Rising Action – Tension and Release, even more Reader’s Knowledge

28 May 2012, this blog is about writing in scenes.  I’ll leave up the parts of a novel because I think this is an important picture for any novelist.  I’m writing about the rising action.

1. The beginning
2. The rising action
3. The Climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement

Tension and release is the method of development of the rising action.  There are obviously degrees of tension and release–let’s look at them.

How to create tension and release.  Let’s start a list, off the cuff:

1. Fear
2. Love
3. Sex
4. Hate
5. Hunger or thirst
6. Jealousy
7. Danger
8. Drunkenness
9. Pain and suffering
10. Injury
11. Loss
12. Abuse
13. Torture
14. Nature
15. Sickness
16. Gender confusion
17.  Disfigurement
18.  Time
19. …

I’m going on about show and don’t tell again.  But I think this is an important topic because so many writers state that they understand what it means to show and not tell and yet they don’t do it.  Like goose droppings on the pavement, telling litters modern novels written by people who should know better.  So it’s not the greatest metaphor, but I like it.

The point is that when you read a novel, you don’t need the author to tell you what is happening.  You don’t want any confusion, but you don’t need to tell the readers everything in the mind of any character or everything that is going on in the background.  An author worth his salt doesn’t ever tell the readers the motivations of any character.  If the motivations are not obvious and they should be–do more showing.  If the motivations are not important, don’t show or tell anything.  I’m kind of rambling here, but this is very particular to mental illness.

I’ll write more about sickness, mental illness, and reader’s knowledge, tomorrow.

Rising Action – Tension and Release, more Reader’s Knowledge

27 May 2012, this blog is about writing in scenes.  I’ll leave up the parts of a novel because I think this is an important picture for any novelist.  I’m writing about the rising action.

1. The beginning
2. The rising action
3. The Climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement

Tension and release is the method of development of the rising action.  There are obviously degrees of tension and release–let’s look at them.

How to create tension and release.  Let’s start a list, off the cuff:

1. Fear
2. Love
3. Sex
4. Hate
5. Hunger or thirst
6. Jealousy
7. Danger
8. Drunkenness
9. Pain and suffering
10. Injury
11. Loss
12. Abuse
13. Torture
14. Nature
15. Sickness
16. Gender confusion
17.  Disfigurement
18.  Time
19. …

Reader’s knowledge is the reason one of my personal rules of writing is “Don’t show everything.”  One of the most powerful tools an author has is what they don’t tell their readers.  My basic rule is that I don’t want my readers to know anything the characters can’t know or perceive themselves.  This is a reason I don’t like first person novels–there is too much opportunity for an author to share information they shouldn’t with the reader.  If you share too much information with your readers, you will destroy the potential excitement and climax revelations of the novel.  If you share too little information, you might confuse your readers.  “Don’t confuse your readers,” is another of my personal rules for writing.

The mental perceptions of your characters is critically important in the overall development and revelation of your novel.

I’ll write more about sickness, mental illness, and reader’s knowledge, tomorrow.

Rising Action – Tension and Release, Reader’s Knowledge

26 May 2012, this blog is about writing in scenes.  I’ll leave up the parts of a novel because I think this is an important picture for any novelist.  I’m writing about the rising action.

1. The beginning
2. The rising action
3. The Climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement

Tension and release is the method of development of the rising action.  There are obviously degrees of tension and release–let’s look at them.

How to create tension and release.  Let’s start a list, off the cuff:

1. Fear
2. Love
3. Sex
4. Hate
5. Hunger or thirst
6. Jealousy
7. Danger
8. Drunkenness
9. Pain and suffering
10. Injury
11. Loss
12. Abuse
13. Torture
14. Nature
15. Sickness
16. Gender confusion
17.  Disfigurement
18.  Time
19. …

I’ll use the idea of mental illness to write about reader’s knowledge.  In my published novel, Aegypt, the main character, Paul Bolang, appears completely sane, but so do the other primary characters.  The problem is how each of the characters interpret what they see and experience.  Paul attributes the events in the tomb to mysticism, while the archeologists attribute these events to science.  The problem is that science can’t explain everything that is happening in the tomb.

I don’t let the reader know who is right and who is wrong until the end of the novel.  There is a climatic scene (the intellectual climax of the novel) where we discover that Paul has been right all along.  The point is that the reader did not know who was right until this scene.  All novels need to have this kind of approach–not necessarily that of mental illness, but rather a lack of reader’s knowledge that is revealed in the intellectual climax of the novel.

I’ll write more about sickness, mental illness, and reader’s knowledge, tomorrow.

Rising Action – Tension and Release, Mental Illness

25 May 2012, this blog is about writing in scenes.  I’ll leave up the parts of a novel because I think this is an important picture for any novelist.  I’m writing about the rising action.

1. The beginning
2. The rising action
3. The Climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement

Tension and release is the method of development of the rising action.  There are obviously degrees of tension and release–let’s look at them.

How to create tension and release.  Let’s start a list, off the cuff:

1. Fear
2. Love
3. Sex
4. Hate
5. Hunger or thirst
6. Jealousy
7. Danger
8. Drunkenness
9. Pain and suffering
10. Injury
11. Loss
12. Abuse
13. Torture
14. Nature
15. Sickness
16. Gender confusion
17.  Disfigurement
18.  Time
19. …

Mental illness is a great tension developer, a great theme, but except within my expanded definition, it might not be the best plot device.  Mental illness can be used as a simple tension developer.  This is commonly done in many novels where there is a mentally ill secondary or tertiary character–the irrational actions of that character become tension developers for scenes in the novel.

