I've been wanting to read this book ever since Srini Avasarala suggested it to me - years ago. Then the other day, Sagar, who bought it, gave it to me and asked if I could read and discuss it with him. It's been a month and a half and I have been slowly reading and imbibing it, re-read it and highlighted it, then noted down the highlighted points and then typed it in and now I'll refine it further. Even then I am not sure if I would have done justice to the book but it has certainly given me much to practice and use in my writing. As I do with all great books I will quote directly from the book because the author's have written it so well.
The raw material writers should know well are - Premise, Character, Conflict. Among all these the one force that unifies all parts, out of which all other parts grow naturally, is 'human character' - with its ramifications and contradictions.
Premise
The premise is a proposition, stated or assumed, leading to a conclusion. It shows the road.
The premise is the conception, the beginning of the play. The premise is a seed and it grows into a plant that was contained in the original seed, nothing less, nothing more.
Some famous premises
- Great love defies even death - Romeo and Juliet
- Blind trust leads to destruction - King Lear
- Ruthless ambition leads to self-destruction - Macbeth
- Jealousy destroys itself and the object of its love - Othello
- The sins of the father are visited on the children
A good premise is the thumbnail synopsis of our story. When we have a clear cut premise, the synopsis unrolls itself. The premise is the motivation behind everything we do. (To find the premise - you can start with a character or an incident or a thought and find the premise later - but we must find it).
Believe in the premise and prove it. Do not write anything you do not believe. Prove the premise wholeheartedly.
Unless the author takes sides there is no conviction. And anyone who had a few convictions is a mine of premises. A good premise represents the author. The play is better when the author feels he has something important to say.
Character
Character is the fundamental material we work with so we must know characters as thoroughly as possible. When you have a clear premise, its child's play to find the character who will carry the burden of that premise. A character is a factor whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
Characters are supposed to be real people. They must have deep-rooted motivation.
Physical (sex, age, height, weight, color of eyes, hair, skin, posture, appearance, defects, heredity), Sociology (class, occupation, education, family life, religion, race, place in community, political, hobbies),
Psychology (sex life, moral standards, personal premise, ambition frustrations, disappointments, temperament, attitudes to life, introvert/extrovert, attitudes, qualities, IQ)
Our physical aspects color our attitude to life, affect our mental development, serve as the basis for our complexes. Sociological aspects include parents, conditions, friends, clothes, food and the environment. Psychological aspects are a product of the above two - and bring into play his ambitions, attitudes, complexes and temperament. A character is the sum total of his physical makeup and the influences his environment exerts upon him.
Humans react under pressure of the environment. Which means that a character is in constant change. The smallest upheaval in the environment will ruffle his placidity and create a mental upheaval.
Anything that happens must come directly from the characters you have chosen to prove your premise. Your characters must be strong enough to prove the premise without forcing.
Character Growth - A character reveals himself through conflict. All conflict begins with a decision. A decision is made because of the premise of your play. Growth is a character's reaction to a conflict in which he is involved. Every good play grows from pole to pole.
Strength of Will - The characters must be willing to put up a fight for their convictions and must have the strength, stamina to carry the fight to its logical conclusion. Great characters force the issue in question until they are beaten or achieve their goal. A weak character is a person who will not fight because the pressure is not enough. He is one who for any reason, cannot make a decision to act.
There is no character who would not fight back under the right circumstances. Their decision must be permitted to mature. Don't force the character into action he is not ready to take yet. If you do, the action will be superficial and will not reflect the real character. Catch your character at that particular point when he's ready for conflict.
Know your characters. How much weight they can carry, how well they can support the play. Every character represents a world of his own. The more you know, the more interested you become.
Dialectic - To the Greeks conversation was the supreme art of discovering the truth. They discovered the truth through a Proposition (thesis), contradiction (antithesis) and resolution (synthesis)
Everything that moves constantly negates itself. All things change towards their opposite through movement. Everything in time passes into its opposite. Everything within itself contains its own opposite. Without contradiction there would be no life. It is only because a thing contains a contradiction in itself that it moves and acquires impulse and activity. That is the process of all motion and development.
'Great plays come down from men who have unlimited patience for work. perhaps they started their plays at the wrong end but they have fought themselves back inch by inch until they made the character the foundation of their work.'
Situations are inherent within the character. Before every situation ask - What should I do? What would these people do? What ought I do?
Character creates plot, not vice versa.
Pivotal Character - The Pivotal Character is the Protagonist - one who takes the lead in any movement or cause. (Anyone who opposes the protagonist is the opponent or antagonist.) A Pivotal Character must not only desire something but he must want it so badly that he will destroy or be destroyed in the effort to attain his goal. He must have something vital at stake.
A pivotal character is a driving force because some inner or outer necessity forces him to act. There's something at stake for him - honor, heath, money, mighty passion. A Pivotal Character is forced by circumstances, not because he wants to. He can match the emotional intensity of his adversaries but he has a smaller compass of development. His growth is less than that of other characters because he has reached a decision before the story started.
Antagonist - Is as ruthless and strong as the pivotal character. The will of conflicting personalities must clash.
Orchestration - Orchestrate your characters - it is the reason for rising conflict in your play. Orchestration demands well-defined and uncompromising characters in opposition, moving from one pole to another through conflict
In every big movement, there are smaller movements. The contrast must be inherent in character.
Absence of growth signals a lack of conflict, lack of conflict indicates that your characters are not well orchestrated.
