#221 | Aristotle for Novelists (Part 4 of 4)—Principles #13, #14, and the 15th Principle
episode SUMMARY:
In part four, Douglas Vigliotti closes out the series by outlining the final three Principles #13, #14, and the 15th Principle from his new book, "Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story,” an adaptation of the timeless principles from Aristotle’s esteemed “Poetics” to be used by novelists. Discover the tried-and-true principles used since antiquity to craft stories for the screen and stage—the same stories you stream and watch today!
Principle #13: Novels should contain true characters.
Principle #14: Novels can be criticized for impossibility, irrationality, contradiction, harmfulness, and artistic standards.
The 15th Principle: Novelists must write, read, and have courage.
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Welcome back to “Books for Men”, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this episode will complete the final part of this four-part series on my upcoming book, “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. So the first three parts went through principles one through 12. I would definitely go back and listen to those, especially the first part because I talk a lot more about the book and why I wrote the book. And as I've said in previous episodes, it really sets the stage well, not just for this series, but also for the book itself. And on that note, it's pretty exciting because the book comes out this week on November 29th and it will be Black Friday for those of you who are keeping track. I'm really excited to get this book out into the world.
(01:10)
One of the things that I didn't anticipate when I wrote this book was how inspired I would be by it. Because when I think about the potential it has to help so many writers, you just don't know whose hands or eyes are going to touch a work like this and what it could potentially influence. And it's not about having that influence. That would be just a silly thing. It's more about the wonder that's associated with putting a work like this out into the world. Its only intention is to help other writers. And to me, that's just really exciting. So I am pumped to finally get the work out into the wild, so to speak. On that note, I did want to take a moment to remind you that the discounted pre-order for the ebook of only 99 cents is only available during the pre-order. And so that means it's only available for the next four days.
(02:11)
I want to encourage you to go out and pick up a copy if you are interested because I don't want you to pay more than you have to for the book. So it will be 5.99 for the ebook, 11.99 for the paperback, and as of right now, 8.99 for the audiobook, why pay that price if you can get it for 99 cents? Seems like a no-brainer to me if you're interested in the book, of course. And the link for that will be in the show notes as well as on the website Aristotle for novelists.com, which also has a free nifty little resource that I put together for the book That is just a 10-question assessment to know if you have a working story based on Aristotelian principles. And you could download that on that website, Aristotle for novelist.com. Alright, so now let's pivot into the reason why we are here to give an overview of principles number 13, number 14, and then the infamous 15th Principle.
(03:21)
So yes, there is a 15th Principle and it is not an official principle, but it is an important one and you'll see why when I get to it. But first things first, Principle #13, novels should contain true characters. So I told you back in Principle #7, when Aristotle made the claim that the plot is the most important aspect of your story. I would have a whole principle devoted to characters. They are extremely important, obviously to the story that you are writing. So here we are with Principle #13, and I think it's important that I define what a true character is. And for that, I will turn to Aristotle. And his idea of truth isn't about fact in fiction, it's about how true a character is to themselves. And sadly, we see, or I see violations of this all the time in modern storytelling where there are characters doing things that I don't think that character would actually do.
(04:31)
We've entered a time where we must have a character look and feel and say things that are correct, and I'm using air quotes right now, but none of those fulfill this promise and it often makes the art significantly worse. Aristotle has four main qualities that characters should embody, and one of them is goodness. And that just means a character is good if their choices and actions are good. It's important to remember that choices and actions prove purpose. And so it doesn't matter what your character says, it matters what they do or as Aristotle reminds us in poetics, “It is for the sake of action that characters play their parts.” Appropriateness is the second quality for your characters, and this relates directly to the trueness of the character. It is the foundation of this entire principle. Is your character acting appropriately based on who they are?
(05:46)
The third quality would be relatability. And this goes back to principle number five when I talked a little bit about imitation and it's all about imitating life. Are you showcasing flaws and imperfections that make these characters human? This is best viewed independently of goodness and appropriateness. It's really important to infuse imperfections and flaws into your characters, not just to make them relatable, but if we go all the way back to principle number one about tragedies and comedies and the shape of your story and the change in fortune that your protagonist will go through, you can't depict change if you first don't showcase what they're changing from, or perhaps they don't change at all, and you may have a tragedy. Do they overcome their flaws, obstacles, and opposition? Comedy. Do they succumb to them? Tragedy. Of course, this is going a little bit off the beaten path, but you can see how it is cohesive with earlier principles.
(06:53)
And then the final quality of a character is consistency. And you should already know how I feel about consistency because that was an entire principle, principle number two. Actually, when I did that episode, I shared a quote that Aristotle said, “Even when we were to imagine a character who is by nature inconsistent, they should be consistently inconsistent.” And that's our also popular unreliable narrator, right? Something we see a lot in modern storytelling, and we learn when we read those stories that eventually what they think and say doesn't line up with what they do. Making actions not to harp on it, but actions the most important piece of your story as in what choices are your characters making? As in, what are they actually doing on the page or screen or whatever type of story that you're telling. Of course, I go into more detail about this in the book.
(08:02)
Principle #14, novels can be criticized for impossibility, irrationality, contradiction, harmfulness, and artistic standards. So these are pretty much word-for-word Aristotelian criticisms, and based on earlier principles, they shouldn't be much of a surprise because illogical, unbelievable, and not cohesive are all violations of the first three criticisms in this list. In the book, I actually bundle them together, but they can all really be summed up as the puzzle doesn't fit. Of course, I go deeper into that in the book, but harmfulness is really about when you have something depraved in your story but isn't necessary for the story itself. So Aristotle is quite straightforward in saying that as long as it's necessary for the story that you're telling, it cannot be criticized. But if it isn't, then it's open for criticism. And then the final criticism, artistic standards shouldn't come as a surprise to many people.
