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Anne Skyvington

The Art of Creative Writing

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Sophocles and Oedipus Rex

beauty man-made
Writing

Plot or Character?

Aristotle

Aristotle (Photo credit: maha-online)

Our writers’ group recently invited a speaker from the University of Technology, Sydney to present a talk on “Poetics”, which he defined as the features of narrative writing.

Did you know that Aristotle wrote the first literary treatise, entitled Poetics, on this subject in 350 BC?

You can read the book online at

http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.mb.txt

We discovered that Aristotle considered plot to be the most important element in constructing a narrative.

Character was next in importance, but secondary to plot (sequence of events). Mark, our lecturer, demonstrated this by retelling the story of “Oedipus Rex” in Sophocles’ dramatic tragedy written in 429 BC.

Sophocles. CastHere characters are subservient to fate, which throws in their pathway terrible events with tragic consequences.

I recalled Australian writer Kate Grenville, expressing the opinion that plotting was a more traditionally “male” way of constructing narratives, whereas many women tended to write in segments—events based on characterisation and “showing” rather than “telling”—which was her chosen modus operandus. In this way of operating, the plot evolves as questions are asked and answered.

Is this really a more “female” way of writing?

Perhaps a synthesis of the two approaches is the ideal way: have an idea of the story, but modify or recreate as you go…

Other narrative elements include language, structure, setting, dialogue, theme, genre, point of view and tense.

Mark defined tragedy as “terrible things happening to good people”,  which is different from comedy, whereby characters are often severely flawed from the outset, and might change as the plot develops.

Complex plots involve a change of fortune, accompanied by reversals and character recognitions. The reader’s response is one of pity or fear when a tragic outcome is achieved.

Related articles
  • Essay: Art as Imitation in Plato and Aristotle
  • 8 Points on Plotting that Novel
  • Making a Plan, Losing the Plot, and Reaching The End
Plot or Character? was last modified: April 9th, 2019 by Anne Skyvington
February 18, 2013 0 comment
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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington

Anne Skyvington is a writer based in Sydney who has been practising and teaching creative writing skills for many years. You can learn here about structuring a short story and how to go about creating a longer work, such as a novel or a memoir. Subscribe to this blog and receive a monthly newsletter on creative writing topics and events.

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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington is a Sydney-based writer and blogger. <a href="https://www.anneskyvington.com.au She has self-published a novel, 'Karrana' and is currently writing a creative memoir based on her life and childhood with a spiritual/mystical dimension.

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