Star Words

Posted on September 8, 2022 by knlistman

Creating a good plot is one of the most difficult parts of writing. A perfectly plotted story is going to be snatched up by readers, but so far we seem to have only produced one of these plots that most fiction writing instructors can agree on, which is the one from the original Star Wars movie. But even writing instructors can get this wrong. I heard an instructor claim that if a person was having a hard time writing a synopsis for their book, they should examine his synopsis of Star Wars. If it wasn’t that simple to write, their problem was not the synopsis, but the plot of their book. 

That was a bold claim to make, and later I realized it was patently wrong. On close examination the problem is with the plot of Star Wars. Luke’s motivation was to save a beautiful girl who sent him a message for help. He also wanted to take revenge on the man who killed his father. But, the man Luke intended to destroy was his father. The beautiful girl, which he loved at first sight, was his sister. That sort of made romance out of the question. The Jedi master, a wise old advisor, knew all of this and said nothing about it. Why?  This first movie was basically a novelette. It was not a real full-length novel that could include such a complicated subplot. After the exciting but lengthy battle scene in space to destroy the death star, the villain had to escape so the sequel could be made.

I realized the flaw in this logic during this writing teacher’s instruction on how to write a synopsis. I wanted to ask a question about it. He wanted questions, because he said he’d get back to me, but he never did. Now, when any author advises me to consider this Star Wars movie when creating a plot for a novel I would say, think again. It actually took three movies to create a plot the length of a short fantasy novel. By the third one we saw Luke again helping get the princess out of trouble along with her new love interest (Han Solo, the trickster archetype). Then, they joined the forces with the cutest furry warriors that I’ve ever seen to bring down a second “death star.” Viewers noticed the repetition. Sometimes when asked about the third film, I heard, “It’s sort of the repeat of the first with Teddy bears.”  

My take away–a  synopsis is still going to be excruciating to write for an 80,000 to 100,000 word novel, provided it does not start dragging in the middle so that part can be eliminated from the synopsis. It is easier to write one for a novella, just as novellas can be easier to crank out using a set formula than novels are. Of course, it is possible to create the synopsis of the first three Star War movies in 750 words, but it won’t sound as good. The repetition of actions will seem obvious when read in one synopsis together. 

Then, I discovered the existence of a novelization of the Star Wars movie that was the size of an average book. It had additional scenes and world building information with the new technology explained. I thought I would enjoy listening to the audio recording of this. However, all the inserted scenes and description made it slow compared to the movie. So, I never finished listening to it.

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The “Art” of Writing

Posted on September 1, 2022 by knlistman

A “one shot” print occurs when an artist creates a plate for an intaglio print by engraving or etching, and then pulls a trial print so good that it requires no alteration to improve it before making the final prints. When I was in college printmaking classes, no one ever managed to do this feat. People kept re-etching parts of plates to make the prints better. Of course, this did not destroy the essence of the print.

Writing is very similar. It is the rare case when an author composes a poem or piece of prose in one sitting that requires no changes. The longer the work, the more revision is necessary. It takes extended concentration and effort to produce quality writing for any period of time. Novels are a huge effort. When working on visual art projects, the artist periodically pulls back to view the work and get an honest view of how good (or bad) it is. The equivalent action is reviewing and revising what has already been written, an action that does not destroy the essence of the story.

There are differences between creating a piece of art and writing a book. An intaglio plate can be over-etched, or a drawing overworked. There is no salvaging it. The artist can only start over again with a new printing plate or piece of paper. No novel is a complete disaster. There may be large sections that have to be cut or rewritten and improved. But at least part of it is salvageable, even if there is not enough to make a complete work until more is added.

When I taught art, I would attempt to keep students from making mistakes and filling the trash can with ruined assignments. This required outlining steps to complete assignments. Typically they were assigned to use a medium with three or four criteria to fulfill for a specific piece. The limitations that I put on their work actually took stress off of the students. If they met the criteria, they would receive a passing grade. Gradually their work became more creative because they felt the liberty to innovate and not just imitate the work of someone who had made a good grade before.

