Fictional Worlds, by L.A. Alexander, Reviewed.

Subtitled, ‘Traditions in Narrative and the Age of Visual Culture’, this tome of nearly 400 pages of erudition is a considerable piece of work. The book is essentially about storytelling on the screen and is, in fact, part of a series under that title.

Academic, considered, analytical and full of wisdom, it is a book for those working in the film industry, for students of that medium, for critics and reviewers and, ultimately, for those who write screenplays. As a manual for study and an analytical tool for those involved in film, it is a wonderful book.

There are many illustrative case histories: unfortunately, I’ve seen vary few of the many popular films discussed, so this aspect was of less value to me. In any case, although I’ve dabbled in screenwriting and my fiction is visually based, I’m essentially a novelist. As such, I have different needs as a writer. That’s not to say that the book has nothing to offer me. The analysis of story elements and the explanation of story structure are valuable elements and I come away with a deeper understanding of the history and purpose behind story. Myth and legend form the basis of most of what we write today and the discussions of the various root tales are useful and inspiring.

My writing method is that of the pantster. I don’t plan or structure, except in the very loosest way possible. Generally, I start with a theme, develop a story beginning and ending, to which I add characters, and then allow these invented people to determine the route, the journey, of the novel. So, analysis and structural planning are of little help to me; in fact, they can be destructive of a process that relies hugely on instinct and the subconscious mingling of experience, knowledge and emotional elements. Sorry if that sounds pretentious, but it’s the nearest I can find to expressing what actually happens when I sit at the keyboard to create.

Planners and plotters, however, of which there are multitude in the writing world, will find this book invaluable. It guides and explains, suggests analogies, prompts with themes, and labels those elements of a story that such writers need to identify.

So, a book I’d definitely recommend to scholars, scriptwriters, film directors, those with an abiding interest in film, and to those writers who find their creative stimulation in plot.

Related articles

• Reading A Writer's Mind: Exploring Short Fiction - First Thought to Finished Story
• Five basic elements make up a story

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Anagram

Image via Wikipedia

Anagram: noun - transposition of the letters of one word or phrase to form another word or phrase; transposition, mutation.

http://wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html  This link will take you to a website dedicated to the art of the anagram. It’s full of fascinating facts, some of which I use here, in my own words, of course.

‘Anagrams’ forms an anagram of the Latin phrase ‘ars magna’, which translates into ‘great art’.

‘Itself’ is an anagram of stifle.

The former capital of Japan was Kyoto; the current capital is Tokyo. These names are anagrams of each other.

Java’s former capital was Kartasura but moved to its anagram of Surakarta.

Compass points; north = thorn, south = shout, east = seat, and west = stew.

Clabbers is a version of Scrabble where all words must be anagrams of real words.

When King John signed the Magna Carta (Anagram Act) in 1215 he appears to have conferred the right of the people to take the mickey out of royalty and politicians, by using anagrams.

An anigram is an animation demonstrating an anagram at work. Have a look at the foot of this page to see the daily anigram displayed from the website noted above. You can display your own anigrams on your own Web page by using this link See here.

A true anagram is an anugram.

Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one

Here are a few anagrams for Stuart Aken:

Karate Nuts, Karate Stun, Rankest Tau, Rake Taunts, Aunt Streak, Skater Aunt, Ask Taunter, Nature Task, Tetanus Ark, Attunes Ark, Unseat Kart, Neat Krauts, Astute Nark, Astute Rank, Statue Rank, A Rake Stunt, A Streak Nut,

A Skater Nut, A Skate Runt, A Stark Tune, A Tart Nukes, Sneak At Rut, Teak Saturn, Takes a Turn, Take Saturn, Eat Ant Rusk, Tank At User, Ask An Utter, Ask At Tuner, Anus At Trek, Tsar At Nuke, Star At Nuke, Tart As Nuke

And some for Breaking Faith, my romantic thriller:
Habit Freaking, A Barking Thief, A Braking Thief, A Father Biking, A Fake Birthing, A Farthing Bike, Began Faith Irk.

The above anagrams were generated by the anagram generator on http://wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html. It really is worth a visit to this fun spot, if you’re at all interested in words.

