I love how strong the start is and how it progresses into the author’s humanity as well, it’s nice to know the creative process looms over someone with such talented writers voice. I also love that the author openly struggled with writer’s block and expressed how his character’s and their actions felt bland and how to deal with that. Their response to the feedback they’d received feels like I could mold that into my own works, too. I hadn’t even noticed that the beginning and middle sections of “Cathedral” had overlapped each other, I thought that was interesting when I reread it just now after the author mentioned it. It’s also interesting to realize that the blind man from “Cathedral” is an antagonist at all, I never would have thought that upon first read- or at least I wouldn’t have dubbed Robert with such an ill-indicating title. When I write longer pieces of fiction, I find myself always making little sub plots. So it’s refreshing to see that I’m not the only one who does that when I feel lost and don’t know what else to write about. The other thing I’ve found myself doing is taking inspiration from my own life, a true story of my own, and weaving it into a fictious one of my own creation. I love that the author went over how talking about plot can bore people as well, I know I felt my mind wander when I was reading both of these chapters. I’ve heard of structure so many times I’ve felt like my ears would fall off before. On top of this, I love how this author says that every good character struggles to change and inevitably does at some point in the story.
The major dramatic question, as the chapter puts it, forces you to consider what the ‘meat’ of your story is, at least when concerning your protagonist. Will Percy Jackson find the Lightning Thief? That’s the question we constantly ask ourselves as readers, the question that puts us on the edges of our seats. Speaking of protagonist, picking which character you focus on can change the entire lens with which we view the story. For example, if you read Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” you’re viewing Gatsby as a tragic character who clearly looks to rekindle his love with Daisy, a goal that is often relatable for the hopeless romantic. However, if we focused on Tom’s point of view, Gatsby would be a villain, disrupting Tom’s happiness with his wife, and the story’s ending would be much happier in tone despite Gatsby’s death. Further along in the chapter, the plot structure segments remind of my screenwriting course from freshman year, spring semester, where we discussed the act structure of a film and how there are constant ups and downs. Much like films, fiction is the same way, especially genre-based fiction like fantasy, where you have constant wins and losses for your protagonist, and you build to either the ultimate win or the ultimate loss. I really liked this chapter, as it is often difficult to move from character ideas into an actually complete story. The section on subplots is also useful as a novelistic writer specializing in fantasy, and I am always juggling many subplots— for example, in my NaNoWriMo from my freshman year, there is the main murder mystery, but also a subplot where the protagonist is dealing with a messy breaking off of her engagement, and the deuteragonist is learning how to appreciate people for more than what they can do for her. These subplots feed into the overall themes, paralleling the two primary characters’ journey.
What stuck out to me the most in Chapter 3 was the idea of all of the background information. As a writer, you want to create the best well-rounded version of a character, and want to be able to give the readers the most information about this character, what they are like, what they like to do, and give a deep understanding and connection to them. While this makes sense as the writer, because you want them to understand the character in the way you do, in the end it becomes boring to those that are reading. Being able to keep important bits of information and give detail about the character without bogging down the story is really important. And being okay with taking out pieces of the characters background and mundane activities that don’t pertain to the plot is important. I think that a good plot has to do with how a character is set up, and how that internal and external conflict is resolved in every situation, or in the case of multiple novels how it can be set up for the next story to pick up on. As I read through this chapter I can see how some texts bored me, and how I wasn’t invested. And it seems to all stem from the lack of removal of those mundane actives. It becomes boring to hear about every meal they ate, every thought they had, every activity that they did that has no correlation to the essential conflict in the story. Being able to see that this is happening in your work, and rework the ideas is the best way to create an enticing and eventful plot line.
Chapter three is all about the plot. What I found most interesting in this chapter is the part about the beginning, middle, and end. I loved that it was in relation to “Cathedral” as that made me understand it much better. It was interesting to me, though, because I struggle to create stories that have all three parts. I usually can come up with a great climax of the story but bolstering it with the other necessary parts is a big struggle for me.
I also found the part about subplots to be quite interesting. Again, as I tend to come up with rather large plot ideas, the idea of adding in subplots is incredibly intriguing to me. Sadly, I have never written a story long enough to write something that I can add subplot to without bogging the main plot down.
