Monday, March 26, 2012

Fiction Writing 101: Plot and Structure

What an amazing response to my request yesterday!  People from all over the world urged me to continue posting tidbits about writing fiction. Yes, I heard from folks in Slovakia, Tonga, and Uzbekistan.  Botswana, Cyprus, and Maldives. They all want me to keep posting these ultra important tips about story telling. Of course, they mostly wanted to know how to write romance novels which, sadly, I know nothing about. But today I will impart the few things I know about plot. Actually, there's only one thing I know about plot, and Kate Braverman explains it best when she's talking about her short stories, but I'm sure you can apply this to an 800 page novel as well.

Kate Braverman calls some of her short stories "exploded moments" and goes on to say that "they're just a point in time and space, and that's all they are. They don't necessarily resolve, and they don't necessarily have a structure. Who's to say that plot is necessary for literature? Just men who have been involved in plots and boundary disputes. Does that really have anything to do with me?"

So the question of the day is: Does that have anything to do with you?

No comments:

Post a Comment