5 Tips For Structuring Fiction - Jonathan Blum
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- čas přidán 4. 06. 2024
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In this Film Courage video interview, Author/Instructor Jonathan Blum explains that when writing fiction, the desired themes emerge naturally, even if they may be embarrassing. He discusses the importance of both external and internal structures in storytelling. External structures provide guidelines for the plot's progression and character development, while internal structures involve elements like time, point of view, scene length, and plot.
Jonathan Blum grew up in Miami and graduated from UCLA and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is the author of two books of fiction: The Usual Uncertainties (Rescue Press, 2019), a story collection, and Last Word (Rescue Press, 2013), a novella. Both were named one of the best books of the year by Iowa Public Radio, and The Usual Uncertainties was named one of the 15 Best Short Story Collections of 2019 by Electric Literature. Blum has twice appeared on KCRW's Bookworm. His short stories have been published in Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, Northwest Review, Playboy, and Shanxi Literature, among others. His short story, "The White Spot," which was published in Electric Literature with an introduction by Deborah Eisenberg, appears in the award-winning anthology The Best Peace Fiction (University of New Mexico Press, 2021). He has taught fiction writing at The University of Iowa, Drew University, and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and is the recipient of a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, a Hawthornden Fellowship in Scotland, and a grant from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. He has also been a guest writer at the Tianjin Binhai New Area International Writing Program in China. He lives in Los Angeles.
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What do you like about this video?
The point made about background and potentially how to deliver it. I have a RICH background and want to share it, but I see now the story comes first and the story wants the back ground as much as I need it. So I can find creative way to bring it up, just as he gave the example about love lost… “how many ways can I refer to a woman who I never wish to name again?”
The approach to process makes a ton of sense, including the (tease and) final comment
Breaking down actual writing. Most do not discuss writing about a character's backstory, which is an element of the Naturalism genre which many do not regard today (even if they write Naturalism). When I coach my writers, I say, "Murderers do not just murder, something got them there." Joker is a prime example. All he had to hold on to when the world stomped him around was his mother, and then he finds out... Sooo -
Like the interview. It's a good one.
I write about what I feel passionate about and let it flow you can't force it
Me too. Until I realize I’m onto something… and then I overthink it
super fiction writing tips
thanks to Film courage & Mr. Jonathan
1. Time period in which story happens
2. POV, Who tells story
3. Scene length, scene number, what is needed, not needed
4. Balance between background
and foreground of story, what goes now, relation of now with past, dialogue of past.
.5. Plot, what, why How happened
What I like about this video is that Mr. Blum frees aspiring writers from having to worry about forcing a backstory and motivations into the story if the story can be told well without them.
In fact, I feel like great writing can sometimes reveal backstory/motivations without the author ever having to outline it plainly themselves
A brutal military superior might be driven by some (misguided) sense of worldview to rigidly enforce, extremely shy/jumpy character could have survived a viciously abusive childhood etc.
I believe what they sometimes call “Hemingway’s iceberg”
I liked how he made sense of the different approaches to structure by distinguishing external from internal structure. Now I can be more methodical and deliberate in addressing issues of structure.
All good stuff. The Deborah Eisenberg thing is quite true, at least in my experience.
One of the most surprising and helpful things I have found is if you create, get to know, and inhabit the characters, put yourself directly in their shoes, and spend a lot of energy on who they are at their core (even if only in your mind and not on the page), regardless of where you might have expected the story to go in the plot, the characters will then actually tell you where to take the story. That's right. I know that sounds crazy, but it happens, over and over. They create the story for you, and it then feels as if you assume the role of a dutiful stenographer, doing all the typing.
What this actually is is collaboration between your conscious awareness-the typist (and eventual editor and structural choreographer), and your unconscious mind-the creator. Both are a part of you, and you're wearing both hats at once.
I think why this happens is because creativity all comes from the unconscious mind. Craft and technique are conscious layers on top of that, but conscious attempts at creating the plot of a story are hampered by the fact that creativity is really only in that domain of the unconscious. So all you have to do is get your conscious ego out of the way, and listen to the characters. They know.
The unconscious can't tap you on the shoulder and whisper the plot to you. There are no words in the domain of the unconscious, no common language, which is why although accessing creativity can be learned by writing, it can't be taught by any means whatsoever. Craft and technique, yes, that can be taught, but creativity, no. The good news is creativity is explicitly already resident within you, and what you learn by doing the work is how to access it, implicitly.
Creativity does somehow transfer from our unconscious to our conscious awareness, which is likely what Mr. Blum is referring to when he says 'it comes to the surface', the 'surface' being conscious awareness and where it comes from being the unconscious mind.
And if you inhabit the characters like I suggest above, this somehow magically creates that conduit that allows the unconscious to reveal what happens in the story, the plot, to your conscious mind. The characters are a conscious personification of your unconscious mind. They already know the story you will eventually write, and they can actually express it to you in a way you can 'hear', which is not something the unconscious mind can do on its own.
So, work on character first, and plot, second.
Of course, our conscious mind then attempts to take ownership, thinking it was 'born on third base', when in reality, it was our unconscious mind that hit the triple.
You're right about that, but also, what do you think about _the mind's eye?_ This is your ability to picture all these events and characters together to dictate and control how you type it. Some people have aphantasia and they can't use this part of our mind, instead having to rely on external stimulus such as images to generate the creative energy from their subconscious to write the story out in the conscious.
