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Story Structure: The Plan
In life we frequently fly by the seat of our pants. In fact, that may be the default. Plans are illusory. But precisely because life is so unstable and subject to change, characters in stories do need a plan. Even passive character types need to be actively passive. Initial plans will most likely change. There’s […]
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Story Structure: Character Desire
Kurt Vonnegut famously advised writers: Characters must want something, even if it’s just a glass of water.
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My Summer Of Love Film Study
My Summer Of Love is a 2004 film based on a novel by Helen Cross set in 1984. If you’ve seen Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (1994), My Summer Of Love bears similarities: A relationship of romantic infatuation between two teenage girls from very different backgrounds. This film puts the relationship between the girls to the forefront, […]
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What are character flaws in fiction writing?
Most writers are well-aware that a main character needs a shortcoming. Christopher Vogler and other high profile story gurus often talk about a lack: It can be very effective to show that a hero is unable to perform some simple task at the beginning of the story. In Ordinary People the young hero Conrad is […]
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How To Write Mystery
The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer. Ken Kesey The perfect detective story cannot be written. The type of mind which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can produce the artistic job of writing. Raymond Chandler Mystery is the secret spice of all compelling […]
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Story Structure: The Big Struggle
All complete narratives feature a big struggle scene. No, that doesn’t have to be a literal big struggle scene, Lord of the Rings style. In fact, we should be thinking outside that box altogether. One thing I love about Larry McMurtry’s anti-Western novels (especially Lonesome Dove) is that he condenses the gun big struggles and torture scenes in favour […]
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Pygmalion In Modern Stories And Literature
Pygmalion was a sculptor who falls in love with an ivory statue he had carved. The most famous story about him is the narrative poem Metamorphoses by Ovid. (Pygmalion can be found in book ten.) In this poem Aphrodite turns the statue into a real woman for him. In some versions they have a son, […]
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New Zealand As Depicted In Fiction
How is your country generally depicted in fiction, by writers outside your country? New Zealand in fiction, not surprisingly, is the stock country for ‘a place really, really far away.’
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Dog Days by Jeff Kinney Middle Grade Novel Analysis
Some have said that the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books have no plot, including Jeff Kinney himself. Is this really true? If so, the perennially popular Wimpy Kid series defies a ‘law’ of storytelling — a first of its kind. Yesterday I read another book from the Wimpy Kid series and decided Dog Days […]
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A Brief Taxonomy Of Book Titles
When writing a story, sometimes titles come easily, other times hard. This is something the self-published author has to think about. Traditionally published authors don’t need to get invested in the title. Marketing departments will decide for you. Here’s a secret: many, many, many titles are changed once a publisher gets hold of them. In […]
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Things To Know About Miyazaki Films
1. MIYAZAKI’S FILMS FEATURE A TECHNIQUE CALLED ‘PILLOW SHOTS’ A “pillow shot” is a cutaway, for no obvious narrative reason, to a visual element, often a landscape or an empty room, that is held for a significant time (five or six seconds). It can be at the start of a scene or during a scene. Dangerous Minds […]
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Secrets, Liars and Lies In Storytelling
Liars are everywhere in stories. Stories themselves can be considered giant lies (which tell a deeper truth). The trope of the mask is a part of all this. Certain genres demand a ‘mask’, or, lying. That’s because entire genres are about finding out the truth: The cinema cannot show the truth, or reveal it, because […]
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Annie Proulx’s “Pair A Spurs” Analysis
“Pair a Spurs” is a short story by American author Annie Proulx, published in the collection Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories. SETTING “Pair A Spurs” by Annie Proulx is set on a couple of Wyoming Ranches in the late 1990s SURROUNDING CULTURE Rather than open with landscape, sky-scape and weather, this time Annie Proulx opens […]
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The Blood Bay by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
At around the same time Annie Proulx published “The Blood Bay”, an episode of Six Feet Under saw Claire in big trouble for stealing a severed foot from her family’s funeral business and taking it with her to school. That episode, like this story, was darkly funny and made use of someone’s severed foot. It […]