Am I too old for this social media lark? Being slightly the wrong side of 50, I’ve always been transparent and open in who I am. Maybe that’s naïve in the new online world, where things last forever and once said, can never be unsaid this side of the (zombie) apocalypse.
I’ve always been me online. My accounts are always as near to my name as I can get, and I don’t hide behind pen-names or aliases. I can understand why people do, but I’ve never felt the need until now.
Read more ...
Showing posts with label plot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plot. Show all posts
Saturday, 6 June 2015
Thursday, 27 February 2014
Cause And Effect
A bit of googling and I find that the classic line to illustrate plot is attributed to EM Forster:
The king died and then the queen died is a narrative.
The king died and then the queen died of grief is a plot.
It's about cause and effect. Actions leading to events which lead to further actions - at the end of which the people involved are changed in some way - be it physically or mentally. They fall in love, they solve the mystery, they realise that their values have changed, they reach some kind of understanding or enlightenment. All good stories - genre and literary fiction - follow this path in some way, whether the characters reach a literal or spiritual destiny.
Taking it a stage further - events need to be a direct result of a character's actions. How many times have you read stories where a character sits passively while things happen to him? Not very often, I expect. Character generates plot which in turn changes the character. It's why deus ex machina endings are so frustrating - God in the machine - where in classical literature, the Gods would walk onto the page and determine the ending. In modern fiction it's where the characters wake up and it's all been a dream. Or where the murderer is revealed to be somebody's twin brother that's never been mentioned in the story. As a reader you feel cheated and justifiably so. Events have to be connected - cause and effect.
In a short story, it's the difference - for me, anyway - between a story and a piece of prose. A piece of prose is words on a page or screen, in the right order. It may be beautifully written with wonderful imagery - but if it doesn't end, figuratively speaking, in a different place from where it started, it's not a story. There's no change, no growth, no enlightenment in the character or even reader. That's not to say there is anything wrong with pure prose - I just don't like seeing the two confused.
I find this really hard sometimes. I'll be writing a scene and I'll suddenly realise that everything is happening around my character and he has no direct influence on any of it. With the nature of the stuff that I write, it's quite common, and yet the good guys have to escape/outwit the bad guys by virtue of something they themselves initiate. Otherwise what was the point? Calling in the cavalry is the easy option.
And while I don't always have happy endings, I do try to make them satisfying within the context of the story. But never walking off hand in hand into the sunset!
The king died and then the queen died is a narrative.
The king died and then the queen died of grief is a plot.
It's about cause and effect. Actions leading to events which lead to further actions - at the end of which the people involved are changed in some way - be it physically or mentally. They fall in love, they solve the mystery, they realise that their values have changed, they reach some kind of understanding or enlightenment. All good stories - genre and literary fiction - follow this path in some way, whether the characters reach a literal or spiritual destiny.
Taking it a stage further - events need to be a direct result of a character's actions. How many times have you read stories where a character sits passively while things happen to him? Not very often, I expect. Character generates plot which in turn changes the character. It's why deus ex machina endings are so frustrating - God in the machine - where in classical literature, the Gods would walk onto the page and determine the ending. In modern fiction it's where the characters wake up and it's all been a dream. Or where the murderer is revealed to be somebody's twin brother that's never been mentioned in the story. As a reader you feel cheated and justifiably so. Events have to be connected - cause and effect.
In a short story, it's the difference - for me, anyway - between a story and a piece of prose. A piece of prose is words on a page or screen, in the right order. It may be beautifully written with wonderful imagery - but if it doesn't end, figuratively speaking, in a different place from where it started, it's not a story. There's no change, no growth, no enlightenment in the character or even reader. That's not to say there is anything wrong with pure prose - I just don't like seeing the two confused.
I find this really hard sometimes. I'll be writing a scene and I'll suddenly realise that everything is happening around my character and he has no direct influence on any of it. With the nature of the stuff that I write, it's quite common, and yet the good guys have to escape/outwit the bad guys by virtue of something they themselves initiate. Otherwise what was the point? Calling in the cavalry is the easy option.
And while I don't always have happy endings, I do try to make them satisfying within the context of the story. But never walking off hand in hand into the sunset!
Sunday, 18 August 2013
Lightbulbs and Photography
As I wrote on facebook recently, the really, utterly, amazing thing about seat-of-your-pants writing (as in having no idea where you are going until you get there), is that every now and again your character says or does something that explains their entire backstory.
There I was, minding my own business, writing a conversation between a major character and a character who started off with a relatively small part to play, but is becoming more important (because he's a bad boy, but so damned cute and I secretly fancy him). And suddenly ... wham! ... lightbulb moment. There's a look that passes between two people and I know his entire history in that moment. And it explains everything and gives me a way forward for this particular plot-strand.
Sometimes my subconscious is so awesome that I want to kiss it! It sets me up, makes me write things that make no sense at the time and it won't let me delete them. And it's not until ten, twenty, fifty thousands words later that things fall into place and I understand the why of it.
And photography - that's the local paper, which sent a photographer out to my house yesterday. My local paper is doing an article on me, so heaven knows what will come out of that. No hiding away now, is there?
There I was, minding my own business, writing a conversation between a major character and a character who started off with a relatively small part to play, but is becoming more important (because he's a bad boy, but so damned cute and I secretly fancy him). And suddenly ... wham! ... lightbulb moment. There's a look that passes between two people and I know his entire history in that moment. And it explains everything and gives me a way forward for this particular plot-strand.
Sometimes my subconscious is so awesome that I want to kiss it! It sets me up, makes me write things that make no sense at the time and it won't let me delete them. And it's not until ten, twenty, fifty thousands words later that things fall into place and I understand the why of it.
And photography - that's the local paper, which sent a photographer out to my house yesterday. My local paper is doing an article on me, so heaven knows what will come out of that. No hiding away now, is there?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)