Playing with Structure
When I first started writing, I was largely thankful I could string words together and create a decent short story. When I wrote my first novel, there were no fancy tricks up my structure sleeve.
Then I started to play.
Some writers always tell linear stories. I love to play with structure. I don't do it all the time, but . . . enough that I tend to settle on structure before I even know how a book will end.
In The Roofer . . . the story was told over three nights and a day of an Irish wake and funeral in flashback.
In Do They Wear High Heels in Heaven, Lily narrates one chapter, Michael the next, and every third chapter is either her newspaper column or a chapter of his novel.
In my upcoming Freudian Slip (now moved to June for summer reading--and a different line--HQN), the last line of Jules's chapter is the first line of Kate's chapter--since he primarily resides in her head. (And I CURSED the day I came up with that structure!)
In Invisible Girl, the story is told by multiple people each with only one part of someone's secret--because only the man with the secret knows the whole story--and he happens to be dead.
In something I am playing with, at least the beginning is a story told on newsreel, film, and tape. But it's a fake story to begin with since the man in it never existed--he is pulling a hoax of sorts.
Because I am reading The Book Thief, which has in ingenious structure and narrator, I am thinking about structure even more. Sometimes I think those writers of us who like puzzles torment ourselves with weird structures. It makes the writing job more difficult--but yet strangely fun. If you're a masochist.
Anyone else play with story structure?
Then I started to play.
Some writers always tell linear stories. I love to play with structure. I don't do it all the time, but . . . enough that I tend to settle on structure before I even know how a book will end.
In The Roofer . . . the story was told over three nights and a day of an Irish wake and funeral in flashback.
In Do They Wear High Heels in Heaven, Lily narrates one chapter, Michael the next, and every third chapter is either her newspaper column or a chapter of his novel.
In my upcoming Freudian Slip (now moved to June for summer reading--and a different line--HQN), the last line of Jules's chapter is the first line of Kate's chapter--since he primarily resides in her head. (And I CURSED the day I came up with that structure!)
In Invisible Girl, the story is told by multiple people each with only one part of someone's secret--because only the man with the secret knows the whole story--and he happens to be dead.
In something I am playing with, at least the beginning is a story told on newsreel, film, and tape. But it's a fake story to begin with since the man in it never existed--he is pulling a hoax of sorts.
Because I am reading The Book Thief, which has in ingenious structure and narrator, I am thinking about structure even more. Sometimes I think those writers of us who like puzzles torment ourselves with weird structures. It makes the writing job more difficult--but yet strangely fun. If you're a masochist.
Anyone else play with story structure?
Labels: story structure
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:13 AM
21 Comments:
Right now I'm telling a linear story, you know, hoping for beginners luck in being able to do it well.
Yes, absolutely. Although my stories are often linear, the structure isn't necessarily.
I think the perfect example of this is The Serpent's Kiss. In this story, the story itself made demands on the structure, because the bad guy is setting off sarin gas bombs every 4 hours, and making ransom demands about 1.5 hours before the bombs are to go off. So the entire structure of the book has multiple ticking clocks and that, in many ways, made writing the book a breeze, because the main characters' behaviors were ruled by the clock.
Normally I tell a story linearly because flashbacks generally annoy me, though...I do manage to get some flashbacks in, in dreams, but they actually move the plot forward and heighten tension (hopefully.)
I did do something really interesting with the structure of the erotic novel under my other pen name, but I'm not telling what I did. :P
My novel on submission starts with a 232 page flashback, but I don't think it really feels like a flashback. You know, it could be argued that everything written in past tense is a flashback, and that's pretty much the default tense in fiction. Page 233 starts with: Seven months later...
I guess what I'm getting at is, yes, I played with structure, but my goal was to make it seamless enough to not call attention to itself. I want it to read like a linear narrative, even though it bounces around in time a bit.
Hi Amy:
Wishing you lots of beginner's luck!
E
Mark:
Exactly . . . I love stuff like that--it's like making a puzzle--"I want to tell my story--but here are the confines"
E
Hi Zoe:
Well, no fair not telling us. ;-)
E
Jude;
The Roofer was essentially all flashback. The only real present was the funeral itself and the wake's nights.
E
Yeah, as a writer I was aware of The Roofer's structure, but as a reader I thought it flowed seamlessly.
I've read books that get a little too cutesy or gimmicky or whatever with structure, though, and I think it's to their detriment.
Like you always say, it's all in the execution.
Jude:
Definitely. I am playing with magical realism in my next book (actually, my next two--since Freudian Slip is magical realism) . . . and I want to be sure it works.
E
More limits=more creativity. At least that's my experience, and someone famous said that, too. I've done a bit in the past, but mostly it's linear. I always look to the rhythm of the POV changes, scene changes, etc. Structure has to have rhythm, too.
My stories are linear, but I've written a few books with every chapter beginning with a song verse or an excerpt from a character's book, etc. Sometimes writing that verse or excerpt is harder than writing the scene. I think it's because I'm immersed in the story and have to stop and switch directions. I know I could write the beginning later, but it bugs me not to do it right away.
Since I haven't been published-Yet! I'm too scared to mess with structure.
However I think the best stories are the ones that step out of the box and make me go wow.
Erica, again with the perfect timing. I'm reading Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel and just finished the chapter on playing with plot structures. You've given me wonderful examples, thank you!
I've never really thought about it, but I think I'm pretty linear. I write that way and my books are structured that way.
But now that you've mentioned it...
Anyway, the wildest thing I've ever written was newspaper articles, but they still happened in real time.
Linear.
It's all linear for me, though I commend those who can write it sideways, backward, and any other kind of way. The best I can muster is somewhat of a "Sixth Sense" approach. Everything you need to know is revealed in the first chapter. You just have to go through the rest of the story to figure out how the pieces fit together.
Erica, I'm EVIL. :P
spy:
I think IMPOSING structure, which should limit you, makes you (or at least me) more creative by forcing you to tell the story in a unique way. I think that's why I play with it.
Edie:
Definitely. It's like interrupting the story to set a thematic pause.
E
Hi Melanie:
Cool. I like whn great minds think alike.
E
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