 For Authors: December 13, 2023 Issue [#12310] |
This week: The Tale of the Persnickety Aunt Edited by: Max Griffin đłď¸âđ  
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There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
--W. Somerset Maugham
Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.
--Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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The other day, I attended a forum sponsored by our local Metropolitan Library for âauthors and aspiring authors.â As these things go, it was pretty good. One of the speakersâon editingâwas a professor of writing at a local college. She opened her talk by asking us for questions that she might answer during her remarksâan interesting technique, and rather daring, too. Iâm not sure Iâd be prepared to ad lib a talk based on off-the-wall questions from the audience. You never know what they might come up with, like, say, the one I asked. But what got my attention was the way she answered one question in particular.
The Question
One of the participants, a published author, said he was working on a novel in which the plot called for one of the characters to make an unexpected choice. He wanted the choice to be surprising, but also to be one that, when it happened, readers would slap their foreheads and think I should have seen that coming.
Instead of giving possible techniques to accomplish this, the speaker told this story about her mother.
The Tale of the Mother and the Persnickety Aunt
All her lifeâor at least as long the speaker could rememberâher mother had been the family peace-maker. Whether at home, or with the extended family, or just in social gatherings, she was always the one to smooth over differences. She was always all about harmony. I was thinking âclassic conflict avoidance,â but then I tend to be cynical.
She went on to describe another family member, an aunt, who always had to be right and who loved conflict. For example, if she asked you if you wanted a cookie and you said âyes,â then sheâd say, âItâll make you fat.â On the other hand, if you said âno,â then sheâd say, âAre you afraid itâll make you fat?â No matter what you answered, she was right and you were wrong. Charming. But then, weâve all known people like this, which makes the persnickety aunt memorable.
There came a day when her motherâs beloved, if a bit quirky, brother went to his heavenly reward. Her brother, it seems, was an Oklahoma good old boy. He always wore bib overalls, flannel shirts, and cowboy boots. They were even his Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. No doubt this appalled the persnickety aunt.
For his funeral, the speakerâs mother wanted to dress him as he would have chosen, in his cherished overalls and favorite red flannel shirt. The aunt, ever eager for conflict, insisted they purchase a suit and tie and dress him properly.
For the first time in anyoneâs memory, the speakerâs mother didnât back down. She fought tooth and nail to dress her brother the way he would have dressed himself, not the way the aunt wanted him to dress.
The speaker told us that, at first, she couldnât understand why her Mother acted in such an uncharacteristic manner. Even her father paced back and forth in the family parlor, she said, in a quandary over this strange behavior.
But the speaker finally realized that her mother acted this way because, for the first time ever, the outcome of a conflict mattered.
Why This Answered the Question
After telling the story, the speaker said, "Next question?"
That was it: her answer. In fact, not only was it a good answer, it was a brilliant ad lib response to the question.
Her answer is certainly better than the author jibber-jabber I would have given in response to that question. Her answer was an example, and showing is always stronger than telling.
Still, the mathematician in me yearns for that jibber jabber, so here it comes, like it or not.
Kurt Vonnegut said that every character should want something, even if itâs just a glass of water. All characters should have goals. The goals should matter: something bad should happen if the character doesnât achieve their goal. That establishes the stakes. Thereâs no story unless the character also must overcome obstacles in pursuing their goal.
Goals and obstacles are in opposition, which gives rise to conflict. Because of the stakes, the outcome of that conflict matters. This gives rise to tension, the engine that drives the story. To add rising tension, authors can deepen the goals, raise the stakes, or increase the obstacles. The tension peaks at the climax where it finally releases with the characterâs success--or failure--in achieving their goal.
Now consider the story of the mother and the persnickety aunt. The story tells us that family harmony is one of the motherâs enduring goals. If we were writing a short story, instead of telling this, weâd instead show it, revealing it through her words and deeds. Since itâs central to the dilemma she faces in the story, weâd show at least two incidents prior to the final arugment. Two establish a pattern, and the expectation of how sheâll act in the third incident when the persnickety aunt insists âno overalls, suit.â
But the mother has a second goal: honoring the memory of her beloved brother. Again, in a short story, weâd show this goal as well, in the same way, with two incidents.
Both sets of repeated incidents not only establish patterns, they foreshadow the events at the climax, when the mother stands up to the persnickety aunt.
The day of the fight over the overalls finally arrives. Whatâs the conflict? At first glance, it looks like itâs the fight between the mother and the aunt. But itâs more than that. The real conflictâthe conflict that reveals how the story answers the original questionâis in the motherâs heart. She has two conflicting goals: being true to her brotherâs memory, or retaining a harmonious relationship with the aunt. She canât have both, since the aunt has to always be right. Each goal is the obstacle for the other. Her choice between the goals is the source of tension in the story, and itâs released when she chooses her brother.
Conclusion
Goals, stakes, and obstacles. Tension rising. Two-to-make-a-pattern, three-to-break-it. Foreshadowing. Those are the ways I would have answered the question. Jibber jabber.
The tale of the mother and the persnickety aunt is way better.
I know it's only December 13th, but I don't have another newsletter until January, so I'm going to wish all my readers a mathematical Happy Holidays now. I know: more jibber jabber.
I case you're viewing this on a phone, here's a lower-resolution version of the above composite that doesn't split into two pieces.
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