– creating a goal to achieve within each story that gives more to the plot (57)
– adding a form of conflict to give the story some depth and intenseness. the conflict can be internal or external relating to main character (58)
-creating a beginning middle and end to give a rise climax and dramatic end to keep readers drawn in to the plot (66)
Chapter 3:
I know that I have been trying to compile a working definition of literary fiction throughout the multiple texts we have taken a look at so far and I think that chapter three helps in expanding and maybe clarifying that. Within the “Major Dramatic Question” section, I feel as though the definition of literary fiction could be expanded/ shaped by what it is not. As discussed in class, literary fiction is different than genres like horror and sci-fi and fantasy. To help define literary fiction, the “Major Dramatic Question” section talks about how it is a process of showing a shift of some form through one or two scenes that take place in our world, typically answering some form of simple question throughout the story. I really liked what was said in class about this idea that literary fiction is a representation of what it is like to live life in our world. Figuring out a working definition of literary fiction has helped me grasp what it is exactly I should be attempting to accomplish in my short story.
Chapter 3 was all about plot and how to make a narrative. It details that in order for a story to be compelling we must have a conflict. Structure was also emphasized throughout several parts of this chapter, particularly by separating it into three major components: beginning middle and end. It states that the beginning is typically best reserved for the set up and introduction of the story you are trying to tell. The middle should take up the bulk of any story an includes the climax and shows the most change in your characters. As for the end, typically it is written to be the shortest and is usually meant to round out the story and either provide a solid conclusion or leave the reader thinking about the potential repercussions intentionally. One thing that I found interesting was the fact that the text states that you should generally start where the action is in the story, where everything starts. This makes sense for most scenarios, but I believe that ignoring this could provide much needed anchor that can tastefully enhance where the story ends up going as opposed to just starting on an abnormal day.
– Some writing is for the author, in order to better understand the character or situation, but the readers need the plot to get going.
– Fiction, stories, are just the reader asking “what’s it about?” and expecting the actual answer this time.
– Plots often have a big question between the protagonist, their goal(s), and the conflict of the story,
– The protagonist and goal was mostly explored in the last chapter, but the conflict takes the person and goal and says you have to work for it and here’s how it’ll come about.
This earlier question is answered by the end of the story, even if the answer is just a maybe.
– On page 63, the book mentions an aspect of Cathedral that I noticed but couldn’t seem to quite explain or understand fully. Though Robert is physically blind, the narrator is actually blind to his life and relationships.
– That writing about the character, where nothing much may happen, is still incredibly important to any story because you want to give the character their own distinct way of being alive, often which is closely intertwined with the plot(what came first: the chicken or the egg? The character or the plot?).
Something helpful I found in chapter 3 is the major dramatic question. You need to have a question that will be answered by the end of the story, as that is what builds the plot. It works in tandem with the characters, because what the characters want will be what drives the story and provides the question. Another piece of advice is that an ending should feel inevitable but surprising. Something that the reader can look back on and realize as the only thing that made sense, but that was striking/surprising in the moment.
This chapter focuses on plot and story cadence. As the authors discuss, it may seem obvious to consider the importance of having three sections in a story (beginning, middle, and end), but it helps to construct the overall story in a more cohesive way. This is something I struggle to get right, finding identifiable beginning, middle, and end in my stories. The beginning is important as it serves to get the reader involved and understanding the context needed to be part of the story. It’s important not to give too much exposition at once, otherwise the story can often feel very front-heavy. The middle usually adds to that context developed in the beginning and serves as the stage for the action or conflict to take place. The end ties up loose ends, establishes the consequences of the events of a story, and the lesson the character learns is seen (if applicable).
