Why analysis of Narrative Structure? I found out that I cannot fix the Narrative Structure’s problems for two reasons: I am emotionally attached to my work. I don’t have enough experience to logically analysis my work. Thus, it is better to start practicing dissecting the works I have no emotional connection with—other people’s work! […]
Narrative Structure analysis Read More »
When you want to write a story, how would you order the events? What about the characters? When and how would you introduce them to your reader? What about dialogues? How much of the character’s conflict reveal initially? And many more questions which seem daunting and impossible to tackle.
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In the previous blog post, we overviewed the meaning and the types of Character Arcs. This blog post is about positive-change and negative-change Character Arcs in picture books. Positive-change arc A classic example of learning the positive arc is A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens. Initially, Scrooge
Change Character Arc Read More »
Previously, we looked at the meaning of a Character Arc (link) and positive-change and negative-change character arcs in picture books (link). This blog post looks at the flat-arc character in picture books What is a flat-arc character? If the character doesn’t change, why would a reader want to read it? Would something be more boring
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The previous blog post was an introduction to picture book biographies. This blog post is about the most important element for creating a story: the Narrative structure in biographies. Why is the Narrative Structure needed? The Narrative Structure is the framework of the story. Without it, the story collapses—no matter
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This blog post is the summary of my research to answer one question. How to write a biography like a story, not a Wikipedia article? Most biographies give interesting facts but there don’t read like a story. And more importantly, how can I revise my biography manuscripts—picture books and
Info dump in picutre book biographies Read More »
What are your revision steps? Do you print the manuscript, take a pencil and read through the text and cut words? Or, do you make a dummy picture book first? These two were my intuitive steps. Until some comments from my critique partners showed me that some
Revision fiction manuscripts Read More »
What is a quiet story? Picture books with not many actions and more focus on the feelings and emotions of the character are called quiet picture books (Don’t confuse quiet picture books with wordless picture books). Most of the time, we can spot these books by looking at their covers and by browsing through them.
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You may have heard this advice that making a dummy of your picture book manuscript is a great help. This helps to have a feeling of the story’s pace. It assists you to know how much dialogue and action have you envisioned for each page. This dummy is neither for
Make a digital shareable dummy in a few seconds Read More »
What is a picture book biography? Although picture book biography is a subcategory of picture books, their nature is different than other subcategories; they are NOT fictitious. A biography is based on heavy research and each line of the book should be 100\% verifiable and documented. The writer has
Introduction to picture book biography Read More »
I will write here later
I read this book merely because of its title. My reasoning was that when an author is so careful with the title, the story will most likely be good. And it was not good, but brilliant.
Seven resin collectors
The story happens in a small, impoverished fictional village called Dukuh Paruk in the middle of Java Island. The main character, the 14-year-old Rasus, is in love with an 11-year-old girl, Srintil, whose grandfather believes she has a talent for Ronggeng—the Javanese dance. Moreover, in Rasus’s imagination, the girl is a replacement for Rasus’s mother, whom he had lost in childhood. A Ronggeng dancer isn’t a simple entertainer. The dancer is considered a sacred vessel for the village’s ancestral spirit and is expected to be available to the men of the village! I am not sure if it is comparable to the “sacred prostitute” in the temples that we read in the ancient Sumerian stories.
I read the first book in the trilogy in German—Die Tänzerin von Dukuh Paruk. Sadly, the other two volumes aren’t available to buy. In English, the trilogy is published in one volume with the title “The Dancer”.
The central conflict of the story is that Rasus has to emotionally put up with the tradition that everyone in his village believes in or benefits from. Rasus grows out of this calamity; he criticizes his village and its culture. In a nutshell, the story is the classic archetype: a boy becomes a man.
Tohari’s writing voice brings this archetype to life, especially his descriptions of nature and animals, which immerse me in the atmosphere of a Javanese village. The main theme of the story is the battle between tradition and humanity. In spite of the dire atmosphere in the story, it is very optimistic. Poverty and tradition cannot kill the humanity in Rasus.