hummingbird
regards me briefly
through the window
Pen to Paper: Conflict
In his Worlds of Wonder, David Gerrold reminds us that a story is about a problem.
First, it’s about the details of resistance; then it’s about the details of acceptance, discovery and interaction; and finally, it’s about the details of resolution. So storytelling is about creating interesting problems – looking to see why they are problems, looking to see why the hero has made this a problem, looking to see what the hero has to give up, and finally what the hero has to become to resolve the problem.
J. Timothy King has written, “Conflict is the engine that drives a story forward. And not just any conflict, but relevant, meaningful conflict that matters to the protagonist and to the reader.” Further, “Conflict is a perception by the reader that compelling change has occurred and will occur.” (Bold face is King’s.) And Holly Lisle tells us, “Conflict is, simply put, change. Anytime something changes, it creates ripples that will be good for some people, bad for others.”
Here are three essays that highlight the various forms of conflict and how to make use of them in your stories.
* Laura Backes: For Successful Fiction, Add Conflict – Twice. Backes is primarily writing about books for youngsters, but the advice carries over into all other fiction.
* Susan Vaughan: Conflict. Don’t let the snappy title (which I also used) fool you: she offers valuable insight into external and internal conflicts.
* Chuck Wendig: 25 Ways to Fuck with Your Characters (or, ‘Building Conflict One Cruelty at a Time’). The title will give you the merest hint about the sort of language you’ll find here. I’m easy with that, but I do want to caution my more sensitive readers. Wendig has a great list of tried and true ways to put conflict into your story. It would be easy enough to write 25 stories working your way down the list and then starting over.
Fiction: Bad Boy
Dirk leaned back on the couch, looking up at the angry woman and the four men she had brought home with her.
She sure knows some losers. Not one of ’em is tough enough to be water boy for the chess team. But he was outnumbered, and the tall, young blond man with the button-down collar and the white-knuckle grip on the baseball bat looked angrier than Beth did. He’s in love with her. Poor kid.
“Something you wanted to tell me, Sweetheart?”
Beth smouldered. “Get the hell out of my apartment and get the hell out of my life.”
“And these gentlemen are the moving company?”
“We are if you’re not out of here in two minutes,” the baseball bat kid growled.
Dirk decided he meant it. The guy had never been in a fight in his life, but anyone that tightly wound wouldn’t stop once he got started. It’d take a shampooer to get all of me out of the carpet.
Quotable 63
If some people read my fiction and see it as fundamentally about philosophical ideas, what it probably means is that these are pieces where the characters are not as alive and interesting as I meant them to be.
– David Foster Wallace
haiku 174
withered sunflower
turns its face
to the blacktop
Pen to Paper: The British Hate American English
BBC journalist Matthew Engel has written about how American words and phrases continue to pour into British common usage. Some intrusions he doesn’t mind; others, though, are fighting words, such as hospitalize and outage.
Engel invites his readers to comment. Sometimes, a British friend sticks up for us, as the one who reminds us that “oftentimes” was used by Banquo in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Others note that British English has its own ugly words and turns of phrase. And some say that much from the list is not strictly or even necessarily American usage; some is, in fact, old British use or even just bad grammar common to both countries (or, perhaps, it’s Business English, a mess unto itself).
The only British usage that I can recall making any sort of foothold here recently is snogging (kissing), which came from the Harry Potter books. It’s a terribly unlovely word, and I’m glad it seems to have largely disappeared again.
It’s all quite entertaining and points to the frequent observation that the United States and Great Britain are separated by a common language. It should serve, too, as a reminder that any collection of sounds can stand for any real-world object or occurrence so long as there’s agreement on it. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Where would any good English be without Shakespeare?
Author’s Note: Running on Empty
It’s been a busy week: writing here, editing there, thinking deeply about this and that. I have written a story for this week; I just haven’t convinced myself to inflict it upon you for the sake of meeting my deadline. The situation and the characters are interesting, but nothing really happens.
I’ll try to have something wonderful next week. Meanwhile, click on fiction in the Categories list to the right and see what strikes your fancy. Any story you haven’t read is a new one.
Quotable 62
Universal human experiences are a foundation of highly successful fantasy, mystery, historical, literary, women’s and romance fiction. Even literature’s most distinctive protagonists may seem like no others, but in fact what they go through resonates with us all.
– Donald Maass
haiku 173
just enough breeze
sprayer plane’s poison
wafts inside
Pen to Paper: Potpourri
I know this looks awfully lazy, but there have been a number of interesting things I’ve found in the past couple of weeks that I want to share with you. Thus, a links post. Enjoy.
* The five most stolen books.
* Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary turns 100.
* The New York Times’s Bill Keller says, “Let’s Ban Books, Or at Least Stop Writing Them.”
* Kurt Vonnegut explains drama. I’m guessing he was qualified to do so.
* Everything you need to know about undressing a Victorian woman.
* Interview with Ira Glass. He talks about his career, creativity, and being wrong.
* Steve Pavlina tells us how to make brown rice. It has nothing to do with writing, but it’s foolproof (so sworn because it works for me). As for what he does once the rice is cooked, I have no comment.