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WRITING LESSONS, February 2007
HOW TO PLAN AND WRITE AN EPIC SERIES, PART II PLOT DIAGRAMMING AND OUTLINING THE EPIC SERIES, STAGE ONE,
FINDING THEME We Start by Listing Our Epic's Themes As previously mentioned in Part I, first discover your epic's main founding theme. Then find the theme that drives the epic's main plot, and, subsequently, the theme for each individual book. *members of the audience stare; some scratch their heads* All right. Digressing.... A single book -- a novel -- has a THEME, a posit, a precept, a premise, an idea, philosophical in nature, which defines its plot. A great majority of themes are based upon the idea of good verses evil -- good overcomes evil, good guys always lose, good and evil are simply two sides of the same coin...and so on ad infinum, ad nauseum. An EPIC, because it is bigger with innumerable books possible, requires knowing its major thematic basis. I'll take one of my present works-in-progress to use as an example. The subliminal theme for the complete epic is: nothing matters but the love; the reason for existence is joy. The mechanical and plot-defining theme for the complete epic is: nothing exists without its base foundations intact. The book themes, one per book, are:
So, what are you, the author, saying with your book? You need to know that...or you are going to be running around in a fog until you find out and nail it down. Okay, Forget about Theme for a Moment Now I KNOW for a fact that most of you are not going to be able to figure out your themes, so we're going to go on despite that problem in hopes that, further in, working your way through your epic planning stage, you happen upon the right key phrase that sets off the light bulb with an AHA! and EUREKA! (Part of the problem with the idea of theme is that most authors think it is something very difficult to grasp, when in fact it is usually as plain as is the nose on their face when looking in the mirror. We aren't looking for the third eye here. We are looking for the nose, and it isn't that difficult to see if you would only but put away these grandiose concepts you have about what it is you are being asked.) Begin to Outline by Finding the End and Final Climax Having identified theme...or not, we now begin to OUTLINE THE BASIC STORY. Notice I said outline story, not outline plot. Why? Because usually you will know the story better than you will be able to recognize the story's plot. However, once you start figuring out the story, plot begins to manifest its identity for you. Then you can use plot and sub-plot diagramming to increase depth, mystery, enigma, using plot and subplot twists to create the elaborate story an epic series demands. We start outlining the epic story by FINDING THE END -- the FINAL, ULTIMATE END of the epic series. THIS IS CRITICAL, and I cannot emphasize it enough. Even if your end is, "There is no end," you still need to know the final scene and/or alternate final scenes. "What?" say you. "You mean we can have several different endings possible?" Of course. And the more possible endings that you can postulate, the better chance you have at nailing down the above mentioned THEME. So, right now, write down your postulated final, absolute end and any alternative ends. ...Go on, now. ...Yes, I mean right now. I'll wait. © 2007 zentao © Copyright 2007 zentao |
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