King

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

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 »

Of Allies, Bishops, Stories and Forethought…

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.

Of Allies, Bishops, Stories and Forethought… Read More »

Of Kings, Strategies and Tactics…

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 »

Of Rooks, Guardians of the Threshold and Boundaries…

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 »

Of Queens, Dilemmas and Goals…

The Queen, interestingly in chess is the most powerful piece on the board. She can move in all directions and for as many spaces as needed to overtake the position of a chess piece for capture.

Her only limitation is that unlike the Knight she cannot jump over a piece.

But then why would she? Her goal is to capture pieces towards the ultimate objective of protecting the King.

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Of Pawns, Rooks, Knights and Bishops…

This weekend I played my first game of chess.

My eldest now 23 learned the game from my husband. Like the cello, I have always admired people who played chess.

It truly is a game of thought, forethought and reasoning. Unlike the game of checkers that I learned as a child and play with my youngest who is eleven, chess pieces have names and characters.

Like the elements of fiction, these characters or pieces have 1 or 2 directions in which you can move them, defined tasks that propel the plot of the game.

Of Pawns, Rooks, Knights and Bishops… Read More »