Hold the mirror up to nature.



"...to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." - Hamlet Act 3, Scene 2

Why am I quoting Shakespeare? Well, I think as writers we would be remiss if we didn't take every opportunity to hold our mirror up to nature. Our characters should not only reflect aspects of our own inner lives, but readers should be able to look and see something of themselves in them too. Writers must weave their tales with effective literary devices: metaphor, simile, allegory, analogy, imagery, and mood, painting a picture with depth. And even when the stories are set in distant futures or long forgotten pasts, the reflection in the mirror is something the reader recognizes instantly. 

Recently, I read “The Forever War” by Joe Haldeman.

A classic of sci-fi storytelling, it follows one soldier’s journey from the first battle of a long war, all the way to the last. Time dilation and the massive distances involved mean the main character experiences four subjective years of military service while centuries pass back on Earth.

And, although the main thread of the story is about a very long war between Earth and an alien race, Haldeman is holding up his mirror to show the futility of ALL wars. The Forever War was written as an allegory of the Vietnam War, but it’s as relevant today as it was in the seventies when it was released. 

 Even the title, is more than meets the eye. Why, if the war did not last ‘forever’, is it called The Forever War?

This is just one example. Write your stories and be true to the world you create. Hold up the mirror and then trust the reader. 
GSY

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Selling your book or selling your soul?

Image
Snobbery and hubris from the traditional publishing world bred some hurt feelings on the self-published side of the industry. To ease the pain, "Selfies" like to point out that they maintain control over their work and don't have to sell their souls like the "Trads" do. I don't think many believe that argument completely, but there's a lot of self-satisfaction in the idea of being in complete control of your artistic vision. This mask of creative integrity has morphed into a widely held conceit that we Selfies can write anything we like and, once our genius is recognized, we can reap the benefits of redefining the publishing industry. Only, that almost NEVER happens. Sure, the internet is awash with stories of this person who made seven figures self-publishing, or that person who was writing a chapter at a time on their blog and now their book is a movie. Yes, it happens...to those two people. Generally, the rest of us struggle. One of the
Read more

Questions for Spartagus.

I'm trying to be a writer (you may have heard mention of this fact a couple thousand times already...lets just pretend this is the first time) and writers need an audience and an ability to connect with them. So, I'm gonna try something different in the blog this time. I struggle to talk about myself in any meaningful way to strangers. I don't know you and you don't know me so, for the most part we are strangers. I show up on Twitter and tweet some mundane fact about myself: "I like cheese!" or, find myself chiming in about movies, cracking wise or ruminating about the size of the universe.The bulk of what I "talk" about is in short, sharp blasts on Twitter and that's lead me to wonder how much of a connection I'm making to the people I interact with through the myriad of social forums. I'm not the most social of animals since I do not find myself in the least bit "special" or "interesting" so find it hard to fat
Read more

#movies - Review - King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Image
#KingArthurLegendOfTheSword was NOT as bad as I'd heard it was. It wasn't WOOHOO...*runs around doing the helicopter t-shirt thing*...but it also wasn't *cries into cornflakes* This is one of those movies you start one Saturday afternoon, take a well deserved nap, and don't feel in the least bit upset at missing any of it. You'll catch the bits you missed the next time you need a Saturday afternoon nap. The downsides Guy Richie's choppy writing/directing ticks can be annoying in places. He borrows from himself, having Arthur carry out both sides of a conversation to show how far ahead he can think, much like Sherlock planning out his Holmes-Fu in a pair of better Richie movies. This occasionally feels like Richie is trying to do the same with the audience, handling both sides of the "movie conversation", never letting a scene land without jarring cuts back and forth, until eventually you just want to step out of the experience to let
Read more