Here's what I love about Dylan: He was exactly as you'd expect he would be. He wouldn't come to the rehearsal; usually, all these guys are practising before the set in the evening. He didn't want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with me and Michelle before the show, but he didn't show up to that. He came in and played "The Times They Are A-Changin'." A beautiful rendition. The guy is so steeped in this stuff that he can just come up with some new arrangement, and the song sounds completely different. Finishes the song, steps off the stage — I'm sitting right in the front row — comes up, shakes my hand, sort of tips his head, gives me just a little grin, and then leaves. And that was it — then he left. That was our only interaction with him. And I thought: That's how you want Bob Dylan, right? You don't want him to be all cheesin' and grinnin' with you. You want him to be a little skeptical about the whole enterprise. So that was a real treat
Barack Obama as reported in Rolling Stone Magazine
Lesson 4: use of setting
- Think of setting as a tool, rather than an actual occurrence
- Put some "setting pointers" in early on
- Think about how you intend to deploy your setting - what is it to be used for
- No impact (eg generic big city, or desert)
- Stage set only. Set the scene initially and then tell the story
- Local colour. Use throughout story but don't provide colour for its own sake; its use must contribute
- Atmosphere. Make clear what a character is feeling but also make the reader feel the same (pathetic fallacy). The setting can take on human characteristics, or be described in the light of the characters current emotions
- Contribute to action. Characters are influenced by the setting (eg a race track)
- Major contributor to the drama (eg snow storm, flood, fire)
- Central symbol. Setting casts a spell that affects everything in the story (eg Titanic)
- Don't use description for its own sake: antithetical to story
- Use to set era eg pre or post cellphones
- Setting can set physical movement or emotional movement
- Make a choice of what you are using as a setting and stick to it
- Point of view
- First, second, third
- First can be effective in that (eg) Watson is the first person but Holmes is the main character. Holmes can surprise us without our requiring the explanations that would be required if Watson was also the Holmes figure
- Third person requires the writer to consider to whose thoughts does the main character have access (Free indirect discourse)
- With second person, you are the protagonist. Writing in the second person is supposed to be more immediate (Note: I am very uncertain about this as the lesson ran out of time)
Back to writing course
