July 4, 2011

Freytag’s “Technique of the Drama” — Chapter I, Part 2 now available.


Image by Gabor [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons
Gustav Freytag.

Chapter I, Part 2 of Gustav Freytag’s Technique of the Drama is now available on the Technique of Drama page.

This section covers the following topics on playwriting and stage drama: What is Dramatic? — Explanation. Effects. Characters. The action. The dramatic life of the characters. Entrance of the dramatic into the life of men. Rareness of dramatic power.

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July 3, 2011

Freytag’s “Technique of the Drama” — Chapter I, Part 1 now available.


Image by Gabor [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons
Gustav Freytag.

Chapter I, Part 1 of Gustav Freytag’s Technique of the Drama is now available on the Technique of Drama page.

This section covers the following topics on playwriting and stage drama: How the drama originates in the mind of the poet. Development of the idea. Material and its transformation. The historian and the poet. The range of material. Transformation of the real, according to Aristotle.

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Freytag’s “Technique of the Drama” — Biographical Note & Introduction now available.


Image by Gabor [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons
Gustav Freytag.

The Biographical Note and the Introduction to Gustav Freytag’s Technique of the Drama are now available on the Technique of Drama page.

The Biographical Note discusses Freytag’s schooling and works. The Introduction covers the following topics on playwriting and stage drama: Technique of the drama not absolute. Certain craftsman’s skill of earlier times. Condition of present time. Aristotle’s Poetics. Lessing. The great dramatic works as models.

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May 13, 2011

Themes Aren’t Just For Blog Design

Filed under: A Writing Journal,Writing,Writing Tools — Tags: , , — Brian Triber @ 6:35 pm

Image ©2011 Brian Triber.
Central conflict, character traits, setting, theme: which comes first?

I recently got caught up in a rut. It was one of those ruts that seemed to double-back upon itself until I wasn’t just running in circles — I was corkscrewing myself into the abyss. The subject of this exercise in double-thinking self-annoyance was theme.

Before launching into an explanation, let me state that what I’m putting forth is my experience. All writers have varying approaches that work for them, but won’t work for others. So, milage on this road may vary. Having said that, allow me to explain how theme sent me down the rabbit hole.

This is the kind of thing that most everyone has learned about in English class, that theme is the backbone of story, that plot is written around it. But somewhere along the line I was misled. I had been taught that character came first (something I still don’t necessarily believe), and that plot came from the process of character discovery, and theme was a byproduct that was identified after the fact. After the first draft, identifying the theme was key for the rewrite to determine how to tweak the story to reinforce the theme.

Now, though, I’m not so sure. I’m finding that theme may be key to writing the first draft. My best ideas tend to come to me plot-first. Many writers will say that’s putting the cart before the horses, but having been weaned on science fiction, it’s nearly impossible to develop a compelling plot line from character when you’re trying to describe a vision of the future, or some unknown technology that suggests a particular conflict. That’s why much classic Sci-Fi tends to be societal and philosophical in nature with, it can be argued, fairly flat characterization.

My answer to that is what some might call “shoehorning” characters into a plot. I don’t consider it shoehorning, however. The key to how my characters work is that I don’t begin writing the story until I’ve had a chance to develop the characters into full emotional and motivational beings. The question is, what kind of character works in a given plot? Whatever character I develop has to have a main character trait that illuminates the central conflict of the plot. If I’m working on a plot about a long space journey, I’ll want to consider giving my main character claustrophobia. For a story that originates on a dairy farm, the main character should have lactose intolerance or a dairy allergy — assuming that the central conflict is about the farm.

It seems to me, however, that theme has to come first. In developing a story, a related theme should be found to encapsulate the central conflict. So, for instance, if my story had to do with time travel, and my protagonist’s main motivation was to prevent an event from occurring, a theme to match this well would be “we are amalgams of our past experience.” Now, the character can be further developed to focus on the theme: a man returns to the past to stop his childhood self from quitting the school band, because in the future he would be able to woo a desired spouse through music.

Now the theme is in place, the central conflict, the main personality trait of the protagonist has been discovered, and the plot begins to unfold. Setting is the missing piece, and that becomes effortless now that we know the story has to do with amalgams of past experience, so the central conflict, being internal, can occur in the instrument storage room among ancient dusty cases and shelves of sheet music for the characters to reflect upon.

So, I’ve managed to emerge from this rabbit-hole with a little more direction. I have the theme for my current project, the central conflict to reinforce it, and the plot to support it. The characters are sketched out, and can now be filled out a bit more, with motivation and internal conflict that mirror and echo the theme. Now, if I can figure out what font to use…

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February 11, 2011

Web References for the Writing Life

Filed under: Writing,Writing Tools — Tags: , , — Brian Triber @ 12:00 pm

The following is a running compilation of other blogs’ articles focusing on the art, craft, and business of writing that I’ve found helpful. It is primarily for my own reference. As such, article links may change without notice, but I wanted to make it available to anyone else who might find it useful. Wherever possible, I’ve provided links and citations. If you find an incorrect or dropped link, please contact me about the problem, and I’ll fix it. I hope this list of links will be as useful to you as it has been to me.

