The Sketch

My love affair with the sketch goes back many years to my reading of Adventures in Contentment by David Grayson. 

At first puzzled by the seeming lack of direction the author took in his book, I suddenly realized the “novel” I was reading was, in fact, a collection of vignettes, or sketches, and each one produced a mood of contentment. 

I was enthralled with the skill of the author in making each chapter a chance for us to become satisfied with life. 

From the Adventures, I went on to discover other writers of sketches: such as Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Anthony Trollope.

A sketch is at base a mood evoking descriptive piece of writing. 

Perhaps we can think of it as the verbal equivalent of the musical tone poem. Or as a painting in words. 

One of the best discussions of the form I’ve found is in a blog post from 2007 on the Siris blog, simply entitled “Literary Sketch”. Do check it out.

[NB: The link to the Hawthorne sketch is broken. Here is a link to “A Night Scene”: https://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/ans.html — and don’t miss the link in the word “This” in the Siris blog post.]

The sketch is a literary form that has no plot to it, although there may be movement in the piece. Through the description of the scene, a mood is evoked and that is its strength: to use the power of words to evoke feeling and to perhaps stir us to our very core.

There is a Japanese literary form developed by Basho called haibun, a linking form of prose and haiku, which is very similar to the sketch. 

Basho composed his travel journals in haibun, as well as writing stand alone atmospheric pieces and essays in the form. I love haibun. It is a brilliant dance of prose and poetry.

Sketches were very popular in the 1800s. They were like a photograph, as it were,  that let the reader participate in a scene or an activity.

Writers, if you haven’t tried your hand at the sketch I encourage you to do so. They make excellent blogposts. Short, emotive pieces that will leave your readers happy, sad, motivated — however you want them to feel. And it that feeling is the power of the writing. Perhaps more powerful than if you just dumped a bunch of facts or opinions on them.

Readers, sketches are great for our busy lives. They are usually short. They can be read quickly and will leave you with a verbal picture of someplace you’ve never been and you get to share the feelings of the author.

If you haven’t tried the sketch, either writing one or reading one, I encourage you to do so. A well written sketch is prose poetry at its finest.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

 

 

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

 

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No Plot, No Problem

 

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The plotless novel, story, or movie seems an oxymoron. After all, weren’t we told in high school, college, and grad school by every English and creative writing professor we had to plot out our stories? In every literature class we took, didn’t the instructor talk about plot?

So what the heck is a “plotless” story?

Perhaps, though, we should talk a little bit about plot before we talk about no plot. So what exactly is a “plot”?

Webster’s New World Dictionary, Second College Edition defines plot as “the plan of action of a play, novel, poem, short story, etc.” However, Ronald B Tobias, in Twenty Master Plots and how to write them, would seem to disagree. He notes, “Plot isn’t a wire hanger that you hang the clothes of your story on.” He goes on to declare, “Plot is a process, not an object.” And “Plot is dynamic, not static.”

Basically what Tobias is attempting to say is that the writer has a story to tell. How the writer tells the story, what pattern he or she uses to tell the tale, is in essence the plot of the story. Story is a chronicle of events for Tobias and plot answers the question, “Why?” Why is this particular series of events played out this way? Plot gives story form, according to Tobias.

And yet for all Tobias’s arguing against planning, he is essentially planning. Plot imposes structure on story. Take a simple story. Say the story of Adam and Eve. According to Tobias, what we have is a chronicle of events. Adam has a garden, he is given a partner, they are told don’t eat the fruit of a certain tree, the partner convinces Adam to eat the fruit, and they get kicked out of the garden. According to Tobias, depending on which of his twenty plots you choose, you impose structure on the story and give it form. You could impose a puzzle plot and make it a mystery. Or an adventure plot or a quest plot or a forbidden love plot.

To my mind, we are back to Creative Writing 101. The story is an idea and plot gives it form.

Now one can certainly approach writing that way and that approach does work for many. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is another way. One which I think is organic and was mentioned by Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury supposedly said, “Create your characters, have them do their thing, and that is the story.” It seems to me, Bradbury is turning Tobias on his head. Story is not a series of events upon which the writer must impose structure. Story is the natural result of what the characters do. Story is the chronicle of the characters living out their lives.

So how does this all relate to the plotless novel, or movie, or short story? Good question.

Recently, my wife and I watched the movies Piku and Love Actually. Both films have exceedingly simple story lines. In fact, one could say the story in both films isn’t even very interesting. But what is interesting and captivating in both movies are the characters. Without the characters doing their thing, neither movie would even have a story. The storylines exist so the characters can do their thing. Both movies are hilarious and touching and make telling statements about life. Yet nothing much happens in either one. Yet momentous decisions are made by the characters which have a profound effect on themselves and those around them.

