Dreams are but stories that possess a beginning, middle and end.
Recognizing this Aristotle superimposed this organization of dreams–his three-act structure onto that of plays and stories to render them more comprehensible.
Dreams, like stories and plays, hold drama, and their trajectory of plot often includes a dilemma, even if the problem is one of overwhelming joy.
Of Silence, The Three-Act Structure and Death… Read More »
Your story lives within you. Write with it rather than about it.
–Martha Alderson of Plotwhisperer for Writers and Readers
“Don’t talk your story out. Write it.” I heard that a lot during my participation in many writing workshops, but not so much like the almost broken mantra, “Show. Don’t tell,” regarding the development of scenes.
Of Mantras, Writing, and Knowing When to Tell… Read More »
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 »
“Every piece of writing is a bootstrap affair whereby you use the crisis of the next sentence to get to the one beyond.”
–Kris Saknussemm ( Write what you know–and be sorry) The Writer Magazine May 2010, author of the novels, Private Midnight and Zanesville
The word bootstrap usually conjures ideas of a man-child walking in the snow for miles on his way to school, alone and persevering against the elements.
How many times have we heard a parent or grandparent extol how the challenges he endured as a child made him the adult he presently is?
Many jokes center on the extrapolation of one’s difficulties that either did not exist to the degree described or simply sprang from tales spun to inspire awe and respect.
And yet writer, Kris Saknussemm aphorism touches on an all too apparent truth that many of us writers miss or choose to avoid.
Of Bootstraps, Climbing and The Eye… Read More »
“Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created.”
–Toni Morrison, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author
The protagonist, in reaching home, during this last chapter of the journey, must evidence that she or he has traveled, not simply waited steps beyond home, seconds beyond the gates of the home native city and after sufficient time to have journeyed far, they reappear with their tale.
Just as the central character must evidence the crisis has transformed her or his way of thinking regarding making decisions, so too, when reaching home again, she or he must demonstrated they have traveled, that they have truly been away.
Often when we travel we bring back gifts for those we love.
The gifts come from the places we have been, where our itinerary of travel has taken us.
Of Narrative, Journeys, and What Compels Us to Write… Read More »
The stage of renewal in a story offers a second opportunity for rebirth. Unlike the crisis, the scenes of renewal focus on the inner life of the major character.
Through the action of deciding and choosing to share the good news of her or his triumph in both word and deed, the protagonist now heads down a road, the path and events of which are shaped and influenced more by internal changes than those physically committed.
Renewal signals the time in a story or novel where the central character surrenders to the nuclear fall out, so to speak, of her or his actions.
He or she has carried out the physical task set forth by the changes and upheaval leveled at the outset of the story.
At the peak of action she or he dueled her their enemies and/or central antagonist.
In the wake of triumph she/he has made decisions reflective of their survival and the wisdom granted by having battled through the crisis.
Of Peeling Onions, Surrender and Writing from The Zone… Read More »
As movie studios lament the low numbers of moviegoers that seems to be dwindling the directors and producers seemed to going after gimmicks of technology to draw crowds back to the theater.
Movies made in 3-D, and shown on Imax screens comprise the recent fads that are but an extension of forcing plot over character in an effort to engage audiences.
In years past this effort rested on action packed adventures, swashbucklers we call them, and enormous special effects.
But what about story?
Moviegoers, Story, and Dreams… Read More »