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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #43: Use Discovery to Create Satisfying Resolutions and Denouements

#43: Use Discovery to Create Satisfying Resolutions and Denouements

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #43: Use Discovery to Create Satisfying Resolutions and Denouements

If an airplane pilot crashes the plane while landing, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of the ride was. The same goes for novels—if you don’t land the ending, the book will not be satisfying.

Jane Austen is a novelist who always “lands the ending.” One of the main ways she does this is by incorporating discoveries into the resolution of the story: in particular, she uses discoveries to answer the big questions that have been raised throughout the story.

In lesson 40, we talked about some of the big questions raised in the novel Persuasion, including:

  • What will Anne’s future look like?
  • Can Anne and Wentworth reconcile?

Most of the other big questions in the book have been explored and answered by the time we hit the last two chapters of the novel, but not these two questions. Characters and readers have yet to discover the resolution.

The second to last chapter of Persuasion acts as the final “unravelling,” the final section of the climax sequence where the most important questions must be answer, the most important discoveries made. In this chapter, Anne and Captain Harville discuss love and the inconstancies of men and women—who suffers the most from loss of love? Whose feelings are the most tender, the most constant? Captain Wentworth overhears their conversation, and as a result of Anne’s words, writes her a letter which begins:

I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than a woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.

Upon reading the letter, Anne cannot sit still—she goes out into Bath, and when she sees Captain Wentworth, she joins him on a walk. And here, here we discover the answers we’ve been seeking. Anne and Captain Wentworth do reconcile, they express their love to each other, and they become engaged.

In a novel, when questions are raised for the characters, readers want answers by the end of the story. Some of these discoveries occur, and should occur, throughout the book, but some should be saved for the end.

Answering a key question or key questions near the end of the novel provides a satisfying resolution for both the characters and the reader.

In Persuasion the key discoveries are made in the second to last chapter. But there are still more discoveries saved for the denouement.

Discoveries in the Denouement

The denouement serves to show what happens as a result of the final resolution. It is a chance for characters to make any final smaller discoveries, to show any relationship changes, and to wrap up any lingering subplots which have not been resolved.

In the novel Persuasion, the final chapter serves as the denouement. It begins with the following paragraph, which reassures us that the key questions will truly be resolved in the way in which we as readers hope:

Who can be in doubt of what followed? When any two young people take it into their heads to marry, they are pretty sure by perseverance to carry their point, be they ever so poor, or ever so imprudent, or ever so little likely to be necessary to each other’s ultimate comfort. This may be bad morality to conclude with, but I believe it to be truth; and if such parties succeed, how should a Captain Wentworth and an Anne Elliot, with the advantage of maturity of mind, consciousness of right, and one independent fortune between them, fail of bearing down every opposition?

There are a number of other minor discoveries in the final chapter as part of the denouement:

  • We discover Sir Walter’s view on his daughter’s engagement. He approves (he decides that Captain Wentworth has a nice balance of physical attractiveness and fortune, which are two of the only things that matter to him).
  • We discover that Anne’s sister Mary is happy for her, and (mostly) not jealous.
  • We discover how Anne’s other suitor, Mr. Elliot reacts:

The news of his cousin Anne’s engagement burst on Mr. Elliot most unexpectedly. It deranged his best plan of domestic happiness, his best hope of keeping Sir Walter single by the watchfulness which a son-in-law’s rights would have given.

  • We discover that Mrs. Clay has become Mr. Elliot’s mistress (and thus, Anne’s father Sir Walter is safe from Mrs. Clay’s scheming).
  • We discover that Lady Russell and Captain Wentworth are able to reconcile with each other. This is an important discover, as Lady Russell was the person who convinced Anne to break off her original engagement to Wentworth eight years before.
  • We discover the resolution to the subplot of Anne’s friend Mrs. Smith being in poverty: Captain Wentworth is able to use his connections to secure Mrs. Smith’s fortunes, her health improves, and she maintains a good friendship with Anne.

