Saturday, January 6, 2024

The Story List: Beginnings


 

Beginnings. . .

As I think about reading a book or watching a film, if a story is really on fire, if the hero is in real trouble and the villain appears overwhelming, if it looks like the hero is trapped with no way out, no way to succeed or finish, no way to even survive the onslaught, all the way to the end, maybe even to the last page—I know I’m in the hands of a great writer. I also know that the story wasn’t a result of luck, magic, or, oh my God, the daughters of Zeus. The writer, like all real artists, knew something about the history of the genre and wanted to give it a push. The writer knew how the story would end before ever thinking about a beginning. A friend of mine who paints once told me that she sees the finished work in her head before she makes the first stroke. When I wasn’t surprised, she laughed.

https://www.robertellis.net



ROBERT ELLIS WRITERS BLOG

01/06/2024

 

No comments:

Post a Comment