Month: November 2019

Friday Fictioneers – Fairy Ring

~ Neil MacDonald ~ 60 Comments
ceayr-2-1
PHOTO PROMPT © C.E. Ayr

Deep in the woods, there’s a fairy ring. As a child I found the place. From all over the valley, travellers journeyed to view it and make wishes.

Deep in the woods, there’s a fairy ring. Over the years, a road was worn smooth by thousands of pilgrim feet.

They built a café to cater for hungry travellers, and an inn to lay their heads. And a souvenir shop. And a supermarket. And a housing complex.

Deep in the city, a ring of trees is lovingly preserved. But nobody can remember why.

 

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here

Friday Fictioneers – Help

~ Neil MacDonald ~ 68 Comments
jhardy-storage
PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carroll

This isn’t a story. If you’re reading this, please help. Okay, I’ll admit I was looking on your computer for dirt I could use to blackmail you. And, as you can imagine, I found plenty. That business with Mary was … well, who I am I to judge?

I’m not exactly a nice person. But I didn’t deserve this, trapped as a recurring algorithm in your desktop. Maybe my body is wandering around by itself out there, maybe it fell down dead. Just press the keys and release me. Please.

 

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here

125. Six plot twists and two to avoid

~ Neil MacDonald ~ Leave a comment

A plot twist is a story development that the reader does not expect and in which something surprising happens or something surprising is revealed. Generally, the storyteller will set up expectations and then “twist” those expectations by revealing new information.

A plot twist:

  • must be narratively sound,
  • must be unexpected, and
  • might be foreshadowed.

If it occurs at the end, it’s referred to as a twist in the tail. Aristotle, in his Poetics, argued that a good plot ending must be “surprising yet inevitable”.

Types of plot twists

  1. I Am Your Father, or Anagnoresis

The discovery of another character’s true identity

    • Oedipus Rex marries his mother in ignorance
    • Also Star Wars: the Empire Strikes Back and The Kite Runner

Darth Vader

2. Flashback or Analepsis

A sudden reversion to an earlier event reveals characters or events in a different light

  • The pensieve in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

 

3. Banquo’s Revenge or Peripeteia

A sudden reversal of fortune arising from the character’s circumstances

  • Banquo urging Fleance to take revenge in Macbeth

 

4. It Was Me All Along or Unreliable Narrator

A character is revealed to be other than who we thought they were, throwing preceding events into doubt

  • In Fight Club the narrator is revealed to be Tyler Durdon himself

 

5. Will the Real Villain Please Stand Up

  • The villain in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is revealed to have been at his side all along

 

6. Gasp or False Protagonist

Death of Ned Stark in A Game of Thrones

 

Twist endings to avoid

1. It Was All A Dream

This is usually thought to be cheating when it’s used as an ending

  • The events of A Beautiful Mind are revealed to be hallucinations

 

2. The Lost Will or Deus ex Machina

The opposite of Banquo’s Revenge in that the reversal is not motivated by prior events.  An unexpected, artificial or improbable character, device or event is introduced suddenly to resolve a situation or untangle a plot. It was a favourite in Victorian times where it was attributed to fate and frequently took the form of the discovery of a lost will.

Holmes and Watson

Nowadays this device is generally deemed unacceptable.

  • Jane Eyre where Jane leaves Mr. Rochester and ends up on the doorstep of a long-lost relative

Friday Fictioneers – Sacrifice

~ Neil MacDonald ~ 60 Comments
rivington-st-shul-roger-b
PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

Everything about that building was wrong. Bastard amalgam of a hundred ages mixing turrets and pediments—a temple to some chimaeric deity, part saviour and part destroyer. The one terrible eye looked down on you from its riveted socket, like the porthole of a ghost ship.

And heavenly Marie Celeste it was, for I never saw its shuttered doors open to worshippers or supplicants.  Silas said god lived in the cabin perched atop the roof, winching his vittals up from street level. I disagreed, believing the tenant was a deaf hunchback, and dreamed of being sacrificed to the creature.

 

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here

 

Friday Fictioneers – Playing House

~ Neil MacDonald ~ 54 Comments

 

ronda-del-boccio-sink
PHOTO PROMPT © Ronda Del Boccio

He offered a smart home, a car, and flowers on special days. She took her long red hair and wound it tight about them both. Waited for love to move in. What arrived was habit. She polished that until its base metal sparkled.

 

Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here