character – Page 2 – Anjuelle Floyd

Of Setting, Change, Action, and Dilemmas…

What creates setting, both physical and emotional?

And what goes into creating a setting that stimulates a reader to feel?

What is the challenge of creating a formative and transformative setting?

What needs to remain static and constant in a setting?

And what needs to cry out for change?

These questions point out the importance of setting and the challenge of meeting the needs that setting addresses in a story or novel.

John Truby, author of The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Masterful Storyteller, advises that the setting of a novel needs to include 2-3 separate and distinct places.

His belief debunks the idea that a good story needs to have a list of settings in order to sustain interest and hold the reader’s attention.

Of Setting, Change, Action, and Dilemmas… Read More »

Of Mars in Cancer, Courts of Change, and Travels…

Leave a Comment / Articles and Essays / Anjuelle Floyd

Every story is like a court case wherein we, the author, like an attorney, tries a case of our protagonist.

Who is on trial?

Is your protagonist the defendant or the plaintiff seeking judgment and damages for a wrong committed upon her or him?

If she or his had been wronged then what was the crime and the injury inflicted?

Who committed the injustice?

What cries out for change?

Is this injustice still occurring at the outset of the novel?

If so what does the central character need to accomplish to stop the wrongful act?

The story we craft becomes our protagonist’s quest, their journey to achieve justice and survival, a tale of change and transformation.

Of Mars in Cancer, Courts of Change, and Travels… Read More »

Motion, Identification and The Inertial Frame of Reference…

“Everything moves. Everything …motion is just a manifestation of going from one spot to another spot in space. When we are trying to understand motion all of the things that we measure from have to come from an inertial frame of reference. An inertial frame of reference is a reference frame that is moving at a constant speed and not changing direction.”

–Motion and Relativity, Dr. Charles Liu, Research Associate @ the Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History

The backbone of a story, particularly an entertaining and engaging one is motion, movement from one place in conscious and consensual reality to another.

Amplifying the reader’s engagement with the internal movement of the story, the emotional thread requires clarification of setting and displaying the subtle shifts that take place and occur in perception of setting reflective of one’s internal changes.

These changes are usually transmitted, or rather shown through the eyes and physical senses of the protagonist who is also the point-of-view character.

Motion, Identification and The Inertial Frame of Reference… Read More »

Of Time, Plot and Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity…

1 Comment / Articles and Essays / Anjuelle Floyd

When we think about time, we automatically link it with motion. The most constant things in human history have been the motions of the objects in the universe. So we first figured out how to measure time by figuring how long it took for the various astronomical motions in our solar system. If you move through space you are also moving through time.
Time is the 4th dimension in our universe.
–Dr. Charles Liu, Research Associate,
Department of Astrophysics,
American Museum of Natural History

Albert Einstein’s gift to the 20th century through his postulation of the Special Theory of Relativity was recognizing the existence of a 4th dimension in our universe.
This 4th dimension is our experience of time.

Human consciousness of time plays an important role in the crafting of story.
Time directly relates to plot regarding fiction.
And as plot is the backbone of story it can be said that time forms the frame and an essential dimension of story.

Of Time, Plot and Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity… Read More »

Of Strategizing, Pawns and Plotting…

Leave a Comment / Articles and Essays / Anjuelle Floyd

Playing the game of chess demands that individuals strategize their moves.

To accomplish this each player must think ahead, considering what character or pieces they can move upon the chessboard, and to what square, empty or filled by one the opponent’s characters, and then the various moves their opponent can make in response.

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Of Bishops, Kindreds Spirits and the Dawning of Awareness…

Leave a Comment / Articles and Essays / Anjuelle Floyd

The Bishop in chess moves diagonally along the squares of the chessboard until it encounters another playing piece.

The various directions in which the Bishop can move create a cross upon the chess board. Less powerful than the Queen or Rook, one Bishop equals the strength of a Knight or 3 Pawns. Like the Rook, Queen, Knight and Pawns of the same color or player, the Bishop seeks to protect the King from capture.

Each player has two Bishops.

While one Bishop stands between the Knight and the Queen the second Bishop stands on the other side of the Queen and beside the King.

In this way the Bishop is the piece or character after the Queen to hold close proximity to the King.

Of Bishops, Kindreds Spirits and the Dawning of Awareness… Read More »

Of Rooks, Guardians of the Threshold and Boundaries…

1 Comment / Articles and Essays / Anjuelle Floyd

The chess piece or character known as The Rook, which is also called The Castle or as I like to say, The Tower can move as many spaces along a row or column on the chessboard.

The Rooks (each player has 2) combined with The Queen, form the major chess pieces. In this way they operate like Guardians of the Threshold preventing the opposing player’s pieces from gaining or capturing a player’s King.

Guardians of the Threshold in a novel hold the boundaries between the protagonist and her or his goal.

Of Rooks, Guardians of the Threshold and Boundaries… Read More »