“Story structure” is an important element in writing, but even if you could express it in one word, it might be difficult to know exactly what to pay attention to.
Jessica Anthony, a writer and English lecturer at Bates College in the US, says the “fictional time” that passes in a story is important for deciphering the structure of a story and explains how to practice understanding the structure.
Jessica Anthony on dealing with fictional time | Literary Hub
https://lithub.com/jessica-anthony-on-getting-a-grip-on-fictional-time/
Story structure serves to organize and enhance the entire story, including how the story is divided, how chronology and perspectives are changed, and how the story is told, in addition to the pure story and the movements of the characters. Journalist and author Paula Hawkins says, “Story structure is a very valuable idea because it adds a ‘surprise’ to the actual story. Also, having a structure created in advance can serve as a framework for writing, helping you better understand what you need next and what you should reveal next.” She talks about the importance of structure.
What is a “strong story structure” to improve the quality of a story? – GIGAZINE
As a teacher, Anthony taught students to read and understand structure by “reading the story together, following the text, and examining how the characters become deeper through action, conversation, and simple observation.” This method is effective, but it can take a few weeks or even a full semester for students to get the hang of it or realize they enjoy reading this way. In addition, since the beginning of 2020, remote lectures have become more common due to the new coronavirus, so the traditional method has become difficult, and Anthony said he has been looking for new ways to teach structure.
Anthony recommends that we first understand the difference between a “scene” and a “structure.” In a scene, the narrator’s dialogue and imagery draw us in, making us want to turn page after page, but in a scene, time stands still. For example, if there’s a 30-minute scene in a story, you can read it as if you were speed-reading through it, but you can also take time to imagine what kind of conversation took place in those 30 minutes. The more conversation you add to a story, the more time stands still in a scene that should really be time-limited. Readers can jump in and out of the scene at will.
A structure can be a sentence, a paragraph, a page, a chapter, a scene, or the whole story. Anthony found when writing his books that he found structure by controlling the time of the scene. When you write a scene, the time limit of 10 minutes, 2 hours, or 3 days dictates what kind of action or dialogue is allowed.
To train the understanding of the structure of a story, Anthony gave his distance learning lectures to his students the task of “writing a short story that ends with a scene” and “a short story that is complete.” A short story that ends with a scene cannot use a passage of time such as “a few weeks later” or flashbacks such as “a few years ago,” so there is no room for character change and the time in the scene can be well understood. Then, by writing a short story that is complete, it is possible to put together the structure of the story, with an important focus on the time of the scene.
Anthony also introduced the anthology ‘
Single Scene Short Stories is a collection of short stories, each with a single scene. Reading such anthologies or stories that end with a scene you have read before, while being aware of the passage of time in the story, will help you understand how scenes and structures are constructed and what meaning they have.
