I had trouble making up my mind about The Rum Diary. It’s the first time I’ve read anything by Thompson. From the get go, we get the feeling that we are being thrust in with an insane group of people.
Most characters in the novel felt flat. Character development occurs through dialog and thought—the latter applying only to Paul Kemp, the first person narrator.
If you’ve paid attention to world news, you may have learned of the death of Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez.
Journalist Rory Carroll was sent to the Venezuelan capital of Caracas to set up the Latin American bureau of The Guardian. In Comandante, Carroll does his best to provide a clear, unbiased picture of Chavez, saying: Here’s what was happening, here’s what he said he’d do; here’s what he did.
Wheels Within Wheels (1978) is the second novel published by F. Paul Wilson, and the second part of the LaNague series, as well as the winner of the first ever Prometheus Award in 1979.
“Wheels” is unlike Healer, Wilson’s first novel. Although it is the second book in the LaNague series, you will benefit from reading the books in the order they were written if you fancy solving a mystery.
F. Paul Wilson’s debut novel, Healer (1976) was recommended by my father, who read the book in his early twenties and claims to have read it twice or thrice per year for a period of five years hence.
I understand why.
I read it twice in less than six months and I’d be tempted to read it a third time this year.
Chapter 3 - Plot: A Question of Focus (Part 8).
In the post closing chapter 2, I said, “My wise mentor once told me that a plot should develop from the characters themselves.”
My professor this semester said that you usually have about 100+ pages of character background for the main characters in a short story. For a novel, it may be as much as 300+ (depending of course on how old the character is).
Although the numbers sound exaggerated, it makes sense once you see it work. So if you do only one exercise, it should be this one.
Chapter 3 - Plot: A Question of Focus (Part 7).
Note: This post doesn’t have an exercise, but it’s important information.
Novels and short stories have the same basic structure: Beginning, middle, end.
The difference lies in the space each of these is allotted.
In a short story, the beginning and the end take up the smallest parts of the story with maybe a few paragraphs given to each.
Chapter 3 - Plot: A Question of Focus (Part 6).
As with the previous posts, we continue to look at Peter S. Beagle’s “Gordon, the Self-made Cat” on this exercise.
The End of the story is just as important as the start and the middle. It’s where everything comes together.
In modern fiction, the end is usually the shortest part of the story, but it plays a very significant role because this is where everything comes together.
Three very important things need to happen here: Crisis, Climax, and Consequences.
Chapter 3 - Plot: A Question of Focus (Part 5).
Note: This post doesn’t have an exercise, but it’s important information.
In the previous post we talked about the start of a story and what it should accomplish. Once this is done, it’s time to start pushing the protagonist towards his or her goal.
We continue to use Peter S Beagle’s “Gordon, the Self-made Cat” as our exemplary text.
The Middle:
In practice, it is normal for the beginning and the middle to overlap. What you have to keep in mind is that they both accomplish different things.
Chapter 3 - Plot: A Question of Focus (Part 4).
Note: This post doesn’t have an exercise, but it’s important information.
In his Poetics, Aristotle gave us the basic structure for plot: Beginning, Middle, End.
Simple.
Doing it right is harder than it seems.
Gustav Freytag divided a story into five parts: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution. You’ve probably seen this model before.
We’ll be using Aristotle’s classic model. I mention Freytag because some people may prefer it. Regardless of which one you prefer, the concept is the same.
Chapter 3 - Plot: A Question of Focus (Part 3).
When you work hard for something, it makes success that much sweeter. No matter how much you hope that things just came easy, if you have to work for it, you place a higher value on it.
In fiction, you have to throw brick walls at the characters as they move towards their goal. The closer they get to the goal, the bigger the obstacles have to be.
There are two types of obstacles: External and Internal.
External obstacles are those that come from the world around the protagonist. Could be another character who tries to stop the protagonist from reaching his goal, or whose own goals interfere with that of the protagonist. External conflicts could also be the weather, money, a car being stolen, papers with information getting wet or burned.