Austen, of course, never leaves her endings completely tidy—there’s never a sense of complete assured happiness. In the final paragraph, we read:

Anne was tenderness itself, and she had the full worth of it in Captain Wentworth’s affection. His profession was all that could ever make her friends wish that tenderness less; the dread of a future war all that could dim her sunshine. She gloried in being a sailor’s wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm…

Austen makes no pretense that Anne and Wentworth’s lives will be perfect. But it is a wonderful resolution because it answers the core, larger questions of the book. It’s a wonderful resolution because this discovery is made in a beautiful way. And it’s a wonderful resolution because the denouement is able to provide the reader with discoveries for lingering questions and subplots.

A Recap

We’ve spent the past seven lessons talking about discovery. To recap, we covered:

Discovery is a powerful tool that can be used in any sort of fiction to drive the character forward and invoke the reader’s interest. Ultimately, the process of discovery assists the character on their external journey, as they interact with the world and find their place in it. Discovery is also fundamental to a character’s internal journey: it gives them reason to change, and sometimes the greatest discoveries come from reflection about themselves, as characters recognize who they really are.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Write a new denouement

Take a short story or a novel that you have written and write a new denouement. Keep the main resolution the same, but write a different denouement, which resolves subplots, relationships, and other small discoveries in a new way.

Exercise 2: Write just the ending of a story

The author Victoria Schwab (also published as V.E. Schwab) writes her climax and denouement first, before writing anything else. In episode 15.42 of Writing Excuses she explained, “I don’t do anything until I’ve planned the ending. The ending…and that climax through the last page determines the entire story I’m telling….Rather than write toward the end, and think ‘What kind of resolution do I need in order to fulfill the promises I’ve made early on?’, I write backwards, from the end, and make those promises from the ending that I know I want to achieve.”

Take a story idea that you haven’t used and write the ending. To reemphasize—you are just writing the ending of the story, not the beginning or the middle. Consider what sorts of discoveries would you like your characters to make at the end of the story, and what emotions you would like to evoke in your reader. Also, ask yourself the same question that Victoria Schwab asks herself: “Who are my characters the moment we leave them?”

Once you’ve written the ending, consider what storytelling it will take to reach this ending, and how to get your characters to this point.

Exercise 3: Best and Worst Endings

Think of two stories, one which had a satisfying and rewarding ending, and another which had an ending that didn’t quite work for you. Now go back and analyze the endings—what specifically made the endings effective and ineffective for you as a reader?

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #40: Use Distractions, Interruptions, and Red Herrings

#40: Use Distractions, Interruptions, and Red Herrings

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #40: Use Distractions, Interruptions, and Red Herrings

If a character is seeking to discover something and she immediately discovers it fully and completely, then there is no story. For a story is about the journey, it is about the process, it is about the striving.

In the novel Persuasion, Anne Elliot has various questions that she seeks answers for, various things that she seeks to discover.

The initial question presented in the first few chapters of the book is:

  1. How can her family financially survive?

As this question is established, so are larger questions:

  1. What is Anne’s place in the world and her family?
  2. What will Anne’s future look like?

These two questions are big questions, which require large discoveries: they are asking fundamental questions about her identity, who she is, and who she wants to become.

In fiction, discovery is often about answering the fundamental questions of self. Yet it is difficult to “know thyself” and it is difficult to change and progress and become. As such, the discovery of answers to these fundamental questions should be difficult for characters.

Related to these fundamental questions in Persuasion are questions about relationships:

  1. Does Anne still have feelings for Captain Wentworth?
  2. Does Captain Wentworth have feelings for Anne?
  3. Can Anne and Wentworth reconcile?

While questions 2 and 3 relate largely to Anne’s internal journey, questions 4-6 related to Anne’s external journey. These questions are related to the larger plot arc of the story, and, once again, must be challenging to answer, or they would not be strong enough questions to sustain an entire novel.

Yet as a writer, how do you make discovery difficult for your characters? Jane Austen makes discovery difficult through three primary methods:

  1. Requiring a progression of knowledge discovery—knowledge that requires multiples steps to gain, or multiple types of knowledge.
  2. Using antagonists who interfere with the discovery process.
  3. Creating distractions, interruptions, and red herrings, all which make discovering the true answers more difficult.

We’ve discussed discovery progression and antagonists in other posts, so in this post we’ll discuss how to use distractions, interruptions, and red herrings.

