Glad to be traveling this road with you, Liz. This is a great post, by the way, with lots for me to think about in terms of story craft. The cycle is a common one -- returning where you began, with the almanac structure of the year or some other seasonal theme, such as planting and harvest. The article you cite is new to me, and I appreciate the different linear arcs it represents.
But here are a few more thoughts about story structure. I don't believe there are any gendered story forms. I'm of the Willa Cather school on this -- the form matters less than the heart of what fills it. Here's what her character Carl Linstrum says at the end of "O Pioneers!": "Isn't it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years."
I see this often with my clients. I have a method for mapping a book project that I believe will lead to a satisfying (and efficient) first draft. It follows some form of the traditional arc, but it requires everyone to answer the questions for themselves, about what the core conflict is and what the major turning points might be. That's harder than it seems, not because it requires anyone to contort themselves into someone's shape, IMO, but because it's hard to find the story that rings as true as those larks that keep singing the same five notes. Cather herself failed in her first attempt -- which is why she said that she had two "first" novels.
In that sense I might flip your title around -- it's not the shape of the story that matters, it's what breathes life into it. There are plenty of experimental forms that flop, too, because the author hasn't found a simple, true core. For instance, I have been hindered in my own memoir-in-progress because I felt that the core of that story was perpetually under attack. Now that I reclaimed my voice somewhat, and have a better sense of what the future holds, I feel more ready to listen for what that fatherhood story might be.
I think in this way, craft can't solve everything. Take a guitar, and three blues chords, and Howlin' Wolf is going to fill that simple form with a lot more power than a kid in a suburban basement (perhaps because the lived experience invented the form). The story and the song must ring true. Now I'd be curious about your thoughts on Cather's form in "O Pioneers!'? Cather liked to take inspiration from opera, too, from Wagner's Ring cycle, for instance.
Thank you for these thoughts—I’m just starting to think about craft and form and story. I agree that the form should serve the story and not the other way around—also that standard forms are powerful for a reason!
I’d have to revisit O Pioneers but that sounds like a nice activity for a foggy winter afternoon!
I am so looking forward to your writing on the topic of fatherhood.
And then there is the episodic, which Dorothy Parker said was unrealistic, at least as applied to humans: "It's not true that life is one damned thing after another. It's the same damned thing over and over!"
That’s the exact challenge I think—how to feel the same sense of satisfaction and purpose when you don’t connect to the idea that you are moving towards anything.
The concept of the cycle and its’ stages make sense, especially when I look back at 2023 and realized too was a year of destruction for me. Thanks for sharing the idea with us! Looking forward to reading more from you in 2024.
I saw your post on starting over and was worried that you were leaving Substack! I am glad to see that you are just entering a new cycle. And same--I enjoy your writing (and photographs) so much.
This made me think of John McPhee's ‘Structure’, (nominally published 11 years ago today https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/14/structure). I had a text-editor fixation at the time that it was published. I think the book-chapter version includes additional circle diagrams.
I was recently thinking that there should be more multi-linear narrative entertainment, with a canonical release order plus additional recommended paths (chronological, thematic, cyclic, character-chronological, reverse-chronological, …).
I have been fixated on the word “master” for a little over a year, so I think it might be interesting if you explored and/or deconstructed the concept of mastery further. I enjoyed your post on (re)vocation. Good luck selling your memoir and/or meeting deadlines — happy com-posting.
Oh, I love John McPhee and what a great reminder as I'm also trying to map out a book.
"The narrative wants to move from point to point through time, while topics that have arisen now and again across someone’s life cry out to be collected. They want to draw themselves together in a single body, in the way that salt does underground. "
You are inspiring me to get out Draft No. 4 again!
I'd love to hear what you are thinking about the term "mastery." It's certainly a word we use a lot in graduate education, but is beyond poorly defined.
In 2020 much of the tech world cut way back on the word “master”, because “master-slave” terminology had been used in a computer networking context.