However, there was a student who produced this stunning piece of art that did not completely fill one of the four criteria. Breaking my limitations actually made the work better. He was already the best artist in the class and knew how to compose his art and create effects that others did not. I could give him a high grade, but not a perfect one, and explained to him why. I also told him it was an excellent piece that should go into his portfolio.

Putting limits on my writing goals lets me work within a framework. I don’t feel the pressure of perfection. Each step to a goal is one toward getting something accomplished with my current work in progress. I do not use a word count to measure my progress. Rather I gauge it by the amount of content I have created. Sometimes, after working within limitations I find that I must toss them aside to create something better—a piece of literature that breaks the mold.

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The Fable of the Hook

Posted on August 25, 2022 by knlistman

Readers seeking excitement prefer a story starting with the main character fleeing down a dark alley, reeling from an initial enemy strike, or near the edge of Niagara Falls. This immediate danger creates an adrenaline rush. Even if the reader knows nothing about the character, they will have time to get to know the protagonist later. If they are not stopped cold by one of the many pitfalls of a dramatic beginning.

The exciting beginning is a promise of continuing drama. If the situation turns out to be a false alarm such as a dream, or a computer simulated war exercise or a simply-solved hoax, the readers will feel cheated. I know I do. Generally, I never read a book by that author again unless there is an excellent reason for that deception on which the rest of the story depends. 

If the danger is real and recedes too quickly  I will wonder what kind of too perfect protagonist I have just encountered. On the other hand, if solving the problem is put off by shifting back to a prior time to introduce the character, I am tempted to skip the intervening backstory. I will skim ahead until I find how this character is going to escape such a deadly dilemma. If it is more than a few chapters later, I must truly be invested in the character to not give up and stop reading. But, often my patience is running thin from an overflow of backstory.

If readers want mystery, a dead body in the first page should keep their attention. Won’t they continue until the end to find out who did it? Not necessarily. I recall reading a few mysteries in which one death kept the investigation going. The suspects were introduced, and clues unfolded so that the thrill continued at a reasonable pace. However, I’ve heard mystery writers say that when the pace starts dragging in the middle it is time to drop another body. Whenever I find a clumsy mystery in which the author waits until the end to reveal the entire story, I just skip to the ending. If the investigators require a number of bodies before they figure out what I already know, there is no need to skip to the ending, or to continue reading.

Often having a likable or sympathetic character should hook the reader. But sad tales to get me to take the side of the protagonist leave me feeling as if I missed something when problems dissipate into thin air. Sometimes the solution is so easy because the character had a secret ability that the author simply wasn’t letting me know.

I may stay longer in a novel that does exactly what authors are told not to do. Describe the weather, the scenery, or the city around the main character. In those cases I am still hoping to have some action happen. But, I am willing to go through some nicely written world building, even if I am not reading a science fiction or fantasy story. I don’t even mind a brief history of the past before the main characters appear on the scene. But, the main character is still under pressure to be involved in a conflict that draws me in. I expect the drama to continue to build up from that point.

How do surefire hooks backfire? The scene that instantly grabs the reader only works if the book continues to engage the reader. The beginning should lead into events in the book and not be a detached incident that is only there to grab the reader’s attention. The existence of a hook so strong that it will compel the reader to finish the book is nothing more than a fable.

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The Teenage Genre

Posted on August 18, 2022 by knlistman

When a library placed a book in the young adult or YA category that used to mean two things: The book was within the reading level of 12 to 18 year-olds, often a sixth to eighth grade level, and the content would contain nothing objectionable for a 12 year-old reader.

I recall picking out Cry the Beloved Country from the YA section. This book sprang from the authors personal experience with the attitudes that would lead to apartheid in South Africa. Most of the language was around 8th grade level. There was a court scene with some legalese and it did contain a few Zulu words for titles and terms of respect. The major challenge was that there were no dialogue tags. So the reader had to keep track of who was speaking by the way characters addressed each other.

The story revolved around an old man’s alienation from two family members drawn to Johannesburg. He had to face the pain of discovering his son had murdered a good man, the son of his neighbor in the country. The villain was not an individual but the city that drew the Africans to corrupt lives. The content was appropriate as far as lack of violence for a 12-year-old. Therefore, Cry the Beloved Country was in the YA section of the library. The concepts in this book still may have been too difficult for some 12-year-olds to comprehend. A few of the students in the AP English literature course, assigned to read it in high school, struggled to understand a world so unlike their own.

