Podcast #40 is now available for download here.
Alexander Jablokov was a guest lecturer at Odyssey 2010. In his lecture on how plot works in genre fiction, Alex discussed the key elements of plot and the specific requirements for plot in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In this excerpt, Alex stresses the importance of cause and effect linkage in plot. He also explains that the character’s desire is central to the plot and that obstacles must prevent the character from getting what he wants. He discusses different standard plots, the challenges of openings, the role of the author as torturer of the protagonist, and how to create suspense. Alex challenges writers to view the requirements of plot not as a limitation on a story but as a way to deepen and enliven a story.
Alexander Jablokov writes science fiction for readers who won’t give up literate writing or vivid characters to get the thrills they demand. He is a natural transition for non-SF readers interested in taking a stroll with a dangerous AI or a neurosurgeon/jazz musician turned detective, while still giving hardcore SF fans speculative flash, incomprehensible aliens, and kitchen appliances with insect wing cases.
From his well-regarded first novel, Carve the Sky, an interplanetary espionage novel set in a culturally complex 25th century, through the obscenely articulate dolphins with military modifications of a Deeper Sea, the hardboiled post-cyberpunk of Nimbus, the subterranean Martian repression of River of Dust, and the perverse space opera of Deepdrive, he has come to Brain Thief, a contemporary high-tech thriller with a class clown attitude.
Alex has a day job: he is a marketing executive for a financial services firm. He does his writing during the mornings, and on weekends. It took him several years to figure out how to get any writing done at all, particularly since he hates getting up early and hates working on weekends, but has somehow managed it.
For more information about Odyssey, its graduates and instructors, please visit our website at http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.
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