Plot is such an interesting topic because of the balancing act of plot time and down time, and how everything affects pacing. In the beginning of the chapter the author spent some time talking about how he front loaded the beginning of his book with so much exposition and no actual plot that it was dreadfully boring even if the information being conveyed is important and maybe should be shared at some point. I fully agree with the advisor that those types of scenes are written mostly for the author and i honestly believe that it can be important to write smaller downtime scenes where your characters aren’t really doing much as to get a better sense of who the characters are their pasts and personalities and things like desires in smaller low stakes contexts, and while i think it is very important to to let your characters have down time and room to breathe during certain beats in the story, the specific scene the author was describing does feel like it is suited best to a separate preamble sort of log that the author can keep to understand their characters and to get into their headspaces more easily. In other words it is something important but separate from the main piece of writing that should be in a story
11 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 3”
Colette Murphy (Coco)
Professor Miller
Fiction Writing Workshop
1/23/2024
Journal #3:
I love how strong the start is and how it progresses into the author’s humanity as well, it’s nice to know the creative process looms over someone with such talented writers voice. I also love that the author openly struggled with writer’s block and expressed how his character’s and their actions felt bland and how to deal with that. Their response to the feedback they’d received feels like I could mold that into my own works, too. I hadn’t even noticed that the beginning and middle sections of “Cathedral” had overlapped each other, I thought that was interesting when I reread it just now after the author mentioned it. It’s also interesting to realize that the blind man from “Cathedral” is an antagonist at all, I never would have thought that upon first read- or at least I wouldn’t have dubbed Robert with such an ill-indicating title. When I write longer pieces of fiction, I find myself always making little sub plots. So it’s refreshing to see that I’m not the only one who does that when I feel lost and don’t know what else to write about. The other thing I’ve found myself doing is taking inspiration from my own life, a true story of my own, and weaving it into a fictious one of my own creation. I love that the author went over how talking about plot can bore people as well, I know I felt my mind wander when I was reading both of these chapters. I’ve heard of structure so many times I’ve felt like my ears would fall off before. On top of this, I love how this author says that every good character struggles to change and inevitably does at some point in the story.
The major dramatic question, as the chapter puts it, forces you to consider what the ‘meat’ of your story is, at least when concerning your protagonist. Will Percy Jackson find the Lightning Thief? That’s the question we constantly ask ourselves as readers, the question that puts us on the edges of our seats. Speaking of protagonist, picking which character you focus on can change the entire lens with which we view the story. For example, if you read Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” you’re viewing Gatsby as a tragic character who clearly looks to rekindle his love with Daisy, a goal that is often relatable for the hopeless romantic. However, if we focused on Tom’s point of view, Gatsby would be a villain, disrupting Tom’s happiness with his wife, and the story’s ending would be much happier in tone despite Gatsby’s death. Further along in the chapter, the plot structure segments remind of my screenwriting course from freshman year, spring semester, where we discussed the act structure of a film and how there are constant ups and downs. Much like films, fiction is the same way, especially genre-based fiction like fantasy, where you have constant wins and losses for your protagonist, and you build to either the ultimate win or the ultimate loss. I really liked this chapter, as it is often difficult to move from character ideas into an actually complete story. The section on subplots is also useful as a novelistic writer specializing in fantasy, and I am always juggling many subplots— for example, in my NaNoWriMo from my freshman year, there is the main murder mystery, but also a subplot where the protagonist is dealing with a messy breaking off of her engagement, and the deuteragonist is learning how to appreciate people for more than what they can do for her. These subplots feed into the overall themes, paralleling the two primary characters’ journey.
What stuck out to me the most in Chapter 3 was the idea of all of the background information. As a writer, you want to create the best well-rounded version of a character, and want to be able to give the readers the most information about this character, what they are like, what they like to do, and give a deep understanding and connection to them. While this makes sense as the writer, because you want them to understand the character in the way you do, in the end it becomes boring to those that are reading. Being able to keep important bits of information and give detail about the character without bogging down the story is really important. And being okay with taking out pieces of the characters background and mundane activities that don’t pertain to the plot is important. I think that a good plot has to do with how a character is set up, and how that internal and external conflict is resolved in every situation, or in the case of multiple novels how it can be set up for the next story to pick up on. As I read through this chapter I can see how some texts bored me, and how I wasn’t invested. And it seems to all stem from the lack of removal of those mundane actives. It becomes boring to hear about every meal they ate, every thought they had, every activity that they did that has no correlation to the essential conflict in the story. Being able to see that this is happening in your work, and rework the ideas is the best way to create an enticing and eventful plot line.
Chapter three is all about the plot. What I found most interesting in this chapter is the part about the beginning, middle, and end. I loved that it was in relation to “Cathedral” as that made me understand it much better. It was interesting to me, though, because I struggle to create stories that have all three parts. I usually can come up with a great climax of the story but bolstering it with the other necessary parts is a big struggle for me.
I also found the part about subplots to be quite interesting. Again, as I tend to come up with rather large plot ideas, the idea of adding in subplots is incredibly intriguing to me. Sadly, I have never written a story long enough to write something that I can add subplot to without bogging the main plot down.