Distractions

Distraction: A distraction draws the attention of the main character elsewhere, away from the core questions they are pursuing. Jane Austen Writing Lessons

A distraction draws the attention of the main character elsewhere, away from the core questions they are pursuing.

Two of the distractions in Persuasion come in the form of two other gentlemen who are interested in Anne Elliot: Captain Benwick and her cousin, Mr. Elliot.

The first time that Anne sees her cousin, Mr. Elliot, she does not know who he is:

When they came to the steps, leading upwards from the beach, a gentleman at the same moment preparing to come down, politely drew back, and stopped to give them way. They ascended and passed him; and as they passed, Anne’s face caught his eye, and he looked at her with a degree of earnest admiration, which she could not be insensible of….It was evident that the gentleman, (completely a gentleman in manner) admired her exceedingly.

The interest of Captain Benwick and Mr. Elliot help her in her quest of answering the second and third questions: What is her place in the world and her family? What will her future look like? With them, she can visualize different possible futures and different possible roles.

On the surface, the time and attention she pays to Captain Benwick and Mr. Elliot is a distraction from asking the three key questions regarding the plot—whether Anne still likes Captain Wentworth, whether Captain Wentworth likes Anne, and whether or not they can reconcile.

Yet in the hands of a master like Austen, distractions do not simply draw away the character’s attention from their process of discovery.

These distractions ultimately help Anne consider what it that she wants. Her interactions with these men help her choose the path of taking more initiative. Her interactions with Benwick and Elliot make her realize how much she still loves Wentworth. And finally, her interactions with Benwick and Elliot create jealousy within Wentworth, and help him realize that he has the risk of losing Anne.

Good distractions help the character learn and act in ways that will ultimately help them in the discovery process.

Interruptions

Interruption: An interruption halts possible discovery or disrupts forward movement toward the discovery. Jane Austen Writing Lessons

An interruption halts possible discovery or disrupts forward movement toward the discovery.

After Anne sees her cousin Mr. Elliot for the first time, and Mr. Elliot admires her, there is a key moment between Anne and Captain Wentworth:

Captain Wentworth looked round at her instantly in a way which shewed his noticing of it. He gave her a momentary glance—a glance of brightness, which seemed to say, ‘That man is struck with you,–and even I, at this moment, see something like Anne Elliot again.’

These two sentences open the possibility of future discovery about and between Anne and Captain Wentworth. Both Anne and Wentworth are more aware of each other, and Captain Wentworth seems to remember his interest in Anne. If an interruption had not occurred, they might have resolved their past and their future much more quickly.

But an interruption does occur:

Louisa falls and experiences a head injury. As a result, Anne returns to her family, and it also places Captain Wentworth in a position of obligation with Louisa. He has been pursuing her, and now that she is injured, he cannot simply begin pursuing Anne: his duty as a gentleman demands that he continue to assist Louisa, and even potentially become engaged to her.

When Anne returns to live with her father and older sister, she goes from being in a group that appreciates and understands her to being largely unappreciated and misunderstood. Yet she does not wallow in inactivity, for instance, spending time with her friend Mrs. Smith even though her family disapproves of it.

Wentworth is able to see more fully the result of his actions. When Louisa becomes engaged to someone else, he is free to choose anew what he wants, and he begins more actively reestablishing a relationship with Anne.

Interruptions create hardships or difficulties for characters, often in ways that help them grow internally.

Red Herrings

A red herring is a conclusion or path which seems to be the truth, but ultimately is a false conclusion or a false path.

Earlier in the novel Persuasion, Anne follows a red herring. She sees Captain Wentworth’s pursuit of Louisa and concludes that Captain Wentworth has completely moved on from their relationship. She believes that he feels nothing for her, and that there is no possibility of a future between them.

Anne did not wish for more of such looks and speeches. His cold politeness, his ceremonious grace, were worse than any thing.

In this first half of the novel, Anne is quiet and unassertive, and she does not pursue her interests, in part because of her belief in this red herring.

Jane Austen’s novel Emma arguably uses more red herrings than any of her other novels. Emma consistently notices the wrong things about people, which leads her to great trouble in relationships. She takes clues and carries them to false conclusions, and then she pursues these red herrings relentlessly, which blinds her to the truths and the real clues around her.

