Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Structure - Beginning, Middle and End. Is that all to it?

Take any text book on creative writing. They talk about beginning, middle and end. Are there any other way a story could be laid out?

I think yes. As our tastes evolve and change newer structures might come in existence. But it is doubtful whether they will become the mainstream. However there will always be few examples of stories that do not fit in the beginning, middle, end paradigm. In fact, because they don't fit in that paradigm they become famous. But as I said they will be in minority.

Below are some examples I have come across.

Two or three parallel threads in a story - This is a popular structure in movies, at least. Babel, amerros perros (both from same director) exploit this structure. In general, these threads do have some connection. Needless to say, the connection must not be contrived. In stories, you can see this idea being exploited in The other side of midnight by Sydney sheldon. I think Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer also exploits this.

Series of Notes (emails): I dont remember any particular story name. But I have come across many short stories that are written as just series of emails to each other or as notes to self.

Going back in time: This technique completely inverts the causality. It tells the climax first and then goes back in time constructing the reason(s) for the eventual end.

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