On pp. 148-9 Henry describes a Jungian dream. When I was writing this I read a lot of Jung, whose discussion of archetypes I thought had great promise for advancing my ability to tell a story by fleshing out a character more deeply. Jung shows us how seemingly banal events can give us great insight into the inner life of a character. For example, Jung tells of a client who was walking across a field and saw a red barn. Seeing that red barn unlocked for the client many memories to which the client had previously had no access. In this way, we can use cues to show readers many things about a character than tell the reader about the character.
If you're interested in this, go look at Jung's work. He broke with Freud over the interpretation of dreams. Freud thought dreams were clues to something else. Jung saw them as things important in themselves. Maybe they were both right. If you have an opinion on this, post a comment. And Christmas is coming, order a copy off this website.
Writing for me is an entrepreneurial activity. If you're interested in my entrepreneurship blog, go to www.hatman2.blogspot.com and for entrepreneurial real estate to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog
Friday, October 17, 2008
Jung, Characterization, and Story Telling
Labels:
Characterization,
Jung,
Showing,
Story telling,
Telling
Synopsis:
Author Profile:
Tim was a market and survey research consultant from 1983 to 2000 and a smoking cessation researcher from 2000 to 2003. His consulting practice focused primarily on conducting community health needs assessment. He authored hundreds of market research reports and published a number of his assessments in Community Health Needs Assessment published by McGraw Hill in 1996 and in a revised volume published in 1999. In 2000 he joined the staff of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he conducted smoking cessation research. He published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and spoke at national smoking cessation conferences.
In 2003 he moved to Philadelphia and earned his real estate license. He now practices real estate, works on publishing his novels, and studies and teaches entrepreneurship.Tim has written a dozen novel-length stories, a volume of short stories, and about a 3-foot stack of pages poetry. He is currently working on earning his 4th million in real estate sales, publishing his novels, and working on an entrepreneurish handbook as a support for his students.
Tim is a trained violist and an experienced string quartet player. He is an avid listener to classical music and regularly attends classical music concerts. He has two grown children by his first wife and a stepdaughter with his second wife. He likes to cook, read, write, entertain, develop relationships, and help other people. Formerly Tim used to travel frequently. He doesn't so much anymore. Now he regards the combination of real estate practice, writing and publishing, and the teaching and studying of entrepreneurship as enough of a trip.