Publishers have been trying to change this definition of a YA novel and some authors are willing to follow their lead. Not only do the majority of the characters have to be the age of the intended reader, but they also have to be the ones solving the problem. That may be one of the reasons that fantasy is taking over as the most prevalent subgenre in YA. The plots present problems that are unrealistic for inexperienced young adults to solve unless they have magic on their side. These books are supposed to be aimed at their age group, and one that an adult may wish to read. The vast majority of these novels are written at the 6th grade level, have a happy ending, and avoid philosophical musings, even though they are allowed to show more graphic violence and sex than in the past.

Recently, I tried to help a friend find current comps for her coming of age story for this age group. There seemed to be a smaller percentage of these being produced in the last decade, and even less in the last five years. Are all teenagers looking for books in which problems are completely solved and whisked away with a dramatic wave of the wand? Is growing into maturity and taking responsibility in a world that is not a fairy tale no longer no longer an acceptable plot? I recall a little over five years ago, when I was still in a high school classroom that I overheard students discussing a story they found intriguing—a tragedy written by Franz Kafka over 100 years ago. Some adolescent readers who want something different and challenging are digging up old classics again.

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Who’s the Real Villain?

Posted on August 11, 2022 by knlistman

As a legend Robin Hood represents the kind of principled nonconformist on which many heroes are based. We love to read about people who confront government wrong-doing even in a criminal manner as he did. But, if a similar character existed in real life, he would not be any more popular than a government agency attempting to redistribute our wealth. The majority of people would probably condemn him.

Rumpelstiltskin is an excellent fairytale that could be rewritten from the opposite viewpoint. Many characters on the poor peasant girl’s side seem as bad as the deformed old man who knows how to spin gold. The braggart father and the irrationally demanding king are the real villains who need to be defeated by the end of the story. But, they live happily ever after.

How do you parry the strength of the protagonist against the antagonist in a plot? Common wisdom says that the strength of the hero and villain need to be similar in order for the conflict to engage the readers. Therefore, authors create increasingly strong and vicious villains with the idea of making the protagonist look larger than life.

We only have to look at the very popular superhero comics and movies to see this occurring. A clean cut honest good guy hero like Superman comes from a wholesome family background and normally chases villains who are mildly destructive, maybe they want to spend their money to buy themselves power, but they are not trying to destroy humanity. Lex Luthor is nowhere as depraved as the Joker. But, the hero that must defeat the Joker is Batman, a vigilante with a vendetta and not necessarily a law abiding citizen.

Speaking of vendettas consider “V” the strange protagonist who conceals himself behind a Guy Fawkes mask. He is one of the most questionable anti-heroes. He does have the challenge of bringing down leaders of a corrupt society, but he has similar terroristic qualities to the person behind whose mask that he hides. “V” goes so far as to temporarily imprison the heroine. She must have a taste of the struggles that formed him to ensure she won’t turn him in to the corrupt authorities.

Compare “V” to the antagonist of Les Miserables. The police inspector is not a corrupt person. However, he believes he is chasing a criminal, perhaps a vicious one. When the villain realizes his error he destroys himself. The hero of the story, Jean Valjean, never raises a hand against him.

My conclusion? Be careful with creating a great evil to make your hero shine. Heroes are similar in strengths to villains and one of these is morality. So a hero chasing a very depraved villain is more likely to cut corners and break laws in order to catch that bad guy. The ideas that mold a more evil antagonist will often result in a hero bending our ideas of what is right. The hero will shine dimly as morally gray, or not shine at all.

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The Most Memorable Kind of Hero

Posted on August 4, 2022 by knlistman

Is this true that a memorable hero of incredible wisdom and strength can only show full worth when pitted against an incredibly powerful villain? The similarities between villains and heroes are often noted in fiction. So how does an author make a hero shine? The hero must have a type of strength greater than the villain, but not too much, because then it is no memorable thing for him to defeat the villain. However, if the hero lacks the amount of power the villain possesses, would it even be possible to defeat this extraordinary antagonist?

