Nosing the narrative
"You've done good deal of research, but I think you could develop the
story a little more into a good narrative style."
An old novelist was giving a newcomer a bit of an advice.
Now that's a bad custom to listen in on others chatting up, I know.
Besides, I must have heard the same thing over and over again, but this
sounded strangely classic in its own way; it seemed to syringe some
sense into me. The first thing back home I located one particular book.
Riffling through the pages I thanked myself having chosen to own the
books rather than being a library member. Read this on:
"Sometime in 1976, I wrote an outline and about four chapters. I sent
it to my agent, Al Zuckerman, who wrote: 'You have created a tapestry.
What you need is a series of linked melodramas."
 You
just read a chunk of the introduction Ken Follett had written to his
'Pillars of the Earth' Interesting, really it is. My choice among the
Follett novels are of course 'Pillars of the Earth' and its sequel
'World Without End'. I must probably tell you why so, but possibly
another time.
I quoted that particular excerpt, because I felt it gives the truth
to what the novelist was sharing with the newcomer.
Western novelists generally do research before they settle on to
write. In Follett's case both 'Pillars' and 'World' are an offshoot of
his research on architecture: first it's about churches, and next about
bridges.
With all this background information, what if Follett published his
research as it is? It will be raw data hardly anyone would be interested
in. Follett was already known as a novelist, when he published
'Pillars'. If he were some professor or expert on some archeology
subject, then no doubt he will have an audience of those who study
church building and things. Novel is for entertainment, and as a
novelist Follett had to find a way to make it an interesting story.
There you are! There you need a narrative to prop up the research and
the back-story. You have the structure, but you have to fill it out with
something. That 'something' should really be something of an oddity.
It all depends on narrative. I heard about a novel completely written
in text message format. That's a good evolution of diary entries,
letters and so on. One famous technique is to start the novel with a
prologue and end it with an epilogue. We had it in the Jataka tales
where the present always mingles with the past.
Readers like everything: descriptions, dialogues, lyrical nature and
so on, but everything has its own limit. If a novel is completely
written in dialogues, well I would not prefer such a novel then. I'm a
simple reader fond of some inspirational story outline with a lyrical
delicate touch. And I know the most of the rest are with me in this
journey.
In the 'Pillars' you meet a priest, his hands full trying all the
time to uphold the traditions and restore the crumbling church. He is
dealing with one whole community in his priory, and that turns out to be
no easy task. Love, revenge, all those human sentiments come into life
with cathedral-building running in the background.
In the introduction Follett has basically given out how he had
written the 'Pillars'. Thank our dear Ken Follett, for it's something a
writer doesn't like to do.
Follett's first hurdle was the want of vocabulary to describe
buildings with which his characters move along. Then he started reading
books on architecture and buildings in general. This task made him
become passionate about the churches, and he started touring them. It
slowly grew up to be a habit, and Follett was soon enamoured by
churches. He could study the way they are built, each and everything
that means. I may be repeating some of what I've mentioned a moment ago,
for emphasis' sake.
Reading so much into medieval churches made him realize one thing: he
could imagine how people of a bygone era must have behaved. All the same
Follett had a problem: he had been used to write thrillers like his
first novel 'The Eye of the Needle'. Writing in classical type may mean
a flop, as it would not draw a large crowd. But Follett took up the
gauntlet.
Problems held on even worse: He started writing the novel in March,
and yet he could complete only a couple of hundred pages even with two
years gone. That sounded disaster for him, especially being a career
writer. But then he started hammering away, committing almost his time
into writing. And in three years and three months, he rounded off the
whole novel. The book houses 1075 pages, and the pages are a little
taller too.
Everybody is not a born novelist. Even when you are, you got to have
the right motivation and inspiration. When Follett pens down in his
introduction I'm pretty sure he offers that dosage of inspiration.
Yes, he does. Stop getting excited, if you are, and listen to me. Go
buy 'Pillars of the Earth' - make sure it's the one with the
introduction though. Don't worry Follett is one of the cheapest non-Sri
Lankan English authors tossed in our bookshelves.
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