The Sharpest Lives CDJ (![]() @ 2019-09-28 18:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | resources: writing, writer: reference |
Self-Guided Novel Study
I've decided to rework this into a resource for writers or roleplayers looking to improve their writing skills in one way or another.
For my "example questions", I'll pull from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles novels.
Example:commedia dell'arte noun – an improvised kind of popular comedy in Italian theaters in the 16th–18th centuries, based on stock characters. Actors adapted their comic dialogue and action according to a few basic plots (commonly love intrigues) and to topical issues. Lestat participates in commedia dell'arte as the character Lélio from the play "Lélio and Isabella".
Example: In his novel The Vampire Lestat, Lestat reminisces on how he as a teenager used to be the breadwinner and provider of food for his family. His father was blind and disabled and his older brothers were often responsible for taking the most care of the Marquis because they were already grown, which left Lestat in charge of collecting food. Today, some children living in the poverty levels are still forced to "grow up" faster than their peers and must sacrifice their social lives and free time to help their family out either by getting a job or staying home to take care of their younger siblings, if they have any.
Example:'Why are you saying this? You couldn't do this to me,' he said.'Of course I could. And I shall. Now. All along I've told you I was evil. I've told you I'm the very devil. The devil in your Faust, the devil in your visions, the tiger in my dream!'
'No, that's not true.' He climbed to his feet, knocking the chair over behind him, and almost losing his balance. He stepped back into the room. 'You're not the devil, and you know that you're not. Don't do this to me! I forbid it!” He clenched his teeth on the last words. 'You are in your own heart as human as I am. And you will not do it.'
'The hell I won't,' I said. I laughed. I couldn’t help it suddenly. 'David the Superior General,' I said. 'David the Candomble priest.'
He backed across the tiled floor, the light fully illuminating his face, and the tense powerful muscles of his arms.
'Want to fight me? It's useless. There's no force on earth that can stop me from doing this.'
'I'll die first,' he said, in a low strangled voice. His face was darkening, flushed with blood. Ah, David’s blood.
-- I chose this passage from Tale of the Body Thief because it's a symbolic revelation of an earlier event in the book. Lestat has a dream of the young David Talbot in the jungle, about to be attacked by a man-eating tiger. For the entire novel, he ponders the meaning of this dream. The dream sticks out to him because he only has it once, where his dreams of Claudia are often repetitive.