The Kilted Writer

The world in the book The Giver , by Lois Lowry, is revealed to the reader slowly, starting with the main character, Jonas, but then building outward from his limited perception into a broader and more encompassing view. In the opening scene, Jonas sees an aircraft fly over, and it puzzles him. He readily obeys the command from the speakers spread throughout the community to go inside. Through this incident, we learn that air travel is rare in this world and that bicycles are the primary mode of transportation for the people. We also begin to see the emphasis on precision of language, especially with the word "release." We learn that "release" is a very serious matter and not something to ever be used lightly or jokingly. Next, Lowry introduces Asher, Jonas's best friend. Through this new character, we learn a little about how schools operate in the community, and we get a clearer idea about the precision of language in the society. Finally, we see one way e...

With the trailers for the new film version of Lois Lowry's The Giver showing up more and more, I thought I would start a series of posts looking at the book's introduction and characters. I must admit I have never read The Giver , but I'm correcting that error as I prepare these posts. The first thing I noticed as I was listening (I do better with audio due to some reading problems) to the book was the use of the "Show; Don't Tell" principle. Jonas lives in a dystopian society that is described very well through scenes in the book's introduction. First, we see a jet flying over the community. An announcement forces people inside, leaving their bicycles lying where they were dropped. From this, we know this is a very disciplined society that is monitored by some unseen group, and this group can communicate to everyone at any time. We also learn the severity of being "released." Lowry could have simply defined the word for us, but Jonas's ...

I try to teach concepts that are universal, which means they should apply across genres and across time. That's why I try to include examples from older, classic literature as well as more recent releases. In this post, I will be illustrating the concept of "importance" using Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd . This book is written from a third-person point of view. Despite this, the world of the story is revealed through the eyes and mind of the main character, Miss Marple. The most important thing in Miss Marple's life in this story is her garden. No one can care for her garden the way she can, and the first few paragraphs in the story center around the care of her garden. After the garden, Miss Marple reflects on the village in which she lives. Rather than describing the village outright, Christie let's us see the village through the eyes of an aging woman who longs for the "good old days." In one part, we learn more about the village...

The Unvanquished , by William Faulkner, is a great example of "importance," revealing the world of your story in order of importance to the main character. The story starts with a description of two young boys playing a game of war out by the wood shed. From the game, we understand the story is set during the time of the Civil War. If we know our history, we can also easily deduce the story is set on a Southern plantation. The war is not important to the main character, but the game is, so we learn about the setting through the game. Faulkner does not leave it up to our knowledge of history, though, to reveal the world of the story. He refines the setting through the main character's remembrances of his father. Again, the war itself is not important to the main character, but the fact that his father is away fighting in it is very important. The relationship between the main character and is friend is another great example. At first, we see a young boy playing a gam...

In addition to my "Brains, Brawn & Bravado" posts, I will start adding additional analysis related to my new workshop, "Let There Be Light." This will be the first of those analyses. If you attend writers conferences or workshops, even occasionally, you have most likely heard the phrase "Show; don't tell." While that axiom is important to storytelling, it is critical to effectively introducing your world to your reader. Think of it this way. You want your reader to become a part of the story, to be drawn into the story through the senses of your characters. You do not want your reader watching your story unfold as if through a window pane. A great example of this lesson is Clockwork Angels , by Kevin J. Anderson. The book has a short prologue that does a lot to introduce the main character's personality, but very little to introduce the world in which he lives. I will focus on chapter one, the beginning of the actual story Anderson is tel...

I am currently developing a new workshop! Right now, I have two workshops I am giving at various conferences and writing groups. The first is "Brains, Brawn & Bravado: Mind, Body, and Spirit in Character Development," and the second is "Brains, Brawn & Bravado: Mind, Body, and Spirit in World Building." Both teach writers how to use the mind, body, and spirit symbolism I have been writing about in this blog. My new workshop also falls under the category of "world building," and is tentatively entitled, "Let There be Light: Revealing Your World to Your Audience." Basically, I will show how to pull your reader into the world you create, whether  your story is set in modern-day Chicago or a galaxy far, far away, using techniques of incremental revelation. I was first exposed to the concepts as part Write Brain workshop hosted by Pikes Peak Writers several years ago. I have taken those basics and expanded them into a more...

