Faulkner on Story

William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. Here is his speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm.

"Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed--love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands."

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Conflicting Dialog

Egri proposes that the reason we're drawn to conflict, is because it exposes character. No need to establish mood, atmosphere, background, before the action begins. It should happen throughout the story with conflict. Constantly. Without interruption. Every conflict exposes something about the character. If for any reason a character is NOT in conflict, the story stops, right then and there.

Dialog, then, grows from the character and the conflict, and, in its turn, reveals the character and carries the action. Good dialog is the product of characters carefully chosen and permitted to grow until the slowly rising conflict has proved the premise. No speeches. No Soapboxes.

Transitions

The real art to the story, Egri tells us, is how the writer handles transitions. No big jumps. Smooth transitions. Show how the character moves from one pole to the other. We are never, for any two successive moments the same. And transition is the element which keeps the story moving without any breaks, jumps or gaps. Transition connects seemingly unconnected elements, such as winter and summer, love and hate. Never oscillate between transitions, always move towards the goal. Building the conflict. Don't go back and forth. Once you've passed a threshold, move to the next level.

How to move from FRIENDSHIP to MURDER.

• Friendship-->Disappointment
• Disappointment-->Annoyance
• Annoyance-->Irritation
• Irritation-->Anger
• Anger-->Assault
• Assault-->Threat (to greater harm)
• Threat-->Premeditation
• Premeditation-->Murder

Point of Attack

Egri is adamant that the story should start with the first line uttered. The characters involved will expose their natures in the course of conflict. It is bad writing to first marshal your evidences, drawing in the background, creating an atmosphere, before you begin the conflict. Whatever your premise, whatever the make-up of your characters, the first line spoken should start the conflict and the inevitable drive toward the proving of the premise.

A writer must find a character who wants something so desperately that he can't wait any longer. His needs are immediate. Why? You have your story or movie the moment you can answer authoritatively why this man must do something so urgently and immediately. Whatever it is, the motivation must have grown out of what happened before the story started. In fact, your story is possible only because it grew out of the very thing that happened before.

It is imperative that your story starts in the middle, and not under any circumstances, at the beginning.

Some examples:

• When a conflict will lead up to a crisis.
• When at least one character has reached a turning point in his life.
• When a decision will precipitate conflict.
• When something vital is at stake at the very beginning of the movie.

There must be something at stake--something pressingly important.

Unity of Opposites

Egri suggests that compromise is impossible between the main characters driving the story. Characters duel until death. United to destroy each other. Bound together. But the death is actually a transformation. A loss of equilibrium. But then the character needs to seek a new equilibrium. After you have found your premise, you had better find out immediately--testing if necessary--whether the characters have the unity of opposites between them. If they do not have this STRONG, UNBREAKABLE BOND between them, your conflict will never rise to a climax.

Strong Character

According to Egri, contradiction is the essence of conflict, and when a character can overcome his internal contradictions to win his goal, he is strong. Strong characters force the issue in question until they are beaten or reach their goal. A weak character is one who, for any reason, cannot make a decision to act. Every living creature is capable of doing anything, if the conditions around him are strong enough. There is no such thing as weak character. The question is: did you catch your character at that particular moment when he was ready for conflict? When the author has a clear-cut premise, it is child's play to find the character who will carry the burden of that premise. Characters create the conflict. A plot without character is a makeshift contraption.