http:\/\/www.theonion.com\/articles\/now-that-ive-learned-about-foreshadowing-im-going,11392\/<\/a>. It covers all the bases and shows how hackneyed foreshadowing can be when handled clumsily or as it\u2019s been used a billion times before by other writers.<\/p>\nOn Wikipedia I came across Chekhov\u2019s gun as an example of foreshadowing, and I\u2019d never thought of it this way before. Paraphrasing, the idea is that if a gun is shown in the first act of a play, it has to go off in the last act. When the audience sees that gun, it\u2019s put on notice.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d always thought the meaning of Chekhov\u2019s gun had to do with economy not foreshadowing, with not cluttering up a story. If we put a gun in we have to do something with it or we wasted words. On the other hand, clutter can misdirect a reader delightfully. And what if the gun is part of a weapon\u2019s display? Or a key to a character rather than to the story\u2019s crisis?<\/p>\n
Storytelling is complicated. My husband and I watch a TV mystery series called Bones<\/i>. One of the characters is pregnant, and in the show both she and her husband have a recessive gene that causes blindness, so there\u2019s a fifty-fifty chance that the baby will be blind. The latest episode we watched involved a deaf-mute girl, and I\u2019ve been wondering if this is foreshadowing that means the baby will be blind, or if the viewer is just meant to fret more. I\u2019m fine either way. If it\u2019s foreshadowing it\u2019s subtle\u2013<\/p>\n
Which I recommend. It\u2019s the heavy-handed kind I described in the last post that I\u2019m not fond of, except in the instances I mentioned.<\/p>\n
Now for this week\u2019s question. On March 3, 2011, Elizabeth wrote, At some point would you be able to address the question of “Why do we read” and the (very hard) issue of balancing your reading with both fiction and non-fiction?<\/i><\/p>\n
I asked for clarification and Elizabeth wrote, Last semester my husband taught a literature course, and he opened the semester with the question, “Why do we read?”<\/i><\/p>\n
There is no one right answer, and it can be summed up that we read to expand our intellect and imagination. Which leads to the next question I asked about: Limiting yourself (the reader) to only one type of material.<\/p>\n
The problem of reading only fantasy books for whatever reason: because you’re escaping from trouble at home or school, because you think you’re a vampire, or even because you’re afraid of learning something new.<\/p>\n
I know that young people do this a lot and I’m finding as I get older that it’s not something that’s solved just by passing your 21st (and I don’t anticipate 30 to be magical either) birthday. I ask, Ms. Levine, because I hope that you can help encourage me (there I said it) and others like me, to be better.<\/i>
\nOy! I am not a reading paragon, and I\u2019m not much of a reader at all these days. As a young person I was much better. One summer in high school I decided to read Russian novels, and I did. I decided to try Faulkner and loved the book I picked.<\/p>\n
In those days I zoomed through books. I would have sworn off eating before I\u2019d have sworn off reading, if I\u2019d been forced to give up either one. And I used to fantasize about having to make that kind of choice!<\/p>\n
Nowadays I read like a writer, which means I edit as I read. If I find myself editing a sentence in every paragraph, I abandon the book because there\u2019s no pleasure in it. I just read Victory<\/i>, a middle-grade historical fiction novel by Susan Cooper. The writing is lovely, so I was able to lose myself in it. Before that I tried a mystery but the author used the word slightly<\/i> so often I gave up. Each slightly<\/i> grated on me more than the one before. Why couldn\u2019t the author commit the characters completely to an action?<\/p>\n
I have nothing against pleasure reading and escape reading. I\u2019ve mentioned before that I adore Terry Pratchett. When I\u2019m reading one of his books I\u2019m wallowing in delight. I haven\u2019t zipped through his entire body of work only because I\u2019m not reading much.<\/p>\n
Every summer I teach the writing-for-children workshop at a conference in Pennsylvania, and there\u2019s always a reading list that gets me out of my comfort zone. I read two novels for adults and a middle-grade nonfiction book that I never would have come across otherwise and that I loved. The novels were The Madonnas of Leningrad<\/i> by Debra Dean and You\u2019re Not You<\/i> by Michelle Wildgen. The nonfiction was Shipwrecked at the Bottom of the World<\/i> by Jennifer Armstrong. I\u2019ve struggled through several other books on the lists, too. I even attempted to read a nonfiction tome about chaos theory that was a mile or more above my math skills. I gave up when the only words I understood were the articles and prepositions! Still, the effort expended on all these books was worthwhile; I strengthened my reading muscles, and I believe my writing muscles benefited too.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re still in school, books are being assigned to you. I think this is good even when it feels bad. If you\u2019re out of school, ask a librarian or bookseller for suggestions. Tell him you want to explore new reading worlds – mysteries, historical fiction, sci fi, literary fiction, history, economics, memoir, science. Maybe you write only fantasy and that\u2019s all you ever want to write, but it\u2019s probably best to read other genres. Sticking to yours may narrow your concept of what\u2019s possible and may make you too imitative. I\u2019ll avoid reading a novel based on a fairy tale I might want to use someday because the other writer\u2019s take would lodge in my mind. A contemporary fiction book, on the other hand, may give me a great, utterly original fantasy idea.<\/p>\n
I hesitate to say this, but if you\u2019re glued to a single genre you may be reading junk sometimes. The story may be exciting but the writing uninspired. And you may become inured to this kind of prose; you may lose or never gain the ability to tell the mediocre from the magnificent. Sorry! However, if you push yourself, you\u2019re likely to encounter writing that will stun you with its beauty, elegance, risk-taking, surprise. Think about style as you read. Consider what\u2019s a good sentence and what\u2019s less pleasing. The effort will show in your own work. Anyway, that\u2019s what I believe.<\/p>\n
Not that you should try to write like Fitzgerald or anybody else. Or torment yourself because your sentences aren\u2019t as shapely as, say, Gregory McDonald\u2019s. Let the process be unconscious. Let the language seep into you, slosh around in your gray matter, and descend, slowly, slowly, into your writing fingers.<\/p>\n
Prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2219 Consider yourself. Write a list of your qualities, physical, emotional, intellectual. Don\u2019t be hard on yourself, just objective so that the next step will work. Now design a character who is your opposite. Changing gender is optional, but if you have a strong chin, give your character a weak one. If you are calm, make her excitable. Think about a challenge one of your friends is facing right now. If it\u2019s not a difficult challenge, make it harder and throw your opposite into dealing with it. Write a story about what happens. You can always move the problem into the realm of fantasy. If your friend, for example, has a difficult stepfather, you can turn him into an evil magician guardian.<\/p>\n
\u2219 If you never have, read a book by Mark Twain, one of my absolute favorite writers. If you\u2019re in high school and above, read a novel by Anne Tyler, another of my faves. Ask your librarian to recommend a book that he thinks is beautifully written. Read it.<\/p>\n
\u2219 This is, I believe, an impossible prompt, so the idea is to push against the impossible. Write a story about a child (any age) who is lost in a city, fantasy or real, past or present. Attempt to write about him without doing any sort of foreshadowing. Try to make the reader surprised at every turn.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Blog readers have asked me several times about publication possibilities for teens, and yesterday I spent a few hours with HarperCollins people who told me about an interesting opportunity. Some of you may know about it already, but for those who don\u2019t, it\u2019s Inkpop (inkpop.com), where you can post your writing for peer review (review […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[181],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}