For instance, when she paints a portrait of her friend Harriet, Mr. Elton excitedly offers to have the portrait framed in London. Emma takes this as a clue for Mr. Elton’s interest in Harriet, and does everything to set up a relationship between Elton and Harriet. Yet this is a red herring. Mr. Elton is interested in Emma, and it was for this reason that he was enthusiastic about the portrait.

Red herrings make it more difficult to find the truth, creating internal and external obstacles that the character must overcome in order to continue the path of discovery.

Conclusion

Distractions, interruptions, and red herrings are essential elements of storytelling. They don’t exist simply to make the story take longer. They exist because struggle is essential for refining character, and because the things that characters most want and need should be initially outside of their grasp if they are truly worth seeking.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1:

Write out answers to these questions about your personal life:

  • What everyday things distract you from your goals? Is there a time when you have had a larger distraction from your goals?
  • What sort of everyday interruptions do you experience? What is a large interruption you have experienced which has halted for a time or changed the progression of your life?
  • Are there any times in your life when you have come to false conclusions, or headed down a path that seemed like the right path but turned out to be the wrong one?
  • What can you learn about distractions, interruptions, and red herrings from your own personal life that you can apply to writing fiction?

Exercise 2:

Take a scene that you have written and add a distraction, interruption, or red herring to it. (Or, if you’d like, you can add more than one!) This distraction, interruption, or red herring can be small and localized (and could potentially be overcome by the end of the scene), or it could be larger, with implications for later in the story.

Exercise 3:

Picture the classic character of Little Red Riding Hood, who desires to visit her grandmother in the woods. Set a timer for 5 to 10 minutes, and create a list of as many possible distractions, interruptions, and red herrings that she could encounter on her journey. This list can include those in the original tale, but should not be limited to them. Circle the three ideas that seem the most interesting to you.

Bonus: Write a new version of the Little Red Riding Hood story using your chosen distractions/interruptions/red herrings.

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #38: Establish an Information Gap

#38: Establish an Information Gap

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #38: Establish an Information Gap

In the last lesson, I talked about the importance of giving your character something to discover—this creates curiosity in the reader and a desire to continue reading the narrative. In order to establish this curiosity about discovery, writers create an information gap for both the characters and the readers. As George Loewenstein explained, an information gap is a gap “between what we know and what we want to know.”

But how, as writers, do we create this information gap? How do we make readers aware of the gap between what they know and what they want to know?

1. Establish an Information Gap by Using Character Anticipation

One of the simplest ways to establish an information gap is to show the characters anticipating something, in their thoughts and words and actions. If the characters desire to know something, then not only do readers learn about this desire, but they begin to develop this desire also.

In Emma, almost all the characters anticipate meeting Frank Churchill and learning what he is like, which creates an awareness of him for the reader, as well as a knowledge that we do not know his character. Coming to know him is established as something intrinsically interesting:

Mr. Frank Churchill was one of the boasts of Highbury, and a lively curiosity to see him prevailed, though the compliment was so little returned that he had never been there in his life. His coming to visit his father had been often talked of but never achieved.

2. Establish an Information Gap by Breaking a Pattern

The human brain relies on patterns to make sense of the world. The book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Dies explains that our attention is drawn when a pattern is broken.

There are many “patterns” in Emma, and many of these are related to societal expectations. First, we expect that someone will meet there verbal and written commitments. Mr. Churchill commits to come to Highbury to visit his father, but then he does not. This breaks a pattern:

“Where is the young man?” said John Knightley. “Has he been here on this occasion—or has he not?”

“He has not been here yet,” replied Emma. “There was a strong expectation of his coming soon after the marriage, but it ended in nothing; and I have not heard him mentioned lately.”

There is also a societal expectation that someone will behave in a “proper manner” to family members. This respect and consideration would include visiting them, but Mr. Churchill does not visit.

Any time that a pattern is broken in a story, especially if it is a behavioral pattern, then it creates an information gap: we want to know why this pattern has been broken. Another famous example of breaking a pattern in Emma is when Jane Fairfax receives an unexpected gift from an undisclosed person of a pianoforte. People do not simply receive pianofortes from mysterious benefactors, then or today, and this breaking of a pattern immediately creates an information gap, a mystery that Emma is compelled to unravel.

