Be a New Element

Ray Bradbury’s insights on being a writer —

Bradbury-spectrum

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Acknowledging Influences

Lately, I’ve been making a leisurely read of Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing. In it, he mentions many of the things that influenced him, that fed his imagination. It made me think of how many writers shy away from acknowledging all their influences. Perhaps it springs from a desire to avoid having their critics claiming they are compying the Influencer. Perhaps it is a fear of being unworthy or of having fallen into copying the earlier writer. Such concerns usually come from being insecure about one’s own voice as a writer.

Shakespeare

Shakespeare

I have had no problem acknowledging two major influences on myself: Shakespeare and Tolkien. When I was a child, I had an illustrated storybook of stories from Shakespeare and the stories captured my attention. Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It. The storybook led me to an interest in the plays themselves. Hamlet came to take the top of the list of favorite plays.

The effect of Shakespeare on me lay in the Bard’s ability to make poetry conversational. By the time I was in college, I had come to admire the flow of his wording and his coining of word usage. In ninth grade, I encountered the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and fell under the enchantment of both his storytelling and his command of language. His prose seemed deceptively simple and plain, and yet he managed to conjure very vivid characters and settings.

J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien

These two writers became the models I wanted to emulate. I wanted my own work to strive for that quality. Whether or not it achieves that stature, I probably will not know. But it’s more important to have that desire.

Occasionally, I also mention the poet Keats as an influence on myself. And certainly other writers have contributed to shaping me as a writer — Arthur Conan Doyle, for instance. After my first encounter with his Sherlock Holmes, I was moved to write my first story. The motion and adventure in the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs also fed my imagination.

But in reading Bradbury’s book of essays on writing, I’ve been reminded of something else.

Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

In junior high school, before I read Tolkien, I had a profound encounter with the work of Ray Bradbury. I read his novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. I suspect I had read others of his works before that point, but not enough to resonate deeply. But the day I saw the title on the library shelf it spoke to me. Firstly, there was the title, pulled from the lines of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I took it off the shelf.

Inside the covers, an eerie story unfolded in the most lyrical language. It sang to me songs of crisp October nights, filled with flying, crunchy dead leaves and silver moonlight shining on midnight shapes.

I had fallen into Bradbury magic.

And it stayed with me.

However, oddly enough, I did not go out and ravenously consume everything Bradbury. Instead I moved on with my reading, absorbing other writers.

But lately, in considering my own writing, I’ve come to realize the profound effect Bradbury has had on my style. For I too like to wax poetical at times, and it is not just because of Shakespeare and Keats.

One of the things Bradbury talks about in Zen in the Art of Writing is realizing the power of our influences. Just because they exist, that does not mean we are copying them. For we absorb these things into our hearts and souls, and when we breathe them out again, they are transformed by our own experiences and additional influences.

Acknowledging the things that influence us is not about making an evaluation of their objective quality as art. It is simply acknowledging that this thing resonated true and clear to yourself at a key time in the development of the artist or writer that you are becoming. Celebrate those things, no matter how silly or unlikely they may seem to others. It’s not about them: it’s about you and what inspired you.

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The Difference Between Construction and Creation

I was looking for quotations earlier today. Nothing specific, just ideas that could inspire me, since I was in need of some inspiration myself. In doing so, I ran across the following quotation from G.K. Chesterton —

Construction-and-creation

It highlighted for me something that I have occasionally struggled with creatively, but something I had not been able to define before now.

There really is a difference between construction and creation.

I’ve written many things that were easy to put together, but which did not touch me personally. I could dash off a short story that might have amused me, but it — in a sense — had no heart. It was put together entirely to suit some specific purpose.

In short, I did not love it before it existed.

But those works of art (whether visual or verbal) that burned themselves into my heart before I ever made the first move to given them a manifest form, those have always been much more “alive” in their final result. They were loved before they were even “born.”

I want to remember this distinction. It will inspire me to take more time at the beginning when I start developing a new idea, especially if it is something intended for the marketplace. I need to love my creations from the beginning in order to give them their best form. That means, knowing them more fully that just choosing pieces to put on the game board.

It’s very easy to construct pieces of entertainment: a little bit of this, a little bit of that, this element is popular with audiences right now, that element hasn’t been seen in a long time so it will feel fresh. That’s constructing something. And unfortunately, more often than not, the seams in such works do show.

