Learning craft

[Mike Dickson]

I was talking to a local author and asked him if he could recommend a book or two where character, plot, dialogue, pov, or theme, play an important role and would be examples to learn from. He recommended Henry James "The Turn of the Screw" as a good pov book to learn from.

Any other recommendations?

Character
Plot
Dialogue
POV
Theme

[Guardian]

Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
Characters - POV focus on hero
Plot - Fiction
Dialogue - Easy, but hillarious
POV - 1st person POV
Theme - hillarious sci-fi (Space master-thief saves the world)

Deathworld - Harry Harrison
Characters - Multiple, but the focus is usually on the hero
Plot - Fiction
Dialogue - Easy, but hillarious
POV - 3rd person (You can compare this style with Stainless Steel Rat as it's from the very same author, but he is using a different POV here)
Theme - hillarious sci-fi (Space gambler saves the world)

Horatio Hornblower - C.S. Forester
Characters - multiple
Plot - Realistic
Dialogue - Realistic (17th century)
POV - 3rd person
Theme - historical fiction (Napoleon era - Naval adventure)

H.M.S. Ulyssess - Alistair MacLean
Characters - multiple
Plot - Realistic
Dialogue - Realistic (20th century)
POV - 3rd person
Theme - historical fiction (WW2 - Naval drama)

A Game of Throne - George R.R. Martin
Characters - multiple
Plot - Fiction
Dialogue - Easy (Fantasy language ala 20th century)
POV - 3rd person
Theme - Fantasy

Or anything from Iain M. Banks (Sci-fi novels) / Iain Banks (Serious novels).

[polymath]

Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, 1898, is an exceptional novella for studying craft. One, it's comparatively short for the long form, at 42,000 words. Two, its diction and sytnax are stuffily stiff enough and the narrative point of view and narrative distance open enough to keep readers from being totally swept up by participation mystique, thus permitting a focused and leisurely close read.

Narrative point of view and its attachments narrative distance and narrative voice are certainly deftly and expertly wielded in the novella. Note how the assorted narrator personas mediate. An external over and overt narrator in the factual person of author Henry James or a totally invisible other imaginary persona mediating the initial internal first person narrator and on through the novella. Another internal narrator in the person of Douglas as reported and introduced in the prefatory opening chapter in third person by the unnamed internal narrator. And yet another narrator in the first person of the main character, the unnamed governess reporting the main action from closest to the time, place, events, and persons as it evolves.

It's an intricate setup, a classic exposition opening. James introduces an external narrator, who introduces the introductory or host narrator, who introduces another narrator who reads the narrative and who introduces the main narrator who reports the main action. It is a tradtional setup common to the later half of the 19th century and earlier for fictional narrative raconteurs, which pose a factual basis in order to seduce past reader incredulity and into unquestioning willing suspension of disbelief.

The mediation of the over narrator is most patent in the invariant diction and syntax of the entire work. No viewpoint character voice stands out from any other, including the assorted narrators. Character development through behavioral and personality traits and through thought, speech, and action attribution carries the entire burden of distinguishing each from the other.

Privately, I think it's a little stiff, though it fit the aesthetic of its times from the somewhat open narrative distance allowing readers to exercise their conscious, critical thinking faculties. Peculiarly, the stiffness fits the ghost story form in what seems intentional purposes. Sober, somber, proper, and here comes this highly fantastical make believe story of ghosts left for readers to decide who's haunting who, if, in fact, there is a haunting and not a fabrication of a disordered mind. Plenty of interpretations for any given reader to decide for his or her self.

[polymath]

I've been thinking about what else to recommend for studying craft and coming up against a block. There's so much to choose from. I think a more narrowed idea of direction would help. Like what kinds of categorical considerations you have in mind. Starting at the top. Genre, time period, literary school of thought, literary movement, setting, plot, idea, character, or event emphasis. Close or open narrative distance, first person, third person, or second person narrator, nonfiction or fiction, short or long form, saga or series or standalone. Yikes, even categorical areas are too numerous to name and not overwhelm. Let alone aesthetic and nuance considerations.

So I guess I might ask, what's your reading and writing preferences and who's your intended target audience?

Anyway, most anything published will do for analyzing craft. Don't overlook unpublished works. They too are a treasure trove for insight because they're good for feeling out what doesn't rise to the occasion, as subjective as they may be. That's the beauty, it's yours to decide. Be the reader and the critic and the editor and the writer evaluating your response as you read. Curiosity engaged when? How? Emotions aroused when? How? Interest lost or languishing when? How? Sentiments paralleled or confronted when? How? Emotional, intellectual, mental, spiritual, recreational sensibilities stimulated, built upon, and paid off when? How?

[Watcher55]

For an interesting study in POV I would recommend ANGELA'S ASHES by Frank McCourt.

[Mike Dickson]

The evolution of craft may have been a better title when I think about it. I'd like to study craft as it has evolved, allowing me to get a better idea of it's growth, and changes through time.
I chose in a broad sense character, plot, point of view, and theme, to try and narrow craft down however realizing there would be numerous authors to choose from. My main focus is character. How description, complexity, speech, and thought, changed through the years. With that said, I want to study the best of the best and start from somewhere around the 1800's moving forward.
A few examples I received in the last couple of days:

Mickey Spilane's Mike Hammer is a good character to study from what I have been told.
Henry James is said to have mastered plot.

[polymath]

Evolution of craft, that's a whole lot narrower but no less broad I'm afraid.

1950s era Micky Spillane's Mike Hammer is a fully fleshed out character from the first novel on, in other words round not flat, neither of which is a shortcoming, per se. Just Mike Hammer was a character archetype the readers' niche identified with and filled in details with their creative vision contributions. A hard boiled WASP male chauvanist cynic skirting the edge of the law and the underbelly of society with a loose cannon. Spillane's plots though are relatively simple in the sense they progress forward without sublime discoveries, anagnorisis, or profound reversals, peripetia. Also, protagonist Hammer isn't transformed in any appreciable way, thus a static character. He does strive mightily to resist change though and succeeds.

Henry James mastered plot in the sense he was timely and proportionate at hitting plot points, though not necessarily any more than any other master class craftperson. What he did differently plot-wise was perhaps he stayed on theme without wide subtopical theme digressions, at least. As a consequence, his narratives tend to be tightly knit packages. He also mastered suspense and empathy's roles in building tension.

Reading lists of all sorts of self-evident preferential sentiments and prejudices list the best of the best according to varying criteria. Any of the elemental areas you indicate interest in are present in proportionate emphasis. Pick one list that you like and start plowing through it, noting how each author handles plot, character, setting, discourse, theme, and rhetoric and their many attributes. Like narrative point of view might fall under discourse, but is related to plot, character, setting, theme and rhetoric. Dialogue, of course, naturally falls under discourse, but is no less pivotal to plot, character, etc.

Contemporary classic reading lists tend to favor recent publications and give short shrift to older works.

A brief survey of some titles I've read prospecting for craft evolution, starting circa 1800, though craft evolution dates back considerably farther, good for a start and all available on Project Gutenberg;
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, 1813, though Emma, is usually higher on recommended reading lists
William Thackeray Makepeace, Vanity Fair, 1848
Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851
Gustave Flaubert, Madam Bovary, 1863