Ruth Schiffmann is a graduate of The Institute of Children’s Literature.  She lives with her husband and two daughters on Cape Cod, where she is a stay at home, homeschooling mom.  Her stories and articles for children, teens, and adults have been published both in print and online.   

 

 

Circles, Lines, and Other Story Forms

Borrowed from Tenth Grade Geometry

 

By

 

Ruth Schiffmann

 

Some people don’t get Novocain when they have their cavities filled. Some people dust their ceiling fans on a regular basis, (or so I’ve heard.) Some people outline their writing projects before they start writing. I’m not one of them. If I had a plan for my writing it would look a lot like a scribble. Multi-colored. In crayon. But I can still appreciate a good plan. I like looking at the big picture of a story after I’ve read it to see if I can identify the structure system that holds it all together. Who knows, by continual immersion, I may absorb enough of it to use when creating my own stories someday. When it comes to drafting stories, how does your writing shape up?

 

A story structure can take many forms. Even if you don’t know what yours will look like when you put down the first words on paper, eventually its shape will emerge. Following are several structures that have provided strong skeletal systems on which writers have been hanging their words for years:

 

The spiral heading inward: An example in popular literature of a spiral heading inward is Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett. It starts with a cast of many and draws the reader into an ever-narrowing circle of intimacy until we reach the true heart of the story amidst a small handful of characters.

 

The spiral heading outward:  Interestingly, in her next novel, Run, Patchett shapes her story as a spiral heading outward. At the start, the focus is on a small cast of characters, but as we get to know them and watch their stories unwind, the spiral grows larger and larger in scope.

 

Intersecting Lines:  In these stories, characters have separate lives, circumstances and plot lines until the writer brings their two worlds together in one or more intersecting plot lines. In their wildly popular Left Behind Series, authors Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim Lahaye utilize this structure effectively with multiple storylines that spin in their own orbits, sometimes for entire books, before converging.

Circular. A rewarding storyline to write or read is a circular story, where the end brings you back to the beginning, giving the reader a sense of completion. No loose ends hanging, no questions left unanswered, no wondering “what did the author mean by leaving us here?” We’re back where we started and the familiarity is comforting.

 

Linear: These stories are like a hard uphill climb, with characters experiencing setbacks, diversions, and detours before reaching the summit and conclusion. In these stories, you know what kind of journey it’s going to be. The author’s intentions for her characters are laid bare at the outset. The interest lies in discovering what obstacles will be thrown in his or her way to make the outcome uncertain. In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice the first few lines tell us that this is a story about a mother marrying off her daughters. It loses none of the interest in the knowing.

 

Target: Some genre stories utilize more of a target approach, where the ending is as obvious as a bull’s-eye. Consider most romance novels: hero and heroine are introduced; clearly they belong together. Obstacles are presented to make this impossible. Physical and/or emotional trials ensue. Character(s) make sacrifices and/or changes that prove their love and make their future together possible. No matter how predictable the journey and the final destination, authors like Danielle Steele have proven that it’s possible to make it an entertaining ride nonetheless.

 

Whether your words circle in dizzying curlicues or fall together with perfect symmetry, you will discover how to form story shapes that support your characters and plots. It doesn’t matter if you choose the shape or the shape chooses you, follow your words; they’ll never lead you astray.