I just sat down to watch Pacific Rim, and within five minutes the mind, body, and spirit symbolism leaped off the screen and right into my lap. I am still watching the movie as I write this, so I have not identified the characters who represents each personality. This observation is more of a world building example. In the movie, creatures called "kaiju" are wreaking havoc on mankind. To fight them, giant machines called "jaegers" are built. The jaegers (body) turn out to be too difficult for one pilot to control, so an additional pilot is needed. In order for the pilots to operate the jaeger in unison, designers create a process that links the two pilots minds. And this is where it gets interesting. The process takes the logical and analytical left brain (mind) from one pilot and links if with the creative and imaginative right brain (spirit) of the other. The link between the two pilots is called "the drift." In order to be effective, pi...

Stargate SG-1 ran for 10 seasons and over 200 episodes, which gave the writers a lot of different mind, body, and spirit opportunities. In addition to the main characters and the " uber races " of aliens, SG-1 has one other another prominent mind, body, and spirit set. In the war with their primary enemy, the Goa'uld, the humans of earth ally themselves with the Jaffa and the Tok'ra. The Body Race: Jaffa The Jaffa are the enslaved warriors of the Goa'uld, who pretend to be gods in order to exert their power. They are the measure of any particular Goa'uld's military strength. In the pilot episode, Teal'c, a Jaffa serving as the "First Prime" (top ranking Jaffa) of the Goa'uld Apophis, rebels against his false god and starts a movement within the Jaffa to create a free nation. These free Jaffa fight against the Goa'uld to help their brothers and sisters gain the same freedom they enjoy. The Jaffa are imbued with lon...

A while back, I introduced the concept of mind, body, and spirit societies . I illustrated the concept in my discussion of the book, Divergent , by Veronica Roth, and in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. The TV series, Stargate SG-1 , contains three separate "uber-races" of aliens the team from Earth encounter at various times throughout the series. These three races make up a complete mind, body, and spirit set. The Mind Race: The Nox The Nox appear to be a very primitive race when the team first meets them. They even seem to have difficulty with basic communication. Within the span of a brief conversation, however, the Nox pick up the language and patterns of communication the team is using and are able to communicate quite easily. The Nox use the power of the mind for everything from healing their sick to escaping detection by unwanted intruders. They can even resurrect someone who has died under the right  conditions. To the Nox, humans are a...

I recently stretched the idea of mind, body, and spirit characters into mind, body, and spirit societies . Now I am going to take the idea of mind, body, and spirit symbolism one step further. I have already discussed mind, body, and spirit characters in the Harry Potter series. In this post, I am going to take a deeper look at Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - specifically, the three tasks in the Triwizard Tournament. The Body Task: The Dragons The purpose of this task was to test the champions' strength and agility. Harry completed the task in the least amount of time by relying solely on his athletic ability when it comes to flying. Cedric Diggory tried a bit of deception by turning a rock into a dog, but he ended up relying on his agility when his dragon's attention was drawn away from the dog and back to Cedric. Fleur Delacour and Victor Krum tried attacking their dragons directly, evidently trying to put them out of commission so they could easily s...

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is the protagonist in Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files' series. Mind, body, and spirit abound in this series. First, there are three societies - The Never Never (faerie world), The Down Below (demon world), and The Mundane (human world). I have not read enough of the series to place these concretely, but my initial impression is they are the spirit, mind, and body societies, respectively. Harry Dresden is a wizard, and his magic is deeply rooted in mind, body, and spirit concepts. His potions for example contain eight parts. The first is a liquid that acts to bind all the other components together. Five ingredients represent the five senses (the body). One ingredient represents the mind, and the final ingredient represents the spirit. Spells also have a mind, body and spirit component. And, as usual, there are three primary characters. I have only read the first two books in the series, and as I've shown before, things c...