Gif of Jane Fairfax playing the pianoforte in the 2020 film Emma

Gif of Jane Fairfax playing the pianoforte in the 2020 film Emma.

3. Establish an Information Gap by Giving Consequence to Not Finding Out

There are endless things that a character might not know, but we only care about them as readers—they only become actual information gaps for readers—if there is a consequence to not finding out. There must be a reason the characters need to discover something. If there are not consequences to not discovering something, in other words, if the information gap has no stakes, then the character has no reason to fill the information gap, and the reader will not care whether or not they do.

In Emma, we like the character of Mr. Weston and we like his new wife, Mrs. Weston. They are good people, who mean a lot to Emma and to others in the community. And so we care that Mr. Weston’s son, Frank Churchill, refuses to visit.

Yet the stakes are not just for the Westons. Emma’s desire to come to know Mr. Churchill and his character relates to her own personal wants and desires. She is a matchmaker, and she has envisioned a match for herself:

Now, it so happened that in spite of Emma’s resolution of never marrying, there was something in the name, in the idea of Mr. Frank Churchill, which always interested her. She had frequently thought—especially since his father’s marriage with Miss Taylor—that if she were to marry, he was the very person to suit her in age, character and condition. He seemed by this connexion between the families, quite to belong to her. She could not but suppose it to be a match that every body who knew them must think of. That Mr. and Mrs. Weston did think of it, she was very strongly persuaded; and though not meaning to be induced by him, or by any body else, to give up a situation which she believed more replete with good than any she could change it for, she had a great curiosity to see him, a decided intention of finding him pleasant, of being liked by him to a certain degree, and a sort of pleasure in the idea of their being coupled in their friends’ imaginations.

Filling this information gap—coming to know Mr. Churchill and his character—has personal consequences for Emma and her future happiness.

4. Establish an Information Gap by Raising New Questions When Questions are Answered

There is a risk in creating something for your characters to discover: once they have discovered it, why should we keep reading? For big questions, when a question is answered, then a new question is often raised.

In Emma, Frank Churchill does ultimately come to Highbury. We meet him, we see him in front of us. Yet a new question is brought to the fore: what is Frank Churhill’s character? Yes, he has come, but is he the sort of man Emma has expected? Will he meet Emma’s matchmaking expectations and fall in love with her? How will he behavior to various parties now that he is in Highbury? Will there be a ball, and who will he dance with at the ball?

New questions about Frank Churchill are raised with every question that is answered, and in a sense, the larger question that was established before his arrival—what is Frank Churchill’s character?—is never clearly answered. It requires the full novel to answer that question, and each little detail is just one piece of the puzzle.

5. Establish an Information Gap by Revealing Key Information

While it is common to conceal information in order to create an information gap, the reverse can also be done. Revealing key information can actually create an information gap as we become curious about the consequences of this information. This is especially true when what is revealed has the potential to disrupt the forward path of the protagonist.

Austen’s novel Emma relies on concealing information, but her novel Mansfield Park reveals information in order to create a need for discovery.

In Mansfield Park, the main character, Fanny Price, has watched with disapproval as a new neighbor, Henry Crawford, flirts shamelessly with her cousins Maria and Julia, despite the fact that Maria is engaged. Then Maria weds and both her and Julia leave Mansfield Park, and Henry Crawford decides to turn his attentions to Fanny.

At this point, Austen could have created the information gap by simply continuing to show Fanny’s viewpoint. Through Fanny’s eyes, we would begin to see Henry’s attentions to Fanny, and we would wonder at the cause of them. We would wonder if he had changed on a fundamental level, and we would desire to know what both he and Fanny will choose to do as a result of these intentions.

Yet Austen does not follow this storytelling path. Instead, Austen reveals a huge piece of information before Henry begins to pay his attentions to Fanny. Austen provides the following scene between Henry Crawford and his sister Mary:

“And how do you think I mean to amuse myself, Mary, on the days that I do not hunt? I am grown too old to go out more than three times a week; but I have a plan for the intermediate days, and what do you think it is?”

“To walk and ride with me, to be sure.”

