Of Intermediate Regions, Hunger and Thirst…

There stands an intermediate region in the life and structure of a novel, that place between crossing the border of the opening and beginning and entering into a series of actions that lead to the penultimate center of the journey.

It lies between the edge of that vast new world of survival that constitutes the protagonist’s path of growth and transformation, the steps she or he makes towards achieving their goal. It is a land filled obstacles of varied sorts, and the ultimate crisis that manifests profound change.

This area operates much like the night before that big game, the minutes ticking up to giving one’s debut concert. For writers this can function much like reading one’s novel for those last times wherein we institute final edits towards bringing the work to its brightest hue.

In war this area stands with a noisy and loud silence held in the moments before storming the beach or taking the hill.

This place holds the breadth of distance separating the central character from desire and yearning and the immense taste of victory that follows meeting one’s greatest enemy.

For the protagonist of engaging and entertaining stories this antagonist, the liveliest of obstacles, operates on two planes. She or he stirs and whips chaos in two main areas of the protagonist’s life–the physical plane of existence and that more abstract, phenomenological area held within the confines of the mind and heart.

Likewise the plot and narrative thread must include inquiry, or rather scenes and actions that poke and prod, if not by physical force, drive the protagonist towards extremes in either her, or his body, and also within their soul.

It is at this point when writing, that the author and writer would do well to remember the meaning of the image of the ancient Hebrew character, Elijah, writing in his chariot.

Both prophet and his method of travel symbolize the relationship between the physical and abstract, that of the human body in all its physicality and mundane operations working towards the spiritual aspirations of catalyzing the growth and evolution of the soul.

Humans come to understand life in all its glory and banalities by recognizing and attending to the essential and basic needs of survival. Every human individual needs food and water to live and thrive, a home and clothes that protect us from the elements.

We also need human touch. We yearn also to experience physical and psychic connection with another.

It is in seeking to fulfill the basic requirements for human existence that we encounter others.

And therein lies the fodder and fertile ground for conflict that gives rise to tension.

Want against want. Need against desire. Yearnings against the emptiness that fills all.

This borderland region of the novel or any story reminds us that the mundane and the abstract work hand in hand.

Touching and affecting the heart, begins with holding the hand.

Seeking to and securing food and shelter for physical survival raises fears, doubts and questions about the meaning of life and one’s purpose.

A strong and engaging plot, one that entertains, interweaves the needs arising from these two dimensions of life and living, along with the conflict that arises when meeting others who hold the same, if not similar goals and desires.

The roots of their actions, that of the protagonist and antagonist, rear their head, display first sprouts, along the border of this region, the place where author, and writer closes her or his eyes and in planning or simply writing the story of our characters, we ask, what is it that I must say.

What are the words flowing through my consciousness that cause me to write, sentences and paragraphs that should I fail to pen them, I, thirsty and hungry, will provide myself no food to eat?

What are the questions that arise in you when reaching the center of your story, the apex of action, the heart of the plot?

What anxieties rear their heads?

What joys yearn to escape and flow through you?