The other day I was looking at an article on Cracked.com entitled "17 Images That Will Ruin Your Childhood". I'll warn you, if you love nostalgia this will definitely crush some memories.
So, it got me thinking about what I have been learning about story structure and plot. What made our childhood images so powerful was the effort that writers, artists and directors took to "suspend disbelief".
Wait...isn't that what we are trying to do in our writing?
Catherine Brady in her book Story Logic and the Craft of Fiction states," to think like an artist is to understand that story structure depends not on baldly advancing a literal conflict but on constructing a plot that articulates the exact parameters at the stories heart." Wow! That is a mouthful but think about it. What stories have you read that leave you changed and hungry for more? Why?
When I read a story, I don't want the author to come out and tell me what to think, just like a child I want to discover it myself. It's how many of us are wired. Would the parables in the New Testament have as much impact if the true message was blatantly laid out?
Think about Faulkner and Munroe, their ability to use literal action to build the tension of the bigger story is epic! There are, of course many more that use this artistic scaffolding, invisible to the reader. It is only at the climax of the story do the questions that the tension aroused make sense. It's magic, a sleight of the hand.
What magic have you read lately?
What magic have you read lately?