“Not exactly, though I shall be happy to do both, but that would be exercise only to my body, and I must take care of my mind. Besides, that would be all recreation and indulgence, without the wholesome alloy of labour, and I do not like to eat the bread of idleness. No, my plan is to make Fanny Price in love with me.”

“Fanny Price! Nonsense! No, no. You ought to be satisfied with her two cousins.”

“But I cannot be satisfied without Fanny Price, without making a small hole in Fanny Price’s heart.”

Providing this key information to the reader actually raises the stakes and raises our curiosity: we know that Mr. Crawford intends to make Fanny fall in love with him simply because he likes playing with women’s hearts and he wants to amuse himself.

We know from the start that his attentions are not genuine, which heightens the information gap because we feel a strong need for Fanny to discover this.

The other questions are still raised: Will Henry Crawford change? Will his affections become genuine? What will Henry Crawford and Fanny decide to do?

In this particular case, the key information is revealed to the reader but not to the protagonist, yet at times the key information which creates an information gap can be revealed to both the reader and to the protagonist.

In Conclusion

The five key techniques Jane Austen uses to create information gaps and a thirst for discovery are:

  1. Using character anticipation
  2. Breaking a pattern
  3. Giving consequence to not finding out
  4. Raising new questions when questions are answered
  5. Revealing key information

Each of these is a power tool to create a gap between what the reader and character know, and what the reader and character want to know. These five techniques can be used individually or in combination.

In the next lesson, I’ll talk about the four categories of things that a reader and a character might want to discover.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Breaking a pattern

Write a brief scene which includes a number of people doing ordinary or expected things in a place (i.e. a grocery store, a sports game, or a family gathering). Quickly establish the normal pattern of behavior, and then have someone break the pattern.

Exercise 2: Set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes. During this time, make a list of as many events, secrets, characteristics, etc. as possible that be something that characters must discover. Once you’re done, categorize each item on the list as one of the following:

H: Information that, at first, should be hidden or only hinted at—the process of discovery is finding out this information.

R: Information that should be revealed early on to the reader and/or to the character. The information gap and the process of discovery comes from the implications of this revelation.

H or R: This information could work equally well as hidden information or revealed information, though doing so would change the direction of the story.

Exercise 3: Find a story where a character is actively trying to discover something and analyze it: When is the information gap set up? What techniques are used to establish the information gap? Are there multiple information gaps?

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #37: Give Your Characters Something to Discover

#37: Give Your Characters Something to Discover

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #37: Give Your Characters Something to Discover

In one of the famous scenes in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy dance at Netherfield Ball. After Elizabeth asks him a series of questions, Mr. Darcy says:

“May I ask to what these questions tend?”

“Merely to the illustration of your character,” said she, endeavouring to shake off her gravity. “I am trying to make it out.”

“And what is your success?”

She shook her head. “I do not get on at all. I hear such different accounts of you as puzzle me exceedingly.”

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy dancing in 2005 Pride and Prejudice

Gif of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy dancing in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice

Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth attempts to discover Mr. Darcy’s character, through conversations with him, conversations with others (including Mr. Wickham and Miss Bingley), and through observation of his behavior. In a sense, Mr. Darcy’s character is a mystery, and Elizabeth the detective.

While most of Jane Austen’s novels would not be considered mystery novels on the surface (with the exception of Northanger Abbey, which is a Gothic pastiche), every single Jane Austen novel contains mysteries, things big and small which the characters are attempting to discover. And whenever Austen’s characters are on the road to discovery, readers are hungry for discovery as well.

People in general—and readers especially—are curious, and this is why we like mysteries, this is why we like reading about the process of discovery.

Scientific research backs this up, particularly the theory called the information gap of curiosity.

The information gap theory of curiosity

An article in Wired magazine, “The Itch of Curiosity,” provides a good explanation of the information gap:

The information gap theory of curiosity…was first developed by George Loewenstein of Carnegie-Mellon in the early 90s. According to Loewenstein, curiosity is rather simple: It comes when we feel a gap ‘between what we know and what we want to know’. This gap has emotional consequences: it feels like a mental itch, a mosquito bite on the brain. We seek out new knowledge because we that’s how we scratch the itch.

Jane Austen constantly constructs information gaps which provoke the curiosity of readers and keep them turning the pages.