In many cases, the rationality of one of the characters comes into question.  Sometimes this is portrayed as choice and sometimes as illness.  Sometimes, like in my novel, Aegypt, I don’t let you know whether the character is mentally ill.  If a character’s actions all appear rational, but their view of the world is in question, this is a classic symptom of mental illness.  A method to develop tension is to not let your readers know whether a character’s actions are driven by rationality or not.

In other novels, like Aksinya, I show you that the main character’s actions and understanding are fully rational, but their impression to others is that of mental illness.  The tension here is that the reader knows the character is fully rational, but they see the potential abuse or discrimination the character experiences at the hands of others.  Reader’s knowledge is a very important type of tension builder.

I’ll write more about sickness, mental illness, and reader’s knowledge, tomorrow.

Rising Action – Tension and Release, Sickness Theme

24 May 2012, this blog is about writing in scenes.  I’ll leave up the parts of a novel because I think this is an important picture for any novelist.  I’m writing about the rising action.

1. The beginning
2. The rising action
3. The Climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement

Tension and release is the method of development of the rising action.  There are obviously degrees of tension and release–let’s look at them.

How to create tension and release.  Let’s start a list, off the cuff:

1. Fear
2. Love
3. Sex
4. Hate
5. Hunger or thirst
6. Jealousy
7. Danger
8. Drunkenness
9. Pain and suffering
10. Injury
11. Loss
12. Abuse
13. Torture
14. Nature
15. Sickness
16. Gender confusion
17.  Disfigurement
18.  Time
19. …

I already mentioned the use I made of sickness in the novel Dana-ana.  In this novel, sickness was both a tension developer and a plot device.  Dana-ana’s illness moved the plot forward, but it also brought tension into a few scenes, and it helped revealed more of Dana-ana’s character.  It was not a part of the theme, but it supported the theme.

In Aksinya, I used Aksinya’s apparent mental illness as a tension builder and as part of the theme.  Her actions were completely cogent and rational, but viewed by those who didn’t understand her problems as insanity.  Insanity is a type of sickness.

I’ll write more about sickness and mental illness, tomorrow.

Rising Action – Tension and Release, Sickness and Plot Device

23 May 2012, this blog is about writing in scenes.  I’ll leave up the parts of a novel because I think this is an important picture for any novelist.  I’m writing about the rising action.

1. The beginning
2. The rising action
3. The Climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement

Tension and release is the method of development of the rising action.  There are obviously degrees of tension and release–let’s look at them.

How to create tension and release.  Let’s start a list, off the cuff:

1. Fear
2. Love
3. Sex
4. Hate
5. Hunger or thirst
6. Jealousy
7. Danger
8. Drunkenness
9. Pain and suffering
10. Injury
11. Loss
12. Abuse
13. Torture
14. Nature
15. Sickness
16. Gender confusion
17.  Disfigurement
18.  Time
19. …

A plot device is an object, character, or concept whose sole purpose is to advance the plot.  Some explanations of plot devices border on the negative, but a plot device is not necessarily a negative thing.  In the wrong hands it can be a terrible thing.  A plot device is not necessarily a theme.  A theme is a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc.  The difference between a plot device and a theme is that one is comprehensive, the other simply moves the plot.  I’ve already been through the division of story, plot, and theme–I’ll not define and explain them again right now.

With the explanation above, you should be able to understand the problem when the theme or a thematic idea becomes a plot device and the other way around.

So let’s look at illness as a plot device vs. a theme.  Tension developers can be viewed as plot devices.  They are much more important and deeper than that–they move the plot but they also create excitement and entertainment.  They move scenes.  Tension builders can be themes.  Illness can be a tension builder, a plot device, and a theme.  A writer needs to be very cognizant how she is using illness.  This is to a limited degree true of every tension builder.

I’ll try to give you an example for sickness, plot device, and tension builder, tomorrow.

I’ll write more about nature, and I’ll look at the potential of each of these–they are all useful for different reasons.

Rising Action – Tension and Release, Sickness and Plot

22 May 2012, this blog is about writing in scenes.  I’ll leave up the parts of a novel because I think this is an important picture for any novelist.  I’m writing about the rising action.

1. The beginning
2. The rising action
3. The Climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement

Tension and release is the method of development of the rising action.  There are obviously degrees of tension and release–let’s look at them.

How to create tension and release.  Let’s start a list, off the cuff:

1. Fear
2. Love
3. Sex
4. Hate
5. Hunger or thirst
6. Jealousy
7. Danger
8. Drunkenness
9. Pain and suffering
10. Injury
11. Loss
12. Abuse
13. Torture
14. Nature
15. Sickness
16. Gender confusion
17.  Disfigurement
18.  Time
19. …

I mentioned that sickness is usually not a short term tension builder in most novels.  This is odd to me because simple illness is not that uncommon.  Colds are like weather in many novels–everyone always seems to be healthy and the sun is shining.  That is until someone really gets sick, and then it’s a theme.

Illness is most commonly used in modern novels as a theme or long term tension builder–or not a tension builder at all.  Many authors seem to use illness as a plot device and not as a tension builder.  Ah, you might ask, what’s the difference and does it matter?  The answer to both is–yes.  A plot device is simply a means to move the plot.  For example, the illness of my main character is the method I use in the plot to drive the plot (plus it might be the theme too).

A tension builder can and should also drive the plot, but its purpose is to drive the excitement (the tension) in a scene.  The tension builder is the means you use to make the action in the scene move.  A plot device is supposed to have similar effects, but it doesn’t necessarily have to.

I’ll try to give you an example for sickness, plot device, and tension builder, tomorrow.

I’ll write more about nature, and I’ll look at the potential of each of these–they are all useful for different reasons.