On Storytelling: Serials, Episodes, and Structure
This post came about after some thinking from a comment on No Man an Island. The link to that discussion is here. My thoughts on the subject seemed larger than a comment on a chapter there, so it’s here as one of my rants.
I really enjoy the online community of readers and writers, and the opportunity the Internet affords for discussion. Having comments on each chapter of my book, NMAI, has helped me to become a better writer. I think it has also made my book more accessible and enjoyable for the audience. I also take some pride in the fact that my most frequent commenters all seem very well read, and some of them are in fact writers themselves.
One of the commenters, Lethe Bashar, asked about whether I had every considered providing episode summaries, every few chapters, in order to be more accessible to new readers. He himself has done this on his online story. I think that it’s a great idea for an ongoing serial, or episodic story. Comic books and television shows have this quality, and often have captions or clips to summarize previous stories that are relevant to a current issue or episode. It lets new, casual viewers jump into the storyline that long-term viewers are already aware of.
For television shows, which can have lifetimes surpassing decades, it is necessary to be accessible in order to draw a large audience. Comic books have the same longevity. They can’t expect someone new to buy the first issue, or rent the first season. They have to give them a reason to be interested NOW. Online comics and serial novels can have the same thing: their characters have rich “lives” with multiple episodes, and new readers can enjoy new episodes without having to read all the history. And, the neat thing is that internet stories have archives, so you can always spend the time to catch up. You don’t have to go buy the first issue from twenty years ago at great cost, it’s freely available.
I respect that kind of storytelling. Smallville, X-files, ER, Superman, the X-men, whatever. I like ongoing stories that have interesting “right now” episodes that are complete and tell a short story, but also have underlying subplots, character development, and over time build a mini-mythology.
However, No Man an Island is not designed that way. Form and function are inextricably linked in any medium. Any story has a beginning, middle and end. A series stretches the middle, so that the meaning of the overall story plays out over a long period of time, as underlying themes. The episodes in between, however, are like short stories. They have their own beginning, middle, and end, and they have their own small meanings. These small pieces contribute to the overall meaning, but can also have a meaning of their own, and exist semi-independently.
There is nothing independent about the structure of NMAI. From the very first line, everything builds towards the final sentence. It constantly refers to itself, builds its own symbolism, and ties events in one time period to seeds planted in another. Chapters might be “out of order” regarding chronology, jumping from 1994 to 2001 to 3000 B.C. and then to 2015. But the meaning of the plot is going in order, the way it is meant to be understood, the emotions it is meant to evoke.
It’s part of the tradition of literature, stretching back to Aristotle’s Poetics, where he discusses the function of plays. He defines art, and its purpose. Art causes the audience to respond with feeling to the object on display, whether in painting, sculpture, literature or theatre or music. Tragedy’s function is to create a catharsis, taking the awful things of life and giving them structure and meaning, so that the audience might suffer with the characters, and then resolve the suffering and feel better.
No Man an Island is a journey for the audience, from one step to the next. They are being led to experience particular emotions, ideas and understandings. To some extent it is supposed to be a spiritual labryinth, in the meditative tradition. A place to let go and be lost in an experience, that leads you inwards to some central enlightenment, before leading you back out into the world. Chants do the same thing, like the Jewel in the Lotus, the rosary, or a Muslim’s five times of prayer a day. Structure leads our minds to a point of thoughtless understanding of the whole.
If you read only a part of NMAI you miss steps. Some chapters might indeed be interesting on their own, for their own sake. But you would miss out on the greater structure and meaning and emotion.
In other words, an episodic story is like a quilt, each piece has its own appearance, meaning and history. Together, they create a whole, but they also have a meaning when they are apart. But a complete story, like To Kill a Mockingbird or Hamlet, is like a painting. You aren’t going to understand it by examining the brushstrokes — you have to step back and see the whole thing. Then, the individual moments or brushstrokes can be appreciated for their technique and placement. But individually they mean nothing.
Episodic is definitely how I envision Superstition. In fact, I first envisioned it as an idea for a TV show, but decided that was fairly unrealistic, so I decided to try my hand at writing it this way. When I begin Book 2, I hope that readers will not have to have read Book 1. They’ll certainly be written independently. But I’ll also leave a thread or two from Book 1 that can be picked up in later stories and carried on.
AEOL, on the other hand, is much more a traditional novel. It has a plot, with a defined end. While I might write a sequel, it will be entirely dependent on the events in the first book. So I understand your view of NMAI.