So I guess that is the advice for myself and others — don’t just construct your works, create them. Love them from their very first conception.

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Object Lessons

Alfred Hitchcock coined the term “Maguffin” for an object in a story (in his case, specifically in films), an object that everyone in the story cares about but which wouldn’t really matter much to the audience outside the story. Such is Hitchcock’s influence that people tend to apply the term “Maguffin” to any special object in a story. By doing that they undercut potentially potent story elements.

The Scribbler’s Guide to the Land of Myth: Mythic Motifs for Storytellers contains an in-depth section on Special Objects, so I need not go into a full-on discussion of their meanings in this blog post. Instead, I’m just going to recapitulate the three basic types of objects: Maguffins (of course), Swords, and Grails. Maguffins are things that are important to the characters but which would have little intrinsic value for an audience member outside the story. The other two are objects which, if they were real outside the story, would have intrinsic value. Swords can be offensive and defensive weapons, while Grails are objects that give special benefits to their holders.

I was curious about how audience members feel about these special objects. What do they look like in stories?

The prototype for a Sword would of course be Excalibur. Given to the Hero by a mysterious supernatural figure, it bestows power and authority upon its holder.

Special Objects

This is a type of Special Object everyone recognizes. The Arthurian baggage is such that we don’t question the potentcy of the image.

Continue reading

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Was Dorothy Tempted?

The search strings that bring people to my website have once again provided an intriguing issue for me to consider. In this case, the matter for examination is temptation. The actual question was: “Is Dorothy tempted?” I think it is a safe assumption to make that it means Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz.

I’m going to use the classic 1939 film version to address this, because that is the version more people know.

First off, to review the definition of temptation, as covered in The Scribbler’s Guide to the Land of Myth, it has to appeal to a genuine desire in the Hero. There’s not much point in dangling something in front of the Hero to distract him if it does not attract him first. So, to discover what tempts a character, look to what that character desires.

scribblerworks-d-tempt-1Early in the film, Dorothy dreams about the world beyond Kansas, even “over the rainbow.” The desire to be somewhere else is a strong one for her. So, when Toto’s existence is threatend by Miss Gulch, Dorothy gives into temptation to run away with the endangered dog. She flees what she fears, but tells herself she is just seeking the “adventure elsewhere” she had been dreaming of.

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The traveling “Professor” Dorothy encounters, a fraudulent but perceptive fortune teller, helps her counter the adventure-seeking temptation by getting her to imagine the consequences of her flight on those she loves, especially her Auntie Em.

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In this, she is made to turn back and accept that she will have to face what she fears (Miss Gulch and the possible loss of Toto) in order to “save” what she loves, her Aunt Em. This choice, made in the face of temptation, drives all her choices from that point on. After all, we had earlier seen her interactions with her Aunt, and know that Auntie Em is the first person Dorothy turns to in distress (even when Em is busy).

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In the rest of the story in the film, because her desire is now to return to Auntie Em, she pushes on through the challenges. She meets many things that alarm and frighten her: a journey across unknown territory, hostile apple trees, a seemingly fierce lion, the “great and powerful” wizard, a terrifying witch who wants her dead.

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But through it all, Dorothy pushes on. She no longer flees from the things she fears but instead faces them.

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When the Scarecrow is set on fire, the closest moment of threat to Dorothy, she acts prompty to save someone she loves.

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And in so doing, wins her victory.

Dorothy-8

So the answer to the question of whether Dorothy was tempted is a definite “Yes.”

This use of temptation shows us what the motif can do in terms of revealing character and driving the plot forward. We see what Dorothy desires – or thinks she desires. She is tempted with her desire: adventure away from home. She is shown the consequences of giving into her desire: distress to Auntie Em. She repents of giving into temptation, and everything that follows springs from her revealed true desire, to get home to Auntie Em.

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And neither the Wicked Witch or anyone else in Oz can offer a temptation strong enough to keep her from that goal.

Temptation needs to be something the Hero desires strongly. How the Hero responds to the temptation can provide key elements of the character’s choices later. Showing the consequences of giving in increases the emotional stakes as the story moves forward. Likewise, later challenges can show the true strength the character gains in resisting temptation.

A little temptation never hurts a story.

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