PraxisPoetica III The huge influence of Lajos Egri in Contemporary Writing Process sources
Lajos Egri
Section titled “Lajos Egri”- ==update== 🔥👉 Amazing honesty and forthrightness: Lajos Egri is copiously cited and his teachings fully shared in John Yorke’s wonderful book, Into the Woods - How Stories Work and How We Tell Them (2015), with which I became familiar (and read) thanks to Katja Kaine’s fascinating article The Story of The Novel Factory; which I read while considering the use of the Novel Factory Software (recommended) thanks to its community thoroughness and support, on the one hand, and deep writing process and social roots, on the other. It has amazing flexibility in the use and wealth of its many features. As in the case of Plottr, you can do a lot worse than using this novel writing system for your own projects. (For me, Obsidian is still the best (especially with the new Bases database features, now making it a super-Notion), and that’s where I find myself doing most of my actual writing. But I won’t finalize that setup for this particular project, I prefer to spend my time on writing process itself and the scenes and manuscript, while I still have time and brain 😅).
- I’ve made, and will continue to make, extensive reference to Lajos Egri and his works in all notes published here, related to my writing process for fiction.
- Note on John Yorke’s book itself: While I’m thrilled that finally in our modern era many of the writers making invaluable contributions to the literary and artistic process, like Lajos Egri (copious, serious bibliography!), are becoming recognized, and even more importantly, understood. I just wish the book dealt even more towards connecting Lajos Egri to the actual writing process itself (which he does somewhat, though you have to dig through the notes and bibliography) instead of dwelling on how many acts (3 acts is natural, no, what about 5? isn’t that better? wot’s more natural?) should be mechanically imposed on the novels we are writing, along with Hero’s Journey. Anyway…
What’s your point?
Section titled “What’s your point?”- Many writing process books and materials exist that use the seed, roots and tree metaphor (either in whole or in part, in so many words or else directly, indirectly, usually with distortions) in order to express how the novel emerges concretely from a writer’s creative activity. I am happy if people get help from these works. I just want to make sure that Lajos Egri gets heard through all the noise and gets the credit he deserves for his amazing contributions, including, and above and beyond, the metaphor. He was one of the first in revolutionary times to use a scientific approach to writing, empowered by historical and dialectical materialism. Thank you, maestro, Hungarian immigrant activist and militant defender of the rights of the working class who taught so many contemporary mistresses and masters of the craft, yesterday and today: why and how to write —v. o. kapelman, 2025.
About the Writing Process Metaphor of Seed, Roots and Tree
Section titled “About the Writing Process Metaphor of Seed, Roots and Tree”- Well, now that we do know there are others that give the maestro his due, and how, in this whole series we’ll be exploring the Lajos Egri inspired writing process here adopted, step by step, as we use it exclusively. Aided in actual practice, of course, by many artifacts contributed by other craft writers, for example, the scene card (though adapted and expanded) put forward in Lisa Cron’s Story Genius (⚠ currently no https still) (but it’s the dialectics on all levels of complexity of matter (history, physics, biology, sociology, psychology, yes, three dimensional characters…), not just the brain science!!!! 😄)).
- OK, so I needed to share all this, so now let’s round off this article by taking a look at the writing process metaphor used by so many: Seed, Roots and Tree. By way of example.
Specific references to the seed, roots, tree metaphor
Section titled “Specific references to the seed, roots, tree metaphor”Quotes from Lajos Egri in 1946
Section titled “Quotes from Lajos Egri in 1946”- Can’t help getting emotional about it, that’s the year I was born.
The shape of a tree, its height and strength, will be determined by the place and the surroundings where the seeds happen to fall and germinate. No two dramatists think or write alike. Ten thousand playwrights can take the same premise, as they have done since Shakespeare, and not one play will resemble the other except in the premise.
The premise is the conception, the beginning of a play. The premise is a seed and it grows into a plant that was contained in the original seed; nothing more, nothing less. The premise should not stand out like a sore thumb, turning the characters into puppets and the conflicting forces into a mechanical set-up. In a well-constructed play or story, it is impossible to denote just where premise ends and story or character begins.
—Lajos Egri, The Art of Dramatic Writing, Part I, “Premise” (1942, 1946)
The soil above the seed is hard to push through, but this very handicap, this resistance to the soil, forces the young sprout to gather strength for the battle. Where shall it get this additional strength? Instead of fighting ineffectively against the topsoil, the seed sends out delicate roots to gather more nourishment. Thus the sprout at last penetrates the hard soil and wins through to the sun. According to science, a single thistle needs ten thousand inches of root to support a thirty- or forty-inch stem. You can guess how many thousands of facts a dramatist must unearth to support a single character.
By way of parable, let a man represent the soil; in his mind we shall plant a seed of coming conflict: ambition, perhaps. The seed grows in him, though he may wish to squelch it. But forces within and without the man exert greater and greater pressure, until this seed of conflict is strong enough to burst through his stubborn head. He has made a decision, and now he will act upon it.
The contradictions within a man and the contradictions around him create a decision and a conflict. These in turn force him into a new decision and a new conflict.
—Lajos Egri, The Art of Dramatic Writing, Part II Character, Chapter 4 Character Growth (1942, 1946)
Many people are influenced by Lajos Egri, then repeat the metaphor for the writing process that the grand master uses, without citing their source; and then only after emptying it of its dialectical and historical materialist roots! But it may be in no sense their fault: their own sources may have omitted him also —v. o. kapelman, 2025.
Leslye Penelope
Section titled “Leslye Penelope”To her credit, the same metaphor is applied (in a different way to that used here in PraxisPoetica, which has no dependency whatsoever on “genre beats” or any other mechanical system; Lajos Egri was very firm in his rejection of stuff like “obligatory scenes”) in her own material, as reflected on her Substack blog and in other articles on her website.
Lisa Cron
Section titled “Lisa Cron”- The complete Lajos Egri writing process is reflected in the excellent craft works of Lisa Cron (to her credit), including, but not limited to
- backstory
- premise (called
point) as the seed of the logline or “What If?” statement - starting your novel in the middle (in “media res”)
- character orchestration (especially the protagonist; but in the Jennie Nash example, there is a counter-protagonist very much a la Lajos Egri)
- cause and effect
- scenes that build up dramatic tension leading to an adequate start of the novel in full flight of tension
- See Story Genius (publishers site: Story Genius)
seed: 11 mentionsroot: 9 mentions
Which is great! Writing tools, like Campfire and Plottr, for good reason, have templates marshaling the above Story Genius writing process. One can do a lot worse than using these tools.
(Unfortunately, in the work of Lisa Cron, dialectical materialism is replaced by something called “Brain Science”, and reduced to the physiological/psychological level alone (reductionism); neither is Lajos Egri cited in the bibliography). The following is from the same book by Lajos Egri cited above:
An author must find a character who wants something so desperately that he can’t wait any longer. His needs are immediate. Why? You have your story or play the moment you can answer authoritatively why this man must do something so urgently and immediately. Whatever it is, the motivation must have grown out of what happened before the story started. In fact, your story is possible only because it grew out of the very thing that happened before. It is imperative that your story starts in the middle, and not under any circumstances, at the beginning.
—Lajos Egri, The Art of Dramatic Writing, Part III Conflict, Chapter 8 Point of Attack (1942, 1946)
Some other direct uses of the Metaphor
Section titled “Some other direct uses of the Metaphor”© Victor Opas Kane. Some rights reserved. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License