The Tourist (6)
30/04/10
I just finished writing the last chapter of The Tourist. Don’t get excited (as if), I haven’t written the ten or so chapters between where I left off the other day, and the end of the book. But I did write what I now see as the last chapter. It came to me this morning that the way to go was to lean on the formal structure of the book, as originally conceived by me.
As discussed in previous blogs, I had, since high school, wanted to create a work of (presumably) fiction that combined the best features of both poetry and prose. Prose would hopefully contribute narrative power, dialogue, and clarity. Poetry would contribute rhythm, rhyme, and recurring structure. For instance, a pre-modern poem likely was written with a rhythm scheme, the most well know being Iambic Pentameter - meaning that there are five ‘feet’ per line, and that each foot has two beats, e.g. ‘My dear/how will/ I know/you love/just me?’ In this type of poem these is also a rhyme scheme. For instance, a poem can have the scheme; AABCA, meaning that the last word of the first two lines and the last word of the last line rhyme. For instance:
I wish I knew.
Just what to do.
My heart’s aflame
My soul’s afraid
Can it be true?
If the poem was entirely regular, each stanza would have two feet per line and two beats per foot, and use the AABCA rhyme scheme
Clearly, that much regularity would soon get old, in a modern poem, never mind in a novel. But certain aspects of regularity can be used. For instance, in Except My Love For You, the structure of certain chapters was duplicated, in some cases several times - in particular when the actions of the characters tended to be repeated - as they so often are in life. Also, life throws casual examples of deja vu at us all the time. EMLFY just makes the repetition more obvious, hopefully in an illuminating manner.
Rhyme and rhythm were used more casually in EMLFY, to move the prose along, to emphasize important points - and just for the pure pleasure of verse. The recurrence of certain themes and images is of course old hat in novel writing. However, I tried to take the devises to a new level. As well, embedding the verse elements right in the main body of the text, as opposed to putting them at the beginning or the end of chapters, is not usual. An example of my type of use of verse, in other published novels, does not come to mind. If any reader knows one, I’d be very interested to hear about it.
Naturally, the use of any preconceived techniques must be subordinate to the actual effect in the work. In EMLFY, there is plenty of straight-forward expository and descriptive prose, unassociated with any recurrent structure. After all, the book has to work for the reader, not just the author! On the other hand, owing to my incapacities or inexperience, in the event, to an (large? small?) extent, I simply didn’t reach the level of integration of prose and poetry that I originally envisioned. So, as you already know, any imperfections of any kind in EMLFY are down to me, and not to the requirements of public taste or the received canons of taste.
As previously blogged, when I began writing The Tourist, I was in the full flush of surprise publishing success. So I went ahead with writing a second novel without the opportunity for reflecting upon the constructive criticism I received for EMLFY. I intended to, and did begin to write the new novel to be as much in full compliance with my poetry/prose marriage theories as possible. The writing went well for a time, then bogged down in the attempt to ‘keep the faith’ while making the plot and the characterizations work, to the sense of an intelligent readership. I chewed the cud of good comment and advise, then began again. I re-wrote for clarity (as I see it in my funny way!) and to better align the story with a new insight on what the book is about, and therefore how it should end. I moved the plot forward to a climax point, and hiccuped again. But my medicine is my original idea.
This morning, I wrote the last chapter in the form of the first chapter. Although the parallel is not exact, if The Tourist had a ‘rhyme’ scheme for it’s estimated one hundred chapters, it would be:
A (chap 1) ..................... A (chap 100)
Since, I have used the A type chapter twice already, the evolving scheme is:
A ...................A ........................ A ........................A
In fact, I have used the forms of the first, say, three chapters repeatedly already, suggesting this form, so far:
A B C.............ABC....................ABC.....................A
Without saying too much about the plot, so far in the book the protagonist already takes two walks. It occurred to me that his last walk can be a mental or conceptual one,wherein he finally notices things of real importance to his life. Being previously merely a tourist, he failed to notice these things on his real walks in Paris and London, and on his figurative walk through life. For plot reasons that I cannot reveal at present, it makes most sense for his last walk to end with a chapter in form A. Therefore, his walk will be figuratively ‘backwards’ from his previous rambles. The structure, then, begins to look like this:
A B C..............A B C...................ABC....................BCA
Whether or not the reader is overtly aware of what’s going on, the repetition is supposed to give a feeling of familiarity, even inevitability to the development of the plot and the journeys of the characters. If it works.
On the practical level, I have found that re-writing a familiar form more easily generates the ideas necessary to ‘finish’ the story, in all senses.When the raw chapters are done, the juggling (and the junking and the re-drafting) begins. Since there are more like six to eight ‘forms’, and widely different chapter lengths, the juggling will be very detailed - factoring in (besides the overall structure as described) plot sense, recurrence of form, balance of chapter lengths, comic relief, internal and external consistency, plausibility of the actions and the destinies of all of characters, etc. I have 100 index cards in hand, on each of which I intend to record the form number of each chapter, a brief summary of what happens in the chapter, and a word count for each. I’ll lay the cards out on a big table, and shuffle them until they do the job! On second thought, I give up!