The movie Little Big Man, one of my favorites by the way, also has very little plot. It is the story, told in vignettes, of a man’s life. And yet it is one of the most moving and poignant movies I’ve ever seen. Little Big Man does his thing and the result is a fabulous story.

The plotless story has been around for a long time. In the 19th century it was called the “Sketch”. A sketch has no discernible plot. It’s purpose is to evoke emotion in the reader. Sketches aren’t so popular today and I can’t understand why. They can be highly effective tales. Wonderful for blog posts. Here is modern example, which I think is simply brilliant: “A Fluttering On The Floor”.

You won’t find the plotless story as much in genre fiction as you will in literary fiction. However, Bradbury’s story “The Highway”, from The Illustrated Man, is an excellent example of a plotless sci-fi story. Very little actually happens. But the protagonist’s thoughts and reactions to what does happen are thought-provoking.

The same can be said for Kazuo Ishiguro’s foray into sci-fi, the novel Never Let Me Go. There is some action, but it too seems to exist as nothing more than the stage upon which the characters stand. It’s what the characters do and don’t do that make the movie and book so poignant.

In some ways, I’d class The Maltese Falcon, if not plotless, at least placing little importance on the murder mystery. Even though the falcon is supposed to be the McGuffin, it is in actuality a symbol of how we live our lives. We chase something and chase it and sacrifice everything for it and when we get it, we find out it’s nothing. It’s an illusion, a fake. To my mind, the murder is in a sense the real McGuffin. It’s the event in the background that drives Spade. I don’t think he really cares who killed his partner or even if the killer is caught. What he does care about is clearing his name so he doesn’t take the rap for the murder — even if he has to throw people under the bus to do it. Which in my opinion he does.

The Maltese Falcon isn’t about murder, it’s about Sam Spade. The murder and the falcon are simply Spade doing his thing. And in the process we learn he isn’t very likable. In some ways, he’s a little bit too much like us.

The plotless story isn’t really plotless. It’s just that the plot isn’t all that important. The plot exists but doesn’t drive the story. The characters doing their thing is what drives the story — and them doing their thing is what is important. Because what they do and how they react gives us a glimpse as to who they really are and, if the writer is worth his or her salt, who we really are. After all, isn’t that at least partly why we read fiction? To see ourselves in the main characters? To vicariously experience through them what we can’t actually experience? To be who we want to be and to see condemned in them what we don’t often condemn in ourselves — at least publicly?

Characters, like the play, are the thing. All of this emphasis on plot and outlining and structure is to my mind missing the point. We don’t read books for the great plots. We read them for the characters. How many plots stick in your memory? Contrast that with how many characters are there.

As always, comments are welcome! I’d love to read your thoughts on the plotless novel. And until next time, happy reading!

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The Literary Sketch

The literary sketch was very popular with Victorian readers. Today, however, the form has largely disappeared. I suppose our dislike, as readers, for long narrative passages is primarily the reason. We seem to crave action and dialogue. Perhaps our shortening attention spans are also part of the problem. In this era of Tweets and sound bites, a page of descriptive prose is too much for us to digest. Perhaps.

Yet we also live in an age where we’re encouraged to be in touch with our feelings, where the more reserved amongst us are pejoratively characterized as being robots or ice maidens. In such an era as this, one would think the sketch, with its appeal to emotion, would be back in vogue. Sadly, though, it is not.

The sketch isn’t just an emotive piece, for it appeals to all of the senses. In that sense it is a sensual piece of writing and by appealing to the senses, it moves one subtly. And the nice thing about the sketch is that it is not a propaganda piece. It’s point is not to persuade, but to enlighten. Although an author can certainly shade one’s feelings and sensibilities into certain directions. By means of the sketch, we see a scene through the narrator, as it were. The narrator’s senses become our own.

I’ve been fond of the sketch as a form of entertainment for many years now. To hopefully whet your appetite for the form, you may find “A fluttering on the floor” a perfect introduction to the form. I know I loved it the moment I read it.

There are many collections of sketches and since they’re generally no longer under copyright, you can obtain them for free. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Sketches from Memory is well worth reading and may be obtained for free from Project Gutenberg. Anthony Trollope’s Traveling Sketches and Hunting Sketches are also available for free from Project Gutenberg and are fine examples of the form.

As one reader to another, I encourage you to give the sketch a try. It’s something old, yet it fits very well with our graphics oriented culture. For a good sketch is a picture in words.

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