David S. McWilliams

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Scene Sheet for “The Name of the Wind”

May 24, 2016 by davidsmcwilliams

Those of you with an analytical bent may find this interesting.  Here’s my scene sheet for Patrick Rothfuss’s hit first book, The Name of the Wind:

The Name of the Wind Scene Sheet

I’ve been working from Shawn Coyne’s book The Story Grid, and a big part of his analytical method is breaking books down into their component scenes.  I spent about a week doing this for TNotW; a few conclusions:

  • Lots of short scenes, particularly in the beginning.  They get broader and deeper as he goes, which I think is his writing style maturing as he works through the book.
  • Plenty of quick scenes where nothing happens.  You’d think this is a no-no, right?  And for a crime thriller, it probably would be . . . but Rothfuss is writing a fantasy epic.  They’re short, usually funny, and generally clever enough that the book would be lesser without them despite the fact that (from a strictly plotting-perspective) they’re unnecessary.  It’s a thrill to see a master break the rules and be able to recognize it for what it is.
  • These same quick scenes also serve to keep the reader invested in the frame story after we’ve had 200 pages of flashback.  Good to remember that particular trick.
  • Mapping the value shifts points out the main conflicts of the book.  The most dire moments concern the Life/Death axis, as should be expected . . . but there are very few Life/Death scenes in the book.  They’re vastly outnumbered by conflicts on the Poverty/Wealth axis and the Love/Loneliness axis.  This is a valuable lesson in varying one’s sources of conflict; Kvothe’s moments of deathly peril would be much less intense if he was fighting for his life all the time.
  • Related to this point is the fact that antagonists and villains are not the same thing.  The people and forces that Kvothe spends the vast majority of his time in conflict with are not the antagonists.  He barely even sees the Chandrian, even though we know that the final conflict must inevitably be with them, but he spends most of the book fighting with Ambrose, trying to stay solvent, and trying to find Denna.  I’ve decided to call this the Snape/Voldemort principle.
  • I have a hunch as to the theme of the series: “We become what we believe we are.”
  • Names are important, obviously, and so it’s important that Denna keeps changing her name.  Students of Joseph Campbell will quickly recognize the “shapeshifter” archetype.
  • Kvothe is the mother of all Mary Sues and I don’t even care.

More thoughts to come, but I think that’s enough for now.  I’m thinking about which book to do next, and I’ll be continuing my focus on the Fantasy Epic genre.  Suggestions welcome in the comments, of course.

Filed Under: Analysis, Writing Tagged With: Patrick Rothfuss, Story Grid, The Name of the Wind

A New Mission: Patrick Rothfuss’s Reading List

November 21, 2014 by davidsmcwilliams

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, go here:

http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/06/fanmail-faq-looking-for-good-books/

Patrick Rothfuss finally acquiesced to the desires of his fan base and put together this list of 40 authors back in 2011.  Now, in the interest of education, I’m planning on reading them all.

Full disclosure: it’s a lot more than 40 books.  Many of these books are actually series–the total hovers at around 130.  So it’s going to be a bit before I get to them all.

But I already have a pretty decent start:

Rothfuss List

Here’s the list in it’s entirety (and my current progress):

  1. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
  2. The Last Unicorn By Peter S. Beagle
  3. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
  4. Stranger In a Strange Land Robert Heinlein
  5. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
  6. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
  7. Dragonriders Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
  8. Dune by Frank Herbert
  9. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
  10. The Discworld books by Terry Pratchett
  11. The Chronicles of Amber–Roger Zelazny
  12. Brave New World–Aldous Huxley
  13. Wizard of Earthsea By Le Guin
  14. Sandman  – Neil Gaiman
  15. The Fisher King Trilogy by Tim Powers
  16. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams
  17. The Riddlemaster of Hed series by Patricia McKillip
  18. Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P Lovecraft
  19. Neuromancer by William Gibson
  20. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
  21. 1984 – by George Orwell
  22. Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson
  23. Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare
  24. The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, by Barry Hughart
  25. The Princess Bride – William Goldman
  26. The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter
  27. Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
  28. The Odyssey by Homer
  29. The Last Herald-Mage trilogy – Mercedes Lackey
  30. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  31. River World Series – Phillip Jose Farmer
  32. One Thousand and One Nights
  33. Riftwar Saga by Feist
  34. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
  35. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
  36. Belgariad series by David Eddings
  37. Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
  38. Michael Ende – The Neverending Story
  39. The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
  40. The Shannara Trilogy – Terry Brooks

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: Patrick Rothfuss

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