My completed outline can be downloaded here. I was able to trim it down to about 40 pages.

Good job, cyansoft. [smile] Hmm, I see why it came out so long, there are a lot of details here that wouldn't have seemed important to me, but perhaps they seem important to you. 1984 is also loaded with symbolism which often makes details more important. In my outline of TCotCB I had to add a lot of explanations about symbolism too, while P&P is largely lacking in symbolism.

So, do you have any questions about your outline or about 1984 that you'd like to bring up for discussion?

My outline of Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey is here.

I am reviewing Magic by William Goldman. Unfortunately, I am about 1/2 done and it is handwritten at the moment. Have had some plumbing problems and a few other delays. I see this novel as a psycho drama. If you could extend your deadline to Sunday evening, I would like to learn more and be an active participant. I will be finishing this project whether you extend the deadline or not as I find the process useful.

William Goldman was also the author of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as well as the Marathon Man.

As an aside, I reread, actually listened to 1984 on audible.com about 1 1/2 years ago. Every now and again, I reread such novels.

I trudged my way to watching Pride and Prejudice. Not really my kind of work, I just wanted to expand my horizons of the English Novel. As coincidence would have it I watched the first CD about three weeks ago. I watched a different video, Collateral, through Netflix before deciding to watch the 2nd CD. The 2nd CD was a little more interesting.

Don't fence me in,

The ShadowRancher

Quote: Original post by Omega147
Cyansoft, where you gettin' the time to write 26,000 words? That's half a novel there (a shorter one, anyway; 100,000 is standard, about?). Makin' the rest of us look bad. ;)

Didn't you know? I have all the time in the world because I have a time machine! Seriously, I have no idea. Perhaps it had something to do with all that coffee...

Quote: Original post by sunandshadow
Hmm, I see why it came out so long, there are a lot of details here that wouldn't have seemed important to me, but perhaps they seem important to you. 1984 is also loaded with symbolism which often makes details more important.

I needed to be as thorough as possible; otherwise I would forget the entire novel in a matter of days. Also, there is a great deal of terminology, political ideology, and technology to explain in order to fully grasp the story.

Quote: Original post by sunandshadow
So, do you have any questions about your outline or about 1984 that you'd like to bring up for discussion?

Do you feel my logline was appropriate? Do you have any suggestions on how to make it better?

I also have a question on the particular structure the author chose to use. I noticed that the novel was explicitly divided into three separate sections. Coincidently, the end of each section ended in a world altering change for our protagonist. At the end of section one, Winston Smith was absolutely positive that the dark haired girl from work (Julia) was indeed spying on him. This posed the question to why he is being spied upon. And the end of section two, Winston and Julia were caught by the Though Police. This was a point of no return for our protagonist. And at the end of the novel, Winston was fully changed into a loyal member of the Party. Even though all novels have a beginning, middle and an end, what are the advantages and disadvantages of explicitly breaking a novel down for the reader like this? Why do most novels avoid doing this?

Also for anyone looking at my outline, the two numbers following my made-up title for each chapter (since the book didn't title each chapter) are the number of words, and the number of paragraphs in the chapter, respectively.

Well, let's see... First, 1984 is not a historical because it was published in 1949, so actually it's technically science fiction. But Dystopian is definitely it's main genre. The logline is good, although it would be nice if it said a bit more about what happens in the middle of the book, Winston replacing his hate for Julia with love, and learning about the past. I think Winston has to make progress in the middle for 3 reasons: to show the reader what is right, to trigger the thought police to arrest him, and to make it more tragic when he gives in at the end because he has more to lose. 1984 is a tragedy and so instead of the good guys being rewarded and the bad guys being punished at the climax, it works that the good guy gets rewarded in the middle and then has his rewards unjustly stripped from him by the bad guys at the end.

The breaking of the novel into sections is an old-fashioned technique which is not generally used in modern novels unless the author wants the book to feel old. It is not used now because the strong divisions in the book tend to break reader immersion. For the same reason chapter titles are rarely used any more, and many books also have no table of contents or even any chapter breaks at all. (For some structural insight though you might look at the snowflake method - it recommends creating a plot from 3 disasters and an ending, 1984 follows this pattern, the first disaster just happens before the book begins; it is either the development of the big brother society or the development of winston's dissatisfaction.)

Corky and Fats are inseparable until Corky's high school fantasy sweetheart, Peg, reappears when they visit Lake Melody in the Catskills. The penumbra shining from within the caliginous waters of Lake Melody illuminates distorted fragments of Corky's past that remain shrouded under the magicians bright stage lights. Is he in love with a memory or has his memories seared his heart? If one is not careful, misdirection and magic may make a dummy of us all.

1984

It is my understanding that 1984 was written in 1948 (but published in 1949) and Orwell just reversed the last two digits to come up with a year in the future.

Forgot to post my assignment earlier. All the extra time I was hoping to put into finishing the assignment went towards looking for an apartment and preparing to move. Would have been nice to get settled sooner, considering my classes start next Monday. Eeek!

Anyway, here's the first half. I'll touch it up and add more personal comments over the week. Things are just too hectic now.

Analysis of Fate-Stay Night (incomplete).pdf

See everyone next assignment! :)

From my first glance at the partial outline my immediate comment is, you should check out the book _A Night In the Lonesome October_ by Roger Zelazny for comparison, because it has a nearly-identical plot structure.