Or
how the Serengeti reminded me of my writing basics
By
Dora
Machado
Lioness
on the prowl
So we went to Africa and yes, we got to see the big
five, elephant, rhino, leopard, buffalo, lion and so much more. I’ve always
said that traveling is a great source of inspiration and Africa was a creative treasure-trove.
I suspect this trip will contribute richly to my stories for many years to
come. But Africa also took me back to writing’s primal roots, because the Serengeti is like a big, fat, juicy
award-winning novel, where all the elements of fiction are finely tuned to tell
nature’s best-selling primeval story.
In the Serengeti, the main plot is all about the big predators, of course. The lion is the
star that sells, the animal that everybody wants to see—from the safety of a
vehicle, of course. A lion sighting brings hordes of tourist-packed Land Rovers
darting from the furthest corners of the Serengeti. It means a traffic jam,
sure, but it also makes the long trek to Africa worth it for most people. The
lions of the Serengeti reminded me that every novel has to have a lion plot, a
killer one—pun fully intended—because as the star attraction, the lion runs the
Serengeti, just as the plot runs the heart of a successful novel.
Yep, that’s what
lions do.
The African predators also bring the element of conflict to the Serengeti’s novel, and
the leopard embodies not just the literary concept of conflict best, but also
the vital element of suspense. The lion is powerful and scary, sure, but it is
the leopard whose stealthy hunting habits surprise us with an appearance when it’s
least expected, an attack that no one saw coming.
In fact, during our trip, I talked to a Maasai warrior,
a member of one of the nomadic tribes that roam Tanzania, about the way they
construct the fences that encircle their living compounds, called “bomas.” He
told me that the stockades are sharpened at the top to keep one specific animal
out of the bomas and away from the cattle. Yep, you guessed it. It’s the sneaky
leopard that worries the Maasai most, the element of suspense to the African night. That’s why the leopard reminds me of
those plot twists we love. We all want leopards in our novels.
An
Africa leopard wakes up from its nap.
But if the great predator of the Serengeti are
responsible for plot and conflict, it is the more numerous hoofed creatures
that inhabit the plains that enliven the Serengeti’s spectacular setting. The Serengeti is composed of a
stunning geography, the plains and the rock kopjes that intrude in the
landscape like islands in a sea of grass. But the Serengeti’s setting is more
complex than geology, because it includes life itself, a setting teeming with the
smaller creatures that enrich the landscape with drama but also with detail.
Indeed, the grasslands trick the eye when you are at
ground level. You may even think that there’s nothing there. But when you stand
up in your vehicle and you look down, then you see the true crop of the
Serengeti, the gazelles that populate the plains, the diminutive Tommies and
the delicate Grants, the warthogs strutting about, tails up, as if they owned
the place. These smaller, less glamorous creatures are an active part of the
setting, and like the grasses themselves, provide the fuel that powers the
circle of life and keeps the predatory species in play. Complexity, intricacy,
and diversity are some of the elements that make the Serengeti such a
compelling setting, the type of setting I want for my novels.
Ngorongoro Crater
Which brings me to point of view. Despite the predators’ star power, by numbers, the
Serengeti’s point of view belongs to the herds of zebras, wildebeests and cape
buffalos that dominate the plains and the water holes. In Tanzania, the
giraffes belong in this group as well, since they are almost as common and
visible, and have been designated as the national animal of Tanzania. You can
almost hear the stories told from the point of view of those who exist in this
mid-level strata. I called them the middle class of the plains. They’re the perfect
point of view for those coming of age novels we enjoy so much. Their struggles
would be relevant to most readers, because the emotions we associate with their
existence are likely to be both familiar and evocative of our own human experience.
And finally we get to character. No animal embodied my sense of character better than the
elephant. I will confess my bias here. Elephants are amazing. Whether you’re
watching one elephant or a whole herd, they are fascinating creatures. Their
social structure, intelligence and behavior is proof to me of higher awareness.
Nothing like a character with higher awareness to up the stakes of a story.
Every day, these animals tell us a lot about the world and the universe. And
yet we don’t listen, because they don’t speak our language perhaps, or because
we’ve trained ourselves to hear only the language we speak. I want to learn
more about elephants and I want my characters to be deep, instinctive, and
complex, more like these extraordinary creatures.
Elephants, amazing characters.
The elephants, combined with the rhinos, are the symbols of Africa, and maybe even our
world today. As the rhinos teeter at the brink of extinction and thousands of
elephants are killed by poachers every year, the theme of Serengeti’s novel is the story of creation and the perils
of disturbing nature’s primordial rhythms. In the end, it’s up to us humans to
preserve the structure of nature’s tale, the flow of our planet’s story, and
the relevance of the creatures that share our world, for we are also part of
the story and we must preserve the Serengeti’s best-selling novel for
generations to come.
Sunset
over the Serengeti
****
About
the Author
Dora Machado is
the award-winning author of the epic fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest
novel, The Curse Giver, available
from Twilight Times Books. She grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she
developed a fascination for writing and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime
of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to
her stories.
When
she is not writing fiction, Dora also writes features for Murder By Four, an
award winning blog for readers and writers and Savvy Authors, where writers
help writers. She lives in
Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.
To
learn more about Dora Machado and her award winning novels, visit her at www.doramachado.com , email her at Dora@doramachado.com, find her on Facebook, or follow her
on Twitter.
