desire

Of Vipassana, Abandoned Dreams, and “The Map of True Places” …

I ended my last blog asking readers, “Are you a Tiger Mom? Cheetah Mom? A fierce feline mother of great prowess? If so, what is your story?
What hopes and dreams do you hold for your daughters and/or sons?
What are your passions?
Are and if so, how are you living them out?”

On reading the last three questions I realized that I had segued into new territory.

The hopes and dreams we hold for our children lie

Of Vipassana, Abandoned Dreams, and “The Map of True Places” … Read More »

Of Queens, Personalities, Wishes and Desires…

In chess, the Queen stands to the right of the King. Her major job is that of protecting the King. The dilemma of preventing the King’s capture rests upon the Queen’s head.

As such the Queen’s movements are central to winning the game of chess.

Establishing the major dilemma or problem in a story is essential to crafting fiction. The central problem inherently creates desire. And desire begets a series of actions that through cause-and-effect propel the narrative line–the plot.

Plot-driven stories answer the “What if?” question thereby directly conveying plot. Character-driven stories answer the questions, “Who? and Why now?”

From the personality of the of the central character rises an internal dilemma that determines behavior and reveals through a set of circumstances, often usual and common place, but no less bothersome and terrifying, a shift in way of behaving and perceiving the world.

This change or transformation emerges through a series of reactions and actions, again cause-and-effect set into motion by the protagonist’s personality, not so much the series of action themselves.

In this way the character-driven plot resembles that of the Queen’s aim and motive throughout chess. Perhaps this is why chess has been said to be the game of monarchs and aristocrats.

Of Queens, Personalities, Wishes and Desires… Read More »

Of Spirals, Parking Garages, and Points of Entry and Identification…

The road that led your protagonist away at the opening of your novel or story brings her or him home again during the final stage, but at a new level of awareness.

And since time has moved forward, while the central character has been gone, we could entitle the journey, Back to the Future and Home Again.

The central character of the story has traveled in a spiral, moving both vertically and horizontally.

They have broadened their perspective. This encompasses the circular motion of the spiral. Read the rest of this entry…

Of Spirals, Parking Garages, and Points of Entry and Identification… Read More »

Of Spirals, Parking Garages, and Points of Entry and Identification…

The road that took the protagonist away, during the final stage of the novel, brings her or him home again, but at a new level of awareness.

And since time has moved forward, while the central character has been gone, we could entitle the journey, Back to the Future and Home Again.

The central character of the story has traveled in a spiral, moving both vertically and horizontally.

They have broadened their perspective. This encompasses the circular motion of the spiral.

Of Spirals, Parking Garages, and Points of Entry and Identification… Read More »

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 or novel we exit the comfort zone of what we have accomplished, and depart once more into that land of yearning and desire.

Of Borderlands, Willingness and Shifts in Consciousness… Read More »