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Assuming basic arithmetic and algebra as foundation of math literacy, there are branches like probability and geometry which possess an intuitive beginner game (dice/coins/cards, compass/straight-edge construction problems) and ones that don't (calculus, statistics)
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Challenge with fiction is that following the "make 100 pots to make 1 good pot" trial-and-error agile learning model is very hard, because there's no small, simple iteration unit. The smaller units (jokes, very short stories) are actually harder to execute than long.
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So double jeopardy -- you have to do a lot of "intellectual capital prep" (consume a lot of fiction, read some structure theory, learn to recognize 1000s of tropes) AND learn with large iteration unit (I'd estimate 2000 words is the minimum viable beginner size)
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The difficulty at short scales is comparable to the difficulty of learning electronics. Intuitions work best at breadboard scale with discrete classical components (resistors, transistors). Building compact circuits means understanding ICs, pinouts, and standard logic circuits.
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If you're playing with beginner electronics, making something with a say a 10" x 10" footprint will be much easier than making something with a 1" x 1" footprint. You have to understand a lot less. Fiction writing is like that I think.
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Vonnegut is kinda different. I binged everything he wrote in college. I'll have to think about how his models relate to Campbell's.
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Replying to @DanielleFong
Yeah Vonnegut is a bit different. He has that great essay where he argues that real life story structure is basically a straight line.
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I do have idle plans of eventually working more on my fiction, but tbf, this stuff is interesting enough, I'll be fine if I end up just doing a gigantic yakshave exploring all this stuff and abandoning my fiction ideas. It's interesting in its own right.
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There's a sort of lean-startup model for nonfiction and I understand it well enough to even teach now. I think I could get any reasonably competent English speaker writing decent blog post level essays within a couple of months. There's a reliably executable learning curve.
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Fiction though, lacks both the agile startup learning curve AND any pedagogical model anyone can guarantee. There's a vast industry of people offering education, but none strikes me as reliably capable of getting you to a first good story even assuming you have decent ideas.
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Replying to
i have recently started thinking philosophical treatises are just ideas written by people who don't know how to write a story
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