I have just finished 'Through a Glass Clearly' by Isaac Asimov. This is a collection of four short stories. It truly lives up to the tag of Master of Science Fiction.
The forth stories are:
It's Such a Beautiful Day
Belief
Breeds There a Man...?
The C-Chute
All of these, except Belief, had a page on Wikipedia. It is a great short collection that I would thoroughly recommend. I think that Asimov is at his best when writing short stories. I have read one or two of his novels and got a little confused. - Though I was reading a trilogy in the wrong order!
It's Such a Beautiful Day describes a world where people no longer go outside instead they use a Door. This is like a cross between a teleporter, the Iconian Gateway and Stargate. It was first published in 1954 coming thirty-three years before TNG.
It may seem an odd thing to bring in Star Trek (again) but I just find it fascinating that these ideas which we think of as fairly modern have actually been around for a long time. It is often said that there are no new ideas.
The other stories in this set are also well worth a read but I think that It's Such a Beautiful Day is my favourite.
Sometimes when I'm writing, particularly a short story, I try to come up with cliff hangers. Though I'm not sure that you can quite achieve that effect the same way you can for a television episode. Its just a fun exercise of the mind. Anyway along with this idea of the cliffhanger is theme music. Unfortunately you can't do theme music in a book.
Sometimes I'll think of part of a story ending in a cliff hanger and see what tune comes to mind. If the story is going to be good it might be this....
Not so good it might be something like this...
It's not a bad song as these things go it just doesn't fit.
That, of course is just my opinion. So I wonder if there is anyway to create the effect of a cold opener in written form.
Sub-plot is basically a secondary part of the novel, or television episode, that compliments the main plot. At least that would be how I'd define it. Of course this has been done badly as in Silent Enemy, an episode of Enterprise. The summery, or Cliffnotes version, is that the ship is being attacked and the captain keeps ordering Hoshi to find out Reed's favourite food!
So to the book. The chapter begins with, oddly enough, a simple definition. Since I couldn't hope to match eloquence of Watts I'll start with that.
'The sub-plot is a subsidiary storyline which runs parallel to the main story, a narrative strand that can be taken away without causing the whole book to unravel.' (p41)
As mentioned above Enterprise got the idea of the sub-plot wrong in Silent Enemy. However I would be remiss if I didn't mention where Star Trek had done it well....
This is widely regarded as the best of the Star Trek cliffhangers. - As an aside its wonderful to be able to say that without having to put references!
Anyway this is the point in The Best of Both Worlds where Riker shows he can command the Enterprise. (Its later undone as the must be the reset button!) Its where the sub-plot combines with the main plot.
Of course its not totally necessary for the plots to combine in quite this way. A sub-plot can have little to do with the main thrust of the story but can help with character development. I'm trying to think of an example of where this was done and am coming up empty. I am trying to bring in a subplot in my novel. One of my characters discovers her magical ability and wishes to use that to help her mother, who is in a state of depression, it is not directly related to the main plot but it should serve to show what sort of person this character is.
Like the central theme of a novel Watts notes that a sub-plot also requires an arc. Watts also notes the dangers of the 'two-headed monster.' (p42)
'Beware of developing the sub-plot too much: you may create a two-headed monster, that is, a story with two distinct plots of equal weight, which can be confusing to the reader' (p42)
I'll discuss more on that next time. (Which may be tomorrow)
Its Thursday. That sounds like the beginning to an even worse song about a day in the week. With that sentence I jump on the bandwagon of bashing Rebecca Black. Perhaps this is just a shameless way to get more hits on this site - but to be honest its just what occurred to me when I started writing this post. Basically I'm surprised at myself for actually keeping up with blog posts as I intended.
The other day I submitted a story for a competition. The competition is for Writing Magazine. This took some time as the upload didn't work. The problem was my story had a question mark in the title and for some reason that wasn't allowed! Anyway it is now submitted.
Tomorrow I will get my results for university. The funny thing is that I only found out about this thanks to Facebook - I don't think I've received official notification from the uni.
As you'll remember from the previous two posts I was discussing the eight point story arc. As I believe I mentioned it is important that the arc is not the only thing used to bring out the story. Watts states 'I find [the 8 point story arc) most useful as a checklist against which to measure a work in progress.' (p38)
So when you embark on your novel keep this in mind. Also a novel doesn't need to have one protagonist - it might have many. The eight point arc might be required for all characters.