Edit of Volume Two Begins

With the completion of the handwritten edit of volume one, I was able to start the typed corrections today, and I've done chapter one, so far.
On volume two, I've modified the old chapter 54 of what was originally a continuation of volume one, to make it into chapter one of the second volume. Lost yet? It needed a lot of insertions to allow virgin readers to be able to pick up the story without having read the first book. But, to my surprise, it didn't need a full rewrite. So, I'm ready to continue with the full edit of the chapters for book 2 that have already been written. once that's done, I'll have to start writing (as in creating) the follow on chapters to complete book 2. But I'll keep up this daily post to let you know how it's going and as a motivation tool for myself when feeling tired.
Actually, I'm unlikely to do more editing tomorrow, or indeed the post, as I have to be at work until late and then I'll be out with my darling, tripping the light fantastic and generally making a fool of myself,but laughing a lot and enjoying the activity. Dance is remarkably spiritually refreshing. You should try it.
The opening waltz always renews my spirit, no matter what sort of day I've had at the boring place I work to earn a crust.

Narrative Magazine's Take on the Future of Reading.

Narrative describes itself as 'A nonprofit organisation dedicated to storytelling in the digital age.' It produces a high quality online magazine that can be read on Kindle, iPhone and iPad as well as on screen, featuring short fiction, poetry, cartoons, graphic stories and much more. I recommend you visit the site to see the quality of the offerings, which are free for subscribers to the newsletter.

The article below is their view of the future of reading.

This is a make-or-break moment for reading. While some folks are understandably anxious about the future of reading in the world, especially among youth, at Narrative we see the digital age as an opportunity to create new audiences for literary excellence.

New studies cited recently in the Washington Post and the New York Times found that today’s youth are not reading less, they’re just reading differently—on digital devices. Children and teens want to read more, using the new technologies.

This is excellent news for literature and a mandate for Narrative’s mission to advance reading in the digital age. As the preeminent online literary magazine, Narrative is in exactly the right place to engage the next generation of readers.

Every day we bring great writing online, to readers across the globe. In 2010 our subscribers skyrocketed to 100,000, nearly the number of hallmark print publications such as The Atlantic. Free and available to all, Narrative is being used in classrooms from Seoul, Korea, to Moscow to Youngstown, Ohio.

Also this year Narrative stories were awarded the prestigious laurels of the print age—the O. Henry and Pushcart Prizes—and were named among the Best American Short Stories. Best yet, our readers found those stories via today’s most innovative platforms: the iPhone and iPad, the Kindle, and even customizable applications.

Your support makes all this possible. Because of you, Narrative is an international resource that promotes literacy and enables education. Because of you, Narrative can find the stand-out stories and support writers and artists, teachers and students. Because of you, Narrativeis everywhere our readers are—online, on mobile devices, and on the printed page.

We’re giving new life to literature at an important time. But there’s so much more we can do. Your tax-deductible contribution will support: 

• Narrative in the Schools, an educational initiative that delivers tailored content to secondary school systems struggling to afford textbooks and seeking to enable new ways of learning.
• Narrative30Below, which discovers, nurtures, and celebrates our next generation of writers and artists.
• Our modern library of stories—free and portable to readers around the world, of all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

We know that great stories have a timeless ability to engage and inspire the readers who find them. And those readers are more than twice as likely as nonreaders to vote, to volunteer, and to be active participants in their communities. That is why Narrative is paving the way in bringing the best new stories to the digital world and to readers of all ages. 

Review of SEERS by Karen Wolfe

Image by stuartaken via Flickr

In Seers, Karen Wolfe has devised an entertaining narrative populated by believable but idiosyncratic characters. She has a very unusual voice, which expresses humour particularly well. All the goodies in this tale of a parallel society, where mindreading is an everyday experience, have flaws to make them real human beings, or dogs, wolves or unicorns. The baddies are monsters whose wickedness is based in some past event or personality flaw and, in spite of their awfulness, the reader understands where they are coming from. These are the sort of people you either love or hate and in both cases you hope they’ll get their just desserts. This is a well constructed story with excellent pace. Karen's imagination is clearly fruitful and I love the names she uses. The humour ranges from smiles to laugh out loud and forms a worthy counterpoint to the tension and action that directs the story. If you enjoy your heroes/heroines as characters with balls and a sense of humour and if you enjoy tales set in parallel societies that are believable, you'll enjoy this book. I certainly did.

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seers-Karen-Wolfe/dp/184923129X

Word of the day: Decadence – decay, deterioration, decline, self-indulgence. But we often use this specific quality to describe people or situations with a sexual connotation. ‘Much contemporary art displays the decadence of skill and craft in the modern practitioner.’