The Ditchwalk Book Club is reading and discussing Rust Hills’ seminal work, Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular. Announcement here. Overview here. Tag here.
Sooner or later every how-to book about fiction talks about movement of character. The specific word used to describe the concept varies — growth, change, development — but they all spring from the same source: the idea that a character (most commonly the main character) will evolve as events unfold.
In previous sections Hills has talked about the idea and importance of change over the course of a story, but here he drills down to a more basic question. Is change in a character actual change, or simply the revelation of some “‘side’ of the personality” that has been previously unacknowledged? From the reader’s point of view it may not matter, but from the author’s point of view the question is far from academic. [ Read more ]