Author: Bryan Kemler

Most books have a feeble ending. This is because the plot ends the book, not the characters.  Most books end either with death or marriage. The novel typically goes off in the end. The characters go dead. This is a primary technical problem of the novel. It reminds me of the end of Steinbeck, Grapes…

A story is a narrative of events arranged in their time sequence. A story is defined by,” and then, and then, and then.”  The king died and then the queen died. That is a story. The king died, and then the queen died of grief. That is the plot. The plot maintains the time sequence…

The specialty of the novel is that the writer can talk about his characters as well as through them or can arrange for us to listen when they talk to themselves. He has access to self-communings, and from that level he can descend even deeper and peer into the subconscious.  

The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising and a convincing way. If it never surprises, it is flat. If it does not convince, it is a flat pretending to be around. Round has the incalculability of life about it.

The scenes in Tolstoy are constantly moving around the characters.  He reminds us of the movement in the scene by having moving parts impose themselves upon the characters.  Here, the child Grisha crawls into the dialogue and tugs on her aunt’s hair: AK, p.74 : Dialogue: Kitty to Anna: Re: attendance at ball “I’ll be…