Presently I am reading Anuradha Roy’s novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing .
As with any good novel, interactions between the main characters are strained.
Tension abounds, but not in a melodramatic way.
The story moves with a nice speed for an opening.
I look forward each evening–a hallmark that I have found a jewel of a novel–to settling into bed,
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The Queen, in that she is the most powerful player and closest to the King, along with the one Bishop stands as the protagonist.
Her goal is clear. In that the story hinges on the King’s protection from capture would then seem to not only serve as motive, but also plot.
Where the greatest hope of survival dwells also lives the most sincere vulnerability.
Lose the King and lose the game.
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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.
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Reaching that point where the protagonist has made the change, we, as writers feel differently.
We see the world of our novel from another level.
Ideally we come to hold those dimensions of personality regarding our central character(s) come in greater clarity and understanding.
And yet this is also a place where we can get to know ourselves better as individuals, not simply as persons who write.
Of Clarity and Understanding, Guide and Map, Epiphany and Plot… Read More »