Structure in Creative Writing.
In creative writing, ‘structure’ refers to the way that the text is organised. In GCSE English, students are asked how the writer ‘uses structure’ to keep the reader interested. Understanding the uses of structure in Section A will also help with your own story writing in section B. To answer this effectively, we should be able to:
- Recognise structural features
- Discuss how those features help to keep readers engaged - usually by guiding them through the story and manipulating their expectations and emotions.
- Describe what the author focuses our attention on first, and then how that focus shifts, and why.
Firstly though, we might consider the whole story structure
We usually understand the overall structure to be a particular type, or genre, of story. This influences our expectations of storylines and characters, and it is the authors job to fulfil some of our expectations, but still provide surprise and novelty.
For example:
- A crime mystery
- A world-changing event
- An invasion
- A race against time
- A love story
- A hero’s journey
- Rags to riches
- A clash between different worlds
Narrative Voice
- Briefly consider the narrative voice. It will normally be first or third person (rarely second person), and past or present tense. The various combinations of voice and tense offer different possibilities, strengths and weaknesses.
- First person narration can work well for an intense psychological focus on one character at a time, as we are in the mind of a protagonist or antagonist. It gives a sense of urgency and immediacy if written in present tense since it gives the illusion of happening ‘now’. It also narrows the reader down to one pair of eyes to ‘see’ the story, and may allow the author to write unreliably if they want to trick readers (we don’t usually expect third person narrators to lie to us, but a character in a book may do this so that the author can mislead us).
- Third person narration allows the writer to interest us by taking as many different viewpoints as he or she likes, so long as it doesn’t become too confusing, in which case it may lack focus. It also allows the writer to get access to the minds of more than one character, although again we can’t waste our emotional energies sympathising with too many characters, we tend to want to identify with a main protagonist or small group of people. Some characters will obviously be more important, and therefore more detailed, than others.
Initial Focus of Attention
The author has to start somewhere and there are alternative possibilities, all of which serve slightly different purposes.
1) Focus on place or setting
- A strong focus on setting helps the reader become immersed in the story-world and avoid real-world distractions, improving interest and readability, especially if it is strongly atmospheric.
- The setting focus may also give important information about a character, for example their home or workplace, their wealth, poverty, historical situation, culture or interests.
- The setting may also reflect a character’s state of mind, for example through the weather or lighting, or foreshadow events through devices like pathetic fallacy.
2) Focus on Character
- An initial focus on character can create reader empathy and identification with that character.
- This gives us a reason to continue reading, especially if the focus is on the character’s emotions.
- The character’s emotions will most likely be a reaction to a situation that the reader can identify with, at least broadly. We will be able to identify in some way with how they feel.
3) Focus on Situation
- The main focus at the beginning of a story may not be on character or setting, but on a particularly interesting situation, such as the start of a journey, a riot or man-made or natural disaster. This is another way of getting the reader hooked.
Shifts of Focus
1) Shifts of Visual Focus.
Given that we are using the idea of ‘focus’ it is helpful to think about the writing visually, as if you were a film director, editing the story to carefully select what you want to reveal to the audience as they watch:
2) From one character to another
- Shifts of character focus help to interest the reader in relationships, such as mother/daughter, friends/enemies, policeman/thief, or lovers.
- They are also essential to plot development, as we see characters affect each other and react to each other in various ways.
3) Scene shifts
- Shifts of location can give an interesting sense of variety and contrast between places and their atmospheres, movement or travel in a story, a change of situation, or a sense of separation and distance between characters.
4) Zooming in and out (‘close-up’, ‘medium’ and ‘long shots’)
- Zooming in to a close-up point of view reveals significant details. A detail of movement may reveal something about a character’s physical or emotional state, a close-up description of clothing or an object such as an expensive watch or concealed weapon, may reveal a character’s wealth or poverty, their tastes, or intentions. These details may help us like or loathe a character, or may be significant to the plot, perhaps foreshadowing future events.
5) Shifts of Time
The focus can be shifted backwards of forward in time:
- Flashback can help to fill in a character’s backstory, and explain their current situation. It should have relevance to the main story.
- Flash forward can be used as a ‘teaser’ of what may actually happen to a character later in the story, or it may just be used as a device to show us their visions, dreams or dread of the future.
The sense of time passing can also be expanded or compressed:
- A few seconds might be described in great detail if the event is extremely important, or if time is ‘standing still’ in a character’s mind.
- Time may pass very quickly indeed for the reader if the writer wants to show quick development, for example through a phrase such as ‘six months later, ...’. This prepares the reader for a completely new part of the story, ‘refreshing’ it.
6) Shifts between ways of showing or telling:
- The writer may move structurally between focusing on static description, action, speech and thoughts. One character may be introduced by physical description, and another through direct speech, giving a different impression. We may enter a character’s private thoughts and feelings, and then find ourselves reading a description of the world outside again (in third person narration).
- Similarly, are there any shifts between waking and dream sequences? This author may be comparing the character’s deeper hopes and fears and their reality in waking life.
The list above is not a complete guide to structure, but it covers plenty of the devices that writers use to keep readers hooked. Remember not to confuse structure with language. In the structure question, we don’t discuss verbs, metaphors, phrases and so on, since we are concerned with how these are all organised at a larger scale to encourage you to continue reading. Sentence structure is not typically discussed in the structure question either, unless a particular type of sentence structure is a feature of the extract as a whole. We are looking at structure above the sentence level.