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The Narrative Craft : Forum : The Story Form. Exercise 2


The Story Form. Exercise 2

15 Years Ago


From Janet Burroway’s book: Writing Fiction

“I have used the words “story” and “plot” interchangeably. The equation of the two terms is so common that they are often comfortably understood as synonyms. When an editor says, “This is not a story,” the implication is not that it lacks character, theme, setting, or even incident, but that it has no plot.

 

Yet there is a distinction frequently drawn between the two terms, a distinction that although simple in itself, gives rise to manifold subtleties in the craft of narrative and that also represents a vital decision that you as a writer must make: Where should your narrative begin?

 

A distinction is easily made. A story is a series of events recorded in their chronological order. A plot is a series of events deliberately arranged so as to reveal their dramatic, thematic, and emotional significance.

 

Here, for example, is a fairly standard story: A sober, industrious, and rather dull young man meets the woman of his dreams. She is beautiful, brilliant, passionate and compassionate; more wonderful still, she loves him. They plan to marry, and on the eve of their wedding his friends hive him a stag party in the course of which they tease him, ply him with liquor, and drag him off to a whorehouse for a last fling. There he stumbles into a cubicle. . .to find himself facing his bride-to-be.

 

Where does the story become interesting? Where does the plot begin?”

 

Does it begin with his ancestry coming over on the Mayflower or the day of his birth? Or, better yet does it begin with him facing his wife in the cubicle?

 

Start with the conflict and move forwards. Sometimes a story is better when it is started from the middle, where the conflict begins.

 

Exercise 2

Write three different takes on a scene. Each of these takes will focus on the scene starting from a different point. However, make the conflict the same in all of the scenes.

Start the scene at three different points. One, before the conflict happens. Two, with the start of the conflict. Three, after the conflict.