Category: Writing Reference

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…

W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Choosing people:  he chooses people that have differing personalities so that conflict exists in their relationship Organizing chapters: alternate between fast moving and slow moving chapters.  For quicker pace, use shorter paragraphs. Advertising vs Foreshadowing:  Advertising promises a future event, foreshadowing simply hints at it. EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS Text wasn’t helpful about…

KNUT HAMSUN Multi-timezone technique: He travels through time in the character’s mind using italics and other devices to show the person’s multiple time references to a given scene. For example, in American Wilderness, you could have Gus go back through time periods when he goes by the bridge where little George fell. EDITH WHARTON Epiphanies:…

  BALZAC Emotional tags: “His bitter thoughts were dispersed by the pleasure that he looked forward to in  dining at the countess.” -tags should be used to describe emotion, and the stronger the emotion the stronger the tag should be.  “He wept with happiness . . . ” -tags should be used when the pace…

P 110 DH Lawrence and using sexualized language when the narrative moves in tight, like ‘oh, yes, oh, soft, I,’ My own twist is to take it in tight to the 1st person, I, just at like the moment of coming Write ‘blueballs,’ where the guy wants to get laid so bad his balls turned…