I was watching a video about the correct way to structure a story.\u00a0 And the guy had eight or ten different versions that people have formulated over the years.\u00a0 And they go from a three-act model to a (I kid you not) twenty-seven stage version.\u00a0 The latter is based on the hero\u2019s quest model that Joseph Campbell formulated based on what he observed in various western myths and legends.<\/p>\n
From what I could tell, more is better.\u00a0 He had the three-act version down as the worst version.\u00a0 Now he did qualify that it was probably a good model for a movie or a short story but for a novel it was too slight.\u00a0 For the most part they all seemed to be variations on a theme.\u00a0 Basically, you have a series of setbacks and victories leading up to a climax and then a conclusion.<\/p>\n
I guess that\u2019s probably more or less what a story is.\u00a0 And there were some good ideas for what some of these setbacks should look like.\u00a0 In particular, the hero\u2019s quest had a bunch of stages that seemed to echo many of the incidents in such classic adventure stories as \u201cThe Lord of the Rings.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s the initial refusal to accept the quest, there\u2019s a temptation at a low point to renounce the struggle.\u00a0 We have a scene where a minor character saves the day.\u00a0 We might have a mentor helping the hero mature into his role.\u00a0 Maybe there\u2019s a betrayal.\u00a0 Etcetera, etcetera.<\/p>\n
In his defense the video guy did say that a good writer wouldn\u2019t have to follow any of these models slavishly.\u00a0 Like a good cook he can use his own judgement and add and subtract things from this recipe according to personal taste.\u00a0 And I think that\u2019s the point.\u00a0 Really there is no perfect recipe.\u00a0 Every story should be different.\u00a0 If it\u2019s not, why would anyone want to read the second one?\u00a0 Why would someone want to write a second story that\u2019s exactly the same as the first one?\u00a0 That\u2019s a rhetorical question.\u00a0 The obvious answer is that if people liked it the first time, many of them will want more of the same.\u00a0 So, the answer is money.\u00a0 But I hope that anyone who is writing a series can plot out the events for the saga with enough intelligence to make the story varied and interesting and not repeat all the same events with only small variations.<\/p>\n
I will confess that when I was getting close to the end of my book, I was tempted to make the story quite a bit longer.\u00a0 I thought the ending was a bit abrupt and there wasn\u2019t a more gradual slope to the end of the story.\u00a0 But the more I thought about it the less I liked the idea of dragging it out.\u00a0 My character had gone to war for revenge.\u00a0 When that was done his part of the history was effectively over.\u00a0 What came afterward would be another story and I still haven\u2019t decided what the next thread I want to pull on in my make-believe world should be.\u00a0 So hopefully I\u2019ll have the sense to read Joseph Campbell\u2019s book and then do the opposite!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was watching a video about the correct way to structure a story.\u00a0 And the guy had eight or ten different versions that people have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,2510,1289,1263,237,4,242],"tags":[76,1290],"class_list":["post-35894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-literature","category-fiction-by-me","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-fiction-writing","tag-my-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\n