    

Craft



Jennifer Blanchard,
writer, magazine editor, creativity coach, and blogger atProcrastinating Writers.
4 Tools To Help You Manage Your Writing Time Better
Some great tools and tips to help determine where all your time is going, and how to carve enough writing time into your schedule. The article is posted at the Better Writing Habits blog.

Jodi Cleghorn,
writer, speaker, and blogger atWriting with Passionate Abandon.
Favourite posts: Writing Sex Scenes
What goes into a sex scene? And what should be left out? This posting by Aussie writer Jodi Cleghorn for the blogzine Write Anything discusses the top 5 mistakes in writing sex scenes, and gives an exercise on how to write more convincing sex scenes.

Teresa Frohock
,
author of the upcoming (July 2011) Misere: An Autumn Tale, who also blogs here.
Urgency Versus Action in Your Writing
What’s the best way to open a story? Should it begin in media res? Or does that always really work? Teresa Frohock suggests that as long as a sense of urgency is created, action isn’t always needed.

    

Plotting



Kristen Lamb,< br/>
freelance editor, speaker, and now author, bogging at WarriorWriters.
Structure Part 8 — Balancing the Scenes That Make Up Your Novel
This is the eighth installment in a series by Kristen covering plot structure. This one specifically addresses the internal dramatic structure of a chapter.

Larry Brooks,
former Texas Rangers pitcher, scriptwriter, novelist, and blogger at storyfix.com.
The Single Most Powerful Writing Tool You’ll Ever See That Fits On One Page
A beautifully thought out checklist for writing a novel. It prompts the writer to fully consider four of what Brooks calls, the “Six Core Competencies” of novel writing: concept, theme, character and structure.

    

Drafting



Suzannah Freeman,
former teacher, writer, blogger, creator of Write It Sideways, and guest blogger at Better Writing Habits.
Forget These 7 Things for First Draft Freedom
A great short list of things to avoid when drafting a manuscript. These should be printed out and hung next to the computer screen as a reminder not to get bogged down in those details that can derail a draft.

    

Revision




Colleen Coble
,
author of nearly 40 books, including the Mercy Falls series, and guest blogger at Rachelle Gardner’s Rants & Ramblings blog.
The Joy of Revisions
A light-hearted checklist of how to approach the highly anticipated, yet much dreaded revision letter.



Rebecca Rasmussen
,
author of The Bird Sisters, and guest blogger at the Writer Unboxed blog.
Explain, Exemplify. Translation: Cut It Out!
Rebecca shares her experience with making 100 pages of cuts to her manuscript, by sweeping away redundancies in her prose.

    

Marketing



Tony Eldridge,
creator of Marketing Tips for Authors.
5 Tips In Responding to Criticism
These tips are good for dealing with any criticism in general, but the article is geared toward writers and their work.

Rachelle Gardner,
agent, and blogger at Rants & Ramblings On Life as a Literary Agent.
Marketing Your Self and Your Book
Things to plan for when building a marketing platform for a project, and for a career in writing, as viewed from the business side from the industry.


Penny Sansevieri
,
writer and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
How Long Is Too Long To Market A Book?
Great advice on redirecting book marketing focus, particularly applicable to non-fiction, but great pointers for fiction writers as well.
    
8 Secrets for Getting into Bookstores
A really thoughtful strategy for connecting with the reader through brick and mortar shops, although the article oddly only contains 7 secrets…



Dana Lynn Smith
,
author of the Savvy Book Marketing Guides, marketer, and blogger at The Savvy Book Marketer.
How To Write a Back Blurb For Your Book
A useful quick-reference with dos and don’ts of what to include in your blurb, plus a great sample jacket copy.

    

Life



former Texas Rangers pitcher, scriptwriter, novelist, and blogger at storyfix.com.
Writers: Give the Gift of “Getting Off the Dime”
How do you respond to someone who says to you, “Oh, I’m thinking of writing a book too…”?
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May 3, 2010

Development of FileMaker-Based Writing Tools

Filed under: Writing,Writing Tools — admin @ 2:25 pm

Having recently purchased the new copy of FileMaker Pro 10 (actually one version older than the newest since I’m still running on OS 10.4…), I’ve now converted the old tools to FileMaker databases. One of the things that’s made this much easier is that instead of requiring separate files for relational database, FileMaker now contains multiple tables in the same file (which it didn’t as of version 5 — the last one I owned).

So, I’ve got two tools I’m developing. The first is a plot-card style system that uses Vogel’s Writer’s Journey, and Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to track where the holes in the plot are. It also allows me to quickly change scene order, insert new scenes, and delete scenes without losing them.

The second is a character database that helps track the full array of character information from multiple sources. More on this at a late time, though. It’s time to get to work…

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