Conventional story structure, or linear design, is a chronological movement forward from exposition to climax to resolution. Like all craft elements, overreliance on convention risks predictability: characters become stereotypes, setting obviously reflects atmosphere, a climactic moment is foretold. Instead of automatically writing a usual chronological narrative, try considering other options.
Madison Smartt Bell, in his craft text, Narrative Design, says, “[T]he form of a work is its ... view more »
Conventional story structure, or linear design, is a chronological movement forward from exposition to climax to resolution. Like all craft elements, overreliance on convention risks predictability: characters become stereotypes, setting obviously reflects atmosphere, a climactic moment is foretold. Instead of automatically writing a usual chronological narrative, try considering other options.
Madison Smartt Bell, in his craft text, Narrative Design, says, “[T]he form of a work is its skeleton, if not its heart…The reader who wants to write as well has got to go beyond the intuitive grasp of form to the deliberate construction of form.” Why not vary linear design by structuring your story with spirals that repeat key moments; or rather than causally connected events, structure chronological events with associative images or answers to questions? Or try using a different structure entirely, such as modular design. Rather than conceiving your story as a process of forward motion, you disassemble it into component parts like bricks that can be reassembled, as Bell writes, “to show relationships between events or people or motifs or themes.”
When constructing your fiction using one of these deliberate structures, form follows function, meaning the design manifests the story’s meaning. In this class, students will analyze examples of these techniques and practice as many as time will allow.
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