Intent | Anjuelle Floyd

Of Queens, Personalities, Wishes and Desires…

Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays

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.

Thrity Umrigar and the Timeless Tapestries of Her Stories

Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays

I discovered Thrity Umrigar last year when I read “The Space Between Us“. It’s a wonderful novel about what the title states, the space between us, us being a well-educated Parsi mother and widow Sera Dubash, and her poor, illiterate housekeeper, Bhima.

Dialogue: More than Conversing

Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays

Dialogue has to show not only something about the speaker that is its own revelation, but also maybe something about the speaker that he doesn’t know but the other character does know. –Eudora Welty Good dialogue accomplishes 4 things in fiction: reveals and develops character delivers backstory drives Plot directs pace But there are more [...]