VanderMeer's Wonderbook, Chapter 2: The Ecosystem Of Story (continued)
Chapter two begins by introducing the idea of viewing a story as a living creature, a concept that I am certainly on-board for, though I am not certain that the book does a good job so far of getting towards what that means. I want to set that aside, for now, though and go further on into the chapter.
The discussion continues by discussing how one can study stories, and recognizes that, while dissecting is necessary and instructive, so to is observing stories in the wild (by reading them, seems to be implied). It is impossible to see the whole of how a story works by looking at any one piece, just as one cannot understand a bear as a whole creature merely by studying it's circulatory system. One needs to be able to look at the living creature as well as to understand the constituent parts. However, the book points out, it is impossible to begin without looking at those components, and acknowledges that, in order to provide a foundation, many of these concepts have to be simplified to stabilize them in their isolation. These elements must be seen and recognized by a writer, but looking at the element alone requires that one look at a reduced and restricted version.
A moment is taken to discuss forms of narrative, such as novels, novellas, and, of course, short stories. Alongside of the descriptions of these three units is a series of images of these story creatures. The Novel is a large beast, while the story is smaller. Along with those are other sizes, like novlettes and flash fiction, but for some reason the illustration also includes a small creature entitled "poem". Now, I am not denying that their is a connection between poetry and fiction, but the implication that poems are really short pieces of fiction, and that they are essentially the same art, is rather upsetting to me. It would be as if an illustration of schools of painting had sculpture depicted as on of the schools. Certainly, their is a lot of overlap between the two disciplines, in terms of form, technique, intention, even material, but it is absurd to suggest a relationship in which the one art is seen only as a smaller subset of the other art. Fiction and poetry are vastly different media and the processes of writing required are very different, and I find it rather unsettling to deny that distinction. It is, however, not a point that is labored in the text, and so I will merely assume it is a quirk of the illustration and I am just being overly analytical.
Next, we move into "The Elements". These are characterization, POV, setting, events/situations, dialogue, description and style, though it is admitted that this last may be classified by some as "one of the lesser mysteries". After an initial introduction, we dive more closely into each of these.
POV is used as an opportunity to look at the various narrative voices that are available. The discussion is largely focused upon how a shift in voice can create change in a story, and how even just the choice of what pronoun will address the protagonist can make or break a story, even in the act of writing it. Their is also a bit of a nod towards the importance of realizing that you have to be telling the story from that person's perspective, not merely in the sense of what they literally see, but in how they would relay the story. It is advised that changing the perspective of a narrator can be a good way to find entry when a story seems to be floundering, and that POV shouldn't be considered the same as a camera perspective in film. The narrator is, in many ways, a far richer viewpoint than a camera, for the narrator has every sense to work with, and has far finer control over the details that the reader will receive. A camera can capture more, probably, in those details of an image, and thinking of the narrative POV in that way is a disservice, as one must realize that the narrator is not showing a thing that it saw, but instead conjuring up the experience. The camera selects from what is real, the narrator impels the reader to imagine those elements that they wish to be seen. While one can create the experience, for the reader, of a camera-like view through the narration, the nature of what is being done is still vastly different. The narrator is not capturing the world of the story, in the sense that the camera does, not only because to capture the world in words is a different thing than doing so with a photograph, but also because, in fiction, their is no real event being captured: the story's reality is inside the narration.