Sometimes these information gaps are small. For example, as Elizabeth arrives at Netherfield Ball, there are a series of information gaps:

  • Where is Mr. Wickham?
  • Is Mr. Wickham even going to attend the ball?
  • What is Mr. Wickham’s real reason for staying away?

And then, the novel has larger information gaps, gaps that take a large portion of the narrative to answer:

  • Who is right—Mr. Wickham or Mr. Darcy?
  • And what should be done once that knowledge is obtained?

There is also a series of questions which invite discovery about Mr. Bingley:

  • What will Mr. Bingley be like?
  • Will Mr. Bingley be interested in one of the Bennet daughters?
  • Why has Mr. Bingley left?
  • Will Jane see Mr. Bingley in London?
  • Will Jane and Mr. Bingley find happiness?

In his famous screenwriting book, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, Robert McKee writes, “Curiosity is the intellectual need to answer questions and close open patterns. Story plays to this universal desire by doing the opposite, posing questions and opening situations.”

Over the coming weeks, we’ll discuss different aspects of incorporating mystery and discovery into fiction of all genres and styles. By following Austen’s example, and creating possibilities for discovery, we can make our stories more compelling and pique readers’ curiosity.

*Note: There’s a great article by scholar Ellen R. Belton titled “Mystery Without Murder: The Detective Plots of Jane Austen.” Belton makes the argument that Austen’s novels are not simply using aspects of mystery and discovery, but are bona fide detective novels—the protagonists are “not investigating criminals, but potential marriage partners.”

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Rush write a short reflection on the following: What is something that makes you curious? When did you first become interested and why? What makes you want to find out more?

Exercise 2: Choose a published story that’s not in the mystery genre. Make a list of examples of information gaps, mysteries, and discoveries within the story.

Exercise 3: Write a scene about a character doing something that is ordinary or routine, such as taking the subway or drinking coffee. The catch? The scene must include an information gap—a mystery, something that must be discovered.

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #36: Use the Setting as a Character

#36: Use the Setting as a Character

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #36: Use the Setting as a Character

In the past few weeks, we’ve talked about a number of concepts related to setting:

Now, for the final post on setting, I want to address one final topic:

Using the setting as a character

I’ve seen some writers claim that every well-written setting is a character, but to me, making this argument is problematic: if every setting is a character, then the words “setting” and “character” cease to be useful—their meanings are conflated and it is more difficult to talk about their very really differences.

In most stories, the setting is not a character. This is true for most of Jane Austen’s work: her settings are interesting and profound, they reflect the character’s emotional states and sometimes the themes of her stories, yet they aren’t characters. Her settings have character, they have flavor, they mean something to the characters, and they impact the plot, but still they are not characters.

One of the Oxford English Dictionary’s definitions is useful in terms of how we use the word “character” in regard to stories:

Character, noun: “A person portrayed in a work of fiction, a drama, a film, a comic strip, etc.; (also) a part played by an actor on the stage, in a film, etc., a role.”

Ultimately, a character is a person, and ultimately, a setting is not.

Yet sometimes, a setting does act the part of a character; sometimes, a setting acts with personhood.

For instance, in “man vs. nature” stories (which includes everything from disaster stories to smaller, more individual stories like Hatchet), the setting does act as a character—but not just any character; here the setting acts as an antagonist, often virulent, actively fighting against the protagonist and their goals.

Yet you don’t have a sinister, oppositional setting for the setting to act as a character in the story.

In order for a setting to be a character it must:

  1. Play an active part in the story; be an actor.
  2. Impact multiple plot points throughout the story.
  3. Carry a larger metaphorical role that is present throughout the narrative, not just in one particular scene or section.
  4. Be vibrant like a living organism, and have the potential for change.
  5. Receive the sort of attention from characters that is normally reserved for people.
  6. Not be a manifestation of a single character or a small group of characters. (For this reason, Rosings would not be a character, because while it is important, it is entirely defined by Lady Catherine de Bourgh.)

A clear example of Jane Austen using setting as a character is in her uncompleted novel Sanditon. Sanditon is a changing, growing sea town that is attempting to grow into a destination, and it acts as a character in the story.

