Don’t you just love a great book as it transports you to a different world. No matter what genre you love best, off on a journey you go.
But ever have that feeling (more and more these days!) of either feeling bogged down in a book as if drowning in quicksand, or, the converse, the rat-a-tat-a pace leaves you wishing to catch your breath?
And how many of those books have you actually finished?
Readers say all the time, “I love X author because he writes page turners.” And that indeed may be so. Or, “I love Literary because it gives me the chance to think.” And that may indeed be so as well.
But in each of those—if the author is proficient—readers love them because they’re a balance of ebb and flow. You have to have both.
Writers hear a lot these days (God save me from monitoring the Internet! LOL) to avoid at all costs that dreaded narrative voice. Where do people get these things? And while yes, a true balance must exist between creating the action part of the scene vs internal dialogue, without the latter you might as well just have 500 pages of special effects and no story.
Because the internal dialogue—the narrative—is an integral part of the scene. When something happens, consequences occur. And our hero has to sort through those consequences—with thoughts and feelings—before getting to the acting/reacting stage. Otherwise the whole dang thing is pointless.
Conversely, even in the most quiet of Literary novels, something has to happen. Big somethings. This is quite often a dam breaking within the character’s head, but something had to cause that.
One of my favorite books is Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides. You pretty much either love Conroy or hate him, and I’m obviously in the former group. But we spend hundreds of pages in Tom’s head, going ever deeper into his psyche as he deals with outer events that don’t seem to be about him. NOTE: if you don’t like narrative voice, don’t read this novel! LOL.
Only to find, in a critical part of the climax, that indeed, something had happened to him that formed the parameters of who he was. And that something was horrific indeed. We experience it in flashback, in all its gut-wrenching glory.
Great authors understand that you have to have both action and reaction in stories. This relates to the structure of the novel , and learning what needs to happen when, and what needs to be thought about, felt about, and then reacted to—in the exact right timing. Yes, depending upon what genre you’re writing, the balance is a bit different. Action adventure has more zag, and Literary, more zig. But you have to have both no matter what you’re writing.
Most writers need to study this, and that helps enormously. Lots of good guides exist, including my own above 🙂
But once you do and begin to apply it, gaining ever and ever more proficiency, you just feel where we need to ebb, and where we need to flow, and how to join the two.
Then, you’re really writing!
As an award-winning author and editor, since 1993, 50 + of my authors’ books have sold to Traditional publishers. Many have won awards, been made into films, been featured in Publishers Weekly, and become bestsellers. I also love English Labradors, red wine, and write literary fiction and co-authored nonfiction,
I really like the composition of this blog post. It’s interesting, and the use of blue text with the contrast of black furthers your point of the balance.
Many thanks for this lucid and thoughtful post. Just what’s needed. We are subjected to endless hectoring to ‘avoid the narrative voice’ in other words ‘show don’t tell’. Half baked and poorly understood.
And that’s the thing, Valerie. It HAS to be a balance. Otherwise all the noise becomes hectoring, as you said 🙂
Love that!
Susan
Excellent thoughts. Life is full of ebb and flow moments. Consequences come from choices people make that creates the shifting tides in life that impact everyone in our lives. Nothing we do is free from getting others wet from the effects of our actions. Memorable stories reflect the shifting tides of real life. Amen
Well said, Coach Brown! Everything we do ripples out . . .
Thank You for your insights,
Susan
Susan Mary Malone,
Your Ebb and Flow techniques remind the author that time is needed to flush out the character’s background. The ebb period allows this to enter the process.
For example, the conflict in the romance of a Ted and Julia might have just thrilled the reader with a fast-paced escape by the lovers away from two vengeful families. That could be seen as the flow part of the process.
Readers could learn about the characters through that flow as they saw a SHOW rather than TELL way of gaining information about the people.
But the ebb part of the process could reveal even more characterization. This allows readers to catch their breath. Imagine a relaxed scene in a diner over coffee after the chase. One character sees the other pick up a cell phone. The character could think, “Who is being called?”
But that issue of trust could allow the character to have a flashback of how the character dealt with trust years ago. A mistake occurred then. Now that mistake had to be avoided. The character watches the other put the cell away. A new chance for a verbal SHOW of the character happens. Will the lesson from the past affect the character seated in the diner. While they relax over coffee and the families have not found their location yet, they have more chance to reveal themselves to the reader.
I think this is close to what you meant by a benefit of ebb and flow.
Let me know what you think,
Tom Pope
Fiction Coach/Writing Teacher
I absolutely love this, Tom! Yes, yes! And I love how you weaved in backstory without even saying it 🙂
Well Done! Thank You,
Susan