Milton's Satan as imagined by Gustave Doré |
Bernard Shaw said with his characteristically acerbic wit,
“Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach.” Though I have written a few dozen
short stories, I don’t consider myself a good story writer. And I think that
others don’t think any better either. So I am one of the right persons to teach
how to write stories. No, don’t take all that too seriously. I just thought of
responding to the week’s Bloghop
prompt: “3 ways you can add diversity to your stories.”
After all, I’ve been a teacher all my life. So, here
we go. How to add diversity to your stories?
1. Bring in some evil.
I’m sure you know that Satan is the most interesting
personality in Milton’s classical Paradise Lost. The all-too-good
characters like God and the angels are utterly boring in that poem. Satan towers
over all of them as a grand and majestic figure with his eloquence and glamour.
Even Adam and Eve are most interesting when they are marked by flaws.
Evil is far more charming than good, especially in
stories. Get a few characters in your story to beat each other black and blue
or at least hurl the choicest abuses and your reader is going to stay with you
for sure. Why do you think our popular films all have dishoom-dishoom scenes?
In case your characters are no good at that sort of a
thing, bring in another, new, character. One good thing about human life is
that it’s never hard to get a villain at any time. Throw Mr Villain (Ms or Mrs
will do better) among the most saintly characters in your story and see how the
entire feel of the story undergoes miraculous transformation.
2. Excavate some
history or myth
Rewriting history and mythology is the trend now. It
can bring in all sorts of diversity to your story. Things that you never
imagined can happen once you start giving twists to history and mythology.
Saints can become sinners and vice versa. So many of our contemporary popular
writers have reimagined historical and mythological characters and sold
millions of copies of their books. You can bring in a different version of Sita
or Arjuna into your story. You can erase a few centuries from the history of
your characters’ ancestors. Make the British vanish from India’s history by making
the Marathas defeat them in one of the battles of Panipat.
Once you start meddling with the past of your
characters, your options are infinite and even Shakespeare’s Cleopatra will flee
seeing the diversity in your story.
An example: Suppose Damodar is in love with Zainab and
the whole country is aghast. Make a twist in the history of Zainab’s family and
give her a Brahminical ancestry which was sacrificed for saving a thousand
families of the mohalla. Now the heat of the plot shifts from the
patriotic citizens of the country to Damodar, a Jat. As I said, the options are
infinite. This is just an example.
3. Alien wisdom
When everything fails, try an alien from some faraway
galaxy. There’s a lot of space out there. Our planet earth is not even a pinprick
in the map of the cosmos. Billions of galaxies each with billions of stars each
of which again has planets and satellites are waiting for you out there with a
whole cosmos of wisdom that can inspire your reader. Bring in a Little Prince
from Asteroid B-612 and teach your villain that a little propaganda can achieve
what a dozen AK-47s cannot.
Aliens are fabulous where diversity is concerned. They
can assume so many shapes and colours. They can speak any language, eat any
food, and, most importantly, say or do whatever you want them to. They are the
pinnacle of diversity.
PS. For more techniques, join my correspondence class 😊
Hari OM
ReplyDelete😄 There is no denying you have the teaching 'chops' - and they shine because you, yourself, are indeed quite polished!!! YAM xx
Shaw is not always right 😊
DeleteYes, Evil and Good both are important to spice up things.
ReplyDeleteActually, one has no existence without the other. Satan was a necessity.
DeleteI like the 'excavate the history' part...and your example is quite imaginative, I must add. Do add me to your class whenever you decide to have one, that is :)
ReplyDeleteI will... You can excavate archives when the time comes. 😊
DeleteThanks for the support to my dream 😊
Alien wisdom is an interesting bit. :-)
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried bringing that into your stories? 😊
Deletenailed it once again.
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteTo bring in some curiosity in the story it's important to mix good with evil. Great post.
ReplyDelete