I submitted a proposal to the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses last year suggesting that they similarly move away from the word “master” but they apparently did not find it convincing. I was influenced by https://www.eeblanguageproject.com/repository (which strongly polarized me against the phrases “Old World”/“New World”). I am still learning mildly interesting things about technical usage of the word, e.g. “master data” vs “reference data”. I have not read enough about what a “master equation” is to have an opinion on that phrase.
Some people consider the word to be strongly gendered. Etymologically it was connected to teaching (and thus skill) but now seems to be as at least as much about domination.
Irrespective of how much the word may or may not make people uncomfortable, I now associate it with unnecessary authoritativeness, or even hype. I used to use the phrase “master regulator” often, then decided that it is used way more than is apt.
“Master” and “mastery” have different resonances for me — I agree that “mastery” is often used is a vague way. (Sounds stronger than “competency”.) The phrase “mastery experience” seems to have a fairly clear meaning associated with Bandura's self-efficacy framework, though perhaps “deliberate practice” is better for most purposes.
Really enjoying your writing Liz. Life is dynamic and complicated. Trying to force it into a rigid geometric form is the classic Procrustean bed where you have to cut off part of a person to fit them into the premade structure. Time to break out and LIVE it! Wishing you a satisfying year ahead on your journey to the next thing(s)! 🎉
Extraordinarily weird that you write about the shape of your (memoir) narrative because I've been contemplating this a lot lately, even bothering my friends to describe to me what shape they'd use to describe their lives. My answer has been a graph but with a z-axis, to account for the weirdness and/or a tree in which I am the squirrel jumping from branch to branch. Onward with weirdness!
Have you read the Carrier Bag theory of story structure, as discussed by Ursula K. leGuin? I have to go look for it, but definitely look into that shape too.
Glad to be traveling this road with you, Liz. This is a great post, by the way, with lots for me to think about in terms of story craft. The cycle is a common one -- returning where you began, with the almanac structure of the year or some other seasonal theme, such as planting and harvest. The article you cite is new to me, and I appreciate the different linear arcs it represents.
But here are a few more thoughts about story structure. I don't believe there are any gendered story forms. I'm of the Willa Cather school on this -- the form matters less than the heart of what fills it. Here's what her character Carl Linstrum says at the end of "O Pioneers!": "Isn't it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years."
I see this often with my clients. I have a method for mapping a book project that I believe will lead to a satisfying (and efficient) first draft. It follows some form of the traditional arc, but it requires everyone to answer the questions for themselves, about what the core conflict is and what the major turning points might be. That's harder than it seems, not because it requires anyone to contort themselves into someone's shape, IMO, but because it's hard to find the story that rings as true as those larks that keep singing the same five notes. Cather herself failed in her first attempt -- which is why she said that she had two "first" novels.
In that sense I might flip your title around -- it's not the shape of the story that matters, it's what breathes life into it. There are plenty of experimental forms that flop, too, because the author hasn't found a simple, true core. For instance, I have been hindered in my own memoir-in-progress because I felt that the core of that story was perpetually under attack. Now that I reclaimed my voice somewhat, and have a better sense of what the future holds, I feel more ready to listen for what that fatherhood story might be.
I think in this way, craft can't solve everything. Take a guitar, and three blues chords, and Howlin' Wolf is going to fill that simple form with a lot more power than a kid in a suburban basement (perhaps because the lived experience invented the form). The story and the song must ring true. Now I'd be curious about your thoughts on Cather's form in "O Pioneers!'? Cather liked to take inspiration from opera, too, from Wagner's Ring cycle, for instance.
Thank you for these thoughts—I’m just starting to think about craft and form and story. I agree that the form should serve the story and not the other way around—also that standard forms are powerful for a reason!
I’d have to revisit O Pioneers but that sounds like a nice activity for a foggy winter afternoon!
I am so looking forward to your writing on the topic of fatherhood.
And then there is the episodic, which Dorothy Parker said was unrealistic, at least as applied to humans: "It's not true that life is one damned thing after another. It's the same damned thing over and over!"