Spoiler Alert: I will be analyzing Veronica Roth’s Divergent in this post, and I may include spoiler information. If you have not read the book, please read it first – it’s worth the time. Tris, the protagonist in Divergent , grew up in Abnegation , chose Dauntless as her new faction, but she also tested high in Erudite, one of the two 'mind' factions in her society. The Mind Society (I): The Erudite Faction Erudite emphasizes logic and knowledge. Their founders believed ignorance caused their former society's downfall. They are the teachers and researchers in the grand society. They develop all the testing used to help people decide which factions to join. Unfortunately, their reliance on logic leads to a predictable conclusion. (SPOILER) As in movies like ' I, Robot ,' the only 'logical' means to save mankind is to subjugate them under the oppressive rule of the mind society. They develop a new method of mind control to use Dauntless as ...

Spoiler Alert: I will be analyzing Veronica Roth’s Divergent in this post, and I may include spoiler information. If you have not read the book, please read it first – it’s worth the time. Tris, the protagonist in the story, chooses Dauntless , one of the body factions, but she is born into Abnegation, a spirit faction. One of the themes is Tris's discovery that being dauntless and being selfless are nearly one in the same, and that Dauntless was the correct choice for her because of her Abnegation origin.  The Spirit Society (I): The Abnegation Faction The founders of Abnegation believed selfishness and self-gratification led to the downfall of their society, so they dedicated their lives to self-denial. Abnegation was considered incorruptible at its founding, so its members were chosen as the leaders for the entire society. No one in Abnegation would ever be susceptible to bribery or influence. They place themselves below all others - even the Factionless. S...

Spoiler Alert: I will be analyzing Veronica Roth’s ‘Divergent’ in this post, and I may include spoiler information. If you have not read the book, please read it first – it’s worth the time. Divergent is the first book in a YA trilogy by Veronica Roth that is a masterful work of mind, body, and spirit layering. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the society is divided into six population groups. Any time there are a multiple of three of anything, I get curious. People in this society choose which of five factions the wish to join when they turn sixteen years old, based on their personalities. If they ‘flunk out’ of their chosen faction, they end up in the sixth population group – the ‘Factionless.’ The main character in the book is special because her personality is not isolated to one faction or another. She is called ‘divergent’ because she tests high in three personality traits related to three different factions: the Dauntless (body), the Erud...

(Note: This post was originally written in July 2012) I'm a writer, which means, almost by definition, I have no money. As a result, I don't often get the chance to see new movies in the theaters. Yesterday, though, I had the opportunity to see Disney's new movie, "Brave," so I decided to review the heart, mind, and body characters. I can be general enough that I don't give anything away, so you won't have to worry about spoilers. Spirit Character: Merida ( Kelly Macdonald) Merida is the princess who is about to be betrothed but who would rather live her own life. Her biggest wish is to have the freedom to make her own choices, and her happiest days are those when she doesn't have to follow the rules. She finds a Will O' the Wisp that leads her to a place where she gets a magical spell to change her fate and is the only primary character who uses magic. She uses a bow and is highly proficient (in fantasy, the bow is often associa...

I came in one evening, several years ago and flipped on the TV right as a movie was starting. As I watched, it became clear that this was on0e of those Harry Potter stories I'd heard so much about (Later, I discovered it was the Sorcerer's Stone). Wasn't that supposed to be Satan worship or something? Because I had nothing better to do, I decided to watch for a while. I figured it would either be too childish or too demonic for my tastes, but I would never know for sure unless I checked it out for myself. Within a few minutes, I was captivated. By the end, I was hooked. Where did all this demonic sh...tuff come from, anyway? I went out the next day and bought the book. I read it. I bought the next book. I read it. And so a fan was created. Sometime between Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince (I think), I was in the library looking to see if there was a book on the symbolism and imagery J.K. Rowling used in the Harry Potter books. I ran across a book ...