Why archetypes? In an interview
for The Shining, Kubrick offers this piece:
Yes, I do, and I think that it's part of their often phenomenal success. There is no doubt that a good story has always mattered, and the great novelists have generally built their work around strong plots. But I've never been able to decide whether the plot is just a way of keeping people's attention while you do everything else, or whether the plot is really more important than anything else, perhaps communicating with us on an unconscious level which affects us in the way that myths once did. I think, in some ways, the conventions of realistic fiction and drama may impose serious limitations on a story. For one thing, if you play by the rules and respect the preparation and pace required to establish realism, it takes a lot longer to make a point than it does, say, in fantasy. At the same time, it is possible that this very work that contributes to a story's realism may weaken its grip on the unconscious. Realism is probably the best way to dramatize argument and ideas. Fantasy may deal best with themes which lie primarily in the unconscious. I think the unconscious appeal of a ghost story, for instance, lies in its promise of immortality. If you can be frightened by a ghost story, then you must accept the possibility that supernatural beings exist. If they do, then there is more than just oblivion waiting beyond the grave.
This kind of implication is present in much of the fantastic literature.
I believe fantasy stories at their best serve the same function for us that fairy tales and mythology formerly did. The current popularity of fantasy, particularly in films, suggests that popular culture, at least, isn't getting what it wants from realism.
These archetypes, I believe, stem from Jung's collective unconscious - the imagery which lies universal to every human mind. This is why Star Wars (the original trilogy) has enjoyed such massive appeal, and also why The Lord Of The Rings is a milestone of fantastic fiction.
edited 13th Nov '11 7:07:16 PM by QQQQQ
Sneaky Bastard
Well, if we're going to give links I think a mention of Writing Excuses wouldn't go amiss. Seriously, those guys have taught me so much.
More! These will be posted on my blog later. (See signature).
Mystery Writing is Murder: Talking to Readers: While I look forward to answering (or non-answering) questions about my stories, I rarely think about answering questions about the writing process. This is a neat list I might keep in mind, with questions like "How did you come up with your protagonist?". In my case, I created Bryan as a foil from Finn.
The Sharp Angle: Is Your Gag Running? Better Go Catch It: In this case, the running gag doesn't have to be funny. It's basically having a character say a line, do something, or otherwise repeating something throughout the book. Using it to strengthen association with a character sounds like a good compare-contrast tool, like Book Ends. Perhaps I should try it out.
The Other Side of the Story: Hey, Who Said That? Polishing Our Dialog Tags: While this post has some of the much-said information about dialogue tags, like adverbs, it also brings up other concepts. For example, avoiding dialogue tags. It also brings up the topic of when to internalize a line of dialogue, and when to have the character say it out loud. I'm guilty of messing up the latter.
edited 16th Nov '11 2:09:00 PM by chihuahua0
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
@first post: decent article, but I strongly disagree with it on one point—characters can simultaneously fulfill opposing roles, so long as they fulfill them for different story goals. For instance, if one of your protagonists wants to kill or defeat one of your other protagonists, each can be the other's "avoiding" archetype. (This is something Golden Sun handled really well, and I've heard it also worked in Invader Zim.)
@last post: The bit about running gags reminds me a lot of My Life Is A Goddamn Mess. The title begins as the main character's catchphrase, but he uses it less and less as he matures. In the end, he uses it again as he dies, but he can't finish the last word.
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
More!
Mystery Writing is Murder: 9 Pieces of Bad Writing Advice it’s Best to Ignore: This is to the people who hate writing books. While some of these are well-known exceptions (since some of these rules are often wrong, like number two and number eight), others are not, like number one. The last point, how a good critiquer should both point out a good and the bad, is one of the large jewels of this post. We wouldn't want to scare someone off and make them think they're a writer with absolutely nothing good about them.
Time to Write: Flash fiction ideas to keep your brain active!: I'm plugging in a writing prompt. Write a micro-story involving a mouse-trap, with the protagonist loosing the phone. Rube Goldberg comes to mind for me. How about you?
The Other Side of the Story: Stop That Fighting! Conflicts Aren’t all About the Punches: At few, I thought this post would be about how "conflict is having to decide between two choices". But then it goes on about the different types of conflicts. There's the small conflicts that lead up to larger ones, the emotional conflicts, friendly competition, and then the cat pouncing around a breaking vases while having little stakes to the plot. Keep that list in mind.
Professor Mungelton: Looking in Someone Else's Mirror: This isn't a writing link and this only applies to blogger. However, shady links had been popping up in my referrals and it seems to be the only ones. So, look out for any .tk sites or any other shady looking ones. You don't want a virus.
So, what do you think?
edited 17th Nov '11 2:24:08 PM by chihuahua0
Some moar:
- Here is one of Judith Searle's articles regarding story genres under the Enneagram.
- Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With The Wind, and her personality developments.
- Scarlett O'Hara
- An overview of the Four Temperaments, an ancient (yet still relevant) way to view personality. Shakespeare used this.
- Our thread on the writing books we use.
- A repository of writing articles from Writer's Write(TM).
edited 17th Nov '11 5:07:15 PM by QQQQQ
Children's Publishing: This Week for Writers 11/18/11: Our Favorite Articles and Blog Posts: This is my favorite round-up of posts.
I'm not sure whether to do a round-up on my blog today. There aren't a lot of articles on my watchlist today, and I'm wondering if I should wait until Friday to release my list.
