The anatomy of wondrous fiction

The UP Likhaan Gémino H. Abad Seminar-Workshop on Teaching Literature held from Sept. 20 to 22 at the University Hotel in UP Diliman drew the participation of over 50 literature teachers from all over the country.

Four literary genres were offered for their choosing, with Poetry handled by Mookie Katigbak, Creative Non-Fiction by Susan Lara, Drama by Floy Quintos, and Fiction by this writer.

Each of us initially took turns in addressing the full company, before individual breakout sessions were held in the next two days. We had all been asked by the event organizer and director, Jimmy Abad, to prepare modules on our assigned genres.

Here’s how mine went, as I read in the plenary session, with some extrapolation on each of what I cited as the seven basic concerns a writer faces when attempting fiction.

As planned for the breakout sessions, the specific objective of this Fiction Seminar-Workshop is to impart invaluable information to the participants that they may in turn share with their students.

Whether it’s the short story or the long form (novella, novel), it is essential to recognize and appreciate the following fundamental decisions that need to be addressed by the fiction writer:

1) Choice of point of view (as required by the narrative, its type or nature; form follows function, etc.);

2) Determination of structure vis-à-vis storyline or narrative plot lines (the ideal chronology to take for the most effective presentation or unfolding of the story);

3) Exposition versus dialogue and other elements for advancing the narrative (arriving at the correct proportions to be employed, between straight exposition and the use of dialogue, backgrounding of characters, as well as the peripheral provision of back stories, etc.);

4) Characterization vis-à-vis dialogue (enhancing characters by employing distinct speech patterns and idiomatic use, as well as falling back, if necessary, on projecting inner thoughts or the adoption of central intelligence with regards individual characters);

5) Tone, treatment, texture (selecting the appropriate levels of articulation and/or modulation of voice in telling the story, inclusive of flavor of speech, length or terseness of sentences, use of run-on passages or fragments, and bringing these to either lyrical, simplistic or guttural levels);

(6) Scene-setting and world-building (creating the matrix in which the characters conduct their inevitable courses of action: vintage, historical, contemporary or futuristic contexts of time and space); and

(7) Approaching conflict, climax, resolution (heightening the internal or external drama involving protagonists or a single character around whom the story is wrapped — also involving self-discovery or epiphany, whichever should bring the memorable tale into a satisfactory aesthetic and/or philosophical conclusion.

The recognition of such fundamental demands on the fiction writer can only enhance the appreciation of readers with regard the manner in which exemplary imagination results in memorable storytelling.

The participants will be asked to identify stories they are familiar with that highlight the above-cited features. They will also be supplied with examples from works of fiction that they may not have been familiar with, so that they may use these for sharing with their students. This should compose the content of training, while expected output will be their own evaluations of the interaction among themselves as well as with the lecturer.

The sample readings distributed among the Fiction genre participants were led off by the essay titled “Third-Person Omniscient: Here’s What You Should Know Before Writing With It” by Tonya Thompson.

This provided an excerpt from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and cited the 19th-century works of “the masters of third-person omniscient like Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy,” as well as Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Cormac McCarthy’s fatalistic western Blood Meridian, George R.R. Martin’s best-selling book series A Song of Ice and Fire that became the HBO hit Game of Thrones, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

The second reading material we discussed was Laura van den Berg’s short story, “Where We Must Be,” which appeared in Indiana Review. This extended, double-pronged narrative covered most if not all of the seven items I had cited, in terms of giving examples of the deliberations the writer must have taken when addressing each.

Also taken up was Iya Fernandez’ short short story “Detour” from her collection Tales on Exile, which was reviewed in this space a few weeks ago. Then I shared a brief chapter from my first novel, Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café, where an action scene allowed the use of shifting points of view within a single paragraph.

The inputs received from my group of 10 teachers, which were then integrated into their own final presentation, proved just as invaluable, proving once again how collegial discourse always teaches everyone involved more than just a thing or two.