STORYSPACE: Structure and Flow
It’s hard to decide, I think, how to physically structure the narrative of story in Storyspace. I’m anxious to try building one up from ground zero, but meanwhile, working with what I have it seemed to naturally fall into place. I followed characters and their perspectives.
The story does have an obvious theme, and it is clearly character-driven. But in adding and revising, I’m finding two elements possibly missing.
One is grounding, or setting. It’s not just a matter of place, thus description, because setting is vital to the theme of choice and movement. Therefore, I’m giving that a bit more importance, an easy thing to do in the Storyspace format by "adding a path in a pause." In fact, any spots I find myself pausing in dare clearer definition by path.
The other is the standard of a character wanting something, seeing how far he’ll go to get it, and whether or not he achieves his goal, in what way does it change him.
These stories are almost an after-the-fact issue on that. Decisions have been made, the drama is over, and the aftereffects are the story now. The pressure points are the side trails revealed a bit at a time here and there, that while officially backstory, are also not fact as they are based on each character’s perspective. They also may or may not have happened that way.
Interesting problems to overcome. Storyspace appears an invaluable tool in not only pointing out the troubling spots, but in offering the best way to remedy them.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology