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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The Queen, in that she is the most powerful player and closest to the King, along with the one Bishop stands as the protagonist.
Her goal is clear. In that the story hinges on the King’s protection from capture would then seem to not only serve as motive, but also plot.
Where the greatest hope of survival dwells also lives the most sincere vulnerability.
Lose the King and lose the game.
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Capture of the King in chess ends the game. And thus the role of each piece or character’s movements works towards the larger goals of protecting the King of the same color and capturing the King of the opponent.
The players move their characters and/or chess pieces towards accomplishing these two tasks.
In this way process of playing the game of chess resembles that of writing a book. While writers do not move our characters around the chessboard of our stories like the pieces of a chess game, each character of a novel or short story carries her or his own role, both in the narrative line and the structure of the plot.
Of Kings, Strategies and Tactics… Read More »
In chess, the Queen stands to the right of the King. Her major job is that of protecting the King. The dilemma of preventing the King’s capture rests upon the Queen’s head.
As such the Queen’s movements are central to winning the game of chess.
Establishing the major dilemma or problem in a story is essential to crafting fiction. The central problem inherently creates desire. And desire begets a series of actions that through cause-and-effect propel the narrative line–the plot.
Plot-driven stories answer the “What if?” question thereby directly conveying plot. Character-driven stories answer the questions, “Who? and Why now?”
From the personality of the of the central character rises an internal dilemma that determines behavior and reveals through a set of circumstances, often usual and common place, but no less bothersome and terrifying, a shift in way of behaving and perceiving the world.
This change or transformation emerges through a series of reactions and actions, again cause-and-effect set into motion by the protagonist’s personality, not so much the series of action themselves.
In this way the character-driven plot resembles that of the Queen’s aim and motive throughout chess. Perhaps this is why chess has been said to be the game of monarchs and aristocrats.
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In the game of chess, the Knight is the only piece or character on the board that can jump over another pieces even those who are friendly.
The Knight moves in a “L”-shaped pattern. The Knight does this by going 2 steps forward, or backward, horizontal or vertical and then 1 step left or right or by going 1 step north, south, east or west, and then 2 steps left or right.
The Knight can also be seen as moving 2 spaces diagonally and then horizontal or vertical to the next space.
For this reason the Knight’s path of movement has never been well-defined.
Of Knights, L-Shaped Movements Crisis and Climax… Read More »
The Rook, Tower or Castle in the game of chess speaks to boundaries.
Towers and Castles of the medieval era served not simply as homes, but also places of protection, that place to which rulers, those of their court, and the soldiers guarding them retreated and from which they waged battle.
The Tower provided a place from which the sentry or guardsmen could look out and view those coming to do battle or offend–those who sought to defeat the monarch and occupy her or his home.
Each time we set out to write a story or novel, we wage a war.
Of Towers, Castles and the Battles Writers Wage… Read More »
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 »