Monday, May 7, 2012

Down the Rabbit Hole

This original cover of A Wrinkle in Time is sourced from Wikipedia

Hello! It's nice to be back in the Yellow Wood. Hope you've been keeping well.

One of the questions that has come to mind while I've been having a crack at writing a novel is how to tell a story. This sounds pretty elementary for a budding writer, I know, but the mechanics of it is - for me at least - a little more complex than you might imagine. How do I make the story engaging? How do I make the reader want to turn to that next page?

So I have been reading all sorts of things to try to see how other people tell stories. Going back to children's stories has proved to be a particularly interesting source - especially those children's stories that involve the fanastic or the magical. How is the reader encouraged that the plot is just possible enough to keep reading? I've just finished Madeleine L'Engle's lovely A Wrinkle in Time and I've just now started Susan Cooper's Greenwitch. I've been watching Children of the Stones and The Tomorrow People on You Tube too. Funnily enough, I didn't read books like this when I was actually a child - they scared me! And I couldn't watch Doctor Who either, for the same reason.

What did you read when you were little? Do you remember these books? What makes a good story for you?





2 comments:

Bodecea said...

Nice to read you again!
When I was a child, I was reading anything - I liked most a bit fantastic stuff. I loved the books of Astrid Lindgren or Marion Zimemr Bradley and Tolkien when I was older. Of course I knew Narnia, but I was also reading many books about a boy boarding school with enthusiasm.
A good story is one that takes you inside. The world has to be real in your head. That does not mean historically perfect. There has to be a story that is told that keeps your interest, and people (or hobbits. Or...) who feel alive.
Maybe just try to tell a story instead of analyzing too much how other did it. Who knows if their way of writing is the right one for you? When you feel in a flow of story-telling, when you burn for telling the story, you are on the right way, I guess.

:-)
Bodecea

Feronia said...

Thanks Bodecea :) Yes, Zimmer Bradley and Tolkien are wonderful - But I must admit I haven't read Astrid Lindgren - though, weirdly, I have one of her books in Swedish (and I don't speak Swedish). Burning to tell the story...I like that! Thanks :))