(09:15)
Do I think that you should write the story however you want to write it? 100%. I am a huge supporter of different, risky, odd, unique, all of the above, and I applaud you for being a risk-taker. You should still know that there are norms, grammatical, and societal, and if you go against those norms, you're open to criticism, it might work, or it might not work. In the book, I talk a lot about how criticism is a good and bad thing, what a review actually is, and what it means from a professional review or critique down to the Amazon review or critique. In short, I will just say that most reviews are more of a reflection on the reviewer than they are on the actual work being reviewed. And that should leave the author inspired because it's not a statement on them unless of course the person's being nasty and they are attacking the author, which is unjust because as Aristotle reminds us in poetics, writers are not or should not be held to the same moral standards as others in the writing of their stories.
(10:35)
Meaning artists need to be able to depict and write the things that need to be written to tell the story they are telling. Okay, so this brings me to the final principle, the 15th Principle. And it is not for novels, it is for novelists. Aristotle didn't say it, not exactly anyway, but I did. And that is why it concludes the book. It is novelists must write, read, and have courage. The first two pieces should be obvious, but it's worth hammering on just for a moment here. And in the book, I call writing one and reading one A, because those are the two ways that you have to practice and both are incredibly important. Writing, having the slight nudge, obviously because without having words on the page, you have nothing. And something is always better than nothing if not for anything else then at least you have something to edit.
(11:41)
And that is why you must write bad words, good words, any words you just have to write. At the end of the day, this is going to be your greatest teacher. It's like Mike famously said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Well, the blank page punches you in the mouth and you have to figure out how to navigate it. And there's no other way to do that than to actually write words on a page. The inspiring thing is that nobody has to read those words. You're the only person that ever has to see. I always have this quippy mantra that says tension in the plot, not in the pen. So once we know what we're going to be writing about or attempting to write about, just let it rip. Reading is a close second to writing because as the previous principal reminded us about criticism, you have to be your own private critic.
(12:36)
And the only way to do that is to read a lot of books incessantly because that's how you learn what you like and what you don't like. All writing a novel is, is radically applying little adjustments and making small decisions according to your taste. And you're doing that over and over and over again. You're making a million decisions when you write a novel. Small ones, big ones, all kinds of ones. And the best guides are the novels that you read, good novels, bad novels, all kinds of novels. That's why you should be open-minded also in your reading and allow for time to read things that you perhaps normally wouldn't. All in all, this just means avoiding the mistakes or things you don't like that make you shake your head. So when you're reading something and you shake your head, don't do that with your work. That's my best advice when it comes to editing.
(13:37)
And the last piece of this is perhaps the one that I'm most passionate about, and that is all novelists must have courage. So you must be willing to write the thing that needs to be written, not the thing that you are pressured to write. Alejandro Inarittu has a great quote that I heard him say on a podcast interview about filmmakers, and he said, “Have the courage to be disliked.” And man, what hard advice that is. But to me, there is perhaps none that is more important. I heard another way that this was applied and not having the courage to be disliked, but having the courage to be misunderstood. And I think that that is a real challenge for artists and writers as a whole because we want to be understood. But when somebody doesn't know who you are, doesn't know what you're about, doesn't know what your abilities are, you have to be able to believe in yourself and be courageous enough to be misunderstood for a really long period of time until hopefully maybe one day somebody somewhere understands what you are doing and why you are doing it.
(14:51)
And they believe in you just as much as you believe in yourself. That's not to say you're doing it for that reason, it's just saying that courage is required. If you're writing to please everybody, you'll probably be creating shitty work. There's no way around it. The only way to create good work is to push far enough in one direction where there's 50% of people who are probably going to hate it. And that's okay. If you're writing with the notion in mind that you're going to please everybody and everybody's going to like it, that's just insanity. It's not possible. So you just have to be courageous. And as Aristotle reminds us quite vividly in his book, “Nicomachean Ethics”, not in “Poetics” about courage, and I'm paraphrasing him, he says, fear is expected, confidence is required, and courage lies in the middle of that spectrum. So this is where I will end this.
(15:59)
I hope you've enjoyed this four-part series on my upcoming book, “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. If you did, then I would definitely say you would like the book. So take advantage of the pre-order while it is still on the cheap for only 99 cents, or at least the ebook I should say. The link for that will be in the show notes, or as I mentioned at the top, you can just visit AristotleforNovelists.com. As a quick reminder, the book will be out this Friday, November 29th, so please share it with friends and family members. I'm confident this won't be the last time that I ask you to do this. I'm hoping this book will promote a lot of conversation, many of which I will never know existed or never be a part of all to say. Please share it with friends, especially if you've read it and you've enjoyed it.
(17:02)
And of course, this is a “Books for Men” episode, so if you enjoyed it, please remember to click subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on. It is the best way to get this show in front of more eyeballs and ears and inspire more men to read. If you want to connect with me, there are two ways to do so via my website, DouglasVigliotti.com, or on Instagram @douglasvigliotti. It's the only social media that I have. Lastly, most importantly, thank you so much for listening, and if you want more information on this podcast or perhaps sign up for the monthly newsletter, then all you have to do is visit the website BooksforMen.org.
