Count-down--Ten Days

Ten days to the start of NaNoWriMo. I need to get back into the swing of writing 4000 words per day so I can beat my personal best and finish by the 15th. We'll see.

Because of NaNoWriMo I also need to get a couple of blog posts ready that I can just throw out there if I miss. So much to do, so little time, but NaNo is the best. Wouldn't miss it.

I read the book of Jonah again yesterday. The book is quite interesting, and many people are familiar with the story. Jonah was called by the Lord to cry repentance in Nineveh. If you read to the end he says "Hey, I told you this would happen! Now they've repented and they think I'm an idiot." At least, that's the way I read it at the moment.

"Was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled unto Tarshish."

They say there are seven basic plots. The funny thing is that these plots fit in just about every facet of life, not just fiction. The story of Jonah is part of the "rebirth" plotline, where the protagonist moves away from goodness and then is redeemed. In Jonah's case, it's also a literal rebirth in that he is buried in the sea, swallowed by a great fish and then "vomited" back onto the land.

The book of Ruth is "Rags to Riches" and also "Overcoming the Monster."

This morning when I was reading the scriptures I was thinking about our own society, and how close we are to the Tragedy plotline.

The idea of finding tropes and patterns in everyday life isn't new. The earliest storytellers followed patterns that their readers understood. They interpreted everyday life and used those things to create fantastic worlds where one-eyed monsters and bird-women were not only common, but accepted.

Modern storytellers can do no less. In an odd way, this may help explain the prevalence of dystopian fiction--we feel ourselves to be living in a dystopian world and feel the need to translate that into stories our readers can enjoy.


Word of the Day:

in·trin·sic
inˈtrinzik,-sik/Submit
adjective
adjective: intrinsic
1.
belonging naturally; essential.
"access to the arts is intrinsic to a high quality of life"
synonyms: inherent, innate, inborn, inbred, congenital, connate, natural