Don’t forget The Launch Pad Coffee Shop, May 19 at Churchill Park United Church, 525 Beresford. Doors open at 7:30PM. Open mike starts at 8:00PM.
As discussed in previous blogs, I had, since high school, wanted to create a work of (presumably) fiction that combined the best features of both poetry and prose. Prose would hopefully contribute narrative power, dialogue, and clarity. Poetry would contribute rhythm, rhyme, and recurring structure. For instance, a pre-modern poem likely was written with a rhythm scheme, the most well know being Iambic Pentameter - meaning that there are five ‘feet’ per line, and that each foot has two beats, e.g. ‘My dear/how will/ I know/you love/just me?’ In this type of poem these is also a rhyme scheme. For instance, a poem can have the scheme; AABCA, meaning that the last word of the first two lines and the last word of the last line rhyme. For instance:
I wish I knew.
Just what to do.
My heart’s aflame
My soul’s afraid
Can it be true?
If the poem was entirely regular, each stanza would have two feet per line and two beats per foot, and use the AABCA rhyme scheme
Clearly, that much regularity would soon get old, in a modern poem, never mind in a novel. But certain aspects of regularity can be used. For instance, in Except My Love For You, the structure of certain chapters was duplicated, in some cases several times - in particular when the actions of the characters tended to be repeated - as they so often are in life. Also, life throws casual examples of deja vu at us all the time. EMLFY just makes the repetition more obvious, hopefully in an illuminating manner.
Rhyme and rhythm were used more casually in EMLFY, to move the prose along, to emphasize important points - and just for the pure pleasure of verse. The recurrence of certain themes and images is of course old hat in novel writing. However, I tried to take the devises to a new level. As well, embedding the verse elements right in the main body of the text, as opposed to putting them at the beginning or the end of chapters, is not usual. An example of my type of use of verse, in other published novels, does not come to mind. If any reader knows one, I’d be very interested to hear about it.
Naturally, the use of any preconceived techniques must be subordinate to the actual effect in the work. In EMLFY, there is plenty of straight-forward expository and descriptive prose, unassociated with any recurrent structure. After all, the book has to work for the reader, not just the author! On the other hand, owing to my incapacities or inexperience, in the event, to an (large? small?) extent, I simply didn’t reach the level of integration of prose and poetry that I originally envisioned. So, as you already know, any imperfections of any kind in EMLFY are down to me, and not to the requirements of public taste or the received canons of taste.
As previously blogged, when I began writing The Tourist, I was in the full flush of surprise publishing success. So I went ahead with writing a second novel without the opportunity for reflecting upon the constructive criticism I received for EMLFY. I intended to, and did begin to write the new novel to be as much in full compliance with my poetry/prose marriage theories as possible. The writing went well for a time, then bogged down in the attempt to ‘keep the faith’ while making the plot and the characterizations work, to the sense of an intelligent readership. I chewed the cud of good comment and advise, then began again. I re-wrote for clarity (as I see it in my funny way!) and to better align the story with a new insight on what the book is about, and therefore how it should end. I moved the plot forward to a climax point, and hiccuped again. But my medicine is my original idea.
This morning, I wrote the last chapter in the form of the first chapter. Although the parallel is not exact, if The Tourist had a ‘rhyme’ scheme for it’s estimated one hundred chapters, it would be:
A (chap 1) ..................... A (chap 100)
Since, I have used the A type chapter twice already, the evolving scheme is:
A ...................A ........................ A ........................A
In fact, I have used the forms of the first, say, three chapters repeatedly already, suggesting this form, so far:
A B C.............ABC....................ABC.....................A
Without saying too much about the plot, so far in the book the protagonist already takes two walks. It occurred to me that his last walk can be a mental or conceptual one,wherein he finally notices things of real importance to his life. Being previously merely a tourist, he failed to notice these things on his real walks in Paris and London, and on his figurative walk through life. For plot reasons that I cannot reveal at present, it makes most sense for his last walk to end with a chapter in form A. Therefore, his walk will be figuratively ‘backwards’ from his previous rambles. The structure, then, begins to look like this:
A B C..............A B C...................ABC....................BCA
Whether or not the reader is overtly aware of what’s going on, the repetition is supposed to give a feeling of familiarity, even inevitability to the development of the plot and the journeys of the characters. If it works.
On the practical level, I have found that re-writing a familiar form more easily generates the ideas necessary to ‘finish’ the story, in all senses.When the raw chapters are done, the juggling (and the junking and the re-drafting) begins. Since there are more like six to eight ‘forms’, and widely different chapter lengths, the juggling will be very detailed - factoring in (besides the overall structure as described) plot sense, recurrence of form, balance of chapter lengths, comic relief, internal and external consistency, plausibility of the actions and the destinies of all of characters, etc. I have 100 index cards in hand, on each of which I intend to record the form number of each chapter, a brief summary of what happens in the chapter, and a word count for each. I’ll lay the cards out on a big table, and shuffle them until they do the job! On second thought, I give up!
Don’t forget The Launch Pad Coffee Shop, May 19 at Churchill Park United Church, 525 Beresford. Doors open at 7:30PM. Open mike starts at 8:00PM.
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