Believing strongly that if you want to learn how well you understand something, explain it to someone else.
That’s right up there with if you truly understand something, you should be able to explain it to a three year old.
If you can get them away from their devices, of course.
There’s a difference between I know what I mean and I can explain what I mean.
Herein I hope I explain it as well as I know it.
Leave a comment and let me know.
Enjoy!
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.
Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money.
PS) If you can make a better image, go for it and please send it to me. I’ll re-render the video and give you closing credit.
4 Responses
Hi Joseph
I couldn’t see your diagrams in the video. The screen just went black when you were showing them.
Letty,
Thanks so much for the heads up. It took ~30 tests to figure out what happened (never saw this before and I’ve been rendering videos for years). Sometimes I’m thrilled I have a background in experimentation, other times it can get in the way.
This time it helped a lot.
So enjoy.
(and let me know what you think)
Hi Joseph
I can see the diagrams fine now. It was an interesting talk.
I was a little confused with the time line because you said it includes the inciting incident but the first letter of the plot line chain was in green (the past) not in black (the present). Or did I miss something?
I thought the other two diagrams were very clear. I find the term “through line” difficult because it made me expect it to be similar to time line and plot line. Is there another word for it?
Thanks for the comment, Letty.
The Plotline should (my opinion) always start with the inciting incident and take place in the story’s “Now” or present (usually the protagonist’s present). Also, that incident (again my opinion) should demonstrate tension or show some kind of conflict. As an aside, it doesn’t always have to be with characters. It can be something out of place in a room, something out of place in a setting, a seasonal shift gone slightly awry, … Whatever the inciting incident is, is must(!) give the reader a reason to continue reading.
The Timeline should also (my opinion) start with the inciting incident, however the Timeline doesn’t necessarily start with the story’s “Now.” One of the examples I offer in the video is The Inheritors which starts in the story’s “Now” – Uncle Ro is talking with his niece and the chapter is dated 1994AD.
That chapter takes place in Roland’s “Now,” and what he’s telling his niece is how Uncle Tommy – Ro’s twin brother and the niece’s missing uncle – disappeared some 35-40 years ago. Tommy’s disappearance is the story’s inciting incident, it happens in the story’s “Past,” and is being told in the story’s “Now,” hence the Plotline starts in the story’s “Now,” and the Timeline starts in the story’s “Past.”
Sometimes Timeline and Plotline both start in the story’s “Now,” sometimes they’re different. It all depends on what the story requires (or the author thinks the story requires).
Does that help?