Disclaimer: I acknowledge that no one has asked me about this.... ;-)
As my third novel is developing I look for patterns. The novels are all so different. But I know they can't be at some skeletal level. My inclinations always play out in a pattern at some point. Not formulaic - don't worry. Just human. As always, please bear with me and follow me through this current narcissistic avoidance of real writing. This thing I call... the Blog Update.
The plot ideas that come to me are so large - or grow large in scope of ideas, time, and geography. I enjoy digging out depth in character development...but in such a way as to complement the story as it progresses. That is the idea at any rate.
Balance, the hope of it and the work of it. The realness of it. It feels to me in the writing of the longer narrative that anything less or more than balance (in these general concepts of character and plot) would be insipid.
For me, character and plot are the context. And the cultural/physical landscape is a prominent feature. The landscape in the way it works to inform the characters lives and is impacted by those same lives...this exchange between the character and his place and time can lead to change in either. Or simply as a character and his reflection in the stream of his world.
I tend to like to bring cultures together subtly and violently. I like them to clash or mix, and to learn.
The best result for me is not writing a good story. Or even an amazing and incredible story. But writing a good-enough story - no more or less. Anything else, for me, is true mediocrity. You see, my hope is to captivate and engage the reader. That the reader always has enough...not too little or too much. Because each reader creates a whole new novel - particular to their experiences and inclinations and imagination. Isn't that cool? My novel Unseen is only one story, especially visually. Your reading of it changes it - makes it new and different in ways I cannot.
The story is incomplete in potential without the engaged creative reader. The paradox, the sublime goal of 'good-enough'.
W
