The
order of a story can make or break the entire tale. Think about how different The Lord of the Rings would have been if
we started at Mordor, Frodo holding the ring over the lava, instead of in the
Shire with happy hobbits and bright green grass. The timeline of a short story
is obviously much more compressed than that of such an epic saga, but the
principle still applies. Where do you start? Where do you end? And what do you
let the reader see in between?
I
read “The Zealous Mourner” by Marly Swick about a week ago. I read very
consciously, trying to figure out exactly what he was doing that intrigued me
so much, that kept me reading. Finally, I came down to timing. The story is
about a woman who has survived breast cancer but had to undergo a double mastectomy.
The story begins after the surgery, after her previous marriage failed, and in
the middle of a struggling marriage. I love that the story was so involved even
before it began!
I
think I struggle with starting a story with complicated events and characters
already in play. I think part of this is simply that I need to really take the
time to spend concentrated effort learning the large complexities and minor
details of my character’s lives. I’m not talking about that their favorite food
is macaroni and cheese with ketchup, I’m talking about the big stuff, the stuff
that has shaped them years and years ago.
The
order of the story allowed for current, major events but also reflection and
effect from previous ones. Even though the cause was in the past, before the
first words of the story, it was captivating to see the effects play out right
now. So, to write a well-ordered story, I must first learn everything that has
happened—past, present and future.
But
of course, there’s always the argument about writing without a plan and letting
whatever happens happen, letting the characters tell their own story rather
than you planning it out. I can see the benefits of both, as well as the draw
backs. How do you decide how to order a story? Do you know everything before
you begin or do you just “let it happen”? What works for you?
I agree that the layout of a story can completely change how readers take things. For me, I think I just let things happen, but more often than not, that results in at least some amount of playing with time. Almost all of my short stories include at least one flashback; sometimes it happens that way because I decide that something I know needs to be divulged to the reader, sometimes it's because I start wondering why a character is the way they are, so I write it out.
ReplyDeleteEven though I already play around with time using devices like flashback and in media res, I still wish to be more intentional about it. It's so easy to just revise a story for characterization and grammar but leave the bare bones of structure the way it played out in the first place. Sometime in the near future, I'd like to take one of my old stories, perhaps one that fell flat, and completely restructure it to see what happens. This kind of revision is difficult when we're on the time crunch of a quad or a semester, but in our "real life" writing that is not constrained by a classroom, I'd like to think we would give ourselves the freedom to do more of this kind of reworking.
Yeah, this is tough. Even in writing my last prose which was non-fiction, I had to write out bullet points so I knew what I was shooting for when I was writing. I needed a goal to work toward so my words wouldn't just race all over with no purpose. But I also know there is merit to letting characters speak without us influencing them. The fiction I've written that I've actually liked has been that way, where I've just let my characters say whatever they want an do whatever they want to do. But maybe I don't show that fictio to other people either.:)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only person who has been noticing this feature about good writing! The effects of the order of a story make such a night-and-day difference for the reader, but it's so hard as a writer to know how even to approach it.
ReplyDeleteThis has definitely been a source of writing headaches for me, but I've also found it to be one of the best things to play around with. Most of my stories come to me with a certain order in which they are told, but often that order needs a lot of tweaking before it's quite ready! One of the ways in which I confront this is by taking one of my stories and playing it through in my mind in every different chronological order I can come up with. You never know when you'll find something powerful in your writing simply by starting at a different point in the story. The great thing is that there is a lot of room for experimentation, and if one thing doesn't work you can find another.
I think I generally have a pretty vague idea of what's going to happen. I'm not very good at laying out a plot ahead of time though. I remember in Writing of Fiction, I wrote out a plot because we had one due, and then I wrote a completely different story altogether for the first rough draft.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Autobiographical Writing though, I definitely had to make a definitive decision as to what I was going to write about, but that was where it ended. I wrote about the week when I was 14 and my two grandpas died one week apart. I hadn't actually thought in depth about it before I started writing, so the whole thing was pretty therapeutic. I think I enjoy the writing experience more that way as well.
I guess, I've come to the conclusion that just going with it is often the best bet. Let it write itself. And then you can nip and tuck later.
What is it that authors do that makes the audience bite? How should you organize your ideas in a way that they read the lesson on their own without being told? It is not easy. I admire that persistence.
ReplyDeleteI have been learning to order my stories according to reordering and asking advice. There are things I cannot see on my own that another writer could easily point out. I also don't want to screw up Mordor!
I don't write with a plan. I spew and then create the history. I think we write like we carry out life. I am organized but I am spontaneous. Personality gives way to motivation. Good questions!
Wow, this was really great. And so true. I used to hate having to come up with the "catchy" first line to hook the reader. Now I realize that where a story begins is really important. The track that it follows is equally important.
ReplyDeleteIt takes me so long to sort through everything, and I'm such a stickler that I just love to start right at the beginning of everything. However, a lot of times when I do that, I've come to the end of the story and realized that the end was where I needed to begin. That's the case with my most recent story. It moves really slowly, and I take too long getting to the point, so I have to start with the ending where everything was revealed. That would make it more interesting. Plus, then there's more for the characters to react to. That's the thing with short stories. There's no room to mess around. You have to get to the point.
Great post!
Something I have been trying with one or two of my recent drafts is picking a place I know is in the past of my story, and starting to write summary from there to get back story, plot pieces, conflict, and even some scenes. I don't worry about where the story starts until I'm already in the middle and can see more clearly. The only catch is that it takes extra time to write the extra material--if you're on a tight schedule, it won't work as well, but if you can give yourself space to plan, it can really help!
ReplyDeleteI feel like it is good to have a combination of knowing a lot before you start the story and letting it simply play out when it will. If you know a lot right from the beginning, your story can probably be a lot more realistic because your characters will have more depth since so much more has happened to them than what actually finds itself on paper. They'll have a history, and maybe you'll be more attached to them because of that. But on the other hand, once you know all this, you just have to let them interact with each other as they will. If the story is entirely planned out, then maybe yes, that's fine. But then maybe within your structured scenes, you'll have spontaneity, and maybe the characters won't act as we expect them to. It's always fun when our own characters throw us for a loop. :)
ReplyDelete