On Story Structure

OK.  This is what I was planning to write yesterday.

So, a lot of writers on the f-list have said over the years that they've had trouble completing long-form, multi-chaptered stories.  One problem often cited is plot, the other (cited far less often) is structure.  I have the opposite problem-- ask me to keep under 500 words, and I'm tearing out my hair.  But long-form chaptered stories are something I rather enjoy, so I thought it might be helpful to talk about what works for me.  I'll talk mostly about structure since that's something I find fun.  And since the only writer whose thought processes I know intimately is...well, me, I'll occasionally reference my own works as examples as How I Did Stuff.  

[This is NOT intended as "You Have to Do It Like This."  This is advice, not a set of rules.  Thank you.]

I'm the kind of nerd who enjoyed learning about formal structure in dramatic works-- Elizabethan five-act structure, Greek tragic and comedic structure, that sort of thing.  I find that a standard (commonly understood) structure works in fiction, and that's going to be the underlying assumption of the rest of this piece.  If you don't agree with the premise, fine, but this is my essay and we're running with my opinions here. 

( Basic Structure )

( How Mark applies the basics to writing )

In most cases, I sketch out the number of chapters I feel will be necessary to tell the story I want to tell-- one, five, or twenty.  This helps me decide where and how to deploy various subplots, motifs, and other elements of the story-- but that gets into something we'll call "story architecture," and we can talk about that one later.

On Story Architecture

OK.  Now, apart from story structure is something I mentally call "story architecture," so it tickled me when myaru  found a critic using similar terminology.

Analogy time!  Picture a cathedral.  The common blueprint of a cathedral is a cruciform shape with a defined axis, a nave and a transept, and some vertical feature like a spire or dome.  Most cathedrals have these features.  But the specific architectural style is what determines whether your cathedral is Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, and so on-- whether you end up with St. Peter's, Notre Dame de Paris, or Sagrada Familia.

( Read more... )

So, don't feel that all this story hardware of "structure" and "architecture" is something that you're stuck with if it's not right for you.  It's a lot easier to knock down and rebuilt a story cathedral if it's not working out.  :)