Structure and Fiction

[icarus]

Structure and Form in Fiction

I've run into two extremes concerning structure and form in fiction. The first says 'but structure will destroy my creativity!' The other says 'structure is the only way' (so far so good) 'and it should be shaped exactly like this.' Ooops. Um. No.

What they have in common is they're both pretty rigid.

Eeep! It's An Outline - Run!

A lot of people really, really don't want to consciously structure their stories. They don't want to lay it out in an outline, refine it, or tighten it up. The concept of Coleridge writing Xanadu in one creative spree is embedded in the mind - anything less is uncreative. And before anyone tells me this, let me say it for you:

"This is the way I write best. I'm more creative like this."

Well, yes. Of course. So's everyone. There is a phase of writing where you just let it gush out. But that's only your raw material. It's not your best work yet. Professionals don't stop there, and they don't just edit the precious pearls minted in the first rush (unless they're Anne Rice, but she's another story, snerk).

What you have to realize is that notes and outlines are like your artist's palette, where you can play with the colors and shapes before they're in a solid finished form. It's not rigid. It's looser than your set-in-stone prose. You are freer at that point than after you've churned out finished prose. If you allow your initial churnings to be loose... notes, bullets, phrases, and yes, outlines... you're less likely to become "precious" about them and rigidly think that the initial creative gush is like a cut diamond - you can't change it now.

But however you create your initial material, it's ore. Not diamonds.

I Know The Way To Write And Everyone Else Has It Wrong

Then there's the other extreme, equally rigid. Yes, yes, there is the classic "story arc": you've got your initial set-up, your rising action, etc., etc., the climax, your falling action, and then the denouement. But no one ever said that each story must follow the exact same pattern. They're "more like guidelines than actual rules." (Gosh I love that quote.)

Fiction, like poetry, has rhythm. There are different rules for the form, but as someone I respect once said, "form follows function." Yes, in fact, there is room for creativity in not just the plot but also the structure of fiction. Just like poetry, the form is successful when it effectively conveys the meaning of the piece.

Different types of events have different rhythms, and thus, different structures.

Case in point: MPreg stories. (A good example is Nimori's Happy Christmas, Harry Potter.) I'm deliberately using a type of story I'm not fond of, though I do like Nimori's. One of the frustrations with MPreg stories is that... nothing really happens. There's a dramatic event at first. Then nothing much as the tension sloooooow-ly builds. And builds. And builds. Until the very end. These are stories about waiting. Yet that is completely appropriate for the subject. That's what a birth is like: profound change that occurs after a long suspense, where you're trapped in - shall we say? - a pregnant pause.

Another type of story is, oh gosh, I want to call it 'the relationship ramble' though there's an official term that's not coming to mind. It's common in queer lit. John's Not Just A River is a perfect example of the style. It rambles and strays, yet that's just right for the subject. The characters are discovering themselves through accident and happenstance, and the point is that no one could have predicted how life was going to turn out. This is reflected and carried through the structure with it's unexpected veering hither and yon.

Then there's the story within a story structure that I haven't seen in Harry Potter, but is very common in the historical novel and in Russian Literature (I'm thinking Dostoyevski) where generations are covered in one book. (I take it back. A good example is Contemporary Magical Innovations which visits various scenes in the historic creation of the new Unconscionables. It's not quite the right scope, but it's close.) You 'visit' different stories, different individuals, within an overarching theme.

But a tight action story, where the focus is the momentum of the plot, would completely fall apart if written in any of these ways. You'd lose the audience if you tried the very still MPreg structure. You'd confuse them with the rambling structure. You'd defuse the tension with the historical stopovers. For an action story, you need that story arc to keep the plot alive.

The structure points to the focus. Just like a wheel needs to be round in order to roll, the structure has to be the right shape to carry the story. Nothing is one size, one shape, fits all.

Comments

[tigerlilly2063.livejournal.com]

Really good summary of the problem.

Well, as for me, I need a guideline for my stories (at least long one-shots and multi-chaptered). Otherwise I would probably ensnarl myself hopelessly. I need something reminding me of what I want. By and by this outline gets more detailed, perhaps it's rewritten a bit sometimes, but at least I have something I can look at for not loosing the vision.

