of this message.
First we have a few questions. Please answer these questions and send me the answers as soon as possible. The writing prompts have a longer due date, but we want to know more about you right away, so please do not delay in answering.

Questions (answers deliverable ASAP):
1.	Have you read Night’s Master by Tanith Lee?
2.	Have you read The Gods of Pegana by Lord Dunsany?
3.	Have you read any of the other books listed in the Exalted First Edition list of suggested resources? If so, which?
4.	Are you more experienced with First or Second Edition? If you are only familiar with Second, you will need to familiarize yourself with First Edition. (Working from Second Edition will guarantee any draft you put forward will not get used.)
5.	What is your writing experience? Optional: Can you include a writing sample?
6.	What do you feel your strengths are? Where can we best use you?
7.	What Exalted books / subjects are you most interested in writing? Don’t be shy in answering. We are looking for stable writers to contribute to books throughout the life of the edition.
Writing prompt (due Sunday, November 23rd, 2014 by 5:00 PM Eastern):
Select two characters from the following list and explain their motivations in under 300 words. Do not use the “Motivation” stat from Second Edition. When I talk about motivations, I am talking about the essential drive of the character. Hint: Don’t tell me what they are trying to do. Tell me what drives them to do the things they do and back it up with evidence from the books. If you aren’t sure, then impress me with your imagination by making it up. Feel free to embellish or invent details, so long as the characters are recognizable. Your choices are: The Scarlet Empress, Chejop Kejak, The Mask of Winters, and Lilith.
Next: Read the short story Big Two-Hearted River (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/hem_river.html) by Ernest Hemingway and answer the following in 350-500 words:
Compare Nick’s journey to Luke Skywalker’s visit to the Dark Side Cave in the film The Empire Strikes Back. Pay attention to word choice, mood, tone, and setting details employed by Hemingway to make your comparison. But also apply the overall theme of Big Two-Hearted River to the scene from The Empire Strikes Back. What is Hemingway getting at and how is it similar to that scene? Note: Do not introduce any facts from stories other than the two being discussed, or from prior knowledge of Hemingway, etc. Use no evidence about Big Two-Hearted River that does not come directly from the story itself.
Next: Read the following quote by Flannery O’Connor:
“I often ask myself what makes a story work, and what makes it hold up as a story, and I have decided that it is probably some action, some gesture of a character that is unlike any other in the story, one which indicates where the real heart of the story lies.  This would have to be an action or a gesture which was both totally right and totally unexpected; it would have to be one that was both in character and beyond character; it would have to suggest both the world and eternity.  The action or gesture I'm talking about would have to be on the anagogical level, that is, the level which has to do with the Divine life and our participation in it.  It would be a gesture that transcended any neat allegory that might have been intended or any pat moral categories a reader could make.  It would be a gesture which somehow made contact with mystery.”
Find this gesture in Big Two-Hearted River and explain in less than 500 words why it is a transcendental moment. Pay attention to word choice, tone, emotional cues, et al to make your argument. Why is the moment a gesture that makes contact with mystery and how is it “in character and beyond character” and suggestive of “the world and eternity”?
Note: Before I can read any writing submissions, you must fill out the Onyx Path disclosure form at https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B57iDF62OjtPV3dDT0VRN3gxMkU/edit - print, sign and send a scan or phone picture in with your submission. Without the form, I can’t read your writing.