Remember in Spring when I did a twelve-week Open University course titled Start Writing Fiction? I promised back then to summarise the five "blocks", or units, for you all, but I only wrote the first of five blog posts. I'm going back to writing these summaries, particularly because I want to read through my notes; paraphrasing them for you will help me to consolidate what I've learnt. However, these posts aren't going to be in order. I'm skipping Block 2 for now and starting with Block 3: Plot, Narrative, and Time. Sorry if it's a bit disjointed, but there's loads to include and it's not all relevant to the other points I'm making.
The linger factor is when a book stays with you after you've finished with it. This can be achieved using suspense and intrigue: for example, adding pathetic fallacy (mood represented by the weather) to a scene, foreshadowing a future event, or adding an element of uncertainty. Be careful not to wait too long to reveal the truth, or part of it, to your readers; if you've signalled something out as being important then they need to hear about it again soon.
"Narrative is the vehicle by which you get your story from A to B."
One narrative method is stream of consciousness, which comes directly from the thoughts of the main character. It tends to lead to lengthy, thoughtful sentences and inner-monologues. One novel with a stream of consciousness format is 'A Catcher in the Rye'.
Time is all about causality: if A caused B then that needs to be shown, but the bit in the middle of these events can be missed out -- time shifts are your friend. The course recommends that you focus on "emotional constellations" rather than worrying about transitions between scenes. However, time also requires that you consider the past in relation to the present and use backstory to add motive or causation to the present storyline.
In medias res is a way of manipulating time to suit your purpose; it involves coming into the story in the middle of the action, without preamble or introduction. Shakespeare used this technique to open a lot of his plays.
"The wonderful thing about writing prose...you've got to put one word next to another -- it's a linear form and it does in a sense make your eye travel down a page, over a page, from a beginning to an end."
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