Novel structure dilemma.

af_thefragile

Hi, I'm currently working on a novel and i'm not exactly sure how to write it and was wondering if you guys could give me some help.

Basically the novel deals around two main characters X and P (didn't come up with proper names yet, i'm kinda bad with names!). Its a pretty long and elaborate story which takes place over 4 years. X and P are two very contrasting characters. X is kinda outgoing, he likes and cares about people, he's a bit of a liberal while P is a bit of a loner and he doesn't really care about anything, he's more of a conservative type of guy.

The story is kinda deals with the themes of power and freedom. There are a couple more important characters in the story too, especially one side story which a chapters are dedicated to and he's not related to the main characters.

And P dies towards the end.

So anyway, here's the options i've got to structure the story.
1. The story is narrated by X who has found P's journal and is telling P's story to the people through P's journal entries. Like writing down P's journal entry and then X goes on to explain the story behind that entry.
What i like about this structure is it lets you get inside P's and X's mind at the same time, getting the reader more intimate with these main characters. It also gives a more realistic feel to the book. Here's this guy X who has managed to get hold of this other guy who has died, P's journal and realises its important for the world to know his story.
What I don't like about this is that all the events have already happened and P being dead is mentioned at the start of the book. Also I'm not sure about the whole structure of placing a journal entry and then X going on to tell the story being it. I feel this way the people would also feel a little disconnected from the events taking place in the story.

2. The story is a first person narrator and X is the narrator. What i like again is that it lets you get inside X's mind, getting you intimate with the character. The problem this faces is that it becomes hard to describe events that aren't happening around X. And as X isn't the only central character in the story, there are a fair amount of events that happen which don't involve X.

3. It could be a normal third person narrative like most of the novels out there. What i don't like about this is you lose that intimate connection with the character. You don't see the story unfold from the characters eyes and also it becomes like just another novel. Though this structure certainly makes it easier to describe all the different events taking place in the story. It gives you the freedom to explore all the major characters of the story too. But what i really don't like is that this structure is a little too ordinary. I like to experiment with structures.

4. One another thing i could go for is make it a multiple narrative. This would work great for the original graphic novel i had intended to use this story for. But as i decided the themes are quite deep and serious, people would take the story more seriously in a novel form, so i moved to writing a novel instead. Anyway, in this form i could have a different character narrating the story for every chapter. What i like about this is that it again makes it easier to put down all the different events that take place in the story. It also gives you the opportunity to get into every characters mind and see the story through their eyes. What i don't like about this is that this structure could become quite complex to people to follow and maintain interest. It could also end up becoming quite film like and people could feel disconnected from the events and themes in the story instead and become too focused on the characters.



So well, this is what i could think of so far and i could surely use ye guys help to figure out which could be the best one to portray my story in.
Also i guess the most important aspect of the story is the themes it deals with rather than the events or the characters itself. It shows how power can corrupt a person and how people stop thinking rationally when they're in a collective group.
X and P are the main characters and their personalities is quite important to show the conflicting/complementary personalities of these two guys but how they still are striving towards the same cause but both have a completely different approach to it.
The events are important in a way to portray the themes of the story. Leave it for people to discover and explore the themes for themselves while i have laid them down for them in the form of chain of events. Rather than going on explaining the themes for yourself in the book. Same thing with the characters personalities.

So yeah, any help would be appreciated!!
Thanks!

pops

Personally I like the multiple narrative which would give you both X and P's perspectives and any other characters that are important to the storyline.

I know what you mean about it being a bit complex but sometimes switching narrators adds interest and draws the reader in rather than alienating him/her.

Do you have to let on at the beginning that P has died before X has found the journal? You could have P telling his version in the journal version and X giving his (different maybe?) version at another stage. This unreliable narrator element can help keep the reader interested.

Haven't written anything myself, just interested in writing in general but well done for getting this far - stick with it!

pauline fayne

For what its worth , I like the multiple narrative idea . I've always enjoyed books written in that style . Best of Luck !

af_thefragile

Wondering if anyone of ye know any book written as a multiple narrative form?
The only one i can think of is The House of Leaves. Kinda where i got the idea for the 1st style of writing I mentioned...

pickarooney

Irvine Welsh's Filth is not a bad example of the multiple narrative style if you want to read a few chapters of that. It's a nice, flexible stlye and it's really not all that confusing to the reader as well-defined characters should be easily distinguishable by their thoughts and how they express them. I wouldn't go down the road of having them narrate in different dialects though, as this can be quite tedious, especially if not done well.

I read a novel recently which was a mixture of diary extracts, interviews and email exchanges. It was called Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and, while a worthwhile read, the constant jumping back and forth in time to retell the story from different view points is a little jarring in printed form, I found.

pops

I was thinking of Salmon Fishing as well, as I thought the narrative was clever in that there was no omnipotent narrator in the whole book.

Another recent read with multiple narrators is The Crossroads by Italian writer Niccolo Ammanti and a great read as well.

I think David Mitchell does a similar thing in Cloud Atlas jumping from different narrators at different points in history.

whitecrocus92

i'm not gonna pretend to be an expert, but i'll say this much
what you said about P being dead, and people already knowing that...well, we all knew Anne Frank was dead and that worked. maybe the reader would get really involved with P and even though they know he dies, they'll feel sadder because it's not just some random character, it's a character they've come to know. just as X will be sad that P dies, so will the readers.


hope that helps, it sounds like a pretty good plot and good luck

whitecrocus92

oh something someone said made me think of something.

maybe you don't have to mention that P died, maybe towards the end X could be like

hold on now actually

how about X could find out something that P was wondering/talking about/involved with, and at the end, when the diary "mysterioously" ends, he could go looking for P...and then realises....etc etc etc

i dno, maybe?

af_thefragile

Aah cheers for the ideas.
Though i think i'll be going with the multiple narrative structure as it'ld give me the freedom i'ld need to develop the story. Though haven't completely decided on that yet.
I've gotta do some research and read around books that have used this kind of structure and see how effective it could be and how much i'ld enjoy reading it...

the fall guy

af_thefragile wrote: »

Aah cheers for the ideas.
Though i think i'll be going with the multiple narrative structure as it'ld give me the freedom i'ld need to develop the story. Though haven't completely decided on that yet.
I've gotta do some research and read around books that have used this kind of structure and see how effective it could be and how much i'ld enjoy reading it...

write the narratives separate,then tie them in.

If you're stuck on how to do this read anything by IW.