Followers

Monday 2 September 2013

FOUR PART STORY

This idea came from Sunday morning's sermon.  The preacher was talking about God's story in terms of the Creation, the Fall,  Redemption and Restoration, which we all know as the gospel:
God created, the creation fell, our relationship with the creator was broken; we are redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus and we're restored to the relationship through belief.
Pastor Stewart then went on to say, we each have a creation, fall, redemption and restoration story of our own.  We have a story of our origin, of a time we realised we had fallen or sinned, when we realised we needed a saviour and when our lives were restored, even though each of our testimonies is different.
This got me thinking.

In his essay, ' The Religious Meaning of Comedy,'  Nelvin Vos argues that it is comedy that most accurately embodies the Christian message.  He goes on to say the Comic Plot is U- shaped:  descending in to tragedy and rising again to end happily.  He says the upward movement from misery to happiness is essential to the plot.  The Comic hero assimilates into his society, while in Tragedy, the hero is isolated.   (The Christian Imagination, Essays on Literature and the Arts - Leland Ryken, 1981, Baker Book House.  p.241)

I have been involved with the characters of my fantasy novel for some 12 to 18 months and I thought  What if  each of the characters had that same four part  story also?
It might just work.   Here are some examples:




ELIZA BENNETT
DARTH VADER

CREATION
family of origin
immaculate conception through special mitochondria in his cells. 

FALL
becoming friends with Mr. Wickham/
her prejudice
begins when he murders the sand people while trying to rescue his mother

REDEMPTION
visiting Mr Darcy's estate/being told the truth about Mr Wickham
Luke Skywalker saves him - believes there is good in him

RESTORATION 
Mr Darcy gives her a second chance which she accepts 
seen with Obi Wan and Yoda


Try them with your own characters.