Playing With Structure

Structure is essential to guiding your reader through your story. It’s giving information when it is needed. It’s shaping perspective on the events in the book. Structure is the scaffolding that holds up other elements of writing. It also gives you plenty of room to play. My favourite projects have been those where the author has been open to experimenting with structure for the benefit of their story.

I was working on a memoir for a client where the core narrative was about his growth out of hardship. He experienced deep personal loss at different points of his life. The first loss was as a child, the next was as a young adult. I structured the memoir in a way that moved between “present day”, or the last three years, and the past. The past was largely in chronological order but when we reached the point of the second loss we retold the first one.

There were different reasons for this.

The first was to show a different point of view. He was now reflecting on it with the knowledge of a grown man instead of the innocence of a 9 year-old boy. A different emotional attachment was needed with the recounting of the second loss.

The second reason was in details. There were details he had learnt surrounding the incident in the years in between. It gave a different context, in some ways. To put those details in the first time would draw from the focus of that chapter – his early years and vulnerability. These details discovered as an adult didn’t fit in with the story as we told it that first time around. The focus was different. Now, as a grown man and suffering a second powerful loss, these details were pertinent.

The third reason was thematic. Both losses were driving forces in his later success. This was a key theme to the book. Yes, showing these separately would have worked, but by combining them in this way – recounting the first loss in more detail while reflecting on the second – the emotional resonance and theme hit harder. The connection between them, showing his perspective as carrying this loss on in his life, underscored the theme.

When you’re struggling with how things happen in the story, in the order they happen, take a look at what theme and value you are bringing to these events.

It’s not an easy process – if you need a brainstorming session with a ghostwriter/writing coach, let’s do it together.