Moving forwards into dialogue, a discussion ensues of the uses for dialogue. It is pointed out, of course, that much of the point in making your characters converse is to give the reader a scene. Dialogue is easily seen and heard in the mind, and it requires thinking of the characters as physical beings. This is implied, of course, but if one is talking, it presupposes the existence of some form of physical body, in general. It is also an opportunity to break voice and shift out of the narrators perspective. If you have a first person story and that character talks to someone, that other voice can serve as a counter-balance to the POV. I also think it is useful to have a POV character who speaks in one style and thinks in another, as long as it can be done in a way that is consistent, but imagine reading a story about a young guy out of college on his first job. In the narration, his voice uses simple language and straightforwards description, but his dialogue is filled with big words and fancy sentence construction. That discrepancy gives insight into the characters thinking that is not overt in the text itself. The implication: that he is trying to show his intelligence; that he doesn't feel entirely at ease or confident with these people; that he is pretending in some way to be somebody different. Their are many, of course, more overt uses for dialogue, in terms of moving forwards the plot and relaying information to the reader, but in my mind, the practical uses are the easy part. It is not difficult to realize what content needs to be shared to tell a particular story, just as it can be easy to realize what two characters are likely to talk about, in a general sense. If your protagonist goes to the library and encounters the librarian, in most cases, the conversation will concern finding a book. Now, this is not to say that you can't go in a different direction, and I would rather read a story where the conversation is not what I expect, but the point is that the content layer is only a part of the whole in terms of their dialogue.
The discussion brings up a number of points about the ways one can go wrong with dialogue, and discusses the import of keeping things balanced. All dialogue stories exist and can work, but they need to be aware of the other elements, and incorporate them through the characters' speech. As well, it should be noted that one can create affecting stories that have no direct dialogue. The question is about the balance, and that is a question that must be contextualized to the story itself, not answered for all fiction at once. I could imagine a story where it is all dialogue but for one line, or the opposite, where their is no dialogue except for one line. In both cases, that one line must be central, obviously, and they would need to be stories were this setup worked naturally. I mean, the balance would have to be that story's balance, the amount of dialogue would need to be serving a function that makes those choices right. This is a far more conspicuous extreme than is likely to be encountered in writing any particular story, but the need to recognize how much dialogue is useful, and which to include, is important. A character can easily be repeating information, or going on and on in a way that does not further the story and it's aims any longer. At times, it may be more useful to summarize what was said in description, while at others, a long conversation can have significance.
The chapter continues breaking down these various elements, and it had been my intent to go through more of them this morning, but I think I am going to come back later to work on this. I am also getting stuff ready for the exercise in the chapter, which involves collaging work together from other writers, though I think that may not be completed until tomorrow. All that (and more) as chapter two continues...
The discussion continues by discussing how one can study stories, and recognizes that, while dissecting is necessary and instructive, so to is observing stories in the wild (by reading them, seems to be implied). It is impossible to see the whole of how a story works by looking at any one piece, just as one cannot understand a bear as a whole creature merely by studying it's circulatory system. One needs to be able to look at the living creature as well as to understand the constituent parts. However, the book points out, it is impossible to begin without looking at those components, and acknowledges that, in order to provide a foundation, many of these concepts have to be simplified to stabilize them in their isolation. These elements must be seen and recognized by a writer, but looking at the element alone requires that one look at a reduced and restricted version.
A moment is taken to discuss forms of narrative, such as novels, novellas, and, of course, short stories. Alongside of the descriptions of these three units is a series of images of these story creatures. The Novel is a large beast, while the story is smaller. Along with those are other sizes, like novlettes and flash fiction, but for some reason the illustration also includes a small creature entitled "poem". Now, I am not denying that their is a connection between poetry and fiction, but the implication that poems are really short pieces of fiction, and that they are essentially the same art, is rather upsetting to me. It would be as if an illustration of schools of painting had sculpture depicted as on of the schools. Certainly, their is a lot of overlap between the two disciplines, in terms of form, technique, intention, even material, but it is absurd to suggest a relationship in which the one art is seen only as a smaller subset of the other art. Fiction and poetry are vastly different media and the processes of writing required are very different, and I find it rather unsettling to deny that distinction. It is, however, not a point that is labored in the text, and so I will merely assume it is a quirk of the illustration and I am just being overly analytical.
Next, we move into "The Elements". These are characterization, POV, setting, events/situations, dialogue, description and style, though it is admitted that this last may be classified by some as "one of the lesser mysteries". After an initial introduction, we dive more closely into each of these.
