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 the 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.

Dilemma and action swirls around the protagonist, much like the King in chess.

She or he stands at the center of action, and while the central character has a goal that drives all thoughts and actions, those responses and actions of the supporting cast operate according the parameters set by the needs and desires of the protagonist as influenced and shaped that for which she or he yearns.

The writer/author like the chess player operates according to strategies that she or he has learned from playing the game of chess over time.

Even within a brief amount of time of  having played the game, we develop an attitude towards avoiding the capture of our King while simultaneously working to ensnare that of the our opposing player.

Likewise when writing, we develop over time a way we approach or avoid our task of crafting stories.

Success in writing comes with bringing awareness to our process, our pathway in starting a story and writing through the dreaded middle where action peaks at crisis and then climax, and descends into denouement followed by resolution and the end.

The goal of safeguarding the King guides our hand in choosing which chess piece to move and where as does holding firm in our mind the engine driving the story–the physical goal accompanied by an emotional desire–directs our hand in writing or typing our story.

Both tasks require thought and forethought. Tactics shaped and remolded by an overriding strategy.

What forethought do you give to writing your stories?

How do these ideas shape your process of crafting your novels?