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“You enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” ~Frederick Buechner
Thresholds of Ambiguity
Wynne-Jones refers to this as a pulse outside of oneself. “There is about Thresholds this ambiguity of
which way is in and which way is out.”
Hansel and Gretel
are left to find their way in the woods. Red
Riding Hood travels a familiar path but comes back from one visit
completely different, or is she? The wolf comes calling through the doors of
the Three Little Pigs.
“At the door of the house who will come knocking?
An open door, we enter
A closed door, a den
The world pulse beats outside my door.”
Pierre
Albert Birot
(As shared by Tim Wynne-Jones as another quote from
Bachelard’s book The Poetics of Space.)
The long running series Stargate
enfolds this aspect of ambiguity each time the characters step through the
pulsing gate to enter a wormhole. Even when they return to a familiar world,
life may have dramatically changed. Or at least the possibility always exists
making each entrance ambiguous.
Exercise:
1.
Wynne-Jones refers to this as an ongoing process
using the image of a life waiting to be born over and over again trying to get
it right.
What other images would fit into the concept of a repeated pulse as an
ongoing climb towards completion.
Share: What image
did you choose?
 “Theme in literature
is the idea that holds the story together, such as a comment about society,
human nature, or the human condition. It is the main idea or central meaning of
a piece of writing.” Rebecca J. Lukens
Although theme is an integral element, it is not always
visible, or at least not on the surface. Yet without its natural thread weaving
throughout, the story will remain unfinished and unfocused, regardless of the
expertise of the writer. Something will emotionally remain undone.
Think of the maps we follow faithfully down city routes,
turn a corner and discover where a road should be is a very tall brick
building. The road was there but has been cut off, perhaps decades earlier, and
only after much trial and error do we find a way around and back to the
squiggly lines the map says will get us to our destination. Only now we are
completely frustrated and no longer trust the ink directions.
On the other hand the theme that quietly draws us through
shadows and back alleys and into hidden compartments feels more like a treasure
hunt and when we see theses lines shape into their pattern, our response is an
ah-ha moment.
In the mystery series Midsomer
Murders, it is not unusual for the investigators to have maps up on their boards
to help mark out routes suspects may have taken within a time frame to commit
the murder. Since Midsomer is a fictional county there are many rural hamlets,
villages with paths and alleys, busy towns, and sometimes hidden underground
tunnels. The guilty knew their lay of the land well and used it to their
advantage. Often though the physical map and the psychological map were
intertwined in the theme.
So also for the character Calli, in The Crystal Scepter, who after a shattering experience flees up a
deserted coastline, but through the journey is restored to her true nature.
Then when disaster comes again she is able to stand firm to her heart’s truth.
Journal Prompt:
Look
at possible physical maps in your story line. Which characters walk them? For
each person, link the external map to their internal emotional arc and the
overall theme.
Share: Did your
choice add a deeper context to your story?
Thresholds as Commitment
“But is he who opens a
door and he who closes it the same being”
Gaston
Bachelard
 This takes a step through a barrier as in a dream. Alice follows the rabbit hole down the
hole. It is not as deliberate a choice as a crossing, but nevertheless, it
makes a commitment to see through the opportunities or perhaps, as in Alice’s
case, the curiosities that the opening represents.
When Sleeping Beauty discovered a spindle for the first time
she was immediately drawn to it and then crossed the threshold into her destiny
forged by the curse, but not with the dire ends of its intent.
Cinderella’s passage from scullery maid into a guest at the
ball opened the door to her royal future.
“That is what Thresholds are all about in literature,” says
Tim Wynne-Jones. “A Threshold is the physical manifestation of change.”
Exercise:
1.
Make another list of similar barrier thresholds
either from fairy tales or novels you remember.
2.
Then make another list of all the changes in the
characters between their opening and closing their doors.
3.
Which were subtle and which were startling?
Share: How could
you take one of your examples and redress it into another genre?
 “To be a true
symbol, the object must be emphasized or repeated, and supported throughout the
entire story; it represents something quite different from its literal
meaning.” Rebecca J. Lukens
To the royal house of Elysiel, the scepter was a sacred trust under a
vow to protect. The long list of heirs stood as the Keepers of the Promise with
their hearts merged into the heart of the scepter. To outsiders like King
Pythius it was power awarded to the victor, and he intended to claim the magic
for himself.
In the recently released fantasy The
Crystal Scepter, (The Gates of Heaven Series) by C.S. Lakin, this symbol
weaves its way through the entire story, whether characters are even aware of
the actual scepter’s existence, influence and potential or not. Heart decisions
must be made by minor and major characters alike. Their choices become mirrors
and reflectors of the battle between truth and lies. Personal actions move towards
life or death from the inside out.
King Cakrin warns Pythius of his consequences, “You have come in treachery and out of a lust for power, but you have
gotten a taste of the price of your action.”
