You may have come across the much-quoted advice by Frank Herbert:
The single most important piece of advice I ever got was to concentrate on story.
Great advice, you might think. But what does he mean by that?
Good thing Herbert goes on from there to ask ‘What is “story”?’ His definitive answer:
It’s the thing that keeps the reader following the narrative.
Ah!
Is that clear to you? Because it wasn’t to me - not at first reading.
Perhaps you get it, or perhaps you’re asking, as I did on first reading, ‘Does he mean form? Or does he mean content?’ I read on …
A good story makes interesting things happen to a character with whom the reader can identify. And it keeps them happening so that the character progresses and grows in stature.
A writer’s job is to do whatever is necessary to make the reader want to read the next line. That’s what you’re supposed to be thinking about when you’re writing a story.
I hold Herbert’s writing in high esteem - but don’t you think he could have done with a bit more clarity with regard to how ‘story’ (content) and ‘narrative’ (form) differ?
Herbert’s absolutely right. Concentrating on story is the single most important thing we can do as writers.
I find the easiest way of concentrating on story, however, isn’t to combine doing that with narrative writing. It’s to concentrate on story separately from narrative.
‘But you need both!’ I hear you exclaim.
Yes, of course we need both. And we can get even more specific.
On the one hand, there are the story lines that individual characters follow; on the other, there’s the story line the reader follows. The story lines that individual characters follow all map to story; the events in them unfold in chronological order. The story line the reader follows is the narrative story line. The way it unfolds depends on the way in which the writer tells the story, and what order they choose to put the events in.
Herbert’s advice came up in a recent newsletter from the Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity Blog which had the following in its caption:
‘Stories need to have a beginning, a middle and an end - although not necessarily in chronological order.’
Absolutely. Structure is important. Without those basic things, it would be very difficult to craft a narrative. The beginning of a story line may not be the beginning of the character’s life story, but it will mark a launching point in time and space from where that part of their story can develop meaningfully. Flashbacks, flash forwards, build-ups and releases of tension all combine to make a great narrative. Then, when the story is done, we’ll either be left with an open-ended conclusion, or we’ll be given closure. Cliffhanger, or satifsying end, each lead to a closing … but which it’ll be is up to the writer or storyteller.
In Dune, the story lines that Herbert’s characters follow are complex, intriguing. They have a natural flow to them which makes them evolve masterfully, full of contrast, intrigue, and what I refer to in my book, ‘Story and Structure’ as (⇌) steps, which I map to three forms of cognitive dissonance: tricks, surprises, and comic events.
So do yourself - and your writing - a favour. Do your job as a story spinner. Get the story right - at the level of individual characters’ story lines. Then do your job as a writer: get the narrative right - at the level of the reader’s story line. Use surprise, suspense, action, description, longing, emotion to shape the path that the narrative thread takes.
However you travel the journey, you’ll find it useful at some point to trace the structures that your characters’ story lines follow. I describe a neat way you can do this in my book, ‘Story and Structure’ which is out in Paperback on 1 November 2022.
You’ll find an excerpt on line on Reedsy Discovery here.
‘Story and Structure’ is shortlisted for The People’s Book Prize. Please vote for it here
https://peoplesbookprize.com/oct-2022/story-and-structure/
Thank you!