The Four Basic Writing Stances : From the Roof

From the Roof.  Source

From the Roof (or Vom Dach in German) is an intimidating stance that is achieved by holding the sword overhead, at a 45 degree angle from the ground.  An alternate version of this has the swordsman hold it over one shoulder, since some armours didn’t allow the arms to raise so high.

By holding the sword over your head, you gain a lot of power with your strikes.  However, it can slow both your parries and attacks because of the momentum you need to generate in order to bring the blade down.  The position, however, allows easy transition into the other three stances with a shift of the sword and moving of the feet.

In writing, From the Roof is a versatile but somewhat disordered stance.  Though it can certainly act as a stance of its own, I think it often leaks into my writing along with the others.  This stance is also, like the Fool, kind of a combination between the Ox and the Plough.  With From the Roof, you start out either with an outline or without, depending on how good you know your story.  Then, if you get to a point where you struggle, you swap to the other style.  Thus, you start out with Ox, then you get to a point where you need some structure, then you swap over to Plough.

This stance shares a lot of advantages and disadvantages with the Fool, but optimises all the areas.  However, the trick lies in knowing when to switch.  If you swap between the styles too often, or not often enough, then you get all the problems from the first two.

From the Roof is very confusing, and can be pretty useless if you’re good with only Ox or Plough.  Also, you’re outline will never be as clear as it could be if you do it throughout the entire story.  For both the Fool and From the Roof, you need to know what you’re doing, and more importantly, you have to need it.  For most people, just outlining or just winging it is best.

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The Four Basic Writing Stances : Fool

The Fool.  Source

The Fool (or Alber in German) is a deceptively open stance.  You lower the blade, almost touching the floor with its tip, and step back with your one foot.  You create the illusion that you are open for attack while you can actually counterattack very efficiently.

With a twist of the hilt, the blade can be brought up to parry, leaving you in a good position to attack.  Also, the speed with which you can lift the blade will often be underestimated.

In writing, the Fool is a combination of the Plough and the Ox.  You start off without any outline, but when you figure out your characters and see how things play out, you switch to outlining for the middle (which is often a very difficult place for an Ox to be in).  But before you get to the end, you switch back to writing without an outline.  Therefore, your outline will be everything except the beginning and the end.

         

The Fool essentially maximises efforts by outlining the part that is hard for the Ox stance and winging the parts that often cause the biggest problems for the Plough stance.  By doing this, the Fool gets the advantages of both stances.  The story will be well structured and flow naturally, if you do things right.

However, along with the advantages, the Fool also gets the disadvantages.  The stance tries to cast away the places where the stances most often fail, but it cannot eliminate all the problems.  By winging the beginning, it is possible to set the whole course of the story into a chaotic mess.  The beginning gives you the direction, and if you don’t know what’s happening, you will shape the whole story (even with its structured middle) into the wrong thing that might not really get anywhere.  Also, the large part in the middle might stagnate and become an article instead of a story.

For people who like both the Ox and the Plough stances, the Fool is a good alternative.  It may seem to be a very chaotic method, but it efficiently balances out positives and negatives.  If you do it right, you can create a story with a wonderful flow and natural characters, without losing tautness and clarity.  If you don’t do it right, you will have a big mess on your hands.

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The Four Basic Writing Stances : Plough

The Plough.  Source

The plough (or Pflug in German) protects very well and allows any attack.  This is achieved by holding the hilt of the sword near your middle, next to your hip bone.  The sword point should be aimed at the chest or neck of your opponent.

While the plough allows any attack, they will be inherently weaker from the lower point (except maybe a straight thrust).  This position is very defensive and leaves most attack points closed or easily closable.  Ergo, it is hard to find an opening when someone is in the plough stance.

In writing, the plough is just as defensive.  You outline your story far before you begin.  You might even go as far as outlining each scene in great detail.  You prepare plot events beforehand and see how it plays out before you start writing.

This stance allows for a lot of stability and defence.  You will know exactly what will happen next and how everything will end up.  You’ll also save some time by having much less revisions and/or rewrites to do than say, the ox.  Your character will end up as you intended, the story will be bound together more strongly and it will feel more like a whole.  Your story will be very clear.

However, by outlining your story, you could be forcing your characters into plot events before you really know who they are.  Therefore, your characters might seem less real and might even make unrealistic decisions (if you didn’t think it out properly).  Also, since you decided everything beforehand, the events may seem to happen mechanically.

If you push the outlining too far, your story could end up sounding like a newspaper article rather than a story.  However, if you do it right, the plough stance gives your story focus and keeps it going in the right direction.  As long as you keep your characters in mind when plotting, your story will have clarity and move deliberately from one point to the next.

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The Four Basic Writing Stances : Introduction

The four basic stances.  Source

At the heart of swordsmanship lie stances.  Every stance allows you to both deliver attacks and block them.  While I presume that each swordsman had his own preference, all stances are interchangeable and dynamic, allowing the swordsman to switch between them as the situation demanded it.

As writers, we too have stances.  The way in which we take on a manuscript.  Start immediately or plot first, etc.  Everyone has their own opinion, and judging by the difference in advice from bestseller to bestseller, not one is the “correct” solution.  Every writer has a preference in their writing stance, just as swordsmen have a preference in their sword stance.

While no one is correct, each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it would do well to know each of them.  Trying out every way also helps you find the stance that works best for you.  I’ve dabbled with almost all of them, and I’m still trying to find my preference.  Of course, every situation calls for another approach, so when I write short stories, I employ a different stance than when I write a novel.

In the following four weeks, I’ll look at one stance of German longsword stances and attempt to compare them to writer stances.

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