A friendly reminder to subscribers new and old that my plan this year is to alternate craft essays on the first and third weeks of each month with reviews or interviews and longform essays.
Very thought-provoking, Joshua. I’ve long been curious how tied story structures are to their specific cultures. Not to say we can’t learn from them and enjoy them - Parasite did very well, after all. But does varying from the 3-act form run the risk of further thinning an already sparse readership? Acknowledging that plot is but one aspect. Great writing and compelling characters go a long way.
Hi Julie, Lien's closing argument is for publishers to open their minds to more variety in both form and content. It's hard to disagree. You're right that there are other elements that make the story. Willa Cather was always accused of being terrible at plot, and perhaps it says something about me that I prefer her two least plot driven books, Death Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock, for their emphasis on image and scene. Reading those books is like sitting in an art gallery. Of course it would be a completely losing market strategy today.
Your comment took me back to graduate school, when I didn't care at all how a particular film did at the box office. How could that matter while watching Fellini or Kieslowski? Or even a film like "September." Craft used to drive the market, or at least part of it, and I think it's reasonable to keep demanding that. It's hard for me to imagine a Kieslowski emerging from Substack, but perhaps that is a lack of my own imagination.
For my part, thinking about form in this expanded way gives me a few more tools for clients and for myself in thinking about book mapping. Lien doesn't get into this too much, but I don't think borrowing elements of form is appropriation -- imitation or adaptation in that way still seems the highest form of respect.
Thank you for this intro to other story structures. I think I gravitate toward the synthesis or integration of contradictory (or seemingly contradictory) themes that sounds to be part four of the 4 part structure. It feels like a refreshing change from the hero's journey. When we anticipate an oft repeated structure it becomes so less enjoyable ... I find myself rushing to the end.
Very thought-provoking, Joshua. I’ve long been curious how tied story structures are to their specific cultures. Not to say we can’t learn from them and enjoy them - Parasite did very well, after all. But does varying from the 3-act form run the risk of further thinning an already sparse readership? Acknowledging that plot is but one aspect. Great writing and compelling characters go a long way.
Hi Julie, Lien's closing argument is for publishers to open their minds to more variety in both form and content. It's hard to disagree. You're right that there are other elements that make the story. Willa Cather was always accused of being terrible at plot, and perhaps it says something about me that I prefer her two least plot driven books, Death Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock, for their emphasis on image and scene. Reading those books is like sitting in an art gallery. Of course it would be a completely losing market strategy today.
Your comment took me back to graduate school, when I didn't care at all how a particular film did at the box office. How could that matter while watching Fellini or Kieslowski? Or even a film like "September." Craft used to drive the market, or at least part of it, and I think it's reasonable to keep demanding that. It's hard for me to imagine a Kieslowski emerging from Substack, but perhaps that is a lack of my own imagination.
For my part, thinking about form in this expanded way gives me a few more tools for clients and for myself in thinking about book mapping. Lien doesn't get into this too much, but I don't think borrowing elements of form is appropriation -- imitation or adaptation in that way still seems the highest form of respect.
Thank you for this intro to other story structures. I think I gravitate toward the synthesis or integration of contradictory (or seemingly contradictory) themes that sounds to be part four of the 4 part structure. It feels like a refreshing change from the hero's journey. When we anticipate an oft repeated structure it becomes so less enjoyable ... I find myself rushing to the end.