Unity of Opposites - Real unity of opposites is one in which compromise is impossible. Characters are so bound to each other that compromise is impossible. Unity is broken only by death - of some dominant quality. Proper motivation establishes unity between opposites - necessity, environment, inner and outer contradictions. The real Unity of Opposites can be broken when a trait is fundamentally changed.
After finding the premise - find out which characters have unity of opposites between them. if they do not have the strong unbreakable bond between then, the conflict will never rise to a climax.
Conflict
There are four types of conflict - Static, Jumping, Rising and Foreshadowing.
Static Conflict - If the protagonist lacks strength, the conflict is static. This character cannot make a decision, wants nothing or does not know what he wants. A character who cannot make up his mind creates static conflict. He may be so because he is not tri-dimensional. If the character loses its reality, it becomes incapable of rising conflict.
Jumping Conflict - If the play takes illogical jumps, then it is jumping conflict. In life, there is no such things jumping conflict. Don't determine the character's fate, let the characters determine their own fate for themselves.
Rising Conflict - arises from a clearcut premise, well orchestrated, tridimensional characters, among whom unity is strongly established. Every rising conflict should be foreshadowed first by determined forces lined up against each other. All conflict within the big major, conflict, will be crystallised in the premise of the play. The small conflicts, transitions, lead the character from one state of mind to another until he is compelled to make a decision. Real rising conflict comes when the antagonists are evenly matched. Not everyone knows his ambition in life, yet he has one. And out of that small, seemingly inconsequential ambition, a rising conflict may flow.
Genuine rising conflict is the product of character wh are well rounded in terms of premise. Action dictated by the premise is the only action possible.
A play is not an imitation of life, it is the essence of life. When characters go round and round without making any decision, the play will be a bore.
Foreshadowing - Lack of conflict is a dead giveaway that your characters are badly orchestrated - they do not have unity of opposites, there is no uncompromising pivotal character. Conflict is the heartbeat of all writing. No conflict eve existed without first foreshadowing itself.
An uncompromising character creates expectancy. Only in conflict can you prove yourself. Your true self is revealed. In life, everyone is a stranger until he had proved himself. Politeness and smart talk are not signs of friendship but sacrifice is. Foreshadowing any quality of a character is as necessary as breathing is to man.
'In conflict, we are forced to reveal ourselves. It seems that self-revelation of others or of ourselves holds a fatal fascination for everyone.'
Point of Attack - A character starts a chain of events which might destroy him or help him to succeed - only out of necessity. There must be something at stake. When there is nothing at stake, there is no tension.
The curtain rises when at least one character has reached a turning point in life. The first line should start the conflict and the inevitable drive towards the proving of the premise.
Transitions - If your play goes from love to hate, you have to find out the steps leading up to hate. Record the minute movements of the mind. When they move from pole to pole - all steps in between are the transitions. Don't ignore transitions.
Crisis, Climax, Resolution - Birth pains - crisis, Birth - climax, Life or death - resolution
Crisis is the state of things in which a decision changes one way or another is impending
The unbreakable bond between the parties will ensure rising conflict, crisis and climax. The proving of the premise will provide a point of concentration toward which the maximum expectation is aroused.
Exposition - The art of exposing - should proceed constantly without interruption to the very end of the play. Conflict is really exposition
Dialogue - Must reveal background. Only a rising conflict will produce healthy dialogue. Dialogue must foreshadow coming events. Dialogue grows from character and conflict, and in turn, will reveal the character and carries the action. A play is talky because the characters have ceased to grow and conflict has stopped. Have a message, but have it naturally and subtly. Make clever language truly part of the play. Don't overemphasise the dialogues. It must fit in.
Timeliness - Human values remain the same if they flow naturally out of the forces around them
Entrances and exits - When someone comes in and goes out, he must do so out of necessity. His action must help the development of conflict and be part of the character in the process revealing himself.
Write stuff you believe in. Don't hurry. Play with your manuscript. Enjoy yourself. Watch your characters grow. Draw characters who live in society, whose actions are forced by necessity. Write for yourself.
Art is the microscopic form, the perfection not only of mankind but of the universe
Knowing the science does not exclude imagination. Lift the knowledge on the wings of imagination and create a masterpiece
- Premise
- Pivotal character - who forces conflict
- Line up characters - orchestrate them
- Unity of opposites
- Point of attack - a turning point in the life of one or more characters
- Rising and foreshadowing conflict
- Perpetual exposition through conflict - transition
- Pole to pole - crisis
- Climax follows crisis
Every word uttered should stem from the characters involved. If you have to write of love, write of a great love. Insecurity and desire are fundamental reasons for all exaggerated traits.
...
As with all great books on storytelling, this one also has a fascinating insight into human psychology. My big takeaways are - a strong, clearcut premise that lays the road that the characters must follow, find characters strong enough to carry the burden of proving that premise. line up characters and orchestrate them, find an antagonist who will create a unity of opposites and will clash in a way that no compromise is possible, create rising and foreshadowing conflict driven by a clear premise and uncompromising characters revealing themselves through continuous conflict, building up to a crisis, climax and a resolution. Nothing is by chance, nothing is loose, and everything is driven to prove the premise. He says write of great love is you write a love story.
I loved the stuff he says about how love can only be proved through sacrifice and so many more such gems. More as I polish this piece for my reference but I have enough now to get started and work on my book that stopped because there is no clear cut premise, no strong characters who desire something or who have something at stake, no unity of opposites and no well-orchestrated characters. No wonder the story is static. This book is brilliant.
1 comment:
Perfect
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