Causality and Affectation (carried over from my Yahoo group)
Dear Folks,
I do accept ideas for prompts as well. Just so you all know. ;-)
I admit to surprise that I'm online at all. Terror's computer is in the shop (we're still waiting to hear from Jason Bruno of Dynamic Computer Services in Mastic on the computer's status) because the fan was being a not-so-fan. For some strange reason I have managed to get the wireless network on my system running despite this little problem.
Anyway, to the prompt or prompts.
You see, I'm working on a book right now and it opens with the death of a character. This is all part of the plot, the "loaded gun". But to set everything up, you start with an intro scene, the set up to the event, then move on to the event itself, and the scenes after that are the ones where your protagonist deals with the event.
This can be written as a story or as a poem. William Shakespeare wrote much in ballad form, and you can tell a story in poetic form, some of the best poems work that way too.
The beginning, or "status quo" is the prologue, the calm before the storm, the event leading up to The Change. Chance is necessary in fiction because it sets the story in motion: but a few brush strokes to illustrate life before the change underscores the importance of that change. It's a technique that's not used in every story, but it can be used to good advantage, mostly in novellas and novels, but sometimes in shorter works (one example of the shorter work is Robert Sheckley's story "Pandora's Box -- Open With Care" from the September 2000 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction).
Every writer seems to have some change in mind. What do you think might happen before the change, as if to highlight and underscore the effects of the change?
I do accept ideas for prompts as well. Just so you all know. ;-)
I admit to surprise that I'm online at all. Terror's computer is in the shop (we're still waiting to hear from Jason Bruno of Dynamic Computer Services in Mastic on the computer's status) because the fan was being a not-so-fan. For some strange reason I have managed to get the wireless network on my system running despite this little problem.
Anyway, to the prompt or prompts.
You see, I'm working on a book right now and it opens with the death of a character. This is all part of the plot, the "loaded gun". But to set everything up, you start with an intro scene, the set up to the event, then move on to the event itself, and the scenes after that are the ones where your protagonist deals with the event.
This can be written as a story or as a poem. William Shakespeare wrote much in ballad form, and you can tell a story in poetic form, some of the best poems work that way too.
The beginning, or "status quo" is the prologue, the calm before the storm, the event leading up to The Change. Chance is necessary in fiction because it sets the story in motion: but a few brush strokes to illustrate life before the change underscores the importance of that change. It's a technique that's not used in every story, but it can be used to good advantage, mostly in novellas and novels, but sometimes in shorter works (one example of the shorter work is Robert Sheckley's story "Pandora's Box -- Open With Care" from the September 2000 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction).
Every writer seems to have some change in mind. What do you think might happen before the change, as if to highlight and underscore the effects of the change?
posted by Liz | 7:06 AM
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