What Shape is your book?

Different structures for different purposes

When it comes to writing novels, I’m a bit of a plodder. I try to take my readers chronologically through the events of my story in a linear fashion (unless I have a prologue which is set outside the time frame of the novel – sometimes way in the future, sometimes deep in the past). The only other exception is the occasional flashback, perhaps to show how my characters are affected by events in their childhood. I might also have an epilogue which usually brings the reader up to or close to the present day. Apart from that, I start at the beginning and end at the end!

If I was to draw a diagram of the course of my narrative, it would look a bit like this:

However, I workshop with two writers who have much more interesting structures to their novels. Rather than their chapters following each other sequentially in time order through the story, they make associative links between events – these can be by motif, emotion, object, theme – whatever works really. The story moves forward, but in a digressive or non linear fashion. The structure might look a bit like this:

Rather than allow the story itself to determine the direction of flow, the novel progresses in terms of scenes that are linked in other ways. So a character might be experiencing a moment of grief or loss, and that experience takes her back to her childhood and the death of her mother – so in terms of time, the novel goes backwards but the story achieves momentum through linking themes. Another example might be a character using an object – let’s say he is using a knife to cut up an apple, but the sudden glint of sunlight on the blade causes a disturbing flashback to the murder of his mother, when as a child he witnessed his father wielding a knife.

It’s a complicated process, but it certainly makes for an interesting structure and the resultant prose can be highly satisfying in subliminal ways.

 Whether you are a linear writer like me, or an associative writer like my cleverer workshop friends, your brain will tell you how to build your scenes. It’s an interesting journey!