October 2019 – Periphery Journal

Echoed Cries by Jake Huebsch is a story from Periphery 50. You can find it under the Archives tab or under Story of the Week. The Periphery Blog is a blog about writing, narrative, art, and everything in between.

We have all been there, watching a scary movie or reading a horror novel where we shout at the character, “Don’t go in there!” “Don’t open the door!” “Just run away!” More than many other genres, horror struggles to balance character with plot. Many times in order to produce a more frightening story, characters have to act in ways that put them in more danger. The plot demands that characters make certain decisions in order to produce more fear. It can be difficult for authors terrify if characters make rational decisions and call the police or simply run away when a monster or murderer comes for them. The hallmark of great horror stories, however, is when characters are able to make believable decisions and the horror to still come from those actions. How then, can authors balance character and plot in a horror story? Huebsch has some answers his story Echoed Cries.

The first thing that struck me about the story was how tightly bound character motivation and uncovering the Beauvont’s secret are within the narrative. Only the protagonist would have a good reason to be in the Beauvont mansion, and have reason to look critically at the portraits to discover the Beauvont secret. The background of the story does an incredible job of allowing the reader to understand why the protagonist goes to the mansion, stays there even after he realizes something is amiss, and looks critically at the portraits. If the protagonist was a thrill-seeking teen, the deep examination of the portraits, as well as remaining in the mansion, would come off as unsatisfying. The protagonist has a job to do within the mansion. He is staying in the mansion to restore the paintings, so it makes sense that he would be looking at them critically and then staying in the mansion despite his fear. The protagonist’s character is designed in such a way to explain why he stays when others wouldn’t. We aren’t shouting “Get out of the library!” because it makes sense for him to be there, and stay there. Character isn’t overtaken by plot.

There is something to be said about horror stories that isolate characters. We think of The Overlook Hotel from Steven King’s The Shining or the ship ‘Nostromo’ from Ridley Scott’s Alien, or any number of lakeside cabins or country manors a la The Turn of the Screw, Get Out, and so many others. Isolating characters in a terrifying place makes sense for horror, but it is important to note that all of those stories work incredibly hard to set up why characters go to those locales. King goes into great detail about why Jack Torrance wants to be the caretaker of the Overlook, and what spurns the family to live there. Early lines within Alien show the crew’s commercial interests and how heavily money and bonus’ weight on their minds. Character is emphasized in all of these examples before plot.

It becomes frustrating as a reader or viewer when authors have characters go to, or inhabit these frightening places when we would not. It draws readers out of the text because characters that don’t make rational decisions no longer function as characters. They become slaves to plot. Slaves to plot do not demand empathy or sympathy when terrible things happen to them, because they own irrational actions caused their downfall.

The 2017 It film, despite being a good movie, is filled with these poorly motivated actions. When I saw It in theatres, during the movie someone shouted, “Stop following the balloon!”. The frustrated viewer was of course talking about how the ‘Loser’s Club’ consistently puts themselves in avoidable situations where the rest of us wouldn’t. Of course terrible things happen to the kids when they wander into sewers, or abandoned houses.

2017’s It also has an incredibly novel look at character action in the opening scene with Georgie and his lost boat. The now famous scene of Georgie sticking his hand down the sewer is painful to watch. I squirm just thinking about it. No one should ever stick their arm down a sewer, and Georgie knows this. The scene is so terrifying because we watch Georgie get convinced to do something we would never do. It’s genius. Character is at the center of Georgie’s actions. He is a little kid able to be manipulated, and he is worried about his brother’s anger if he loses the boat. We are yelling at the screen for Georgie to make a better decision, not a rational one. That distinction is key.

I was really excited to find Echoed Cries within Periphery 50 because at this time of year, I always itch to watch scary movies and read horror novels. I was even more excited after I saw how well Huebsch set up the story. Horror as a genre balances and incredible amount. Character arcs, pacing, setting, and plot are all just as direly important in horror as they are elsewhere, but on top of all that, the author is trying to frighten the reader. Sometimes that balance can come undone, which means horror authors have to be vigilant to keep character agency at the heart of the story. It is no small feat, which is why Echoed Cries stands out to me.

Badly Behaved Cephalopods Lead to Amazing Occurrences by Madelyn Lemons, is a story from Periphery 55. It can be found in our archives as well as under the story of the week tab. The Periphery Blog is a blog about writing, narrative, art, and everything in between.

