According to plot guru, Martha Alderson, plot can be viewed as either a noun or verb. She states: “Plot as noun encompasses every element of a story. Plot as verb allows conscious development of those elements.”
I invite you to visit her blog, and to follow her on Twitter. Her daily Tweets are gems of gold.
Of Plot, Nouns and Verbs… Read More »
Revelations in a novel not only reveal character, but also ideally raise the stakes, up the ante, so-to-speak, which ultimately intensifies conflict.
The opening revelation and/or those of the first chapters of a novel establish the chaos that has befallen your protagonist, i.e. display the problem she or he is facing.
Disclosures during the middle of your story widen the deepen the borders of the problem, thereby expose more of your protagonist’s–personality, weakness and strengths, hopes and fears.
Of Turning Points, Disclosures and Amplifying Conflict… Read More »
When we think about time, we automatically link it with motion. The most constant things in human history have been the motions of the objects in the universe. So we first figured out how to measure time by figuring how long it took for the various astronomical motions in our solar system. If you move through space you are also moving through time.
Time is the 4th dimension in our universe.
–Dr. Charles Liu, Research Associate,
Department of Astrophysics,
American Museum of Natural History
Albert Einstein’s gift to the 20th century through his postulation of the Special Theory of Relativity was recognizing the existence of a 4th dimension in our universe.
This 4th dimension is our experience of time.
Human consciousness of time plays an important role in the crafting of story.
Time directly relates to plot regarding fiction.
And as plot is the backbone of story it can be said that time forms the frame and an essential dimension of story.
Of Time, Plot and Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity… Read More »
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 »
The protagonist’s decision to act constitutes a cornerstone moment in the life a novel.
It signifies the shift from the beginning or set-up of the novel to the middle characterized as a process of action and reaction, better known as cause-and-effect. Still others term this area of the novel, and quite aptly, causality-and-build.
Cause-and-effect emphasizes the action and reaction quality representative of midsection of novels, the heart and lungs of the story.
Causality-and-build by its very words points to the uphill movement of the story towards crisis and climax that involves story and character arc.
Of Cause and Effect, Twin Universes, and Sacrifice… Read More »
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 »
Traveling by ship, or cruising, starts with the point or process of embarkation, going onto the ship and finding our room. Your bags arrive soon after that. And within an hour or so the ship sets sail.
Unlike with an airplane, where matters move at a faster pac
Of Cruise Ships, Planes, Ocean and Sky… Read More »