But the obsessed king dismisses the warning as subterfuge to
keep him from his victory. He cannot imagine or believe that the scepter can
mean anything else that literal power, or be wielded for any other purpose.
Despite repeated honesty spoken to him, his heart rejects anything but his own
interpretation despite the grueling and frightening evidence he experiences.
How will the prophecy end?
Journal Prompt:
What
symbols/metaphors have had the most impact on you from novels and movies? I
have never forgotten the image of the birds waiting on the telephone wires in
Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, The Birds,
from my first viewing as a tween. In fact when I once tried to watch it again
as a ‘mature’ adult, I had to turn it off.
Make
a list and then divide them into categories of fear or hope or humor etc. Can
you adapt one of categories to your own wip and parallel a symbol metaphor
likewise?
Share: Which is
your favorite and why?
Thresholds as Crossings
 Here we deliberately make a choice to step into new stages,
probably never to return: a passage of some moment. It can include walking away
from a place, or a relationship, or choosing to no longer be who we were a few
minutes earlier.
In the novel, The Hero
and the Crown, protagonist Aerin made that crossing when she arrived at her
first dragon slaying. “Talat halted, and they stood, Aerin gazing
into the black hole in the hill. A minute or two went by and she wondered,
suddenly, how one got the dragon to pay attention to one in the first place.
Did she have to wake it up? Yell? Throw water into the cave at it? Just as her
spearpoint sagged with doubt, the dragon hurtled out of its den and straight at
them:”
In Phantom of the Opera, this moment comes for
Raoul, when he stands before the Phantom, prepared to die if he must, in order
to rescue Christine. His love is proven true and his courage stands up
regardless of the consequence.
Exercise:
1.
Review the most recent fiction you have read.
From memory only, can you pick out one or two threshold crossings in the story?
2.
What impact on the overall story did they make?
Was it a quiet decision or a major plot point?
Share: Can you
adapt the emotional cost to a character in your novel? Why or why not?
 Even if we don’t write mystery novels, all novels have a
sense of mystery or the lure of what will happen next. And like a mystery
novel, if a situation, a question or a particular detail is brought to the
reader’s attention it needs to be addressed with a sense of closure. Or we risk
losing credibility with a reader. Especially if it has been given a build-up.
In a recent discussion with a sci-fi and fantasy reader over
the movie John Carter, I was really
surprised at how much he disliked it. But as we talked though what worked and
what didn’t it all came down one main criterion: a mystery thread that didn’t
get answered. Now perhaps in the book series it was an ongoing thread to carry
from one book to another, but in the movie for this one viewer the ball got
dropped.
I remembered the scene and yes, I wondered too, but decided
perhaps the main purpose was characterization as it showed the determination of
the heroine to save her planet and a villain out to sabotage. It annoyed me too,
but I was drawn more to the actual overall world building so it didn’t ruin the
movie for me. But my reader friend waited the whole movie expecting an answer
to why it was so important and instead the closure to that situation was never
explained.
There’s a saying know as Chekhov’s gun that is a reference
to a note he wrote in a letter, which is now used as an example of
foreshadowing.
Just so,
the movie never explained why Dejah, Princess of Helium, expected the large
machine to save her people and city from the Zodanga.
Journal Prompt:
Take a look at your first few chapters and see if there is a
prop that could become a foreshadow for a main plot point, or a sub-plot point.
How far could you stretch the highlight before it becomes interference rather than a
positive thread?
Share: What is a
movie you feel never gave a satisfying closure to mystery threads it began
with?
Thresholds
“Thresholds are necessary in the
creative process in giving an idea somewhere to go.” Tim Wynne-Jones
Change, no matter how small, can create mental and emotional
chaos as you turn into a different direction, physically or emotionally. To
cross a threshold though requires a choice, even if it has been forced upon you
like a refugee fleeing his war torn land. All sensory memory is heightened and
sharpened. It is not just the moment that is at stake, but the journey that
follows it. Thresholds become part of our soul shadows as much as our physical
bodies cast their shadow. And the question can linger. “Did I choose the right
fork in the road?”
“An Eye for Thresholds,”
is an excellent essay written by Tim Wynne-Jones in the book Only Connect. His focus is under the
category of Books and Children, so
I’m taking extreme liberties by borrowing some of his threshold categories, and
then adapting them and paraphrasing some for my own purposes.
As you look at each category make notes as to where a
challenge of beliefs or values could become a tension point, either personally
for your main character, or in relationship to family or society.
Thresholds as
Connectors
Do we open the
locked door at the end of the spider-coated hallway? Are we ready to hear the
words written in the old manuscripts found buried under the house?
Look at these familiar solid connections and think of ways
they can become a life-changing threshold doors, windows, railroads, books.
Exercise:
1.
Choose one of these categories and brainstorm
ten to twenty ways they can become a threshold connector either literally or
metaphorically or even better—both.
2.
Which one is the strongest? Which the weakest?
Share: What makes
the difference?
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