Storytelling structure
Several weeks ago Joe Hill posted several tweets about making stories fun to read. Novels shouldn't be just words with an occasional chapter breaks. Presentation, setting, and mood are all integral to the story.
This got me thinking (as all good tweets do). Stories should you know, be stories with a beginning, middle, and an end. But they also need to be fun for the reader. There are all sorts of ways to do this. Fun chapter titles. Switching POVs. Telling a story backwards. Including pop culture references. A fun voice in a vibrant world. Building a novel around a recurring theme. Connecting several unrelated stories.
A few of my favorite examples of authors who make books fun for readers are Steven Brust, Stephen King, and Scott Lynch.
Stephen King has a wonderful habit of connecting unrelated stories with setting or characters. Randall Flagg, the Big Bad in THE STAND, pops up now and again. Several stories are set in Castle Rock, Maine. This effectively gives each story more weight than they would have had on their own, and over time, creates a world that feels real for the reader.
Steven Brust uses interesting chapter titles, and different points of view to great effect. Most of his Vlad Taltos books are from Vlad's first-person POV, but some use third person, and at least one tells the story from a different POV entirely. That series also uses an element of world-building to frame each book: his society has different "houses," and each book is named after one house.
Scott Lynch uses vibrant world-building and amazing voice to bring excitement to his book. These two elements help his characters jump off the page and keeps the reader turning pages.
Who are your favorite authors that play with story structure to bring a little fun into the mix?
This got me thinking (as all good tweets do). Stories should you know, be stories with a beginning, middle, and an end. But they also need to be fun for the reader. There are all sorts of ways to do this. Fun chapter titles. Switching POVs. Telling a story backwards. Including pop culture references. A fun voice in a vibrant world. Building a novel around a recurring theme. Connecting several unrelated stories.
A few of my favorite examples of authors who make books fun for readers are Steven Brust, Stephen King, and Scott Lynch.
Stephen King has a wonderful habit of connecting unrelated stories with setting or characters. Randall Flagg, the Big Bad in THE STAND, pops up now and again. Several stories are set in Castle Rock, Maine. This effectively gives each story more weight than they would have had on their own, and over time, creates a world that feels real for the reader.
Steven Brust uses interesting chapter titles, and different points of view to great effect. Most of his Vlad Taltos books are from Vlad's first-person POV, but some use third person, and at least one tells the story from a different POV entirely. That series also uses an element of world-building to frame each book: his society has different "houses," and each book is named after one house.
Scott Lynch uses vibrant world-building and amazing voice to bring excitement to his book. These two elements help his characters jump off the page and keeps the reader turning pages.
Who are your favorite authors that play with story structure to bring a little fun into the mix?