tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post3065662426688579987..comments2024-03-28T01:44:27.279-06:00Comments on Blood-Red Pencil: Busted!—Colum McCann Caught Exposing his Novel's SpineDanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14471919576687777886noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-9731425347273989682012-02-03T14:51:00.609-07:002012-02-03T14:51:00.609-07:00Thanks for leaving a comment, Brianna! Hope it hel...Thanks for leaving a comment, Brianna! Hope it helps you as much as it has helped me. :)Kathryn Crafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08371458857187160425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-36054399683265151212012-02-03T14:48:07.382-07:002012-02-03T14:48:07.382-07:00I love this concept. I'm definitely still work...I love this concept. I'm definitely still working out the spine of my second novel, but the quote from Twyla Tharp's book helped.Brianna Soloskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08663188011029476486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-49864876569129735742012-02-03T14:14:30.461-07:002012-02-03T14:14:30.461-07:00Thanks Heidi. The more told the better, right? Hea...Thanks Heidi. The more told the better, right? Hearing something put a new way sometimes makes all the difference.Kathryn Crafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08371458857187160425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-41057827745167430012012-02-03T14:07:04.474-07:002012-02-03T14:07:04.474-07:00Ooooh, this is a great way to think about the them...Ooooh, this is a great way to think about the theme. Thank you!Heidiwriterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593338979995203659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-14904541804107571342012-02-03T10:21:36.991-07:002012-02-03T10:21:36.991-07:00Exactly, Dani! I think that's why metaphor is ...Exactly, Dani! I think that's why metaphor is so powerful, and why it often springs from the gut.Kathryn Crafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08371458857187160425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-55101680052629308542012-02-03T10:20:46.482-07:002012-02-03T10:20:46.482-07:00Maryann: Hmm, interesting question. My guess is th...Maryann: Hmm, interesting question. My guess is that all creative endeavor has some sort of spine. Tharp suggests you look at your first strong idea for clues. Just before my story opens, my character has survived a fourteen-story fall she can't remember. A fourteen-story fall—that already must be the greatest obstacle she's ever overcome!—yet I put it off-screen. Why? Because I believed her greater challenge was rebuilding her life: she was a dancer, and when she wakes up, she can't move. So her waking up—not the fall—is the inciting incident, and removing her memory of the fall drives that point home. This raises dual questions: what put her out on that ledge, and what will she do now? Those spark my two story lines.<br /><br />Perhaps commercial fiction has a more predictable structure—such as two people who can't stand each other realize they are meant to be together when fate intervenes—but that's still a spine.Kathryn Crafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08371458857187160425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-86307750405868799132012-02-03T10:18:51.648-07:002012-02-03T10:18:51.648-07:00Such powerful words - aren't they a metaphor f...Such powerful words - aren't they a metaphor for life itself?<br /><br />It had never occurred to me before but everything in New York is built upon another thing, nothing is entirely by itself, each thing as strange as the last, and connected.Danihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14471919576687777886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-9642488941679317622012-02-03T10:11:57.068-07:002012-02-03T10:11:57.068-07:00Larry: Your comment reminds me of that old Saturda...Larry: Your comment reminds me of that old Saturday Night Live skit with Jane Curtin as Gilda Radner's mother, Mrs. Loopner. She holds up a framed photo of her deceased husband, curled in a basket, and says: "Poor Mr. Loopner, he was born without a spine." <br /><br />When I need to answer a question such as "What is my spine?", I hold it in mind while reading a book like Tharp's The Creative Habit. Answers tend to form. Good luck finding your spine!Kathryn Crafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08371458857187160425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-15751485869481441382012-02-03T10:06:06.942-07:002012-02-03T10:06:06.942-07:00Elle: I love the fact that your matrix, or spine, ...Elle: I love the fact that your matrix, or spine, leaked onto the page, and that you found it. I do believe our subconscious does a lot of this work for us—sometimes. But when we're struggling, it's nice to have identifiable craft at our hands.<br /><br />Like you and Larry, my work has two interweaving plot lines: one that brought the character to the moment at the beginning of the book, and one moving forward from there in a way that brings all full circle at the end. I found my spine in these words, where my female protagonist realizes that the man who left her in the first part of the story is continuing forward without her:<br /><br />"He was still accelerating towards his goal; I, reaching back for what I’d lost, had created my own terminal velocity."<br /><br />Realizing she needs new goals motivates her forward motion in the second storyline, which is of course informed by the first.Kathryn Crafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08371458857187160425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-64299406220793861192012-02-03T08:04:26.153-07:002012-02-03T08:04:26.153-07:00Well, one thing I can assure you of, you won't...Well, one thing I can assure you of, you won't have work all that hard to figure out the 'spine' of my WIP.Christopher Hudsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03667548312923348614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-21667030718547689082012-02-03T07:55:51.610-07:002012-02-03T07:55:51.610-07:00You would think that all those years of coming up ...You would think that all those years of coming up with concepts for the PR work I did would make something like defining the spine of my story a breeze, but with most of my commercial fiction, I seem to have trouble. Now I can see the spine in my short stories, which are more literary. I wonder if it is easier to do this with mainstream and literary work, and not so much with strictly commercial, like romances, mystery, and other genre books. Opinions anyone?Maryannwriteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09479027709233807149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-49502747353478981452012-02-03T05:58:58.235-07:002012-02-03T05:58:58.235-07:00Another post to the very heart of writing, Kathryn...Another post to the very heart of writing, Kathryn. One might say my WIP is currently spineless. It is really two stories--one of deeply buried secrets in the here-and-now and the other of a deeply buried past--and I am still working on just how to interweave these. I will know the way forward when I see it.<br /><br />--Larry ConstantineLarry Constantine (Lior Samson)http://www.amazon.com/Lior-Samson/e/B004KDPO9A/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5704943052235281766.post-66780914029265071912012-02-03T00:16:07.834-07:002012-02-03T00:16:07.834-07:00Oh, what an excellent concept. I've been calli...Oh, what an excellent concept. I've been calling this my book's "matrix": the scaffolding on which the narrative unfolds, which (I thought) should remain (relatively) hidden. <br /><br />The spine of my WIP is that I have alternating chapters set in two alternate worlds. The main theme is "balance" and I see these chapters as placing a weight on a pair of scales that keeps tipping and then the next chapter brings it back into balance. I've even got a pair of such scales in the narrative, so there you go: not as hidden as I'd thought. <br /><br />I also love that imagery of "layers" of New York, built on top of each other. It is exactly what I felt about London when I was there: layer upon layer of history and humanity and this sense of depth. I can definitely relate.<br /><br />Elle<br /><a href="http://hearwritenow.com" rel="nofollow">HearWriteNow</a> & <a href="http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Blood-Red Pencil</a>Elle Carter Nealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02266309723919011181noreply@blogger.com