To understand how this works, the concept of power in a story needs to be defined. A person can be physically more powerful than others. One of the most famous fictional characters with this trait is Jean Valjean from Les Misérables. His strength was so notable that when he rescued a person pinned under a cart the police inspector suspected Jean might be the escaped convict he was trying to track down.

However a physically strong person can be defeated by someone who is mentally stronger or smarter. Such as is the case with Sherlock Holmes. When his creator Arthur Conan Doyle tired of writing his detective stories, he decided it was time for Holmes to die. But, he had to pit him against Moriarty, a more intelligent criminal, and not some thug who simply had greater brute strength.

Then, there is a social strength which is usually the following or the popularity that the protagonist uses against the enemy. This is prevalent in dystopian novels in which the enemy is society. In many of the modern YA versions of this genre, such as the Hunger Games trilogy, the protagonist must sway the opinion of the populace. However, even in ancient legends such as ones about Robin Hood, the hero has to gain the support of the people in order to overcome an antagonist like the sheriff of Nottingham.

However, there is one more type of strength. Let’s return to the first protagonist mentioned, Jean Valjean, to describe moral strength. It is the ability to know and do what is right. The character who is not as smart nor not as strong and doesn’t have public support sticks his neck out when the villain comes around and seems sure to be defeated but ends up winning anyway. This is often repeated in plots that resemble the movie High Noon. Because of the hero’s moral character, another person is willing to step in and help.

However, the morally gray character is growing in popularity as a hero. Perhaps readers like this kind of hero because any protagonist who is absolutely perfect seems unreal. The misbehaving character with the physical ability to do almost everything seems to have an edge on the “Goody Two-Shoes” kind of characters who are near perfection in behavior. The one reason why morally gray heroes do not always fulfill expectations is because their tendency towards villainy does not cause them problems. So, they never learn from their moral errors and still manage to get the right thing done.

This brings us back to the hero with moral strength. Jean Valjean had gotten away with doing the wrong thing, and even allowed others to do the same, resulting in a woman’s death. This sense of debt owed, rather than an attitude of moral perfection is one reason his hero type is one of the most memorable and keeps reappearing, generation after generation in books. 

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When Do the Ghosts Show Up?

Posted on July 28, 2022 by knlistman

According to my friends I read depressing books, such as Cry the Beloved Country and Crime and Punishment, and actually enjoy them. What kind of books do I avoid reading because I find them depressing while others seem to relish them? That category would be horror. Other people may be entertained by sinister topics which I cannot completely dismiss as being fictional. The horrendous ideas had to come from somewhere. So, I find  myself mourning the human condition rather than being amused.

When younger I read some shorter horror works because I could stand the tension of a darkly emotional world of imagined miseries for a short while. While visiting my aunt, I soon realized that all of her children had their own activities to take up their time. So, I found myself alone with Edgar Allen Poe, the only author I recognized on her bookshelf. Poe is an excellent writer; he uses interior fear rather than exterior gore. He builds tension in a very short time based on the unknown or the insanity of the narrator. But, after reading a dozen or so of his short stories, I had my fill.

However, the stories that I read then don’t fit into the current trend. These older tales had no supernatural terror, and only rarely a vicious or hideous creature, or a happy ending. Characters, such as vampires, blood-thirsty aliens, or demon-possessed people and objects are the stock of more recent horror literature. This genre now seems to be very popular with audiences a bit bored with their life.

The modern monster’s purpose is to boost people’s adrenaline with a dose of terror. They do this job with motives that are often never fully examined or explained. These monsters are often destroyed in a gory manner that out does the viciousness which they impose on their victims. However, the “good” character succeeds, or at least survives, until the next sequel. With too much adrenaline flowing through my veins already, I am not a good candidate for a horror fan.  

So, you may wonder why I ever attempted to write a short horror story. My plot dealt with psychological horror in the manner of Henry James’ Turn of the Screw. A modest woman starts to recklessly seek fame as an antidote for her perception of being useless. My piece does not reveal if the woman has an obsession or there is another more sinister problem looming over her life until the end. I discovered most readers were not perceptive enough to catch subtle clues that I thought were hair raising. They wanted obvious ghosts.

