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Narrative Endings: How to Pick the Right One

February 3, 2018

They say that all good things must come to an end. I don’t believe in endings, as I don’t believe in beginnings. Blame my academic background, but I prefer to focus on duration and temporal chunks. Having said that, a novel has to end in some way, because there is a physical limit to how many pages you can put out there. But are narrative endings and physical endings one and the same? (Sneak preview: no)

In today’s post I’ll share with you an important secret about narrative endings: if you do things right, there’s one and only one ending that suits your book of fiction. I’ll give you the details below, but basically it goes like this: if you can’t pick that one ending, whether because it feels wrong or because you can’t find it, it means your structure is wrong. This might sound awful, but see the flip side of it: if your ending feels right, it usually means the entire narrative preceding it is also right.

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Narrative Focalization: Things Authors Need to Know

January 31, 2018

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

experience, fiction, literature, writing

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Some time ago I talked about the overwhelming number of writers that have flooded the modern publishing market. I focused on the inevitable consequence of having a large number of substandard works out there, a fact that affects audiences’ idea of indie authors in general. But make no mistake: a novel can be substandard regardless of whether it’s published traditionally or independently. Both by reading and by participating in online literature discussions, I have discovered that a significant number of authors don’t have a clear idea of narrative focalization. Perhaps they semi-instinctively still use it, but if you’re an author wanting to be in total control of your book, then keep reading!

The first thing we need to do is offer some definitions. We need to know what it is we’re talking about. Indeed, many of the misunderstandings and ignorance surrounding the topic are a result of confusion. I have often seen people confusing narrative focalization with perspective or point of view. So, let’s try to clarify the matter.

narrative focalization — “I smell the sea” is different from “She smells the sea”, which is different from “There is a briny scent floating around”

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Linear Narrative Progression? No, Thanks

January 23, 2018

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

art, creativity, fiction, literature, time, writing

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Narrative Progression: From Point A to Point B

One of the biggest markers of inexperienced genre fiction writers is the way their narratives progress. In genre fiction such as romance fiction, detective fiction, etc. events often occur in a very linear way. A leads to B which leads to C; one second, then one second, then one second. A narrative progression where events are described in the order they have occurred is called a linear narrative progression and, as you realize, it is the simplest way to narrate an event. Let’s see a quick example, which we can later adapt and reuse.

Last weekend I went to New York and met a guy named John. Today I saw John walking down the street here, in Boston. We agreed to go fishing next Sunday

It’s a clear, natural-looking example. You wouldn’t think that there’s anything wrong with producing an entire narrative like that, right? Only, there is, which is the motivation behind today’s article. I will first show you why it’s a bad idea to structure your book following a linear narrative progression, then I will show you how to restructure it in a nonlinear narrative progression.

linear narrative progression — In a narrative, unlike reality, time doesn’t have to progress in a linear fashion

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