Readers as kleptomaniacs in a big box store

Curiosity is a force in fiction that causes the reader to care what happens next and to whom it happens. It is a dramatic element, curiosity is, always coming on stage breathless from the last place it attended, playing on our sympathy, our sense of personal identity, and the depth to which we are able to empathize. The sight of a character in want, danger, or serious speculation is sufficient to arouse our curiosity by flashing those warning lights of complication.

You could do well to add denial to the list; with enough denial leaking from a character, the concept of arousing interest becomes the dramatic code words for not when but how soon the thing being denied will explode its ashes all over the character. "Oh no," a character will announce to the Cosmos, "I've got too much on my plate to even think about romance." (Actually, The Cosmos is a nice metaphor for The Reader.) This is quickly followed by a chance meeting with--surprise--a romantic interest of spectacular quirkiness and energy, to bring to the mat all previous defenses to romance.

When a thing happens in Reality, there is often a mark-up in cost of the sort we are reminded of in post-holiday sales, where the discounts on list price are stark reminders of the profit margins enjoyed by so many retailers. This mark-up is usually the addition of complications that abound with all human events, reminding us how Reality has its own agenda. When a thing happens in story, the extraneous complications are discounted, filtered out, making the effect seem undiluted, intense, fraught. We are curious to see what the consequences will be, in some measure because we have been programmed through previous reading to expect that no act, even the act of inaction, goes unnoticed or unpunished in story. Drama is the quintessential tier of on-end dominoes, placed to trigger the next. No more dominoes, no more story.

To exaggerate the metaphor, readers are kleptomaniacs in a big-box store with awesome security. Readers are curious not only to see if they are correct in their suspicions, they want to project themselves into story to see if they can get away with lifting that tube of lipstick or that pair of sunglasses without being caught.

Vulnerability in one or more characters is a starting point for arousing the reader to be curious--to care. Add a touch of potential menace or failure and the reader has felt the oh, oh buttons being depressed. It is also possible to start with a character in high gear with hubris or pomposity for starters. The reader cares to the point of wanting to see that particular character crash against the guardrail of humiliation. Of course the seasoned writer will up the ante by allowing the hubris laden and pompous to win a few rounds first, enhancing the desire to see and taste the deliciousness of the ultimate crash. Those are the stakes for those of us who wish to sit in the game.

Ante up, guys.

Loss Leader

loss--the quality of having experienced or possessed something at one time, but no longer; a sense of something or someone being valued then wrested away by circumstance; an ability, a position or talent once enjoyed and used, no longer accessible either through neglect or a deliberate disassociation; a relationship such as a friendship, mentorship, or romantic connection abrogated by death, neglect,or lack of interest; a prized possession lost or stolen; sums of money or other trade-based media subjected to risk then forfeited through rules of the risk; the after-the-fact realization of something or someone of value being appreciated in retrospect.

Loss, an important coeval to experience, is a significant means by which a writer can convey to the reader a sense of who a particular character is; a simple laundry list of things lost begins to supply background, but dramatic focus on such internals as Innocence, Face (thus dignity), Ambition, Power, Youth, Confidence begins to sketch in an inferential picture of how the character will respond under specific circumstances. The focus on such dramatic externals as Agility, Hair, Teeth, Eyesight, Hearing, and particular abilities associated with performance that do not result in pain or stiffness further define a character and that individual's attitude.

Imagine a particular character, then, engaging the loss of a loved one, a special professional position, or some treasured relic or memento. Imagine as well a particular character becoming aware of lapses of memory. In such awareness and recognition or, conversely, by lack of awareness, a dimension of the character emerges, propelled by loss, by grief, or by the stoic presence of denial stalking the battlements instead of a ghost with an agenda. Think about Beethoven, who revolutionized the music of his day, writing some of the most sublime music of his life after his hearing had departed from him.

As in real life, characters will do things with greater purpose in their attempts to regain what has been lost or to attempt to protect what might next be lost, in so doing revealing even greater depths of themselves, embarking perhaps on an ever widening path of vulnerability.

We can learn more from a character once we discover what that character has lost.

Cultural Footprints

There have been Ice Ages, Stone Ages, Bronze Ages, Medieval Warm Ages, Little Ice Ages, Gilded Ages, Ages of Innocence.

Our own age, the one we inhabit to the point of being able to hear the neighbors' fights through the walls, is yet to have a significant defining name, even though The Age of Entitlement does come to mind. Nevertheless, our age, regardless of its name, has already left some significant footprints on the carpet of civilization. Among but not There have been Ice Ages, Stone Ages, Bronze Ages, Medieval Warm Ages, Little Ice Ages, Gilded Ages, Ages of Innocence.

Our own age, the one we inhabit to the point of being able to hear the neighbors' fights through the walls, is yet to have a significant defining name, even though The Age of Entitlement does come to mind. Nevertheless, our age, regardless of its name, has already left some significant footprints on the carpet of civilization. Among but not limited to are these:

1. Homophobia

2. Al Quaida

3.  Haliburton

4. Imperialism (See also, United States, President of; United States, vice-president of)

5. Wing nuts (See Kristol, William; Krauthammer, Charles; Podhoretz, Norman; Robertson, Pat; See also extremism, Fallwell, Jerry, Rev.)

6.  Filibuster (See also Use of by Republicans; Refusal to use by Democrats)

7. Iraq

8. Homophobia

9. Potter, Harry

10.  NASCAR (See also acronyms, WTF, IED, HMO)

11. Woods, Tiger

12. Gangs

13. hedge funds

14.  Ivins, Molly

15. Homophobia

16.  Rumsfield, Donald

17. Blogs

18.  Bling

19. Racism, rampant

20. YouTube

21. Creationism

22. Presidential pardons

23. Homophobia

24. Atkins Diet

25. pod

26.  Streep, Meryl

27.  Erdrich, Louise

28. Blue States

29. Red States

30. Children (See also Left Behind, Inner)

31. Cholesterol

32. Joint-replacement surgery

33. Digital cameras

34.  iPod

35. Whisperers (See horse, dog, child)

36. Denial (See also Evolution, Global Warming, Science)

37. Torture

38. Homophobia

39. Midas mufflers

40.  Habeas Corpus, denial of: loss of

41. Entitlement, feelings of

42. Hilton, Paris

43. Gun violence

44. Shock and awe

45. Schlock and malls

46. Robot-generated phone calls

47.  SUVs (See also cell-phoning while driving, keyboarding while driving)

48. Nail salons

49. C-Scan

50. C-Scan