Of Mars in Cancer, Courts of Change, and Travels…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
Every story is like a court case wherein we, the author, like an attorney, tries a case of our protagonist.
Who is on trial?
Is your protagonist the defendant or the plaintiff seeking judgment and damages for a wrong committed upon her or him?
If she or his had been wronged then what was the crime and the injury inflicted?
Who committed the injustice?
What cries out for change?
Is this injustice still occurring at the outset of the novel?
If so what does the central character need to accomplish to stop the wrongful act?
The story we craft becomes our protagonist’s quest, their journey to achieve justice and survival, a tale of change and transformation.
Tags: attorney, authentic self, author, cancer, change, character, court, defendant, deity, essau. soul, fiction, heart, home, injury, injustice, King, map, Mars, mask, mind, monarch, odyssey, plaintiff, protagonist, Queen, Toni Morrison, transformation, transubstantiate, travels, trial, writer, writing
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.
Tags: action, aim, aristocrat, cause-and-effect, character-driven, chess, chessboard, desire, dilemma, goal, intent, monarch, motive, narrative line, persona, personality, plot, plot-driven, power, protagonist, Queen, thought, transformation, wealth, writing
Of Towers, Castles and the Battles Writers Wage…
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
The Rook, Tower or Castle in the game of chess speaks to boundaries.
Towers and Castles of the medieval era served not simply as homes, but also places of protection, that place to which rulers, those of their court, and the soldiers guarding them retreated and from which they waged battle.
The Tower provided a place from which the sentry or guardsmen could look out and view those coming to do battle or offend–those who sought to defeat the monarch and occupy her or his home.
Each time we set out to write a story or novel, we wage a war.
Tags: battle, blessing despair, boundaries, castle, chess, defeat, doubt, external, fear, grace, guardsmen, home, internal, monarch, novel, protection, Rook, sentry, story, tower, unconscious, war, writing writers
Yearning for Change
Posted by Anjuelle Floyd | Filed under Articles and Essays
The Trickster archetype wants change. The character who carries this role operates like a court jester. Seen as a fool whose words were spoken in jest, the court jester of medieval times addressed taboo and controversial issues, topics about which common citizens, lacking freedom of speech would and could not dare speak.
Tags: archetype, character, comedian, comedienne, consciousness, court jester, humor, monarch, protagonist, taboo, Trickster
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