I am writing my second book and I have been advised to not get lost in the concept of a story, at the expense of the characters. So I’m trying to focus on character development and a simple, chronological plot in one location, in one historical period rather than five. As a reader, although I enjoy the challenge of a novel that has multiple main characters who are pulled together as the story progresses, I have not read one such story with ease or without a jarring as the story shifts gears from one life to another. I usually find myself preferring some characters and skimming the ones I’m less interested in. But I still really like that notion of parallel lives across time and space.
So, now I am free from the complexity of concept, I have more time to explore the complexity of character and get to know them better which will hopefully bring them to life. I’ve got a long way to go. I’m only on page fifty but it is so much fun.
It got me thinking about what makes a story easy to love and lovely to live with for a little while. It seems there is a natural rhythm to storytelling, a kind of musicality. When I am immersed in a story or part of a book that has me wrapped in its pages, it feels like being carried along by a wave, or by a musical composition which soars and dips and lingers. I would like to create a narrative that only requires the reader to rest their eyes upon the words lightly in order to absorb their meaning. I think if I can do that, then maybe I’ll have done something good.
As I was thinking this, I googled the rhythm of storytelling and came across this funny, insightful video of Kurt Vonnegut talking about the Shapes of Stories. It’s really good.
Yasmin Ward 