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Defining the Gothic: from Tolkien to Todorovian Ambiguity

March 13, 2019

academia, ambiguity, criticism, fantasy, Gothic, Todorov, Tolkien

Quite often in this blog, I refer to ambiguity as a fundamental aspect of Gothic literature. Another thing I must’ve mentioned is that defining the Gothic is no easy task, and each scholar seems to have a unique idea on how to approach the matter.

Personally, I like to focus on the aspect of ambiguity and in-betweenness. In this, I draw from Tzvetan Todorov’s definition of the fantastic, as I will explain below.

Examining the differences between the ways Todorov and J.R.R. Tolkien define the fantastic is a fruitful task, as it allows us to pinpoint the ontology of the various expressions of the fantastic. Furthermore, it provides a great theoretical framework for researching more general aspects of otherness.

defining the gothic — Defining the Gothic is no easy task.

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Narrative Antagonist: Do You Need One?

March 8, 2019

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

antagonist, fiction, narrative, tension, writing

Recently someone left a review on my Narrative Nods android app. Part of their review was about that user’s narrative not having a narrative antagonist, and therefore, as he said, he didn’t need the option.

That review got me thinking. I realized that there must be many authors out there who probably don’t understand the concept of a narrative antagonist. As I explained in my article on the types of fiction characters:

The antagonist, as the name implies, functions as the force keeping the protagonist from achieving the given goal. The antagonist actively keeps the protagonist from achieving his/her/their goal. In other words, the antagonist’s opposition is not a result of error, tragic irony, or other such literary device – see information on the character type of the opponent, below.

This seems straightforward enough. However, I also mentioned in that article that:

In most complex narratives, the author can achieve the most powerful effect by having a character play a dual role. For instance, the protagonist and the antagonist can be one and the same actual character. Imagine someone who half the time works toward some goal (say, to find peace of mind over a past trauma), only to undermine his own efforts due to fear or suspicion.

This is probably the part about a narrative antagonist that many authors misunderstand. So, let’s take a closer look at this.

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Plot Generator and Writing Prompt App for Android

March 4, 2019

Literature, Programming

Android, app, computer, programming, writing

Looking for a more creativity-based solution? Try Story Dice, a program I recently made.

Please note that none of my Android apps is any longer maintained – and they’re not even available on Google Play anymore – for reasons you can read about here. If you still have any of the Home for Fiction Android apps installed on your phone, you’re advised to uninstall them. The post below should be seen purely as a snapshot of history.

After finishing my ambitious Mansion Escape text adventure app, I thought to make something a little simpler. The Plot Generator and Writing Prompt app is a simple, lightweight app for Android that helps writers come up with new ideas. This writing prompt app, as the name implies, offers authors an idea to work and expand on. Effectively, it produces a short text containing what is a plot description of sorts. You can think of it as the back cover of a book.

The generated text consists of a basic structure (common in all generated combinations) and a set of randomized items, such as protagonist and antagonist names, gender, character attributes, occupation, field of narrative tension, and others.

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