@@gamewriteeye769 The moment we attempt to define something, sadly there is also a tendency to categorize. Defining a mental 'condition' tends to want to separate those 'with it' from those 'without it'.
Since you ask, I believe that most 'conditions' are not binary, 'either-or'. I believe they are on a spectrum, and that we are all somewhere on that spectrum. The inability to visualize is likely a hindrance to the ability to create story in certain ways. On the other hand, those with synesthesia may have pathways to create story that those without the condition may not be able to avail themselves of.
For example, The very best writer I have ever read, and luckily know intimately, is I believe good at what she does for many reasons, and one is I think that she is quite synesthetic. Synesthesia and aphantasia might even be differing extreme points on the same spectrum, and all of us may have one position or another on that same spectrum.
Of course this impacts the 'mind's eye', which in long-form story creation is something that is not easy to have a firm grasp on, especially if not yet well-experienced in writing, having not done the due diligence of constantly doing the hard work, which is the key to prevailing over that difficulty.
When I began writing novels, I had the ability to write at the scene level only, and it took years for me to begin to be able to hold larger chunks of the story, sequences, acts, full arcs, trilogy arcs, in my 'mind's eye' all at once. I'm still no expert at that, but the more I work and the harder I work, the better I get at that.
So where we are on all those different spectrums is what we are faced with-individuality. And the successful find ways to create a path, regardless, based on availing themselves of their natural strengths and doing end runs around the obstacles that could otherwise hold them back, all of which is part of why we all write differently. We have the power to change where we are on those spectrums, and find individual ways to reach our goals.
I'm sure what is one person's experience, or understanding of how creating art happens for them, is likely a path that is a bit unique, bc we are all quite unique. And our actual chosen path based on the methodology is even far more unique, bc there is no handbook or PDF to download that can tell us what to do and how to do it.
We are left to figure that out on our own, regardless of how many 'gurus' there are that attempt to guide us. They can guide us on many things such as craft and technique, but there is no way to teach creativity, and no tried and true method that can be imparted. No formula, no recipe.
And again, this is based on creativity emerging from the unconscious, where there are no words, no common language, that can tell us what to do or how to do it. We can only learn implicitly by doing. That much, I believe is universal.
But understanding this much has been helpful, and has provided a footing, a frame of reference, to guide me forward. I hope it can help others, knowing the possibility of that is not great, but is still possible. Take what you can and leave the rest.
That said, advice about creativity is limited to 'hints'. Hints that are hints bc the giver of the hints also can't put advice about something that is only in the domain of the unconscious into words that are clear and precise. Words don't exist in the unconscious. We can't have explicit conscious understanding of ideas that are outside the domain of conscious awareness, only implicit understanding.
As clear and precise and helpful as what Mr. Blum is trying to impart to us, neither he nor anyone else can transcend that barrier and give 'instruction' that clearly guides us to how to enhance the emergence of actual creativity.
Neither can I. All anyone can do is present another way of trying to understand what is not really explainable in precise words. While it may not help others, it also may, implicitly.
@@tomlewis4748 Thanks for your in-depth reply. To add to this, I do sense and believe the creative aspect of writing draws itself from an energy given/withheld in the unconscious mind; hence some people mention they've been having an idea for years 'bouncing around in their head' and seek to get it down on paper.
Storytelling is a form of understanding human psychology-this much I understand given how we write character(s).
This statement _'words don't exist in the subconscious'_ doesn't sound right. The concept of the human unconscious/subconscious self is usually visualized _with_ worded statements, and from experience as well, I can attest to drawing out the ideas of 'characters speak to us'-hence we can receive a plethora of different communications the subconscious does with the conscious-be it audio(dialogue, sound), visual(depicting the imagery of a scene), and so on. If I told you to depict a scene of someone eating an apple, your mind's eye may very well picture teeth biting out the skin and juicy fruit inside, alongside a crunch to go with it.
There's no simple way to depicting this spectrum either-some may fabricate it entirely, or those may have some level of a physical inability to enact it(mind's eye), etc. Hopefully what is hinted at 'implicity' about creativity by anybody does incite and spark toward a spontaneous drive to writing/storytelling in general.
Synesthesia sounds like something I'd think occur naturally, not be a 'condition'; we always constantly hear, see, feel, taste, smell, just other times or another, we tend to focus on a particular sense at a time.
Those are just my thoughts on your reply, though.
I think a movie, story or tale is a recount of equilibrium becoming disequilibrium, that leads to an epiphany. That epiphany leads to a new, higher, or lower in the case of a tragedy, state of equilibrium.
I love this gentleman. He’s so brilliant and yet so modest. Master of his craft and it is simply obvious. Thank You for making it possible for me to hear his words / thoughts.
Actually, with the exception of A Dance With Dragons, I like it when George R.R. Martin switches chapters with characters. Sometimes, I read the stories by each character's chapters. A Dance With Dragons killed my love for reading until I read a friend of mine's fanfiction.
For sale; baby shoes; never worn.
It’s not a single story necessarily.
(Feel free to think of your own but) depending on subtext, it could imply many stories with titles such as:
“Baby’s Day Out of meth”
“Journey of atheism”
“The Immaculate Geisha”
“The Homelessness of minimalism”
“The spiritual life in three acts”
“Entrapping pedophiles: a mother’s guide”
“The tooth fairy goes to Harlem”
(And many more…)
mona simpson in what? that's homer's mom. simpsons did it!
nice fridging. who needs afab characters anyway? no one else does