These may have been the same people providing input into the Netflix production of The Haunting of Bly Manor series, which was based on the Turn of the Screw. Unlike the series, James’ masterpiece has no obvious ghosts and the reader never knows if the governess was insane or the children were possessed. But, that kind of horror is too subtle for today. So, no more horror story writing for me.

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The Sports Hero’s Journey

Posted on July 21, 2022 by knlistman

When advised to base stories on the hero’s journey, I realized that the “monomyth model” constructed plots based on a large sampling of Greek mythology. I’ve always had a suspicion that these myths were based on real people. The characters may have a super human exterior, but they exhibit all the flaws of humans. They are almost adolescent in their behavior, competing for status, like royalty that never had to grow up. But, the hero’s journey extends beyond the story we see in movies. The common people get even with these misbehaving heroes. At the end of most Greek myths the hero has a tarnished reputation or a pitiful downfall.

For example, Jason and the Argonauts fits wonderfully into the hero’s journey, at least the part that appears in most movies. Jason leaves the land ruled by his cruel and deceitful uncle Pelias. He leads the adventurous Argonauts to an unfamiliar country in Southwest Asia to steal a treasure known as the Golden fleece (an obvious MacGuffin as the pure gold fleece is a bit too heavy to make any kind of garment out of it). Pelias believes Jason is doomed to fail which is his major reason for sending him on this quest. Instead, the lucky Jason meets a gorgeous sorceress named Medea. With her assistance he secures this intensely guarded fleece, and then heads back to his homeland to claim the throne with Medea by his side.

Note the similarity of this plot to stories of athletes rising in their career. They leave home to compete in a new place with the odds against them. However, with a coach’s guidance, teammate’s support or the inspiration of an adoring woman they pull through, win against an unbeatable team and return home victorious.

But, Jason’s return to home with Medea is the beginning of his downfall. The end to this story is not often told in the movies. It is similar to the slide into obscurity of many athletes’ years after their big wins. The locals distrust Jason’s powerful wife, Medea. After a few years they drive out their new king and queen. Jason and Medea flee to Corinth where Jason is still considered a hero. That local king offers his daughter, a younger and meeker woman than Medea, to Jason for a bride. He takes up the offer. Medea wreaks her revenge leaving Jason without a new bride or any children.

In sports literature successful athletes often face the challenge of their own conquests fading away. They may fall to the folly of hubris or the charms of the wrong kind of lover. Why is this theme of losing status repeated in both mythology and novels about sports legends? There’s a kind of mournfulness to realizing that as an athlete your major accomplishments are over by the end of your twenties. This was also true of athletic warriors who rose to the rank of nobles in ancient times.

The creators of these stories have to make a decision. Should they blindly close their eyes and be happy stuck in one time or be truthful about what happens next? Ending with the physical prowess of youth, leaves the author with a character stuck in immaturity. The authors really want them to grow up, even if the ending is bittersweet.

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Sports Lit

Posted on July 14, 2022 by knlistman

While watching a recent bone crunching pro-football game on TV, I saw a player dive into a fracas and come up with the fumbled football. He took off for his goal, running for the sidelines to avoid being pummeled by a pile of opposing players.  When the TV camera zoomed in close, I could see his grin as his teammates gave him congratulatory fists to his helmet. However, it looked like that punch jarred his head as much as a tackle.

“Doesn’t that hurt him?” I asked.

“Players frequently do things to their own players that would result in a penalty if they did it to an opponent,” responded a wiser sports aficionado.  

Based on that incident, I decided to look at classic sports novels to trace the development of this kind of reputation, only to find few sports novels written before the second half of the twentieth century. So, I examined some well-known non-fiction books on this subject as well. Many of the current books reveal a darker side to sports than the painful celebratory punches by team members.

There are a few light-hearted views of athletes such in George Plimpton’s Paper Lion, a real account of how he gained access into the Detroit Lions’ training camp practices. Plimpton wanted to find out how an average guy would fare competing against professional athletes. Although the coaches were aware that he was not a true recruit, the players were not, at least until his obvious ineptitude was revealed. Plimpton’s book deals mainly with the personalities of the players as he was never allowed to play in a real game.

