Narrative Structure
Sometimes I just tell a story.
But most of the time, I tell a story a particular way.
For instance, in my upcoming novel, Freudian Slip, the LAST sentence of the male character's POV chapter is the FIRST sentence in the head of the female POV character's next chapter. It was a b*tch to write it that way, but it was a fun twist.
In Invisible Girl, Jimmy Malone was so paranoid about conspiracies that he believed the ONLY way to protect a secret was to never tell one living person all its parts. Therefore, he parceled out the pieces of his secret to three or four trusted friends. My main characters had to find each secret-holder to get the whole story, therefore it didn't emerge in linear fashion but in the piecemeal way they got the secrets. I thought it was a cool way to tell the story.
In The Roofer, the story unfolded in flashback over the course of an Irish wake and funeral.
In my new work in progress, the story unfolds in horicultural terms--each chapter deals with something in a specific garden.
In Do They Wear High Heels in Heaven, Lily tells one chapter, Michael the next, and every third chapter is either her newspaper column or a chapter from his unfinished novel.
I love twisting narrative structure when I write.
So how about you? Do anything different with your storytelling?
15 comments:
Wow, those are awesome ideas! I haven't twisted it up much with the narrative. I'm sort of easing my way into something like that. With my next book I'm adding in a diary, and the following book has four central characters each telling their side of the story. It's been fun trying this out. :)
Thanks to High School Bites. My Logan Series all start and end with Logan's journal entry. Thanks Erica.
I'm developing an alternate hero / heroine structure, with the villain POV included sporadically.
Changing the tone and style for each POV is a challenge, but also distinguishes their individual personalities.
Deciding which scene is best depicted by which particular character, so that it's "their" scene, is fun, and I'm having a blast!
I've found the heart of my story and the passion.
Thanks, Erica!!!
I try to write each scene or chapter from the POV of the most interesting character in the scene.
It becomes a challenge when the thing that may be happening is not happening to the narrator/head that I am in for the scene.
It is a great way to exercise the imagination, and I like to think that each scene makes my writing stronger.
One of the things my agent said, soon after he signed me, was (paraphrasing), "I love that you're book is so structured. It's something a lot of new writers seem not to grasp..."
I can't remember what I said back (probably just "thank you"), but the truth is I never thought about structure much while writing the book, other than what Aristotle taught us.
The importnat thing, I think, is to just write the friggin' story, let it unfold as it's supposed to, organically.
Personally, I think structures that call attention to themselves are best left to Hollywood. If you want your readers to get lost in "the fictional dream," structure is at its very best when altogether invisible.
To Kill A Mockingbird is a perfect example.
I should add:
Pros like agents, editors, and other writers, recognize tight structures that average readers might be mostly unaware of. I can recognize the structure in my own book, for example (and considered it a great compliment when my agent said it was well-structured), even though much of it came from some archetypal, subconscious level.
And Mockingbird is, of course, beautifully structured as well. You just don't notice it when you're lost in the story and, to me, that's one of the things that makes a book truly special.
I felt that way about The Roofer, too, btw.
I just finished The Roofer on Sunday, and I haven't had time to tell you how much I loved it. The way you told the story was so, so awesome. When I finished, I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to say to you, except THANK YOU.
The novella after next (cat just got sick, so now my pseudonym is writing a bazillion words a day to pay for the oh-my-gawd BILLS), is a He Said/She Said structure in first person. Should be fun. I'm going to have to experiment more.
kelly:
Hey there. I have played with diary entries somewhat. I used to keep a diary--religiously. Then I felt like life got too complicated to even write about. LOL!
la:
That sounds cool. I have enjoyed getting in touch with characters with journals---feels very "in thier head."
kathy:
Bravo!!! Enjoy the "zone."
ewoh:
I tend--maybe it's genre--to stick with just one or two POVs. But yes, POVs always have their challenges.
Jude:
I hadn't thought of it being "hidden," but I suppose that's very true. I use the word "organic."
E
Spy:
Wow . . . I am humbled.
[bows and says thank you]
E
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