A page from the manuscript of Sanditon

A page from the manuscript of Sanditon

One of the characters, Mr. Parker, describes Sanditon:

“Sanditon itself—everybody has heard of Sanditon,–the favourite spot of all that are to be found along the coast of Sussex;–the most favoured by Nature, and promising to be the most chosen by man.”

He goes on to say:

“Nature had marked it out—had spoken in most intelligible characters—the finest, purest sea breeze on the coast—acknowledged to be so—excellent bathing—find hard sand—deep water ten yards from the shore—no mud—no weeds—no slimy rocks—never was there a place more palpably designed by Nature for the resort of the invalid—the very spot which thousands seemed in need of—the most desirable distance from London!”

The narrator comments:

Sanditon—the success of Sanditon as a small, fashionable bathing place was the object for which he seemed to live….Sanditon was a second wife and four children to him—hardly less dear—and certainly more engrossing.

Sanditon is in a moment of transformation—it is growing, and how it will grow and develop and effect its inhabitants and its visitors is still unclear. The old is being discarded and the new sought for. Mrs. Parker sees the things that have been lost, the things she misses, the advantages of the old Sanditon, while Mr. Parker sees breaking from the past as a good thing:

“And whose very snug-looking place is this?” said Charlotte, as in a sheltered dip within two miles of the sea, they passed close by a moderate-sized house, well fenced and planted, and rich in the garden, orchards and meadows which are the best embellishments of such a dwelling. “It seems to have as many comforts about it as Willingden.”

“Ah!” said Mr. Parker. “This is my old house—the house of my forefathers—the house where I and all my brothers and sisters were born and bred—and where my own three eldest children were born—where Mrs. Parker and I lived till within the last two years—till our new house was finished….

“One other hill brings us to Sanditon—modern Sanditon—a beautiful spot.—Our ancestors, you know, always built in a hole.—Here were we, pent down in this little contracted nook, without air or view, only one mile and three quarters from the noblest expanse of ocean between the South Foreland and the Land’s End, and without having the smallest advantage from it. You will not think I have made a bad exchange when we reach Trafalgar House—which, by the bye, I almost wish I had not named Trafalgar—for Waterloo is more the thing now.”

Yet while Mr. Parker is leading many of the efforts to transform Sanditon, it refuses to be defined by him. It is talked of constantly by others, from Lady Denham to Sir Edward, and many actors have a role in its future, and its future will impact the fates of dozens of characters.

Mr. Parker clings to the idea of Sanditon on a track of forward progress, he holds to his expectations for it:

“Civilization, civilization indeed!….Who would have expected such a sight as a shoemaker’s in old Sanditon!—This is new within the month.”

Yet he cannot control it; it refuses to mold to his desires; it is separate from himself and what he wants for it:

It was emptiness and tranquility on the Terrace, the cliffs, and the sands. The shops were deserted, the straw hats and pendant lace seemed left to their fate both within the house and without, and Mrs. Whitby at the library was sitting in her inner room reading one of her own novels, for want of employment.

It is a place of tension, where even its number and type of inhabitants are outside of anyone’s control:

Mr. Parker could not but feel that the list [of families] was not only without distinction, but less numerous than he had hoped.

Andrew Davies’ television series Sanditon continues Jane Austen’s unfinished story. In the first season, Davies does an excellent job of making Sanditon a character. We see its growing pains, the troubles of the workers, money problems, and, in the final episode of the season, what begins as a minor problem within the setting becomes a major problem for the entire community. In Davies’ adaptation, the setting is constantly an actor in the story and the lives of the other characters.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Read the article Ten Books Where the Setting is a Character. Find another example of a setting that is also a character. What makes the setting a character? Why is it useful for the story to have this setting as a character?

Exercise 2: Set a timer for twenty or thirty minutes and begin writing a flash fiction story (less than 1000 words) where the setting is a character. You could use your time to outline and develop ideas or to rush write the beginning of the story. If you the like the direction of focus of the story, take additional time to finish writing and revising it.

Exercise 3: Choose three settings that you have experienced in real life (cities, buildings, outdoor regions, etc.) that would make good candidates for being a character in a story. Make a list of each of their distinguishing attributes, and then add a few notes for what it would take for these to not just be a really compelling, cool setting, but also a character in a story.

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