I do not subscribe to the idea that the plot has to be advanced at all times
Them's fighting words! I'll go get me some popcorn.
On a serious note; would you mind elaborating? (It's a really slow day at the office)
I do not subscribe to the idea that the plot has to be advanced at all times
Them's fighting words! I'll go get me some popcorn.
On a serious note; would you mind elaborating? (It's a really slow day at the office)
Sure.
[...]
Works just fine, as long as the author keeps it interesting.
In any event, it seems to me the old rule of "don't bore the reader" is really the only one you have to worry about
For me, before I even consider putting a sentence of my story down on paper, I watch as a movie in my head first. I set up the beginning, middle, and end, what's going to happen what the characters are going to say, everything. I watch several times (maybe weeks to months of watching the same "movie") before I put it down on paper. If it ends up being boring or something doesn't make sense, I mess with it until I feel like it's right. I even imagine a soundtrack and lighting (this may be because I also aspire to be a filmmaker but it works all the same). My suggestion would be, try watching the whole thing first. See how you feel about it in its "movie" format, and don't write it down until the movie is finished and it's ready to go.
That's exactly right for the first three. The fourth.....meh sort of. It's not so much he world happening around the character, like my quad mates blasting their music through the wall, but it's what's happening around the character that's contributing to the story's advancement.
Let's use Harry Potter as an example. In Sorcerer's Stone Harry read the paper about the break in. He read up on Nicholas Flammel.
External things may be incited or brought to the hero's attention by other characters but as a consequence of something said or done. Like Hagrid slipping up and mentioning Nicholas Flammel. But really they're the purpose of the story. They're the events or objects that help to weave the hero's and villain's paths together all the way to the conflict. The sorcerer's stone, finding and killing the beast in the chamber of secrets etc.
Hope this helped.
I do not subscribe to the idea that the plot has to be advanced at all times
Sure.... breaka number of rules (such as by directly addressing the reader, thereby breaking the 'wall' between narrator and reader), he has no problem stopping the story for a moment and digressing into some background information about a character that has nothing to do with the plot per se. It is well done and interesting, so it works................................................
...............There are all kinds of books where the author might engage in writing that doesn't advance the plot, whether to add humor, to paint a striking picture of some scene or location, to engage in philosophical musings, or for whatever other reason.
Works just fine, as long as the author keeps it interesting.