I was reading the August issue of The Writer, and "Conflict: What Your Readers Want and Your Fiction Needs," of course, caught my eye. William Kowalski cites examples of creating conflict from The Great Gatsby and Gone With the Wind. Almost half the article is dedicated to these two novels.
Sometime later that day, I pick up Beginnings, Middles, & Ends, which I've been reading off and on for a couple of months. The very first thing I read (from where I had left off probably weeks and weeks ago), is on planning for the climax (as part of the Middle). Guess which two novels the author cites? Yep. The Great Gatsby and Gone With the Wind.
I'm comfy in bed, in my pajamas, and I actually get out from under the covers, go downstairs to my office, and look up the article in The Writer. Maybe they were written by the same person? Nope. Entirely two different people. (Nancy Kress is the author of Beginnings, Middles, & Ends.)
I never thought about these two novels - together - as being iconic works of writing. Sure, we all had to read The Great Gatsby, and I loved Gone With the Wind. I just didn't expect to see them thrown together twice (in the same day in two different sources) as the end-all-be-all example for writing.
You writers out there: what do you think about Kowalski's and Kress's use of these two novels?
Comments