tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17171183.post2462382609311488752..comments2023-05-18T08:10:32.755+00:00Comments on Wondering Mind: I didn’t really know Virtue Evelyn Donahue at all until...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17171183.post-41473980084197288142010-08-13T12:11:18.188+00:002010-08-13T12:11:18.188+00:00That's quite some list my friend!
And therein ...That's quite some list my friend!<br />And therein lies my fear.<br />It's so very easy to find oneself lost amongst ten million techniques and guidelines.<br /><br />I've almost finished re-reading my library of 'how to' books. I wanted a condensed refresher course. For the first time, I understand everything in McKee's Story and, more than that, recognise that I've absorbed his wisdom. Goodness knows there's a lot of stuff to take in.<br /><br />But I'm convinced that, if you can plot well, almost every woe dissipates.<br />I'm preparing my thoughts for a crit for Esy. My honest reaction to his new chapter was simply: good plotting, average wordsmithery.<br />In spite of all the chapter's shortcomings, I found myself glued to the page, wanting to find out what happened next.<br />If you can continually present scene questions that the reader desperately wants answers to; and if you can then confound their expectations and turn every scene question on its head, then it'll take some momentous clanger to kick them out of the narrative.<br /><br />There's not much tolerance for literary stuff in the market I write for. It's pure emotionally-charged plot, honed to the marrow. And you know what... such a discipline has made me a better writer. Certainly, I continue to learn just how much stuff really isn't necessary. In literary terms, many of the techniques we use can turn a good read into something of artistic merit, or importance even. But not a one of them is a substitute for those plot elements: creating desire, creating tension, holding back information, redefining all that has gone before in one swing of the axe.<br /><br />Fwiw, I never really understood Henry, and most of the time I didn't much like him. But Farewell to Arms is still my fave novel.<br />And didn't Hannibal Lecter seem like a jolly civilized fellow amongst all those corrupt and greedy and cultureless characters!solvhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06645505445874537021noreply@blogger.com