(For links, see the original blog post. Text-only version follows.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I recently read C.L. Moore\u2019s Judgement Night (review here), and it got me thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moore was writing in the pulp era, very successfully. She and her husband Henry Kuttner (whose first contact with her was a fan letter he wrote, believing she was a man) often collaborated on their stories, but in the interests of not disappearing down a pointless rabbit-hole I\u2019m going to assume that the stories with her name on were primarily her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moore\u2019s stories, while definitely in the pulp mould, had extra elements that lifted them out of the ordinary. Her Wikipedia entry notes her use of the senses and emotions, but I\u2019m going to talk about something else she did, which I refer to as \u201ctelling two stories at once\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL STORIES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drastic oversimplification time: one of the key differences between \u201cgenre\u201d fiction and \u201cliterary\u201d fiction is often that \u201cgenre\u201d fiction has a lot going on externally (events that you\u2019d see on a movie screen), whereas \u201cliterary\u201d fiction has a lot going on internally to the characters (thoughts, emotions, internal dialogue, reflections on the meaning of life). This makes it unsurprising that most of the top-grossing movies of all time have been \u201cgenre\u201d movies: science fiction, fantasy or thrillers, primarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s absolutely nothing wrong with this. Sometimes, I\u2019m in the mood for a story that doesn\u2019t attempt to do anything more than entertain me with the external events. As a matter of taste, I\u2019m personally seldom if ever in the mood for a story that has very few events but a lot of internal reflection. What I really like a lot, though, is when someone manages to pull off both at once, which is what Moore did in many of her stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Double Double Toil and Trouble…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arbron \/ Foter \/ CC BY<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the stories we recognise as \u201cclassic literature\u201d do this. Shakespeare has murder and walking spirits and Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane, but he also has \u201cTomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow\u201d and \u201cOut, damned spot!\u201d Dickens, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, most of the authors whose names everyone recognises tell two stories at once: the story of the outward events, and the story of the significance of those events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the significance of the events I don\u2019t just mean their significance to the characters, though that is how we encounter it, through the characters\u2019 eyes. The authors who are best at this manage to make the characters\u2019 thoughts, reactions and emotions point beyond them to something more universal about being human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, the story \u201cJudgement Night\u201d in the collection of the same name is about the fall of a galactic empire. However, it\u2019s also about the heir to that empire, and her close brush with a love affair, and how her training as an amazon warrior makes her reject the emotional and relational side of life, and how that influences the empire\u2019s fall. And that, in turn, is about masculinity and femininity, relationship and connection, competition and conflict, love and death. It\u2019s all woven together. If you told just the story of the fall of the empire, it would work as a story by itself, but it wouldn\u2019t have the richness and depth of the story that Moore does tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HOW I\u2019M APPLYING THIS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I look at someone else\u2019s craft, it\u2019s at least partly to improve my own (that\u2019s a big part of why I write reviews).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a writing concept called \u201cscene and sequel\u201d that Jim Butcher describes very well. In this context, a \u201cscene\u201d is what I\u2019ve been calling the outward story: some things happen. A \u201csequel\u201d is where the characters reflect on it and make it part of their internal stories (and hopefully the greater, more universal story).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first Gryphon Clerks book, Realmgolds, has lost some readers because they felt that I didn\u2019t do enough of the internal story sometimes. Other readers don\u2019t seem bothered by it; perhaps it\u2019s just that they\u2019re already enough like the characters (and me) that they get what I was going for without my spelling it out, that they naturally understand how a character like that would feel. However, if I\u2019m to improve as a writer and satisfy more readers, I need to take that criticism on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was writing Hope and the Clever Man, I had a scene in it where two of the characters get caught up in a riot. Bearing in mind the lessons I\u2019d learned, I added a couple of sentences of sequel to the end of it, in which the characters said something like, \u201cI\u2019ve never been so frightened in my life!\u201d \u201cMe either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting to deepen your stories can be that simple: taking a moment to show the reader what the events the character has just experienced mean to them.<\/p>\n\n\n
http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/gryphonclerks\/2014\/02\/11\/writing-two-stories-at-once\/<\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (For links, see the original blog post. Text-only version follows.)
\n Continue reading