VanderMeer's Wonderbook, Chapter Four: Narrative Design (Continued: Writing Challenge)
The writing challenge presented early on in the chapter is to plot a story that can't be described in the Freytag Pyramid. Essentially, this describes the movement of action from the start of the story through to the conclusion. If you are not familiar with it, the idea is that a story starts with exposition and context, then an inciting incident occurs, triggering the rising action. This leads to a climax, followed by the falling action, then the resolution and denouement. It is worth noting that the diagram shows the resolution as happening at a higher point than the opening. The descent of the falling action is not as long as that of the rising action.
Now to the exercise. So, I have this idea for a sort of ghost story set in a particular location. The story would involve a number of interconnected time periods. The "ghosts" come from some type of slippage between time in that place. So, essentially, the different characters from each time period experience the others as ghosts. The story is a loop, where the characters are each experiencing the same moments but out of step.
First, in telling this story, I don't want to separate the narratives from each other into sections. I want to tell them all at once, really, but I am not certain how to do that. Fortunately, I am more concerned about the structure here, which I think I can explain. Considering it as three main time periods, that interconnect, I am thinking that events from each time period will occur in the others, meaning that certain events will occur three times, but at different points in each time line.
What I mean is, let's say that in the first time line, a character sees a ghost(actually a character from a later time period) sitting someplace. The character decides to paint the ghost, the only way they can think to record what they are seeing. When this event occurs in the third narrative, they see a ghost painting a portrait. The events do not occur simultaneously in the two time lines, so the overall structure is like a spiral.
I also think that another layer is occurring as well, in which that painting is found by the character in the second story, who is inspired by it to write about the character, and the person in the third timeline is reading that fictional account, not realizing that they somehow inspired it in the past.
The essential narrative, then, goes through three linear stories, interlacing them, but not distorting their individual order. At the same time, events in each time period are repeated when the other characters experience those moments.
To make it simple, I will assume that the story only involves that one moment of time when they overlap. The setting is a house. In the first time period, a woman moves in. She is a painter who moved here for inspiration, but is not able to find it. When she sees the ghost, she does not paint it for an artistic reason, but merely to communicate. The act of creating that painting teaches her a different way to connect to her art, and she becomes inspired to create the work she is interested in. The painting itself, she keeps as a reminder, and it winds up in the attic.
The second timeline, a family moves in. The father is a writer and he is cleaning up the attic, which was once a studio for the painter, but has been abandoned in the interim. He discovers the painting and hangs it up. He becomes fascinated by certain weird aspects of it, and winds up writing a novel inspired by it.
The third story, a man moves in. He finds out that someone who owned the house was a well-known writer and buys his first novel, the one he wrote while living in the house. He has trouble connecting to the character, but keeps reading. At the end of his story, he is sitting in his office in the attic reading, and suddenly he sees the ghost of the woman painting him.
First, this version is drastically simplified and does not contain much of what I would want in the real story, but it is an exercise and a first step. Second, the plot here is not assembled yet. In order for the story to work, the three streams of time are all at once. Even so, I think that their need to be some more overlaps between the times. I am thinking that in the second time line, the father who finds the painting later sees the man himself, which is what inspires him to write the novel. I think he sees the guy in the future reading the book, and that is where the name comes from. As well, I think their would need to be some other overlaps of time to make it work, and, of course, it would need other elements as well.
I can't really do a full outline for this, honestly, but I do feel that the overall structure would by necessity be a spiral, with the repetitions happening in the different stories. As well, by interweaving the telling, the space between the three time periods would always be kept loose, as if they could bleed together at any point.
Now to the exercise. So, I have this idea for a sort of ghost story set in a particular location. The story would involve a number of interconnected time periods. The "ghosts" come from some type of slippage between time in that place. So, essentially, the different characters from each time period experience the others as ghosts. The story is a loop, where the characters are each experiencing the same moments but out of step.
First, in telling this story, I don't want to separate the narratives from each other into sections. I want to tell them all at once, really, but I am not certain how to do that. Fortunately, I am more concerned about the structure here, which I think I can explain. Considering it as three main time periods, that interconnect, I am thinking that events from each time period will occur in the others, meaning that certain events will occur three times, but at different points in each time line.
What I mean is, let's say that in the first time line, a character sees a ghost(actually a character from a later time period) sitting someplace. The character decides to paint the ghost, the only way they can think to record what they are seeing. When this event occurs in the third narrative, they see a ghost painting a portrait. The events do not occur simultaneously in the two time lines, so the overall structure is like a spiral.
I also think that another layer is occurring as well, in which that painting is found by the character in the second story, who is inspired by it to write about the character, and the person in the third timeline is reading that fictional account, not realizing that they somehow inspired it in the past.
The essential narrative, then, goes through three linear stories, interlacing them, but not distorting their individual order. At the same time, events in each time period are repeated when the other characters experience those moments.
To make it simple, I will assume that the story only involves that one moment of time when they overlap. The setting is a house. In the first time period, a woman moves in. She is a painter who moved here for inspiration, but is not able to find it. When she sees the ghost, she does not paint it for an artistic reason, but merely to communicate. The act of creating that painting teaches her a different way to connect to her art, and she becomes inspired to create the work she is interested in. The painting itself, she keeps as a reminder, and it winds up in the attic.
The second timeline, a family moves in. The father is a writer and he is cleaning up the attic, which was once a studio for the painter, but has been abandoned in the interim. He discovers the painting and hangs it up. He becomes fascinated by certain weird aspects of it, and winds up writing a novel inspired by it.
The third story, a man moves in. He finds out that someone who owned the house was a well-known writer and buys his first novel, the one he wrote while living in the house. He has trouble connecting to the character, but keeps reading. At the end of his story, he is sitting in his office in the attic reading, and suddenly he sees the ghost of the woman painting him.
First, this version is drastically simplified and does not contain much of what I would want in the real story, but it is an exercise and a first step. Second, the plot here is not assembled yet. In order for the story to work, the three streams of time are all at once. Even so, I think that their need to be some more overlaps between the times. I am thinking that in the second time line, the father who finds the painting later sees the man himself, which is what inspires him to write the novel. I think he sees the guy in the future reading the book, and that is where the name comes from. As well, I think their would need to be some other overlaps of time to make it work, and, of course, it would need other elements as well.
I can't really do a full outline for this, honestly, but I do feel that the overall structure would by necessity be a spiral, with the repetitions happening in the different stories. As well, by interweaving the telling, the space between the three time periods would always be kept loose, as if they could bleed together at any point.
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