JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My writing for my college classes is thankfully over until next September, and, like the proverbial In spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, in May, a college instructor's fancy bemusedly turns to prepping other courses.
In my case, I'm working up another one of my creative writing seminars. I've done them on creating suspense, on using setting to strengthen your writing, and on developing characters. Now I'm turning to story structure.
Not, mind you, outlining techniques. I'll leave that to authors far more skilled at them than I. But I'm someone who has long been fascinated by structure - by acts and scaffolding and playing with chronology. One of the first things that led me to writing a mystery, when I was a very unfledged novice, was the fact crime fiction had, as it were, a skeleton already provided, something I could drape muscle and skin over.
And yes, the fact that was literally the metaphor that presented itself to me all those years ago probably indicates I was choosing the right genre.
Here's an example of how I worked on ONE WAS A SOLDIER, which had eight point of view characters (!) whose stories switched between the past and the present.
I was very pleased with the book, and glad I was so creatively ambitious, but I do have to point out this was where I fell off the book-a-year cycle - this was published three years after the previous novel - and so far I haven't gotten back on that horse. Maybe simpler is better?
This is a fascinating look at screenwriter/director Christopher Nolan's process, which I can across while researching. I encourage anyone interested in structure to click through and read the whole thread, which also includes other examples of mapped story.
The amazing Jennifer Crusie, who is one of my writing goddesses, uses a story-creating technique so far from my comfort zone I wouldn't even know how to begin: she makes collages.
And here's what I'm trying out for my current work-in-progress, a combination of Jessica Ellicott's Post-It note plotting on the framework of a classical four-act structure.
Also, I really need to scrub off that door to my office. Usually the only person who sees that side is me.
Do you notice story structure, dear readers? Or does it get lost in the flow of a good book? And if you're a writer, what scaffolding techniques do you use?
