What story structure dominates your novel? The choice is yours, the writer. Every novel contains four elements that
determine structure; setting, idea, character, and event. You decide which matters most to you and that
structure will drive your story.
Setting – We know many stories that are setting driven. How about Gulliver’s Travels or Into the
West? These stories always evolve around
the setting. Into the West is structured
around Indian country and compared to the tame East and the people striving for
a better life. The focus or whole point
of the story is for the reader to see the differences between the land and the
people. How do they handle these
differences? What conflicts and
resolutions occur from beginning to end? How does this change or transform the
characters? The story begins with the
arrival and ends when the character(s) decides to stay or leave.
Idea – This structure is simple; it begins by asking a question and
ends when the question is answered. We
know this structure well. Mysteries are
a great example of the idea structure.
The story begins when a crime takes place. Everyone wants to know who did it and
why. The story is over when we discover
the killer and his/her motive.
Character – With character you need to focus on the internal growth of your
character(s) throughout the story. The
story most likely isn’t about the growth, it’s about the plot, but character
growth is important – it makes us care about him/her. Character driven stories start the moment
your main character(s) find themselves in a situation or crisis they aren’t
sure how to deal with. They are
miserable or angry and know they need to make some changes in their life. The story is about how they handle the situation
and their process of change. At the end
either they make changes or settle into accepting their unhappy situation.
Structure – We all love ‘the sky is falling’ story. You know the earthquake that can potentially
destroy the world, or create enough havoc that it is apocalyptic. Perhaps it’s the death of a king or queen, or
even the Vikings conquering new lands.
In all cases the world our characters exist in is being disrupted or
turned upside down.
The story begins when the character’s world is threatening chaos
or has already begun. Note that it’s the
viewpoint character, not the narrator that guides the reader into the state of circumstance.
At the beginning you don’t need a long, dragging-on prologue to
describe the state of the world.
Why? To be honest the reader
isn’t emotionally invested in the characters at the beginning and they won’t
care. I hate prologues – and I never
read them. Personally, I think they’re
useless.
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Begin in the midst of action . . . and draw your reader in
slowly . . . carefully . . . make them feel, make them care, make them pull for
the character(s) – and you’ve got them until ‘the end.’
Rita Karnopp
Author ~ Romancing the West
Author ~ Romancing the West
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