Category: dramatic conflict

Subtext and the Biological Code

Posted by | , , , , , , | 1 |

Subtext in a Scene—Biology and the Three Goods  ©2013 by Robert J Ray             Subtext is one key to a good story. Subtext is that unseen turmoil boiling under the surface of your tale. To create subtext, you can use the ritual of sexual selection, your character’s choice of a date or a mate. To create drama in the selection ritual, we focus on two characters, one female and one male. To get drama, we deploy the three goods: good genes, good resources, and good behavior. Three Examples of the Three Goods             The guests are 30-something, educated, attractive, a mixture of singles, marrieds, and divorced persons. The male is Claude, the female is named Eileen. Claude is handsome. He’s sporting a Rolex and driving a Mercedes. Eileen is attractive. She has no car; she came to the party with a friend. Claude is witty. He tells a good story. Eileen is reserved, formal. She’s attracted to Claude. Her secret in this scene is her borrowed wardrobe. She loves good clothes. Two days before the party, Eileen was laid off. One week before the party, she broke off a relationship. She is polite, well-mannered, a lady. What’s going on in the subtext? To find out, we decode the details. Handsome is code for good genes. Mercedes and Rolex code for good resources. Claude has two goods out of a...

Read More

Flashbacks and Point of View

Posted by | , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 |

Flashbacks and Point of View ©2013 by Robert J. Ray Flashbacks  and POV in The English Patient The English Patient has a zigzag structure that slides between past and present, between desert and Villa, between the Thirties in Africa and 1944 in Italy. Unlike All the King’s Men, which is told by a single narrator, The English Patient has four points of view, one for each of Ondaatje’s four protagonists: Nurse, Patient, Thief, and Sapper. The book  opens in the Nurse’s point of view. The year is 1944. The place is Italy. As the Nurse climbs steep steps to tend the Patient, the writer uses the image of a bird drifting down to set up his flashback structure: “There are stories the man recites quietly into the room which slip from level to level like a hawk.” The image of the hawk informs the reader about the zigzag structure of time-slippage that defines this book. On the third page of the novel, the point of view shifts to the Patient – “I fell burning into the desert.” – and the trap door opens, dropping us into the African desert in wartime, when the Allies fought the Axis over oil. This time-dance between past and present, between Patient and Nurse, continues throughout Chapter One. In Chapter Two, the Thief takes over the point-of-view, then alternates with the Nurse and the...

Read More

Who Do You Listen To?

Posted by | , , , , , , , , , , | 4 |

Who Do You Listen To? After I came across a very brave and unique novel titled: Taliban Escape by Aabra  which was reviewed in The Dark Phantom Review, I remembered an exchange I had with a fellow writer and former student. I want to post it here for anyone visiting this blog as a reminder of why we write: Writer: I’m trying hard to maintain the last bit of writing advice you provided, “write what you want, the way you want.” That’s hard, especially with two friends criticizing it. Right now, if I take them seriously, I need to go back and almost start over with my work-in-progress.” JR: Yes, that’s a tough one. One short answer is to listen but choose what to change if anything. The way I see it, we have this ideal story in our heads. It’s endless, but when you write, the readers plug in what you write and if it doesn’t connect somewhere to the universal story, they get this disjunction and their pencils move. What that gives us then is the issue of who’s doing the writing. But even deeper is the question of vision–-readers want you to tell them the story they want to hear. It’s your job to tell them a story they’ve never heard. If you can’t get past the universal, then you add nothing to the inventory of...

Read More

New Tips for the 2012 Nanowrimo

Posted by | , , , , , , | 1 |

                                                                                 Nanowrimo 2012—Prep Work Don’t wait until Zero Hour to start writing for Nanowrimo. Here are some tips for preparing yourself for the long haul–50,000  words. 1. Place. What’s the main setting for your novel? How many locations do you use more than twice? Where does your Page One open? Does it open in a cave? On a spaceship hurtling past dark stars? Does it open in a laundromat (see Jack Remick’s Blood)? Does it open on a lonely beach road, a car chase (see Robert Ray’s Bloody Murdock)? Does it open in a boudoir with a bidet? Does it open in the cage of a Werewolf? Does it open in the Oval Office? In the Situation Room? In a school with a student shooting a poison dart at the teacher? 2. Character. Profile your five major characters. Protagonist, Antagonist, Helper One, Antag One, Helper Two. For each main character, jot down these info-bits: Back Story Trauma Motive Agenda Want Need Can’t have.   3. Back Story. For each major character, write 3-5 pages of back story. To connect the back story to your Page One, use this simple method of increasing the distance in time: Startline: An hour before the book opens, the protagonist was…. Startline: A week before the book opens, the protagonist was…. Startline: A year before the book opens, the protagonist was…. Startline: Five years...

Read More

Joann H. Buchanan ~ Guest Writer – Steps to the Paranormal Story

Posted by | , , , , , | 1 |

Our Guest Writer is Joann H. Buchanan. Joann is the author of the paranormal series, The Children of Nox. Joann hosted the long running radio show The Eclectic Artist Cave on Sharkradionetwork.com where she interviewed writers and shared her ideas and techniques. She also authors a very informative blog for writers.

Read More

Start Lines from Twitter

DIAGRAMS

Follow our Blog

Make Good Writing Better
Bob and Jack's Writing Blog
Writing Structure, Fiction Techniques, Poetry

Robert J Ray

Copyright & Excerpts

©2010-2017 Jack Remick, Robert J. Ray. All rights Reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material, including text and images, without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Short excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jack Remick and Robert J. Ray and "Bob and Jacks Writing Blog" with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.