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream is a candid coverage of one dramatic season for the Permian High School Panthers as they aim at the Texas State Championship. H.G. Bissinger describes how the town gathers ritualistically every Friday during the autumn season to cheer on its team who obtain a kind of instant celebrity. But, a surprising number of the football players suffer from their attempts at athletic fame. There are painful revelations about injured players, forgotten as soon as they are no longer useful. In an ironic twist, the championship title becomes dependent on disproving a charge of grade tampering.

Many of the current “true stories” in sports describe a litany of gambling, dirty dealing and drugs that make opponents seem like the least of the athlete’s worries. Those are the themes that run through famous fictional sports novels, too. Fat City by Leonard Gardner is an acclaimed novel about the life of small circuit boxers set in California. Tully, a major character in the novel, decides to return to the boxing ring. But, his experience is nothing like Rocky Balboa’s comeback. In this gritty novel aspiring boxers have a few wins before descending down a path of desperation.

One of the most well-known and beloved sports novels is The Natural by Bernard Malamud. This fictional work is loosely based on the life of Eddie Waitkus. Readers may want to cheer on this talented athlete in his second attempt at glory in baseball. However, this novel has an edgier and more realistic ending than fireworks-filled home run in the popular movie. The baseball prodigy, who loses his best years, is a reckless character that struggles in an attempted comeback. There is no assurance that he can win the big game for the pennant. But, the novel doesn’t end with the game.

All of these books have been made into movies. However, it is worth the time to read them for their further insights. In the twentieth century, the heroes of the playing field have replaced the old heroes of battle. There is still a darker side of competition that remains to be told.

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Keeping the Unknown a Mystery

Posted on July 7, 2022 by knlistman

I was engrossed in a mystery that grabbed me from the beginning. Set in the mid nineteenth century it commenced with a spooky chase scene in the fog. The shadow-like suspect disappeared around the corner of a stately brownstone. Then, a person vanished when surrounded by crowds and nobody seemed to notice. Was I dealing with an ingenious criminal or something supernatural?  To add to the tension, the hero still agonized about the loss of a recent love as he attempted to buckle down and catch this person-snatcher. 

The villain turned out to be all too human, both extremely narcissistic and cruel. Unfortunately he was still more intelligent than the protagonist. So, he kept on feeding the poor man clues that a villain shouldn’t have to spread around so carelessly. I knew these clues came directly from the antagonist because half of the way through the book, I was introduced to his viewpoint. The villain’s willingness to give himself away was blamed on the “insane” genius. But, it was a ruse to keep the tension high in the story. The author was no genius and seemed to have forgotten that glimpses of the villain were seen only by the readers. However, the protagonist became clairvoyant, magically deducing whatever was revealed to me.

 Perhaps I am being too hard on this piece of fiction because I am not as fond of suspense as traditional mysteries. A good mystery is not easy to write. If it has a plot that is too complex, many of the readers will fail to grasp the elaborate twists and turns. If the plot is simpler, it is harder to hold some reader’s attention. It takes skill to create a book that keeps the reader in suspense for an entire 300 pages and then reveals an answer that makes sense but was never obvious. But, a quality suspense novel, in which the viewpoints of both the protagonist and antagonist are revealed, is even more difficult.

Perhaps my favorite suspense author is Daphne du Maurier. Her stories are often disquieting without anything gruesome or horrifying mentioned because of her subtle way of creating scenes with a threatening mood. However, what makes her style of suspense distinctive is playing both with the characters and plot. Events unfold in a way that makes the reader question motives of people in her stories. One character is slowly revealed as a different kind of person than the reader suspected. But, is that truly what is occurring? The reader remains unsure if they have an accurate idea of the character’s real nature. Is she honest or deceptive? Sometimes this is revealed in the end, and sometimes the question is never answered. 

I know that last option will not be satisfying to some readers. But, as I think about what I expect of the ultimate suspense, I realize that I don’t want to know who will win. As I read about two people engaged in a cat and mouse game, what really holds my attention until the end is not knowing which one is the hero, and which is the villain.

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