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| Walking bear |
There is a bear at the door, and he’s not knocking gently.
Writing
Narrative Mode #10: Heinlein’s Three-stage character
Though examining what Panshin coined as the Heinlein individual (see Heinlein in Dimension by Alexei Panshin) is largely a discussion of character development, the process of the development is a narrative mode that one can use to design a novel around. So to start, I’ll list the features of this three-stage character of Heinlein’s.
- Young Innocent
- Stage one is the young but competent innocent. He doesn’t know his way around the situation he is in, but that is mere youth and inexperience. He frequently is taken advantage of and abused before he gets angry enough to respond.
- It is at that time that he meets his mentor, who is an elder who recognizes in this upstart a youthful version of himself. So Young Innocent gains a mentor who is non-too-gentle in his teaching practices. “Life is not patient, so why should I be?” is the philosophy. And life isn’t patient, giving Young Innocent plenty of further knock and nicks which Mentor then trains him to respond to properly. Young Innocent is known to ignore the early lessons but soon comes to appreciate the efforts of his taskmaster.
- Young innocent still has rather naive views, but he is learning and values Mentor’s guidance, even comes to depend, respect and love Mentor.
- Grown up and sporting thick skin and questioning mind
- Stage 2 is the now experienced, ready-to-take-on-anything loner who has gotten over the loss of his mentor (everybody has to go sometime) though it nearly broke him when the loss was fresh. But he is beyond that now, capable, quick in the moment, has the world by the string and is swinging it gaily while wrestling alligators and counting his loose change.
- Most books end with this stage as the finished product. Some let him grow old enough to find his own Young Innocent to foster.
- The elder statesmen of the Heinlein Individual
- This is the quick-handed, quick-tempered elder we will see at the early part of the book as the mentor for Young Innocent.
- He is highly knowledgeable, understands the society he lives in and how to manipulate it to fit his needs and has a world view that is highly cynical.
- That world view alters when he finds the young innocent, an emotional connection he has managed to avoid for a long time. But time is limited, and he needs entertainment for his remaining days, which have been rather charmed and therefore boring.
- And so the circle is closed.
This now brings us to examples. Heinlein’s Orphans in the Sky and Citizen of the Galaxy are good plots to examine. But I am going to be quick about it. In Orphans Hugh Hoyland finds himself in the upper levels of a lost-in-space generation ship that has long ago also lost sight of its purpose, and he is now in the clutches of undesirables. Hugh is our Young Innocent, and the main undesirable is Joe/Jim the soon to be Mentor for Hugh. He teaches Hugh the truth behind the mysteries, in his very cynical way, and in time becomes attached to Hugh, which means he needs to stop playing king of the hill and nanny to Hugh and make change. And the circle is closed (yup, don’t want to completely give away a good story).
As for Citizen, Thorby is Young Innocent, a slave boy that is purchased by a normally disinterested bystander who has been doing fine on his own for years, one Baslim the beggar. On this new planet, Thorby has no protector, no experience and no value. So Baslim provides these things, but at a cost: Thorby must accept training. Baslim has now taken on not only the care and feeding of an innocent, but he no longer can just natter about with no concern about anyone but himself. Then society gets itchy and …. the circle is closed.
The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks available on Smashwords and Amazon.
Tuesday prompt: #16 2013
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| My scene: Sydney Carton in the carts on the way to the guillotine. |
Think about your favorite book, then narrow your favorite parts done to one scene. Get it firmly in your mind and think it through adding details to your memory of the event. When you think you have it well established in your mind, fully involved in your senses, sit down and write it.
Narrative mode: #8 The Christ Figure
A traditional narrative plot is the Christ Figure. It works well with stories which require a hero but follow the version where the hero does not survive the challenge he has to face.
- There must be a social catastrophe in the making.
- Tension should lead up to it with the designated hero a known quantity: always reliable, always there to help others, and yet he will lack belief in himself though he always meets the demands that seem to feel likely to overwhelm him. That’s his role in life and he accepts it.
- Alternate: He can even be a recognized rogue who is thought of as less then worthy, but that is merely misunderstanding. He has never met with a challenge that has caught him ethically or spiritually before. No one expects him to be of any use in the conflict that is building. But something this time drags him in, inspires him.
- In either case, now society needs someone to rise and meet the danger that is coming to the community. (This can be more personal: one character with a personal tragedy and one hero who doesn’t know he can make a difference.)
- There needs to be subtle change and subtle challenge that will bring the hero into the bout of his life. Whether he is the recognized do-gooder or the ne’er-do-well, he takes part in the effort to slow the arrival or stop it all together. He even seems for the moment to have saved them all.
- However, the challenge has greater complication than anticipated, greater danger. Here is the greatest tension, for the hero must make a difficult decision. Never has he had to give so much of himself, never had he expected to. But the hero chooses sacrifice to ensure that the community survives.
- And survive it does, with the reciprocal challenge of being better than it was, worthy of his sacrifice. The perfect hero is purer than imagined. Or if the hero was the less-than-model citizen, then he is glorified, proving that everyone can rise to the finer self.
Tale of Two Cities by Dickens makes use of this narrative. Sidney Carton, an excessive drinker, flawed to the extreme, faithless, presents himself as promised to be the saving grace for another human being should the need ever be called upon. Neither his lifestyle nor his philosophy supports this promise. But the condition he set forth does arrive, and he becomes a savior, giving his life so that another person, more worthy than himself, may live, and in the end, he gains worthiness and personal faith, and those he has sacrificed himself for reach the safe haven he hoped to give.
The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks available on Smashwords and Amazon.
Tuesday prompt: #14 2013
Have you ever played the game of looking at people you don’t know, and you come up with their back stories? That is what you are going to do today.
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| What’s her back story? |
Character’s current situation: Her name is Ruth, newly divorced raising a seven-year-old son on her own. Timid, small boned and stoop shouldered, she has finally found a job at a local window and door mill. Her first experience for the night is to stack blocks of wood being trimmed to a precise length by an experienced chopsaw operator.
How did she get to be here? What is her story? What caused the divorce? What made her once stand proud? Does she lack education, confidence, family support? What did she used to want more than anything else in her life?
Narrative Mode: #7 Cinderella plot
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| Cinderella plot: simplicity |
Writing a modern Cinderella story is quite popular. The simplicity of it makes for an easy plot and that increases the opportunity to add complexity to it.
- Life is good between the two people, and the one dependent they have is healthy and happy. [I am keeping this vague because like many of the other narrative modes, you can enlarge this one to encompass the business world, economics, politics, etc. Imagine two political allies and their constituents.] All is well until one suffers a death (political or personal).
- So a separation of some sort pulls the two apart. The dependent must cling to the one who is left. But he (or she) takes on a new partner, one certain to embrace the dependent. All seems well in this change of events.
- Until the original caretaker also dies. Now the dependent is at the mercy of the replacement, and that individual is not the trustworthy person (business, system, etc.) that was first assumed.
- Life gets very difficult for the dependent. She (he, they) suffer greatly, must complete menial tasks in order to remain in this relatively safe condition. The dependent loses hope and thinks she will never rise out of this lowly position.
- Until opportunity arrives. A young man (or new comer with high ideals) must make a connection and through the acts of individuals or groups who have sympathized with the plight of the dependent finds him or her or it.
- They struggle with various difficulties that pull them apart. Then the magic moment, and life is sweet and promising again.
It does not take a girl, her father, step-mother, step-sisters and a prince to make this narrative work. Any number of things can replace this simple story framework and add complexity.
The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks available on Smashwords and Amazon.