Oh well:
Tartitude: Victoria Mixon on Fueling Plot Momentum: This post uses a movie I'm yet to see as an example, yet it drives the points home quite well: One choice leads to another, the risk must heighten, and each character must have a strong motive about carrying out an action.
Contest: Win Crossed by Ally Condie & Other Goodies: Now for a contest at once. MATCHED was a good book, in my opinion, although I'm not sure how it appeals to the non-YA audience. A bit clean, but it works as a dystopian novel.
From The Right Angle: Crossing the Bridge: Song Structure and Plot: I love music. I have a musician's eye when it comes to listening to the background music and the structure of it. So this post presents an interesting analogy. Verse tells story. Chorus presents theme. The bridge shifts gears to presents the climax of the song, which is a bigger reprise of the chorus. Makes sense?]]
edited 18th Nov '11 2:44:39 PM by chihuahua0
Drummer Boy
Anti-Shurtugal lives on... kind of. It's more informative than the LJ community, at any rate.
Looks interesting, even though I can't really read through it right now. What happened to it anyways?
Drummer Boy
I think they stopped paying for the web hosting fee or something and then it became a page full of random plumbing advertisements.
First, they're the Inheritance Cycle hatedom. Second, they're articles on bad writing, but they use Inheritance as an example. Having examples is pretty convenient. I would especially recommend the Epistles.
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Holy shit. For the first time in my life, the wayback archive actually worked.
- Your New Best Friend: The Writing Cheat Sheet: This is a two-page cheat sheet with a buttload of references, from plots to characters.
Monday:
- Daily Writing Tips: 50 Handy Expressions About Hands: Let me give you a guiding hand by handing this article on to you hand over fist.
- Mystery Writing is Murder: Spacing Books: Do you ever wonder why it takes two years for an author to release a book, if they're writing two series at once? This is why. The time between the final draft and the book being release is apparently a good amount of time. If only there is a way to narrow that time down...
- The Other Side of the Story: Why Am I Doing This Again? Plotting Through “What’s Next?” Part Two: Although I feel like Mrs. Hardy had posted something similar to this in the past, it's good to see it in a list. But the second-to-last question ("Are there any unconscious motivators at work?") raises my interest. What are the different type of motivators that can be at work? Love can be one. Maybe another goal influence's the character's choice. I'll keep this in mind.
- The Other Side of the Story: Thinking to Myself: Internalization 101: This is an older post, but I like the points, along with how the author used examples from her own book. Basically, adding a pinch of the narrator's own worldview can go a long way.
edited 21st Nov '11 3:42:53 PM by chihuahua0
Drummer Boy
As a firm believer in the effectiveness of what not to do guides, I present you Kippur's commentary on that infamous "Dear Negative Reader" thingy.
Wow, that attitude...she should at least acknowledge the potential flaws in her series.
Tuesday:
- The Other Side of the Story: Guest Author Elle Strauss: Writing a Selling Query or Pitch in Four Easy Steps: Queries is a topic I'm always looking out for. Seeing an example of one helps. But having a how-to guide on how to write one with a simple but effective format pleases me. Perhaps I should use this format when I get to writing a query?
- The Writer's Resource: Tips For Writing In First Person POV: The Writer's Resource is a good...resource. It gathers up a good list of posts on one topic. Since both my recent project uses 1st person, this applies to me.
edited 22nd Nov '11 2:29:36 PM by chihuahua0
Wednesday:
No articles, sorry.
Thanksgiving Greetings:
Thursday:
- Superhero Nation: Building Up Romance: On Thanksgiving, my watchlist was graced by this guest post article. It's a simple guide, but it covers the basic bases quite well. It only covers the romantic interactions though. I'm wondering how the "friendship" building part of the romance and the bonding works. Perhaps next article?
edited 24th Nov '11 7:34:09 PM by chihuahua0
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
I'm curious what people think of this. I thought it was excessively strict, and I disagreed with it in a lot of places—I gave up on it completely after it said not to have characters use niceties.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
In a word: awful. It's very, very rare I reject a quiz after just four questions. Looks like a weird fusion of a "writing for morons" quiz and someone's personal beliefs on what makes for good writing.
edited 24th Nov '11 9:37:11 PM by nrjxll
Drummer Boy
I only went through it for shits and giggles. At least it wasn't a "one question wrong and you fail" thing.
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Rabid Fujoshi
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants is a pretty good resource for writing fantasy (and non-fantasy) and I often agree with the things she says.
edited 24th Nov '11 10:06:29 PM by NoirGrimoir
SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)
I am vexed!
The only thing I can find to criticise is her knowledge of weapons. That wouldn't be a mentionable point, but sometimes she's like "x isn't like that, it's like this", when x is nothing of the sort. That said, even when dealing with such things, her narrative advice is excellent. Definitely use it; just ensure that you look for terminology and technicalities elsewhere.
Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — Watch
I took all the articles I listed in the last week and put them here.
"Blaming oneself for low productivity is punishment for a crime that did not exist until it was named. An uneven artistic output, for many, is a natural condition of creativity." — On Writer's Block, Victoria Nelson
I had been meaning to create this thread, since I read a lot of blog posts about writing.
This thread is where you can link articles and blog posts about writing.
First link: Creating Archetypal Characters To Fill The Dramatic Functions in Your Novel
. Considering this article reminded me of something QQQQQ said a while ago, it caught my interest. Basically: How to use archetypes correctly. It also touches upon Power Trio.
edited 13th Nov '11 6:52:05 PM by chihuahua0