Category: Articles and Essays
-
Of Dilemmas, Alice in Wonderland, and Shifts in Consciousness…
There comes a time in every story or novel when the main character stands in the midst of her or his dilemma like Alice does in Wonderland. The protagonist ponders, How do present circumstances differ from my immediate past? This place, like that of Alice in her wondrous, and yet frightening Wonderland sits between the…
-
Of Character Shifts, Balloon Boy and Well-Meaning Friends…
Entering the meat of a novel offers revelation after revelation. Personalities come forth, shift and recede into the murky lands from which they emerged. Characters shift positions in an effort to hold honor to, if not find their authentic identity. Perceptions change. The child of truth and wisdom forged by time and circumstance relays the…
-
Of Cause and Effect, Twin Universes, and Sacrifice…
The protagonist’s decision to act constitutes a cornerstone moment in the life a novel. It signifies the shift from the beginning or set-up of the novel to the middle characterized as a process of action and reaction, better known as cause-and-effect. Still others term this area of the novel, and quite aptly, causality-and-build. Cause-and-effect emphasizes…
-
Of Borderlands, Willingness and Shifts in Consciousness…
Leaving the world as it is, and entering the border between the world as it was, and presently exists in the newly leveraged chaos of change requires courage and faith. It also asks for willingness to acknowledge that one has entered the unknown. Like our protagonists, each time we venture to write a new story…
-
Of Life, Physicality and Stories…
Much of the ability to write compelling fiction comes from the willingness to sink one’s teeth into the substance of life, or that, which flows out of life. Conversations, kind smiles, tilts of the head can reveal joy, simmering sadness, or the ache of a heart playing upon a crafted smile. These are the human…
-
Of Identity, Persona and Naïveté…
Like Adam and Eve whom God warned not to eat of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, the protagonists of our stories often encounter box they are to leave closed, lovers whose lips theirs are not to touch, forests in which they are encouraged not to wander alone, galas and balls that…
-
Of Cruise Ships, Planes, Ocean and Sky…
Traveling by ship, or cruising, starts with the point or process of embarkation, going onto the ship and finding our room. Your bags arrive soon after that. And within an hour or so the ship sets sail. Unlike with an airplane, where matters move at a faster pac