Tuesday, June 24, 2014

The Story and the Teller

The ClassicAndCozy blogging group is made up of writers who were all published by Avalon Books, well-known as a publisher of clean and sweet mystery, romance, westerns, primarily for libraries. Now, that option has expanded but the premise, for most of us, has stuck.
My particular genres are romance and women’s fiction. I like a happy ending. I like building a world where things work out for the best, no matter what traumatic events my characters have to face. Whether it’s infertility, child custody battles, professional jealousy, office bullying, ethnic prejudice (Salsa Dancing with Pterodactyls), or divorce and lost love (Wait a Lonely Lifetime), abandonment, the death of a parent, losing a job (Nights Before) or seeking a home, war, oppression (as in my historical novels), my characters triumph.
And that is not always a simple task, even for the writer of the story. There is no guarantee that characters behave as you expect, nor that their difficulties have a believable solution. The objective is verisimilitude or, at least, plausibility. The exceptions are Fantasy and SciFi but, even then, there are rules and conventions.
As a reader, I want to be included, drawn in and given an opportunity to learn something new, experience a new world. As a writer, making that possible for readers is hard work, especially if we want it to look easy.

I once heard a writer describe himself as “a difficult poet,” taking pride that his work is obscure, intentionally beyond the comprehension of the reader. To me, that reeks of arrogance and a wish to appear superior. A former colleague told me she did not trust the audiences of her dance performances to understand so she explained everything—talking down to them. What is the point of either position?

We all have a story to tell, our story, important to us. The impulse to tell our stories is part of our primordial DNA, from the first recognition of a common language, from the first fireside chat, our species has told stories and every one of them has been told and retold in a thousand different guises over the millennia of human history. And yet, we still tell our stories, whether they are about our own experience or based on the seven plots of humankind, or twenty or thirty-six depending on who has written the analysis!

Here are the seven basic stories: 1) human versus nature; 2) human versus human; 3) human versus environment/society; 4) human versus machine/technology; 5) human versus supernatural; 6) human versus self; 7) human versus god/religion.

We love these stories because they are about us. We all face these conflicts: ask my husband about #4!

Vladimir Propp defined thirty-one functions of a hero’s journey beginning with ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment and ending with WEDDING: Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

Where is your story in the scheme of human storytelling? What do you expect from a writer when you enter the world of their story?


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This is the 100th blog post for Classic & Cozy. Happy Centennial Blog!

10 comments:

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  2. Nice post. It's so true - characters don't always behave as we expect or how the reader wants them to. If a character can get an emotional response ( good or bad) from the reader than the writer has done a good job.

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    1. Mine behave very badly and take me places I don't want to go. I read recently that Edel Leon had the same problem. He wrote and wrote and wrote and edited and edited until something actually began to make sense - his road of discovery.

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  3. Hi Leigh - very thoughtful post. I am not a big fan of the hero's journey. While I am sure my heroes do follow the path, trying to keep it in mind stifles my creativity. I never analyze what I have written until it is done and I am doing copy edits for some editor who wants to make it perfect; which, by human nature, it never is.

    Is there a formula to writing? Perhaps. Finding one makes good seminars, but even after I listen carefully and take notes, I just write, forgetting all I have learned.
    In the end, I just want to write a story I enjoyed writing and hopefully readers will enjoy reading.

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    1. I do totally agree with you, Kathye. We have to write our own stories. If not, we're just flogging the same old formula.

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  4. Leigh, I like to learn new things when I read too and sometimes that doesn't mean a new or exotic locate. Sometimes it's a challenge to look at a familiar subject from a different angle. Often as writers, our characters take us down unexpected paths. That's one of the most exciting parts of being a writer.

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    1. So true, Sandy. I have had to delve deep in the darkest regions of my psyche to find the character I'm looking for... Horribly, she's there! Even worse, I know her too well. Maleficent has nothing on some of my ladies.

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  5. I enjoyed your blog entry, Leigh. Yes, I prefer happy endings too, and for me the Avalon premise has stuck.

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    1. Good for you, Sydell. The temptation to follow the crowd is always a threat to the writer's integrity. The real success is in fulfilling your own expectations. Popularity is multi-edged, not all of them useful to the creative process.

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  6. Hi Leigh--
    Interesting post. I like to reach readers and stir their emotions. I agree with you about the artists you mention who aim to be "arrogant and superior" to their readers or audience. I think they do not realize that they are not connecting with their audience and are actually annoying them (us).
    Victoria M. Johnson--

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