Everybody has a narrative. In Jerusalem the Christians have a narrative, the Jews have another, and the Muslims have their own. One city, sacred to all, same spot, same place, but three different stories.
A child raiding the cookie jar has a narrative that may not coincide with his mother's. Today the Greeks have a narrative for their government's failure and the European Union has another. BP sees their misguided oil mess in one way and those dependent on the gulf fishing industry have another story to tell. The murder victim has one narrative and the murderer another.
Many narratives coincide like intersecting lines in a geometry problem; others move like parallel lines. It is the intersecting points that interest writers. That is when the converging narratives make the plot begin, twist or climax.
And so a good writer examines the several narratives with which he or she has decided to work,ie., the narratives of characters A, B, C, D, E... and then considers the explosive situations that might occur if, how, and when those narratives intersected, thereby hooking the reader and keep him or her turning the pages until "the end."
Friday, June 4, 2010
Narratives
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What a neat approach! And considering those different narratives helps make sure we get at everybody's motivation.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's those explosions that make for the most fun -- both reading and writing. I look for ways to create lots of small explosions and few big booms!
ReplyDeleteThere has to be some explosions, intersections, or conflict to build a story.
ReplyDeleteThanks for making me look at writing in a different way.I never considered thinking about it like this. The line about the mother and child and the cookie jar made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteit's interesting to think of storylines, conflict, and plot in these mathematical terms. I'd alway thought of music that way but not writing. Good food for thought.
ReplyDeleteLove the suggestion of the geometry of writing and the intersecting of different narratives and plot lines. I agree- the mathematical equations of the writing process are fascinating.
ReplyDeleteEileen
A really intersting way to view the backbone of story. Thanks.
ReplyDelete