Tuesday, September 30, 2014
The Sky Was Our Savior
I'm swapping the order of my posts this week. I shall post my literary criticism on Sunday. (Edit: I shall not post a literary criticism this week, because college applications.) Today I am providing a link to my entry in this week's Finish That Thought contest. "The Sky Was Our Savior" is a 467-word sci-fi story with a few humorous elements thrown in.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
The Spirit of the Typhoon
My latest flash fic, a fantasy story I entered in Vol 2-42 of the Flash! Friday contest: "The Spirit of the Typhoon."
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Character Development and Time Progression as Plot
I saw a production of the play Driving Miss Daisy today that taught me a new lesson in plot. Typically, specific events are the basis of plot. In the case of this play, the plot was fueled by character development and time progression instead.
Character development is important. It is essential to almost every story above a few thousand words. When a character changes, the flavor of the story changes. It might not be a change from chocolate to vanilla, if you will bear my analogy, but rather french vanilla to regular vanilla. If a story stays the same flavor for too long, readers are likely to check out. Tweak the flavor of the story enough and you can actually create movement of story. You can achieve plot with character development. Some short stories have exclusively character development fueled plots, to varying levels of success. It's very difficult for a story to have what I would consider an excellent plot without any sort of traditional plotting, unless character development is combined with time progression.
I read a lot of stories that take place over very short periods of time. Many quick, unique events earn the limelight for a few pages, each of which move the story forward just a little bit. This is a very common form of traditional plotting. It works. When you tell a story that takes place over a long period of time, however, the events tend to take the back seat. There are important plot elements sprinkled here and there, but many scenes don't matter much in the grand scheme of things, from a traditional plot perspective. If characters develop over the course of a bunch of these unremarkable scenes, what you get is a different sort of plot. You get the sense of progression that the concept of plot really boils down to without much plot in the traditional way.
Using time progression and character development in tandem does not sound easy to me. I like stories that take place over months, not decades. I'm not opposed to the Driving Miss Daisy type of plot though. If you can make it work as well as it did in the play, then you have nothing to worry about.
Character development is important. It is essential to almost every story above a few thousand words. When a character changes, the flavor of the story changes. It might not be a change from chocolate to vanilla, if you will bear my analogy, but rather french vanilla to regular vanilla. If a story stays the same flavor for too long, readers are likely to check out. Tweak the flavor of the story enough and you can actually create movement of story. You can achieve plot with character development. Some short stories have exclusively character development fueled plots, to varying levels of success. It's very difficult for a story to have what I would consider an excellent plot without any sort of traditional plotting, unless character development is combined with time progression.
I read a lot of stories that take place over very short periods of time. Many quick, unique events earn the limelight for a few pages, each of which move the story forward just a little bit. This is a very common form of traditional plotting. It works. When you tell a story that takes place over a long period of time, however, the events tend to take the back seat. There are important plot elements sprinkled here and there, but many scenes don't matter much in the grand scheme of things, from a traditional plot perspective. If characters develop over the course of a bunch of these unremarkable scenes, what you get is a different sort of plot. You get the sense of progression that the concept of plot really boils down to without much plot in the traditional way.
Using time progression and character development in tandem does not sound easy to me. I like stories that take place over months, not decades. I'm not opposed to the Driving Miss Daisy type of plot though. If you can make it work as well as it did in the play, then you have nothing to worry about.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
A Review Through a Different Medium
Two weeks ago I did an in-depth review of the story "Trials of Teeth and Fire" by Amanda C. Davis, which will be going up for sale (in an ebook including a bonus story titled "Lure") tomorrow. I just now got an opportunity to write a much more condensed review, covering the entire ebook, for goodreads. You can read it over there.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
White, Rubbery Dragoon Uniform
A sci-fi flash fic (158 words) I wrote for Vol 2-38 of Flash! Friday: "White, Rubbery Dragoon Uniform."
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