Thanks Allan. I picture “Superstition” that way myself, like the old ongoing pulp detective characters. I like An Empire of Law a lot, but part of my enjoyment is that you’d done something very different from your previous story: it’s always nice to see a writer broaden themselves instead of repeating.
The horrible thing about NMAI for me is that it would be easy and tempting to restart as an episodic serial. Alex, Jay, Neal, Eve and the others could probably have a lot of stories, especially in the Lost Years before the Fallen Empire chapters, and during that time period as well, their adventures could be expanded.
It just has nothing to do with the story-arc of NMAI, which obviously now has more to do with Ethan. The beginning of the story left that up in the air a bit, but it’s not a secret anymore.
NMAI is an organic whole, not a series…
THIS is why it’s good that you published it as one book, not two!
Yeah, that was a pretty silly idea.
I am so glad that I helped to provoke this fruitful discussion. I think its important for a writer to raise these questions about form. Allan, you do a fine job pointing out the distinction between the two forms. I once read that a writer isn’t trying to “say something” so much as a writer is “letting something take form” (Northrope Frye). With your novel you obviously feel that this particular form is suited for your art. When I made that comment about the summaries, I suppose I didn’t take that into account: you have your own vision as I have mine. I like how you bring up “To kill a mocking bird” and “Hamlet”. If I were to read one act of Hamlet, could I get its power? No, of course not. I wonder now that you bring it up if I sacrifice any of that larger meaning you talk about for the episodic structure I have chosen? I suppose I’m influenced by a certain type of narrative, which follows the arc of one’s life and history and the characters in one’s life. For example, Proust and Svevo and Musil. But these are modernists. Their stories follow a long series of frames and underlying mythology but they still have a beginning, middle, and end. The only difference is the narrative is open. Closed narratives allow more control, and can create more specific effects. Open narratives I think are not only a journey for the reader, but the writer also. Closed narrative have a concentrated power. Open narratives are more diffuse, meandering, digressive. Neither one is better than the other. I tend to think the blog (which mimmicks the journal, or the diary) works better with an open narrative. While a closed narrative is best outlined by a set of chapters, with clear boundary lines. My guess is that maybe your narrative Alan is more open then you’re willing to admit. You use the word “experimental” in your subtitle. In addition, you use the blog form which suggests a continous narrative, with varying chapter lengths and various themes. But then again, I shouldn’t talk. I haven’t read the novel from beginning to end. I think it is a lot to ask of an online reader to read a novel from beginning to end. I say that with hesitation because you did just that for me–you read my novel from the beginning–although I only had a little over ten chapter written. I am still extremely grateful for that help you gave me. Perhaps I’m just putting off reading your novel from the beginning. I have this urge to just jump right into the story, without all the hard work that’s involved.
Lethe
I’m not Allan. Allan is a very good writer, but he writes “Superstition” and “An Empire of Law.” He graciously comments on my stuff a lot.
I’m Gavin, the author of “No Man an island” and I run this blog too. I “blogged” my complete novel in order to interact with readers. But the format of blogging is much more suited to ongoing, open narratives, like “Tales of MU” or “The Mutants.” Stories that can grow organically, and follow character’s lives.
Some stories, because they’re so open, allow you to jump in. You can pick up the flow and just go with it.
This story is not like that. It makes too many allusions to itself, builds moment upon moment. The ultimate meaning of the final chapters will be utterly incomprehensible without every single chapter that came before.
That’s the other thing about open, episodic stories: they don’t necessarily have to end. This story, however, has an inevitable and inescapable ending, and always did from the first page.
It’s supposed to be hard work. I put ten years into writing it, and being meticulous about every beat. I don’t expect the world to want it. I don’t expect a million readers. If all I ever have are the consistent 150-300 readers a day that I get, I will be happy, if I know that the story I worked so hard on meant something to them.
If I ever do a serial, it will certainly be more open-ended, with places for new readers to jump in. But that was never the intent when I started NMAI ten years ago.
Sorry Gavin. I said Allen because I think I saw his comment for a second before I wrote. Anyways Gavin, I’m glad we’ve sparked a connection, I hope I haven’t offended you. At this point I think all we can really do is continue to write. Whatever happens with the readers happens. That’s always been the challenge for me. To do the work and not have any expectations.
Don’t worry, I’m really hard to offend.
I write what I want to read, first and foremost. If other readers like it, so much the better.
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Lifelessness.