The different kind of structures are something I never really realised concretely but you're absolutely right. It depends on what kind of story you're writing/reading. But I think you're falling automatically into the correct flow of one kind, when you're writing it. Well, that's at least how I feel about it. Everything else wouldn't feel right while writing it.

more like guidelines than actual rules
Yes, that quote is really worth remembering, even though my mind lost completely the source of it at the moment. Argh, frustrating, I can nearly hear the voice...

[kres.livejournal.com]

Geoffrey Rush, Pirates of the Caribbean?

Maybe not he first, but... :)=

[tigerlilly2063.livejournal.com]

Argh, YES! How could I forget it... I saw the movie that often. *rolls eyes*
Thx. ;)

[shaychana.livejournal.com]

could have sworn i read it in a pratchett first...

[kres.livejournal.com]

Ha. EXACTLY.

:)=

But however you create your initial material, it's ore. Not diamonds.

I suppose the 'rush of creativity' may work only with drabbles, snippets and such. They're short, they don't require the author to have a long attention span. One idea, one thread, one thing to say. Sometimes - if you're really lucky - it may be a diamond [material :)].

you're less likely to become "precious" about them and rigidly think that the initial creative gush is like a cut diamond

Oh, that hurts, doesn't it? Cutting, especially (changing - not that much). Yet, it needs to be done. *sigh* A lot. *heavy sigh*

Action story, well. If I'm right, the stages (initial setup, rising action, etc.) are in the definition of action (as in 'a type of plot'), aren't they?

:)=

[shaychana.livejournal.com]

I suppose the 'rush of creativity' may work only with drabbles, snippets and such. They're short, they don't require the author to have a long attention span. One idea, one thread, one thing to say. Sometimes - if you're really lucky - it may be a diamond [material :)].

you've got a point there, but in my experience of reading and writing (not tryng to suggest that i'm the best writer or anything), the better of short pieces tend to be guided by a very strong structuring force. as a reader, i would notice structure more in a short piece because there usually isn't much plot to distract from the quality of writing, the sparkle of emotion/insight, and yes, the impact of structure. as icarusancalion sort-of-suggested, i think short pieces in particular are pretty close to poetry, where because they are so reductive, structure has a heavier part to bear of the burden of meaning. ok, i'll stop spamming stranger's journals and mailboxes now.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Heck, I'm enjoying it. Very observant. Haven't had much time to reply today (Thanksgiving) but I've definitely been reading.

Icarus

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

I think I love you.

[adred.livejournal.com]

Smashing.
Professionals don't stop there, and they don't just edit the precious pearls minted in the first rush (unless they're Anne Rice, but she's another story, snerk).
Ah. This explains my lack of success.
LOL

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I simply loved seeing this stated this way.

[shaychana.livejournal.com]

if i may, i think this line captures your entire point most beautifully:

Just like poetry, the form is successful when it effectively conveys the meaning of the piece.

*is a structure whore*

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

Nicely said.

Personally, I've come across a lot of bias towards the "get it all out creative rush" style of writing in my pro-fic writing courses and groups. "Just get it down, pet," they tell me, patting my shoulder, and I go, "No, wait, you don't understand. I need the outline. I need the structure. All that planning is like a map for me. If I just take off into the wilderness I get lost, wander in circles, and eventually give up and go home, around chapter 3 or its equivalent. It's amazing how many chapters 1 and 2 on various novels I went through before I figured this out. But now I know, and I know that with a structure is the best way for me to write. That's when I'm at my most creative.

The important thing is for people to know all the options they have and then to work on finding out how best it works for them. So yes, what you said. Thanks for saying it.

(PS: Came here via four_lobsters.)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

fabu recced this, and it is, truly, so nice to hear others feel outlines are of great use, particularly in longer fics. They are not set in stone, you can add and subtract from them at will, you have a place to note good lines and scenes as they occur to you, but they keep one on track, which is essential, in my opinion.