That’s the exact challenge I think—how to feel the same sense of satisfaction and purpose when you don’t connect to the idea that you are moving towards anything.
The concept of the cycle and its’ stages make sense, especially when I look back at 2023 and realized too was a year of destruction for me. Thanks for sharing the idea with us! Looking forward to reading more from you in 2024.
I saw your post on starting over and was worried that you were leaving Substack! I am glad to see that you are just entering a new cycle. And same--I enjoy your writing (and photographs) so much.
That’s so lovely of you, Liz. Thank you! Here’s to new cycles of growth 🥂
This made me think of John McPhee's ‘Structure’, (nominally published 11 years ago today https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/14/structure). I had a text-editor fixation at the time that it was published. I think the book-chapter version includes additional circle diagrams.
Also a piece by Jeffrey Shaman: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/06/opinion/omicron-covid-us.html Unfortunately I conceptualize time primarily in terms of vaccine updates and virus lineage boom-diversification-bust-comeback cycles.
I was recently thinking that there should be more multi-linear narrative entertainment, with a canonical release order plus additional recommended paths (chronological, thematic, cyclic, character-chronological, reverse-chronological, …).
I have been fixated on the word “master” for a little over a year, so I think it might be interesting if you explored and/or deconstructed the concept of mastery further. I enjoyed your post on (re)vocation. Good luck selling your memoir and/or meeting deadlines — happy com-posting.
Oh, I love John McPhee and what a great reminder as I'm also trying to map out a book.
"The narrative wants to move from point to point through time, while topics that have arisen now and again across someone’s life cry out to be collected. They want to draw themselves together in a single body, in the way that salt does underground. "
You are inspiring me to get out Draft No. 4 again!
I'd love to hear what you are thinking about the term "mastery." It's certainly a word we use a lot in graduate education, but is beyond poorly defined.
In 2020 much of the tech world cut way back on the word “master”, because “master-slave” terminology had been used in a computer networking context.
I submitted a proposal to the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses last year suggesting that they similarly move away from the word “master” but they apparently did not find it convincing. I was influenced by https://www.eeblanguageproject.com/repository (which strongly polarized me against the phrases “Old World”/“New World”). I am still learning mildly interesting things about technical usage of the word, e.g. “master data” vs “reference data”. I have not read enough about what a “master equation” is to have an opinion on that phrase.
Some people consider the word to be strongly gendered. Etymologically it was connected to teaching (and thus skill) but now seems to be as at least as much about domination.
Irrespective of how much the word may or may not make people uncomfortable, I now associate it with unnecessary authoritativeness, or even hype. I used to use the phrase “master regulator” often, then decided that it is used way more than is apt.
“Master” and “mastery” have different resonances for me — I agree that “mastery” is often used is a vague way. (Sounds stronger than “competency”.) The phrase “mastery experience” seems to have a fairly clear meaning associated with Bandura's self-efficacy framework, though perhaps “deliberate practice” is better for most purposes.
Really enjoying your writing Liz. Life is dynamic and complicated. Trying to force it into a rigid geometric form is the classic Procrustean bed where you have to cut off part of a person to fit them into the premade structure. Time to break out and LIVE it! Wishing you a satisfying year ahead on your journey to the next thing(s)! 🎉
Thank you!!
Extraordinarily weird that you write about the shape of your (memoir) narrative because I've been contemplating this a lot lately, even bothering my friends to describe to me what shape they'd use to describe their lives. My answer has been a graph but with a z-axis, to account for the weirdness and/or a tree in which I am the squirrel jumping from branch to branch. Onward with weirdness!
Moving into 3 dimensions! I’m glad for the weird coincidence, and looking forward to checking out your writing as well.
Have you read the Carrier Bag theory of story structure, as discussed by Ursula K. leGuin? I have to go look for it, but definitely look into that shape too.
No, I hadn’t heard of it. The brief synopsis I just read is fascinating, so I’ll be looking for a copy of that essay. Thank you for the suggestion!