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I tend not to know what the plot is or the story is or even the theme. those things come later, for me.
-Michael Ondaatje
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I Tend Not To Know What The

Michael Ondaatje
I tend not to know what the plot is or the story is or even the theme. those things come later, for me.
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Plot Stories Theme

More From Michael Ondaatje

Plot comes first. the plot is the archictecture of your novel. you wouldn't build a house without a plan. if i wrote without a plot, it would just be a pile of bricks. characters are your servants. they must serve your plot.
Character House Firsts
Any plot you impose on your characters will be onomatopoetic: plot. i say don't worry about plot. worry about the characters. let what they say or do reveal who they are, and be involved in their lives, and keep asking yourself, now what happens? the development of relationship creates plot.
Character Worry Plot
I always write a draft version of the novel in which i try to develop, not the story, not the plot, but the possibilities of the plot. i write without thinking much, trying to overcome all kinds of self-criticism, without stopping, without giving any consideration to the style or structure of the novel, only putting down on paper everything that can be used as raw material, very crude material for later development in the story.
Writing Thinking Self
Chris claremont once said of alan moore, "if he could plot, we'd all have to get together and kill him." which utterly misses the most compelling part of alan's writing, the way he develops and expresses ideas and character. plot does not define story. plot is the framework within which ideas are explored and personalities and relationships are unfolded.
Writing Character Ideas
He thought about the story his daughter was living and the role she was playing inside that story. he realized he hadn't provided a better role for his daughter. he hadn't mapped out a story for his family. and so his daughter had chosen another story, a story in which she was wanted, even if she was only being used. in the absence of a family story, she'd chosen a story in which there was risk and adventure, rebellion and independence.
Daughter Adventure Parenting
The story is the only thing that's important. everything else will take care of itself. it's like what bowlers say. you hear writers talk about character or theme or mood or mode or tense or person. but bowlers say, if you make the spares, the strikes will take care of themselves. if you can tell a story, everything else becomes possible. but without story, nothing is possible, because nobody wants to hear about your sensitive characters if there's nothing happening in the story. and the same is true with mood. story is the only thing that's important.
Character Writing Important
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The modern child may early in his or her existence have natural inclinations toward spirituality. the child may have imagination, originality, a simple and individual response to reality, and even a tendency to moments of thoughtful silence and absorption. all these tendencies, however, are soon destroyed by the dominant culture. the child becomes a yelling, brash, false little monster, brandishing a toy gun or dressed up like some character he has seen on television.
Children Character Reality
The little world of childhood with its familiar surroundings is a model of the greater world. the more intensively the family has stamped its character upon the child, the more it will tend to feel and see its earlier miniature world again in the bigger world of adult life. naturally this is not a conscious, intellectual process.
Children Character Childhood
My only conclusion about structure is that nothing works if you don't have interesting characters and a good story to tell.
Character Interesting Stories
The capacity to create [visual] effects in the computer has made the job easier, but it has also introduced the complexity that you can with a few more keystrokes generate such a busy canvas that the eye doesn't know where to go. you lose human scale on an event and you're just wowed by the kinetics and the visualization. but, often in those cases i feel you lose touch with the human characters and what it is that they would feel and how they might feel, and that's still the most important part.
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