Using the panel discussions of the most
recent World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, August 2015, I will jump
off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION
given in the pdf copy of the Program Guide. This is event #3678.
The link is provided below…
Narrative
Structure and Expectation
How do we enter
stories? By what techniques do narratives pull us in? How do the expectations
we have influence how we respond? I’ll break down some narrative techniques
used in openings, and then go on to discuss how openings that match expectations
can encourage us to keep reading while expectations that aren’t fulfilled can
sometimes cause us to stop reading. How big a part does familiarity play in how
well we can understand and adjust to a story? Finally, how do the things that
we think we know but may be wrong about (as in history) make it easier or
harder to be drawn into a book if our beliefs aren’t met? Kate Elliott
Author of plenty
of books – though they all appear to be fantasy, which most of you know isn’t
one of my favorite genres (I HAVE read the requisite classics by Lewis,
Tolkien, LeGuin, Brooks, Card, Donaldson, Stroud, Clarke, Bull, Wynne Jones, and
Nix) – it’s clear that Elliot must have a
clear grasp of writing technique. In fact, looking at the questions above, I
can’t imagine that she would have been able to cover more than ONE of them in
the time apparently allotted for the session.
In another fact,
I don’t know if you could ever definitively answer these…
As I’m
approaching the end of the Sasquan Program Book, I think I’ll stretch it out a
bit and jump off from each one of the questions posed by the programmers and
look at what it means to me and possibly how I would answer it.
So: How do we
enter stories?
First and
foremost, my initial response is “voluntarily”.
That being
baldly stated, I suddenly realized that this isn’t entirely true. Take Susanna
Clarke’s master work JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL for example. I’d never
have read it on my own. Working at Barnes & Noble, I’d seen it numerous,
sold a few copies – and was totally unimpressed by the bland cover and sheer
weight of the thing. Clearly, it would be no fast read and would require an
investment of time I rarely gave to ANY book, let alone a fantasy novel by an
author I’d never hear of.
My daughter gave
it to me to read because she’d fallen in love with it.
So I read it and
quite involuntarily, I entered the story. The same thing happened when I picked
up Stephen R. Donaldson’s first book, LORD FOUL’S BANE. Of course, the impetus
there was to avoid studying for finals at Moorhead State University…
At any rate,
both books drew me into their worlds and I read them to the end with complete
satisfaction.
Be that as it
may, HOW did I enter these stories?
How about “by
reading the first sentence”?
“She came out of
the store just in time to see her young son playing on the sidewalk directly in
the path of the gray, gaunt man who strode down the center of the walk like a
mechanical derelict.” – Chapter 1, LORD FOUL’S BANE
“It is January
and I am arriving at an English country house in Yorkshire./Some years ago there
was in the city of York a society of magicians.” Preface/Chapter 1, JONATHAN
STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL
The first must
have drawn me into the story by itself (though the impetus of my avoidance
reaction to undergraduate finals was hard at work!) – the second, because I
love my daughter and wanted to please her, I allowed myself to be drawn into
the story.
But HOW?
The more I think
about it, the more I think it’s more complicated than having an intriguing
first sentence. Intent and external forces also have something to do with a
reader’s response to a book. Even so, the first sentence of Donaldson’s book
has some key points. The first is normalcy overlain by strangeness.
Actually, the
dual sentences of Clarke’s books do the same thing: normalcy overlain by
strangeness.
Let’s see if
this works with my favorite science fiction books.
“The last
gleaming sliver of Komarr’s true-sun melted out of sight beyond the low hills
on the western horizon.” Chapter 1, KOMARR
“Streaker is
limping like a dog on three legs./Fins had been making wisecracks about humans
for thousands of years.” Prologue/Chapter 1, STARTIDE RISING
Strangely
enough, it does.
In fact,
STARTLINGLY comparable…
Takeaway:
- Intent and external forces affect whether or not you enter a story.
- Juxtaposition of “normal” and “strange” in the first sentence(s) work to usher us into stories.
Whew. THAT was
unexpected. Your thoughts?
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