Writing Revelations
I tend to think of myself as an organic writer. Most of my stories start as a title or a first line or paragraph and I very rarely have any idea where the story's going or even usually what it's about in the sense that all stories should be about something. My best writing comes straight from my subsconscious and sometimes I am actually astonished at the things I put down on paper (fortunately in a good way). There's a balance for me between writing it down too soon and losing it forever.
So it surprises me that I love structure stories which, by my definition, means stories where the structure of the story itself resonates and reinforces the story(I figure it's necessary to define structure story after reading on a blog somewhere what a published author thinks a 'character-driven' story is and finding myself boggled). I don't necessarily mean highly experimental structures either, just ways of moving the story that are part of telling the story. I can think of zero examples of this right now (though I'm pretty sure I had one or two this morning when I actually had this thought).
I'm thinking about this because I've been thinking about new stories using the same characters/world introduced in 'How to Hide Your Heart.' If I write any of these (which is not at all a given no matter how much I think about them) the one that would come thematically and chronologically after 'How to Hide Your Heart' would be a structure story (remember it's highly possible no one else would call it this except me) and I think it would be fun to write.
And it seems excessively peculiar to me that I know it will be a structure story, I know what theme/emotional payoff etc the structure would resonate and intertwine with and I have barely any idea what the story is about or where it will go.
The title of this story I may or may not ever write is, 'Two is Not a Pattern' and it currently starts like this:
Beth though Matt Warren looked like a toad.And not an interesting toad either. The most boring ugly toad ever--and that was saying a lot because toads as a whole were not attractive.
Comments
Okay.
I'm trying to wrap my brain around what you mean by 'structure story.' Do you mean the way the plot is strutured and the information revealed resonates with the actual theme of the story? How would that work? Or maybe how you use scene length and endings?
Ugh, the UI women's hoops team is getting stomped by UNI. 30 points. Glad I'm not at the game...
Right, back to structure. I think I like the idea. I also think writing another Beth story would be great.
Posted by: SarahP | December 19, 2006 08:54 PM
Yes, I mean (or think I mean, or mean at least at this moment) that the way the story is told resonates with the theme--POV, tense, paragraphing and what is told when. Maybe other things?
How would it work? HA! That would imply that I know how anything works. But here's what I'm thinking for this story. The title is 'Two is Not a Pattern' so I see it being about pairs, about unexpected breaks in chains and about relationships that are/are not, maybe both.
For example, I think (at least right now) that Paul is both in and not in this story. That he is present in Beth's mind, in some kind of communication maybe, but off-stage (actually, I have another idea about how this works too but in any case they aren't in the same place at the same time). A relationship, but not. And also that he is somehow integral to solving the stories central issue. Because I see this story as the second piece of their story whatever that is, but because 'two is not a pattern' we don't yet know what that story will be.
And anyway, what I see about structure is that there ought to be a way in the structure of the story to emphasize the pairing and the breaking of pairs and possibly something else about patterns that I haven't worked out yet. But somehow, yes, I want the scaffolding of the story to reflect the plot of the story.
Hmmm...I'm not sure I've actually shed much light so maybe I just need to write the story.
**Ugh, the UI women's hoops team is getting stomped by UNI.**
SO humiliating!!
Posted by: debco | December 20, 2006 07:49 PM
Yeah, that's making sense. I love the idea of embedding patterns in a story about how two is not a pattern. But then I love irony.
Hannah just blogged about a Ted Chiang story that sounds like a structure story. Do you have a copy of his collection? I do, and can bring it to our next group, if you'd like to have it.
Posted by: SarahP | December 20, 2006 08:57 PM