Structure and tone

[khiemtran]

The WIR started off, as most of my stories do, in a much different tone from the one it acquired later. The original mood of the first third was light and whimsical, but this became progressively darker and deeper as the story matured. One problem though, that I've just noticed this week, is that even though the tone has changed, the structure hasn't. The basic sequence of events is still the same, even though the original order was chosen with a very different story in mind.

This has caused a number of difficulties. There is a long sequence of scenes that have completely reversed their original mood. Scenes that were originally aimed at making Daumin's new life in Krang Charipan seem interesting, now find themselves required to maintain a relentlessly building tension, showing Daumin's rising unhappiness in the city. Needless to say, the end result is rather muddled.

What I've only just realised, is that I don't need to keep the old structure any more. I've had it fixed in my head for so long that "this is what happens", that the idea of changing it didn't occur to me. But if I do change the order of events, so that the good and bad things happen (or at least appear in the narration) in an order that fits the new mood of the story, then suddenly everything becomes so much easier.

Now I just have to work out which new structure to choose...

Comments

[sciamanna.livejournal.com]

I've found myself in a similar situation several times during the current revision. Usually, my backbrain has come to the rescue sooner or later; but sometimes another thing that helped was to have each scene marked on a separate piece of paper and shuffling them around for a while (or even shuffling them around on the Excel worksheet that I use to keep track -- but the pieces of paper seem to add something to the process, for whatever reason.) This is even more useful if you already have a couple of alternative ideas in mind -- just seeing them laid out like that might show something about them that helps you making the decision.

Good luck!

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I've just just been thinking this morning that I might have gone too far in the other direction - making the structure a little too contrived to match the mood. It might be a good exercise to compare all the alternatives.