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

*trots off to work on half-complete outline of PotC WIP*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

They're so efficient, too. Writing goes a hell of a lot faster when I use them. Sometimes I don't, and I find myself just slogging through.

Icarus

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Gosh, ain't it the truth! I'm working on a multi-chapter one right now, and have not completed the outline, and it too me two weeks to finish the chapter I just posted. Disgusting! I need to sit down and sketch out the progression of events so I'm not flailing around in extraneous, non-essential maundering.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yes.

Hey, you're the first person I've met in the PotC fandom (though a few Harry Potter fiends do both). Want you guys to watch out. It seems like www.muse-wanted.com is up again, and the photo on the front looks like PotC is the new fandom. I had a pretty bad experience with the owner there, and a lot of friends of mine got bilked so I thought I'd throw out a random warning. The last scam was to offer free webhosting then pretend financial difficulties and ask for money from the hostees, though she's also bilked people on Laudromat (an EBay thing I think) and not paid for commissioned art from Harry Potter artists.

Icarus

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

You know, I had never heard of scams like that until today (I've only been aware of fanfiction for the last year), but you're the second person that's mentioned such a thing. I am very wary of internet transactions, however, so would (hopefully) not be taken in.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

If by outline, you mean "random notes scribbled and saved to Notepad to occasionally be consulted while writing the story," then yes, I suppose I do outline. But there are writers for whom outlining doesn't work. There are writers for whom it kills the impulse which compels the writing in the first place, namely, finding out what happens. If I make an outline, I already know what happens, and I've lost interest.

I see your points here, and I generally agree with them, but I think you're conflating two things here that aren't necessarily related. Yes, there are writers who firmly believe that "the Muse" or whatever you want to call it speaks to them in one creative rush, and that to revise, re-write, or edit is to destroy this marvelous gift they've been given. Then there are writers who...well, who kind of work like potters. We take this great mass of stuff that's sitting in our head, plop it down like clay on a wheel, and start shaping it and sheering stuff away until it starts to resemble what we've got in mind. It's conceivable that that mass of stuff might be considered some form of outline, and certainly it works for me in ways that are similar to how outlines work for other writers, but really I think the mass and the outline are just two different forms of something that encompasses them both.

And because it's late, I can't think what that something is, drat it all.

Fiction, like poetry, has rhythm.

I started out my writing career as a poet, so all I can say to this is: Yes. Exactly.

[tesseract-5.livejournal.com]

this is one of the tricky bits in advising people on creative writing. Of course all the successful fantasy writers I've read interviews of make extensive use of outlines, notes, research and more outlines. However, most people getting into fan fiction are beginning writers and often have had a severe case of writer's block or some sort of case of super self consciousness about their writing.

In this case, the -just let it flow- method is good advice, to start with. Once one gets past that stage, then go back and use an outline.

:shrug:

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*nods* True. I think a good point is to "let it flow naturally" until it starts to feel to the writer likes it's out of control and they don't know where it goes next.

Then it feels quite natural to take the next step and contain all that creativity in an outline.

There's another issue that arises where an outline doesn't help at all, which is that perfectionism, where the writer starts comparing themselves to Shakespeare, or stuff they've written in the past, and they tighten up. In that case an outline just makes you tighter, when you need to relax and let the stories write themselves.

I guess is more like a pharmacy, writing advice. For writing malady #1, try this. For malady #2, there's that.

Icarus

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Err, I'm neither a beginning writer nor a fanfic-only writer, and many successful spec writers of my acquaintance don't use outlines, though research and notes are fairly universal. In fact, I've known a number of people who struggled as beginning writers because they'd been told one is only successful as a writer if one outlines. Once they chucked that advice, writing went much more smoothly--and successfully--for them.

In my own experience, it has much less to do with how much writing one has done and more to do with one's own psychological quirks. Some writers have difficulty being focused and organized. Other writers have difficulty shutting off their inner editor while in the process of writing a first draft. Some writers do better at working toward an ending they've already hashed out in some external form. Some writers do better when the conclusion of their tale is a mystery (partial or complete) to them. It's all about figuring out what works best for you, and what works best for you isn't necessarily going to be related to how long you've been writing.