Tag: actions
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Of Books, Tension, and The Mind on the Page…
Presently I am reading Anuradha Roy’s novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing . As with any good novel, interactions between the main characters are strained. Tension abounds, but not in a melodramatic way. The story moves with a nice speed for an opening. I look forward each evening–a hallmark that I have found a jewel…
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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…
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Injurious Actions, Political Dictators, and Near Sadist Employers…
Most often the recipients of these injurious actions and words we commit constitute that group of people closest to us, daughters, sons, mothers, wives, husbands, fathers, co-workers, professional partners and colleagues, classmates, students, employees, those subordinate, lateral and even sometimes superior in professional rank to us. Why do we do it?
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Transformation: Making the Ordinary into the Extraordinary
Just as all good stories contain aspects of redemption, and death, so too transformation forms the engine propelling the narrative. A major character or protagonist is like the Prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament. God used Ezekiel to teach the Children of Israel how to suffer. Protagonists of our stories show readers, in much the…
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Loving Our Characters
American Buddhist nun, Pema Chödrön, writes in “Comfortable with Uncertainty” that, “…When we start to meditate or work with any kind of spiritual discipline, we often think that somehow we’re going to improve [ourselves], which is a subtle kind of aggression against who we are…Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become…
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Around and Around We Go
Revisiting scenes in the cycle of character actions and interactions allows for the reader to notice through the eyes of the major characters. It also presents symbols and signs held within the context of the settings that indicate not only more about the specific settings and what they have to say regarding character, but also…
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Our Characters’ Fears
Identifying our character’s fears is like uncovering the groundswell of what drives her or him to act and speak as she or he does in order to accomplish their larger goals. On another level it’s like discovering why we feel compelled to write.