For the fourth installment of our writing tips series I wanted to highlight the importance of how we tell our stories. The How can range from simple formatting decisions to inventing entirely new mediums to publish our work. These techniques we use affect our readers' experience of our work. They allow us to create a meta-narrative beyond what is actually written. The meaning behind what we write can be completely altered by the way in which we write it, yet the How can be easily overlooked. We can fall into classic patterns, almost by accident, because those patterns make up the stories we've read all our lives. However, if we're cognizant of how we write, we can open an entirely new plane of imagination in which our stories can run wild. Here are just a few questions to consider when you sit down to write:
Who is telling your story?
There's an unnatural force that haunts our library. An intangible being that has somehow ferreted out our deepest thoughts and desires. An insatiable gossip, always eager to divulge a secret. I'm talking of course about the all-knowing yet unknowable, third-person, omniscient narrator. When we sit down to write, there's a certain comfort in letting him take the wheel. We've been familiar with him for as long as we've been reading books. We're confident in his ability to tell a story. He's a good friend, but he's not a necessity. What would happen if you injected the narrator into the story itself, and gave him his own motivations and secrets to hide. An unreliable narrator puts the reader at odds with the character they intrinsically trust the most and allows you, the author, to become an illusionist as you hide the real story behind smoke and mirrors. After all, what's the fun in always knowing everything?
Better yet, do away with the narrator altogether. Experiment with epistolary novels and let a series of documents tell the story for you. This writing form dates back centuries, though the most recognizable incarnation of it is undoubtedly Bram Stoker's Dracula. The book itself is comprised of journal entries, letters, telegrams, and a multitude of other mediums from the late nineteenth century. However, more modern epistolary novels abound, with more contemporary documents as well. In Hotels of North America Rick Moody spins a tale through a collection of hotel reviews posted on a fictitious travel site.
How does your story employ whitespace?
All too often writers devote the entirety of their attention to the words they put on the page. When this happens, we find ourselves defaulting to the grammar rules with learned in fifth grade. A single space after every sentence. A new paragraph every time a different character speaks. A single page break at the start of a new chapter. This creates a very comfortable structure that the reader can ignore. What would happen if instead they were forced to literally read between the lines? The use of whitespace alters how the reader scans the page. It can create emphasis on certain phrases. Great expanses of it create a passage of time for both your characters and your audience. Sometimes the most impactful moments in a book occur when nothing is said at all.
How will you publish your story?
Why do people want to write books? I have this theory: people want to write books because they've only ever read books. It's a familiar medium. We take all the important plot points of a story, arrange them in chronological order on a page, and publish it as a single document. There's nothing wrong with that, but it would be absurd to think that's the only way a story could be told. Visual Novels have been establishing their presence in the video game world for nearly three decades. Some even skin themselves to look like other applications to evoke memories from the player. Kyle Seeley modeled the UI for Emily is Away after the AOL Instant Messenger client to remind us old timers of the days of online interaction before social media. Other authors try to go even further to immerse readers in their literary experience. Mathias Svalina writes dreams for a few dozen Denver residents and hand delivers them to their doorstep. My own story, Much Love, delivers itself as emails to a reader's inbox automatically over the course of a year to force them to digest the story as an actual series of events. All of these are products of wonderful imaginations and an eagerness to engage readers in brand new ways.
Now for a bit of shameless self-promotion. Above all, this is the mission of asdf Publishing. We want readers to experience literature in ways no one has ever imagined. If you have an idea that you would like to bring to life, reach out to us on our Contact page.