Quote: Original post by sunandshadow
Impact Character is a Dramatica term, are you reading Dramatica theory or did you pull the term from my writing somewhere...?
The word theme may also be used in a more concrete way as a synonym for motif. A motif is the way an abstract theme is embodied in a series of related tropes. .. Now, the adult creation of commercial fiction is based on the childhood urge for pretend play. And pretend play is about simulating situations for the purpose of learning and practicing how to deal with them when they later occur in real life.
A study of children's pretend play revealed that sessions of pretend usually developed one of three fundamental themes: separation-reunion, threat-neutralization, and deprivation-provision... Common plot implementations of these themes include, for separation-reunion: death-rebirth, object lost-object found, person absent-person present; for threat-neutralization: danger-rescue, villain present-villain defeated, injury-healing; and for deprivation-provision: food deprivation-food provision, care deprivation-care provision. And there you have the essence of all the most common fiction plots...
A premise is the 'winning side' of a thematic argument, otherwise known as the moral of the story. A logline combines the premise with a brief description of the main character, the rising action, and the climax to convey the core of the story in 1-3 sentences. How are these used in writing a novel? Well, in several ways, because every choice made about a character, a setting, or a plot event prompts other choices about these 3 things. Identifying themes that resonate with you in other works of fiction helps you figure out what themes you want to write about. Knowing some themes you want to write about suggests possibilities for: character motivations, internal conflicts, and personalities; world building which can metaphorically put a particular theme center-stage in the story; your desired emotional tone is developed through the setting; a particular pondering by one character or argument between 2 characters about a thematic point may suggest a specific scene; and of course the moral you want the story to present suggests what must happen at the climax...
Thanks much for the info - very helpful and useful. I've played around with Dramatica. I like many of its ideas but find it difficult to apply a lot of it. I also tend to be attracted to theoretical expositions; yet, I also do not have a complete understanding of its theory. I would be interested in some of your writings concerning it. If you could just point the way to your Dramatica commentary since this forum is not about Dramatica.
How are using the word, "trope"? I understand its meaning as a figure of speech and you appear to be using that word differently or perhaps in a different context.
I never thought about a novel as an extension of a child's play - definitely an "aha" moment for me.
In regard to The Clan of the Cave Bear, were there only 12 chapters or did you group your synopsis the way you did because several consecutive chapters shared the same theme? As I also explore the idea of making a synopsis in order to understand the structure of its plot, it seems to me that it is essentially "telling and not showing". The "showing" is in the actual writing of the novel.