My definition of writing is: Writing is the science and art of aligning the worldview of the reader to the worldview of the author by narrative showing of plot, characters, and setting.
Clarifying key words in the definition. Aligning. This is the bringing together of the author’s and readers worldviews so that eventually they “see” the narrative world, and then the real world, the same way. Worldview. Worldview is the large grid a person uses to interpret the world around them and their place within .ti Worldview’s answer the questions: 1) how did we get here; 2) what went wrong; 3) how do we fix it. Ultimately a worldview includes considered views of righteousness, justice, end time events, God, humanity, the true nature of the spiritual realm and the true nature of the physical realm. The narrative world is the world that exists within the story. tI may represent the real world to a lesser or greater degree. To “see” is to understand in a fundamental way. So, to “see” together is to share the same fundamental concepts.
Plot is simply what happens. Humans intuitively strive to understand causation. So, a person’s understanding of plot typically involves the recognition of cause and effect, the “why” of something happening. Characters are simply animate things, usually people. These are critical because they allow people to intuitively, naturally “identify” with certain characters. This identification is very close to the concept of aligning worldviews as mentioned above. Setting is the description of the place of action of the plot. The successful writer causes the reader to “feel” like they are in the story, not just intellectually but also physically.
In the Archon of Babylon series Iwant to align the worldview of the reader with my worldview by identifying with the characters and what happens to them for the most part in the city of Babylon from 605 BC to 530 BC.
Writers that Iadmire and have learned from:
- Moses, the original master from whom Ihave learned narrative art
- Colleen McCullough, fantastically skilled historical fiction writer
- Orson Scott Card, great fiction writer
- Terry Brooks, compelling fiction writer
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes
- JR R Tolkein, of Hobit fame
- C S Lewis, a genius
- Frank Herbert, creator of the planet Dune
- Robert Jordan, prolific alternate world mind