A question I hear a lot about perspective in storytelling is, ‘when should an author choose the first-person perspective versus a third-person perspective?’ The best answer I can give is the story Badly Behaved Cephalopods Lead to Amazing Occurrences from Perphery 55 by Madelyn Lemons. Lemons’ story relies heavily on character narration. The main character Jim’s internal monologue not only sets the scene, works to characterize every character we meet in the story, but is damn funny the entire time. Few stories we receive at Periphery are so effortlessly comedic, but more importantly, use that comedy for a very specific purpose.

Take a look at the opening paragraph of the story. Notice all that it does simply using character voice. How would this scene have been different if it was narrated in the third person?

Be an octopus research scientist you said. It would be fun, you said. No no, they can’t steal things. Absolutely not. They don’t memorize night guard patterns and steal fish from other exhibits. They don’t open their tanks, slip their grubby tentacles out, reach into your candy drawer, and steal your Almond Joy. Not them. Dumb fish, yes they are.

Everything you need to know about the entire story you get from the opening paragraph, and all of it comes directly from the character’s voice. It is Jim’s opinions about Lenny’s actions that matter here. Lemons could have easily told us about how Lenny has escaped in the past and Jimi is made about having to find him. A flat description here would have worked well enough. By seeing those events through Jim’s eyes, however, the reader understands so much more about both the events and Jim as a character. The reader knows that the protagonist is an Octopus research scientist who is bitter about their job and sardonic to a fault. The reader knows the antagonist is a clever octopus who’s exploits not only show how intelligent he is, building up a persona and background for the story itself, but also are able to deeply characterize Jim, and show his crass nature. Only by seeing the world through Jim’s eyes is so much content able to be put into simple descriptions.

Another great example of how Lemons is able to use descriptions to deeply characterize Jim is how she describes ‘Bill’: “I’m pretty sure his name isn’t actually “Bill the orange fish man” or even “Bill” at all, but I’ve never actually talked to him” Like Jim, the reader still knows nothing about Bill, but hears all that Jim thinks about him. The comments about Bill’s outfit, the mocking nickname, work to push the story forward while at the same time working to characterize both men. These comments show the reader how judgmental Jim is in a much more powerful way than if Lemons were to simply tell us.

Lemons never has to say that Jim is judgmental, or angry, or well versed in octopi because the reader is able to understand that simply through the work Jim’s point of view does. The odd phrases like “ugly yellow linoleum” or “I know his pissy eyes when I see them” show how bitter Jim is about his job, surroundings, and having to find Lenny. Comments like “Octopus vulgaris” and “he’s a cephalopod without the ability to even perceive sound the way humans do” show how much Jim knows about taxonomy and octopi without Lemons having to spend time telling the reader these things. Through character voice, Lemons is able to be incredibly efficient with her prose, having each line pull a lot of weight and tell the reader many things. A telling aspect of the story is that the first time Jim speaks is six pages into the story. We don’t hear a word from his mouth and yet we know so much about him. By the time he does speak, his actions and motivations are clear to the reader.

So far I have glossed over just how funny Jim’s narration is, and I don’t that that is fair when talking about all that Jim’s perspective is and does. The line, “Oh no, bad idea don’t do it danger zone he’ll eat you Jesus Christ Lenny’s one mean little bastard when he wants to be-” can only work in its breathless terror because it comes from Jim. Even in this joke though, Lemons is moving the story forward. The reader, just like Jim, is watching Bill try to wrangle Lenny, and through Jim’s perspective the reader gets more information about it.

Why then is Lemons’ Badly Behaved Cephalopods Lead to Amazing Occurrences an answer to the question, ‘when should an author choose the first person perspective versus a third person perspective and why?’ Because the story doesn’t function without the character voice. Every line in this story works in several ways either to describe the surroundings, characterize Jim, talk about Jim’s job, or characterize Lenny or Travis. A story that relies so heavily on a character’s perspective demands to be told by it. If a story does not, it shouldn’t be. Madelyn Lemons shows us a wonderful example of that through Badly Behaved Cephalopods Lead to Amazing Occurrences

Month: October 2019

Echoed Cries: Character v. Plot

Badly Behaved Cephalopods: Why Perspective Matters