Don't ever underestimate the power an author has through his or her choices in how to structure a book. Structure can change everything. I'm encountering this right now with Sublimation. One structural choice will determine virtually everything about the reader's takeaway.
Right now, as I fight through to get my momentum back, I'm cherry-picking interest plot points from my chapter-run outline and writing those, pulling my mind back into the world of the book. I'm also trying to hit the scenes I've basically pre-written in my head.
I have virtually the entire last chapter written in my head, and so I started pounding away on that tonight, even though I haven't touched several chapters prior to it.
The last chapter is basically comprised of two scenes that are tied together thematically and symbolically, but are not truly interdependent. I can put the two scenes in either order. What I realized tonight is that the choice I make in terms of which to put first will completely control what most readers think the book is. One scene is bittersweet at best, poignant at least, certainly black, and downright bleak. It concludes with one strong implication of philosophical intent. The other scene is much more optimistic and hopeful, promises realized with great hope for the future, even if tinged by regrets. And it concludes with an entirely different implication.
So the order will determine not only the tone and mood that the reader walks away with, but what a majority of them think the "moral" or "point" is.
On the one hand, the realization of this power is pretty cool. I can change the entire book just by how two scenes in one chapter are arranged, without altering any content whatsoever. On the other hand, it's pretty daunting. Wow, what a decision to have to make.
For tonight I'm going to write it how I had originally planned to before I realized the difference the order could make, but I will definitely be thinking about this a lot over the next little while.
Anyone else run into that kind of structural decision in their writing? Or even in their reading?
.Nevets.
Now listening to... Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.
The Dog of the North was originally conceived as a single linear narrative (hey, everyone likes a beginning, a middle and an end, right?). This would have arranged all the events in the story chronologically, including the "lost time" between the two strands.
ReplyDeleteIt was only close to starting writing that I realised the whole would be more powerful if I interleaved the two stories. This created a mystery in the reader's mind--how are these stories related?--as well as allowing them to reinforce each other structurally.
So I completely agree with you that these structural decisions are critical, and come close to defining the reader's experience.
We drive the car. We can take it down the boring interstate or veer off into the unknown, navigate some hairpin curves and unmarked roads and emerge at our destination with heart pumping. Or we can drive it into the ditch.
ReplyDeleteScary choices. I like surprises when I'm reading. Why are they so hard to write?
I can imagine how the order of the two chapters can make a difference.
ReplyDeleteHow many times have I written something, only to have it completely changed by a single event that comes from nowhere?
So that it can happen in whole chapters makes perfect sense to me.
Good luck with the choice. :-)
In my current WIP I have changed and fiddled with the timeline and chapters a lot, placing certain chapters before others for effect. I love the power writers have over the reader.
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@Tim - You definitely made the right call with that structure. It must have been a little intimidating to executing, but it is definitely a much more powerful story because of it.
ReplyDelete@Yvonne - It's hard to surprise yourself, I think. :)
@Misha - Thanks, I'm still completely undecided! lol
@Clarissa - This is the first time I can think of where I had content that I felt this free to scramble. It's definitely an intriguing experience!
I haven't run into this at all- but I might one of these days. :) Its pretty amazing when you learn something new you can do.
ReplyDeleteI've met up with that sort of situation in my reading, and in my writing. I find it interesting, changing and adjusting scenes and then looking at the bigger picture.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I've seen it in my reading, although I can't think of a good example at the moment, and in my writing. Where to end it? In what order? I often have a picture in my head of where I want a story or a book to end, but sometimes those little nuances are daunting. One little change, and the whole story seems different.
ReplyDeleteMy first novel - a womens fiction - ends with the MC accidental overdose. This comes AFTER there is a somewhat happy ending - she get her kids back and life looks as though she will survive her family crisis.
ReplyDeletewhile neither ending is anywhere near happy, it leaves the reader with hope. The O/D leaves the reader worrying.
I'm stubbornly sticking to the worrying ending. It suits the character, and the culture I'm writing about. The feedback I get is two fold - those who understand the culture like it, those who have never had this type adversity want a happy ending.
I understand where you're coming from on this "ending" issue. It is powerful to change an entire perspective in that way.
I read a Patricial Corwell crime novel - can't remember the novel title. But it integrated a lot of the family issues I write about. The book was going along fine, some things I didn't like, but whatever it was well written. Then the last chapter happened, and it was so incomplete and unsatisfactory I couldn't say one thing I liked about the novel. Its a rare event for me not to read a book at least twice - cover to cover - before I decide I didn't like it.
The sad thing is, I've never picked up another of her novels to know if her writing is typically this way, or if it was just the one novel. I know, shame on me.
A writers quandary, for sure.
.........dhole
@Summer - Yes! That's one of the things that's great about creative endeavors. There's no end to the learning opportunities.
ReplyDelete@G'Eagle - It's great, isn't it? It's like playing with tinker toys. Um. Did they still have tinker toys when you were a kid?
@Tyrean - It's definitely a double-edged sword. lol
@Donna - I'll have to try thinking about it way rather than in terms of just story. Which is more faithful to and respectful of the character? Which is the ending they deserve and that does them justice?
As for Patricia Cornwell, I had a similar experience with the one novel of hers I picked up. I felt like the ending was incomplete, but I also felt like various other parts of the book were built on a lot of assumptions of reader investment in characters from previous books and so that the whole thing seemed incomplete. As a forensics person, I was disappointed.
I'll give a try starting with her first sometime and see if it makes a difference. It might well.
Structure. I have this HUGE, HUGE problem with my next novel, The Breakaway. And Monarch had this issue as well.
ReplyDeleteStructure is a huge thing to consider and I hope you get it figured out the way you want to for you book because I know what a stressful thing it can be and how much of a difference it makes for a story. If you need to chat over stuff let me know. :)
@Michelle - Yah, I was seriously hoping that my structural stress was behind me when I finally figured out how to manage the shifting 1st person POV's and integreate the multiple timelines, and all that. To then come to the end and realize I have another, in some ways more essential structural decision to make... EGADS IT'S MORE THAN I CAN TAKE lol
ReplyDeleteAt least, it feels that way at moments. :)
And, yeah, next time we're actually able to connect, I definitely wanna run through this one a bit with you.
Yeah, I've been super busy, sorry. Right now I'm just trying to catch up with blogs I've marked to read for the past week. Thank heavens there's not very many. I have to be very selective these days, which is very sad.
ReplyDeleteOh, no worries at all! I definitely understand, and fully support your priorities! :)
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