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A place for Writing 12 students to read each other's writing, to critique, to suggest, to improve.
About Me
- Brad
- Former adult teacher who loves island beaches. Happy homebody and family man; once devoted dog owner, now without Tashi, my Tibetan Terrier. I prefer the absurdity of the imagination to the absurdity of imagining nothing.
5 comments:
I must say I was a bit shocked by Janet Fitch's comment about how we ought to treat our protagonist in a story. She says this by arguing that a writer "is both a sadist and a masochist." To "torture our protagonist" runs counter to the idea that we, as writers, are basically nice people! But, if we follow Fitch's advice, we are allowed (actually encouraged) to seek out a protagonist's "greatest vulnerability and fear." I can see her point clearly. Stories where everything goes too well and too easily for a protagonist are frankly quite boring (and reminiscent of Disney-style stories). If something goes poorly for the protagonist I do become more interested and if they suffer I can feel sympathy for their plight. My shock has given way to understanding. I promise to “torture” my protagonist (at least fictionally) in future!—143 words
Some might conclude that Janet Fitch's first rule is a very basic lesson, realizing that all aspiring writers should work on their sentence structure and style without saying. I on the other hand, found that the many ways that she explained this point was very informative for me and not at all basic. First, she gives us her personal story of rejection that gives her (and us) insight into her own writing development. What struck a chord with me (pardon the pun) was her reference to sentence flow as “the sound and rhythm and shape.” I play an instrument myself so I can relate to this and when she mentions, “The music of words.” She goes on to give us some examples of famous authors and their works, which embody the type of sentence style she is referring to, like; Dylan Thomas, Anne Sexton and Lawrence Durrell. Finally, she raps-it-up by giving us a great writing exercise to practice writing like the greats just mentioned. I have to say that Janet Fitch is not only a great writer but also a great teacher too. -184 words
The first eight rules of Janet Fitch’s are not unfamiliar to me. I read them here and there in different writing bibles. Rule No.9 and No.10 are more interesting. Writing in scene(No.9), this reminds me of an old folktale that happened in feudal China. A young man was on his journey to the Imperial Exam. One day, he passed by a village and saw a beautiful young girl leaning on her wooden gate. The peach flowers mirrored her pink face which took his heart. He couldn’t forget her beauty since then, but he had to take the exam so he left her with a great regret. The next year at the very day he met the girl, the young man went back to the village looking for her, but there were only the peach blossoms swinging in the spring breeze. “Something happens in a scene, whereby the character cannot go back to the way things were before.” I guess Janet Fitch would be happy to know her rule of writing was perfectly applied in another language. As for No.10, I have to say, it is new to me. I never thought I could “torture” my characters in a way that makes my writing more interesting. I will definitely try it in my later practice.
214 words
I personally didn’t like the idea of ‘torturing your protagonist,’ when I listened to the article because I thought that the protagonist was like my baby, and didn’t like my protagonist gets hurt, and heartbroken. But after I’ve read the article, I soon realize that that is the most important thing I have to do with my protagonist if the reader wants to read more, and gets interested in my story. Especially, if I have to write about a love story, I have to get my protagonist suffer as long as she could take, and endure the pain. Now, I am ready to torture my protagonist as much as I like!
-113 words.
I would say writing is art, just like any kind of art, needing some talent and efforts to creatively expressing the concept of the creator's inside heart and outside reflection as well as showing his/her own styles. Whatever visual arts, performing arts, language arts, for learners, learning is not only from the basic instruction but also sometimes from imitation. Janet Fitch's rules are best for the advanced ESL learners and educated natives who have been ready to set to working as a novelist. Killing the cliché and learning to write dialogue would be the most difficult challenge for me since English is not my mother tongue, and I'm still trying to master English. However, I smile when I realize what Fitch says "torture your protagonist." Not thing would be perfect on earth. Fiction might be exaggerated, yet the protagonist and plots in the fictional world actually reflect the real world. Even in a comedy or a fairy tale, the protagonist still suffers. I'll try to torture my protagonist in the miniature cruel world in my future works as best as I can.
--182 words
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