As an avid reader of fictional stories, I have always wanted to be able to see the component parts of a novel. So I did some research and studying about reading and I wanted to share what I learned.
Introduction to Plot
When you’re reading a book, you might be asked, what is the plot of the story? What happens in it?
Story and Plot are actually two different things; the story of a novel is what happens in a novel from beginning to end while a plot is about the causality of the novel. Plot is concerned about the why, not the what.
For example, “The King died and then the Queen died” is simply a sequence of events, therefore it is a story. Meanwhile “But the King died of pneumonia and then the Queen died of grief” is a plot as cause-and-effect has been added in.
In a novel, the story would be a straightforward sequence from A to B or 6 to 7, but the plot of the same story might zigzag through time in a less predictable, nonlinear way. That is often what we find in novels, authors like to create confusion or disorder in order to generate tension. Sometimes we might know the results of a character’s action, but not what they did until later in the plot.
Flashbacks and Flash-forwards
Two of the techniques that authors use in order to interrupt the linear flow of a novel are flashbacks and flash-forwards. Flashbacks are when the reader is told about something that happens before the story’s present time and it is something we all have, they are simply our memories. Flashbacks in a novel are often used to show certain information about a character in order to explain their motives and why the character is acting a certain way.
For example, Emily Bronte’s famous novel Wuthering Heights begins with Cathy, one of the main characters, dead. Mr. Lockwood sees the name of Cathy written on the windowsill, and then he has a vexing vision of her. Heathcliff becomes distressed when Mr. Lockwood talks to him about the dream and Mr. Lockwood wants to know why he is upset by Cathy ‘s mention.
The flashbacks are the means to bring Cathy back to life, so Mr. Lockwood has a better understanding of why Heathcliff was so upset. The flashbacks display the growth of the love Heathcliff and Cathy had for each other, and how their bad choices split them. It would not have the same impact if Ellen had just told Mr. Lockwood that Cathy was the person Heathcliff loved and died.
The opposite of a flashback is a flash-forward, where we jump ahead into the future of a character. For obvious reasons, we cannot experience this. In The Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is shown a flash-forward by the Spirit of Christmas Future, warning him to change his ways. However, many writers don’t give their characters this chance.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark makes heavy use of the flash-forward plot technique. The story is taking place at the Marcia Blaine Academy, where six girls are handed over to Miss Brodie.
Spark tells us at the very beginning of the novel that Miss Brodie is betrayed. Then he gradually unveils the betrayer and finally reveals all the details of the event. Around the same way, he introduces Joyce Emily, as the “Brodie Set” rejected child, and later tells the readers the reasons.
Pace
Authors will make other decisions related to plotting that isn’t flashbacks and flash-forwards. The time it would take to read a book wouldn’t correspond to the event taking place in the story. Sometimes the difference would be exaggerated, several pages of a book might be devoted on a single moment, slowing down time to a literary slow motion. This slowed down time allows a character or narrator to linger on a precise detail, and is a way of pointing out what is most significant to a character.
On the other hand, years of time can pass in only a few passages and be afforded no textual space at all. This has the opposite effect of speeding up the action. In Virginia Woolf’s novel To The Lighthouse, an entire decade passes in less than 20 pages. This section effectively contrasts with the longer, more detailed sections of the novel, which are dedicated to individual days.
Framed Narratives
Aspects related to temporality have already been brought up – flashback, flash-forward, pacing – but now we will be looking at the gaps in the plot, the things not told to the reader, which results from the structure of the story or an unreliable narrator. The truth might be in the text but the reader has to go through a series of preliminary notes, or “frames” to be able to get there. It could be something simple, like in The Scarlet Letter which begins with an unnamed narrator who found a series of documents and a manuscript bundled with a scarlet, gold-embroidered patch of cloth in the shape of an “A.” The narrator then turns the manuscript into the novel A Scarlet Letter. This kind of framing is important in how it alters or influences how we, the reader, would understand the text. In the case of The Scarlet Letter, it seeks to tell us that the story should be taken as a historical fact.
On the other hand, a story could have more complicated frames, such as Daddy Long Legs, which is composed almost entirely of a series of letters between a girl and her benefactor or the Monogatari series, which has multiple unreliable narrators. Such framing could be conceived as a series of concentric circles which the reader has to traverse in order to reach the “truth” of the plot.
Narrative Perspective
Then there is the perspective/voice narrating the the events of the novel to consider. Sometimes a third-person narrator could adopt the “voice” of a character, adopting a character’s language rather simply describing their thoughts. This process of intermingling is called “free indirect style” whereby a sentence or a passage is presented to us from a third-person narrator but is in fact modified, or driven, by a particular character. Therefore, we should examine the preliminary frame to see suggestions on how we should read the narrative or for any hints that the narrator might not as trustworthy as they seem.
Do they have any reason to conceal any details?
What seems to be missing from their account?
And finally, are we certain they are a true narrator, and not a character taking the narrator’s place, presenting a more subjective take on events?
Tech, Writing, and Culture 