POV is used as an opportunity to look at the various narrative voices that are available. The discussion is largely focused upon how a shift in voice can create change in a story, and how even just the choice of what pronoun will address the protagonist can make or break a story, even in the act of writing it. Their is also a bit of a nod towards the importance of realizing that you have to be telling the story from that person's perspective, not merely in the sense of what they literally see, but in how they would relay the story. It is advised that changing the perspective of a narrator can be a good way to find entry when a story seems to be floundering, and that POV shouldn't be considered the same as a camera perspective in film. The narrator is, in many ways, a far richer viewpoint than a camera, for the narrator has every sense to work with, and has far finer control over the details that the reader will receive. A camera can capture more, probably, in those details of an image, and thinking of the narrative POV in that way is a disservice, as one must realize that the narrator is not showing a thing that it saw, but instead conjuring up the experience. The camera selects from what is real, the narrator impels the reader to imagine those elements that they wish to be seen. While one can create the experience, for the reader, of a camera-like view through the narration, the nature of what is being done is still vastly different. The narrator is not capturing the world of the story, in the sense that the camera does, not only because to capture the world in words is a different thing than doing so with a photograph, but also because, in fiction, their is no real event being captured: the story's reality is inside the narration.
Moving forwards into dialogue, a discussion ensues of the uses for dialogue. It is pointed out, of course, that much of the point in making your characters converse is to give the reader a scene. Dialogue is easily seen and heard in the mind, and it requires thinking of the characters as physical beings. This is implied, of course, but if one is talking, it presupposes the existence of some form of physical body, in general. It is also an opportunity to break voice and shift out of the narrators perspective. If you have a first person story and that character talks to someone, that other voice can serve as a counter-balance to the POV. I also think it is useful to have a POV character who speaks in one style and thinks in another, as long as it can be done in a way that is consistent, but imagine reading a story about a young guy out of college on his first job. In the narration, his voice uses simple language and straightforwards description, but his dialogue is filled with big words and fancy sentence construction. That discrepancy gives insight into the characters thinking that is not overt in the text itself. The implication: that he is trying to show his intelligence; that he doesn't feel entirely at ease or confident with these people; that he is pretending in some way to be somebody different. Their are many, of course, more overt uses for dialogue, in terms of moving forwards the plot and relaying information to the reader, but in my mind, the practical uses are the easy part. It is not difficult to realize what content needs to be shared to tell a particular story, just as it can be easy to realize what two characters are likely to talk about, in a general sense. If your protagonist goes to the library and encounters the librarian, in most cases, the conversation will concern finding a book. Now, this is not to say that you can't go in a different direction, and I would rather read a story where the conversation is not what I expect, but the point is that the content layer is only a part of the whole in terms of their dialogue.
The discussion brings up a number of points about the ways one can go wrong with dialogue, and discusses the import of keeping things balanced. All dialogue stories exist and can work, but they need to be aware of the other elements, and incorporate them through the characters' speech. As well, it should be noted that one can create affecting stories that have no direct dialogue. The question is about the balance, and that is a question that must be contextualized to the story itself, not answered for all fiction at once. I could imagine a story where it is all dialogue but for one line, or the opposite, where their is no dialogue except for one line. In both cases, that one line must be central, obviously, and they would need to be stories were this setup worked naturally. I mean, the balance would have to be that story's balance, the amount of dialogue would need to be serving a function that makes those choices right. This is a far more conspicuous extreme than is likely to be encountered in writing any particular story, but the need to recognize how much dialogue is useful, and which to include, is important. A character can easily be repeating information, or going on and on in a way that does not further the story and it's aims any longer. At times, it may be more useful to summarize what was said in description, while at others, a long conversation can have significance.
The chapter continues breaking down these various elements, and it had been my intent to go through more of them this morning, but I think I am going to come back later to work on this. I am also getting stuff ready for the exercise in the chapter, which involves collaging work together from other writers, though I think that may not be completed until tomorrow. All that (and more) as chapter two continues...
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