sageofthpalouse (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sageofthpalouse) wrote in vespican, |
I’m not a writer, so I post this with respect and trepidation, as a reader. Maybe this can speak indirectly to your concrete technical questions. I also apologize for the length. It's a hard question to answer briefly.
A case could be made that one important uber formula is along the lines of Campbell’s hero quest.
IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
There’s the quest, in the first two dozen words, but displaced from myth and in nuanced, ironic form (it is not a truth, though it may be “universally acknowledged” in somebody’s tiny little world, and just who, praytell, is the hero?). I might use examples like this to try to make my case that the formula is important and universally acknowledged whatever its role: to be stood on its head, parodied, or followed recognizably as in a straightahead quest story.
HAPPY for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters. With what delighted pride she afterwards visited Mrs. Bingley and talked of Mrs. Darcy may be guessed. I wish I could say, for the sake of her family, that the accomplishment of her earnest desire in the establishment of so many of her children, produced so happy an effect as to make her a sensible, amiable, well-informed woman for the rest of her life; though perhaps it was lucky for her husband, who might not have relished domestic felicity in so unusual a form, that she still was occasionally nervous and invariably silly.
The quest formula’s goal is recognition (catharsis). The story through its ups downs resistances and reversals needs to lead to an insight through truthtelling, or it risks wasting this lazy reader’s time.
As I understand it anyway that is the bare bones of many stories. Where the writing is going ... well, it’s the essential problem I think. That, and your readers’ attention span. Composer Phillip Glass was on PBS recently and he commented in an offhand way how scary that feeling of creative drift is and how with age he only has confidence that the "oh, that's where its going" insight will arrive eventually. Note: not confidence that he has the insight ready to show, like a card up his sleeve.
As a listener or reader I can share that anxiety! I want that insight to arrive too, and I dont waste too much time if I think it wont arrive – perhaps the author is unaware of the formula or abuses it recklessly and for no apparent reason. Or if the author works me too hard with flashbacks or leaving too much out (I’m lazy) and isnt famous enough to brag about reading. Also if the formula is too obvious or if the author follows it too mindlessly, I'll probably give up because I feel that kind of storytelling disrespects stories.
A case could be made that one important uber formula is along the lines of Campbell’s hero quest.
IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
There’s the quest, in the first two dozen words, but displaced from myth and in nuanced, ironic form (it is not a truth, though it may be “universally acknowledged” in somebody’s tiny little world, and just who, praytell, is the hero?). I might use examples like this to try to make my case that the formula is important and universally acknowledged whatever its role: to be stood on its head, parodied, or followed recognizably as in a straightahead quest story.
HAPPY for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters. With what delighted pride she afterwards visited Mrs. Bingley and talked of Mrs. Darcy may be guessed. I wish I could say, for the sake of her family, that the accomplishment of her earnest desire in the establishment of so many of her children, produced so happy an effect as to make her a sensible, amiable, well-informed woman for the rest of her life; though perhaps it was lucky for her husband, who might not have relished domestic felicity in so unusual a form, that she still was occasionally nervous and invariably silly.
The quest formula’s goal is recognition (catharsis). The story through its ups downs resistances and reversals needs to lead to an insight through truthtelling, or it risks wasting this lazy reader’s time.
As I understand it anyway that is the bare bones of many stories. Where the writing is going ... well, it’s the essential problem I think. That, and your readers’ attention span. Composer Phillip Glass was on PBS recently and he commented in an offhand way how scary that feeling of creative drift is and how with age he only has confidence that the "oh, that's where its going" insight will arrive eventually. Note: not confidence that he has the insight ready to show, like a card up his sleeve.
As a listener or reader I can share that anxiety! I want that insight to arrive too, and I dont waste too much time if I think it wont arrive – perhaps the author is unaware of the formula or abuses it recklessly and for no apparent reason. Or if the author works me too hard with flashbacks or leaving too much out (I’m lazy) and isnt famous enough to brag about reading. Also if the formula is too obvious or if the author follows it too mindlessly, I'll probably give up because I feel that kind of storytelling disrespects stories.
