Hot take: Structure isn’t story.

Let’s clear any misunderstandings up right now. I’m not saying that structure isn’t important in story or writing.

It is.

But structure isn’t the most important thing, and it is not the same as story.

If you’re starting your writing career or are a seasoned writer, and you look at most of the books, podcasts, and articles on writing, the majority focus on structure with minor variation. They all sing the same song.

But none go into what a story is or how to write one.

You can have a story without structure, at least the structure found in the “Western

World. There is no universal structure––just the accepted ones we’ve all been programmed to use in order to get the publishers the most money and reader buzz.

You can have a story without structure.

A story is a narrative–a telling.

A story informs or with fiction, to entertain. That is its primary purpose–to entertain.

Everything else-–theme, character, setting, are all tools. As is the structure.

So, how can a story not have structure?

“A man died of heartache.” is a story.

Then structure, meaning, and in fact most of the story are left to the reader to fill in.

The reader may ask, what happened to cause the man to die? Who was he and who or what broke his heart?

How good of a story you believe it to be depends on your imagination––but it is a story.

Something that doesn’t let the reader use their imagination to “fill in the gaps” isn’t a story. It’s a report.

A story is full of holes. It provides just enough breadcrumbs to lead the reader.

A story is what you tell (or not), not how you tell it.

Again, I’m not saying structure isn’t important to story, it is. But it’s not the only part of writing a story. It is if you want to give people what they want–that is, if you want to sell more copies.

Publishers, agents, and editors have one job, make money promoting your story. They even go so far as to tell you they won’t promote your work because it won’t sell. As a writer, understand that. Your story has to be compelling enough and fall into a structure they accept and understand. But it can be sold.

If you want an authentic example of a story with a non-standard structure, I recommend you check out “No Period” by Harry Turtledove. No Period: A Tor.com Original

Structure is just a skeleton. The story is the flesh. Structure is the formula (of sorts). The story is the imagination.

You can have a story without structure. But you can’t have structure without a story to hang on to it. Knowing the difference is important. The story is more important than the structure since it is the thing readers will remember.

Flame on!

Word up!

#writing/blog