I've discussed this section of the book in quite a lot of detail. This chapter finishes with a couple of exercises to try. It has lists of character, object and setting. From these three it suggests that a story can be formed. Since I am already working on two novels, plus short stories, I don't want to start yet another. If you want plots for your story a google search of plot generator should get you started. I particularly like Seventh Sanctum- it has many generators for stories.
Happy writing.
The next chapter of Writing a Novel is on Sub Plots and Symbolism. I'll begin working on that post now. I will either set it to come out in a few days or failing that it will be on Tuesday.
Yesterday I had a job interview with Cafe Nero. I was going to include here an image of one of their loyalty card things. I know that that is rather lame but pictures make the blog and I forgot to take my camera with me into town! Unfortunately all the batteries in my house are too dead for use in my camera!
Instead here is a picture of Nepal.
There is no real link between these two things - beyond the fact that there are many places to eat around the stupa in this picture. In Cardiff town centre there are three Cafe Nero's within a three minute walk from each other which seems a little odd. Actually it may not be that long!
Anyway it sounds like a really good job. I'm looking forward to learning how to make the various drinks. After the interview I went round the corner to another Nero. I had planned to write for a while but my laptop battery was almost dead!
I'll be back on Thursday with some more writing information.
It was back in March that I last discussed Writing a Novel by Nigel Watts. I was looking at Chapter 3 which details the concepts of the eight point story arc. You can click here for the earlier post.
I won't go into the details here but if you want to know about this type of an arc then Daily Writing Tips describes it well.
For this post I want to discuss the rest of Chapter 3. Watts goes on to discuss arcs of a novel in general. The arc is the change the character undergoes across the story. Sadly character change and growth can something be rare in fiction. This is especially true it television which often makes use of the reset button. I particularly rememberer Earth: Final Conflict being bad for this. A new technology would be introduced at the beginning of an episode and, for various reasons, be unusable by the end. Admittedly I didn't see it all the way through and I believe it is said to have later improved. Anyway I'm getting off topic...
To show the merits of the eight point story arc the example of Jack and the Beanstalk is used. It is highlighted that Jack and the Beanstalk is not the tightest of stories. Naturally it was written for children so the plot, were it written for adults, would no doubt be tightened.
Watts tells us: "The protagonist should pass greater and greater points of no return, facing greater dangers and having greater pressure put on his resources." (p36) This is important to ensure that the story continues. Also I feel that the protagonist has to believe that these challenges are achievable - or at the very least the cost of failure is so high that there is little other choice. Finally Watts breaks down the plot of this fairy tale into its minor, major and grand plot points. The main thing to take away from this is that the difficulties are what makes a story. Jack steals gold from the giant, this version uses an ogre, if it had been a gift their would be no story.
Well I've just done a preview of this post and its quite long. So I'll finish with a quote that Watts uses to illustrate this point. I will certainly be making another post on Tuesday and may post one before then.
Nothing progresses in a story, except through conflict.
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated! I have just been busy for the last month. Doing what? I wish I could tell you. Its been a month since handing in my final piece of work for university.
I haven't just been lying around...
...or writing. Actually I have done some writing. Also a lot of reading. In fact I read an article the other day which talked of the advantages of short novels. Two novels of 30,000 words, as opposed to one of 60,000 means more accolades - assuming its any good.
Actually I know what I've been doing. I've been trying to get my inbox to zero emails. Its down to 35! You tube has taken up a lot of my time too. I know that's bad. There is a video I'd like to share with you though...
I don't actually know the original version but I thought this was pretty good. So enjoy it before the evil lawyers come chasing after them for copyright infringement!
After that sentence I'm trying not to break into a rant. Must not rant. Must not rant.
I'm saying actually a lot...might need to get that seen to.
I'll be back later in the week - probably Thursday. Until then I hope you all have a good day.
Hi. I'm Daniel. This blog will be a collection of my works as an author. I have now finished studying Creative and Professional writing at the University of Glamorgan. I'm in the process of looking for a job. Here I hope to post short stories - a novel and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.