– creating a goal to achieve within each story that gives more to the plot (57)
– adding a form of conflict to give the story some depth and intenseness. the conflict can be internal or external relating to main character (58)
-creating a beginning middle and end to give a rise climax and dramatic end to keep readers drawn in to the plot (66)
Chapter 3:
I know that I have been trying to compile a working definition of literary fiction throughout the multiple texts we have taken a look at so far and I think that chapter three helps in expanding and maybe clarifying that. Within the “Major Dramatic Question” section, I feel as though the definition of literary fiction could be expanded/ shaped by what it is not. As discussed in class, literary fiction is different than genres like horror and sci-fi and fantasy. To help define literary fiction, the “Major Dramatic Question” section talks about how it is a process of showing a shift of some form through one or two scenes that take place in our world, typically answering some form of simple question throughout the story. I really liked what was said in class about this idea that literary fiction is a representation of what it is like to live life in our world. Figuring out a working definition of literary fiction has helped me grasp what it is exactly I should be attempting to accomplish in my short story.
Chapter 3 was all about plot and how to make a narrative. It details that in order for a story to be compelling we must have a conflict. Structure was also emphasized throughout several parts of this chapter, particularly by separating it into three major components: beginning middle and end. It states that the beginning is typically best reserved for the set up and introduction of the story you are trying to tell. The middle should take up the bulk of any story an includes the climax and shows the most change in your characters. As for the end, typically it is written to be the shortest and is usually meant to round out the story and either provide a solid conclusion or leave the reader thinking about the potential repercussions intentionally. One thing that I found interesting was the fact that the text states that you should generally start where the action is in the story, where everything starts. This makes sense for most scenarios, but I believe that ignoring this could provide much needed anchor that can tastefully enhance where the story ends up going as opposed to just starting on an abnormal day.
– Some writing is for the author, in order to better understand the character or situation, but the readers need the plot to get going.
– Fiction, stories, are just the reader asking “what’s it about?” and expecting the actual answer this time.
– Plots often have a big question between the protagonist, their goal(s), and the conflict of the story,
– The protagonist and goal was mostly explored in the last chapter, but the conflict takes the person and goal and says you have to work for it and here’s how it’ll come about.
This earlier question is answered by the end of the story, even if the answer is just a maybe.
– On page 63, the book mentions an aspect of Cathedral that I noticed but couldn’t seem to quite explain or understand fully. Though Robert is physically blind, the narrator is actually blind to his life and relationships.
– That writing about the character, where nothing much may happen, is still incredibly important to any story because you want to give the character their own distinct way of being alive, often which is closely intertwined with the plot(what came first: the chicken or the egg? The character or the plot?).
Something helpful I found in chapter 3 is the major dramatic question. You need to have a question that will be answered by the end of the story, as that is what builds the plot. It works in tandem with the characters, because what the characters want will be what drives the story and provides the question. Another piece of advice is that an ending should feel inevitable but surprising. Something that the reader can look back on and realize as the only thing that made sense, but that was striking/surprising in the moment.
This chapter focuses on plot and story cadence. As the authors discuss, it may seem obvious to consider the importance of having three sections in a story (beginning, middle, and end), but it helps to construct the overall story in a more cohesive way. This is something I struggle to get right, finding identifiable beginning, middle, and end in my stories. The beginning is important as it serves to get the reader involved and understanding the context needed to be part of the story. It’s important not to give too much exposition at once, otherwise the story can often feel very front-heavy. The middle usually adds to that context developed in the beginning and serves as the stage for the action or conflict to take place. The end ties up loose ends, establishes the consequences of the events of a story, and the lesson the character learns is seen (if applicable).
Plot is such an interesting topic because of the balancing act of plot time and down time, and how everything affects pacing. In the beginning of the chapter the author spent some time talking about how he front loaded the beginning of his book with so much exposition and no actual plot that it was dreadfully boring even if the information being conveyed is important and maybe should be shared at some point. I fully agree with the advisor that those types of scenes are written mostly for the author and i honestly believe that it can be important to write smaller downtime scenes where your characters aren’t really doing much as to get a better sense of who the characters are their pasts and personalities and things like desires in smaller low stakes contexts, and while i think it is very important to to let your characters have down time and room to breathe during certain beats in the story, the specific scene the author was describing does feel like it is suited best to a separate preamble sort of log that the author can keep to understand their characters and to get into their headspaces more easily. In other words it is something important but separate from the main piece of writing that should be in a story