Just paying respect to your side of substack guys and great thanks to you Junot for the fantastic teacher you are. I've learned a lot on the craft here and from your work.
It doesn’t feel like a twist to me, more like a moment where something slips, and you see a person a little more clearly than before. Sometimes it’s very small, almost nothing. But it changes how you read everything else after it.
Great tip. I love how the little tells we reveal to each other – knowingly or not – are often huge and profound. The story about the woman who stole the tip reminds me of the adage that what you do when no one is watching is what matters most.
Ending on the Plums story rather than another canonical example is the move. Three literary Rivers in a row would have made the piece an instructional. The stolen tip turns it into something else — a writer admitting that the technique he teaches is rooted in a specific human moment he can't shake. The craft argument lands harder because it's been earned by autobiography.
As a poker player, I love your river analogy. And I once saw a "friend" at a restaurant (there were six of us eating at a table) steal the tip as we left. I accosted him and made him put the tip back and always hated him after that. A character reveal that colored my view of him henceforth.
"Reveal a side of them that would not be otherwise accessible to a reader."
Ive been taught this as building emotional authority aka heart authority. Have a character make a difficult decision or tell an ugly truth to build emotional authority. The classic example is shooting Old Yeller.
After getting ahold of an old advance copy of Drown a few months back, I considered emailing you. Not with any goal in mind, I just reach out to strangers from time to time. Typically when I connect with their work in a serious way.
This is excellent. That last anecdote is either the beginning or the end of a short story.
Totally agree. I’d love to read a short story on it. I want to find out what happened.
Stage a River, that's a great phrase. I'll cleave to it.
Just paying respect to your side of substack guys and great thanks to you Junot for the fantastic teacher you are. I've learned a lot on the craft here and from your work.
I like this idea of the River.
It doesn’t feel like a twist to me, more like a moment where something slips, and you see a person a little more clearly than before. Sometimes it’s very small, almost nothing. But it changes how you read everything else after it.
Great tip. I love how the little tells we reveal to each other – knowingly or not – are often huge and profound. The story about the woman who stole the tip reminds me of the adage that what you do when no one is watching is what matters most.
I’m so indebted to you. This hits me at the perfect time.
Ending on the Plums story rather than another canonical example is the move. Three literary Rivers in a row would have made the piece an instructional. The stolen tip turns it into something else — a writer admitting that the technique he teaches is rooted in a specific human moment he can't shake. The craft argument lands harder because it's been earned by autobiography.
As a poker player, I love your river analogy. And I once saw a "friend" at a restaurant (there were six of us eating at a table) steal the tip as we left. I accosted him and made him put the tip back and always hated him after that. A character reveal that colored my view of him henceforth.
"Reveal a side of them that would not be otherwise accessible to a reader."
Ive been taught this as building emotional authority aka heart authority. Have a character make a difficult decision or tell an ugly truth to build emotional authority. The classic example is shooting Old Yeller.
After getting ahold of an old advance copy of Drown a few months back, I considered emailing you. Not with any goal in mind, I just reach out to strangers from time to time. Typically when I connect with their work in a serious way.