I’ve been reading a lot on how to construct a compelling plot, things like Save the Cat Writes a Novel, The Story Grid, Story Genius, etc. I think they’re all good books and should be read by all writers. After I finish writing a scene I even like to go and run it through a modified version of the Story Grid’s criteria to see how it flows. There is a reason why writers adhere to the principals in these books, the lessons in them touch deeply into our psychology as a story loving species. But I don’t think they’re the only kinds of stories out there.
There’s a genre I like to read and write that doesn’t usually hit the best seller list. It’s less a genre and more of a story telling philosophy, actually. I like to call it “weird stuff happens, people deal with it.” Usually these stories are about strange things happening and the internal thoughts of the main character. The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa, and A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck come to mind. (My favorite book of all time, Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer might fit this bill too, but I think Vandermeer does something different. One of these days I might write a detailed series on the genius of that book and the rest of the series it’s in) Both of these books are more interested in the philosophical implications of their premise than following any traditional story structure.
In The Memory Police, the unnamed main character (another trope I just absolutely love), along with everyone else on the island she calls home, all collectively undergo a society wide amnesia periodically. Forgetting concepts of things, and being encouraged to rid themselves of those things when the process of forgetting begins. There is a subplot of her protecting a coworker of her’s who’s incapable of forgetting (and the titular Memory Police try to eradicate), but it’s not the main point of the plot. It’s been a while since I read the book, but I remember correctly most of the story revolves around her day to day life on this unnamed island as they forget things during the course of the book. There are tragedies and bad things that happen, like the main character getting interrogated and later raided by the Memory Police, but most of the book is more about her just living and surviving in this world and trying to find meaning in it.
A Short Stay in Hell is a little closer to the lessons taught in the books on story I mentioned earlier. The main character is more active in the plot and the world around him, but since this is a book about the shear magnitude of eternity, those decisions ultimately end up being inconsequential, which is a major theme in the book: Just how long infinity actually is. Even by the end of the book the main character has been trapped in this rather mellow version of hell for trillions of years and can’t get out, even though he’s doing what he has to do to escape (find a book in this nearly infinitive library that tells the full story of his life).
Both of these books are about the internal effects these weird situations have on the main character. There are no heroic moments, just people living their lives in these situations. The characters have some level of agency but it’s ultimately not the point. The point of both of these stories (other than their themes) is just how the world around them gets inside their heads and ultimately has its way with them. Weird stuff happens, and they just have to deal with it. A thing The Story Grid teaches is that every scene has to turn on a revelation or action, but I don’t think that’s the case with either of these stories. In The Story Grid’s defense, the author is a thriller editor and that philosophy is definitely true for thrillers.
There’s another genre where this kind of philosophy works really well: the sitcom, at least the popular ones on network TV in the 90s. Sitcoms are not interested in the growth and development of their characters, they are more interested in the reactions their characters have in different situations, untimely resetting to the status quo, both in the internal and external plot. Maybe this philosophy works best, at least on a more wide-appeal level, in comedy, but I think there’s a niche for it in other genres too.
Personally I like to write all kinds of stories, from fun fast paced ones that fit the philosophy of the books I mentioned in the intro, to slower paced ones. However, the kinds of stories that always seem to affect me the most are those just about people just trying to deal with everything happening around them. I am a sucker for slice of life stories after all. So if you have an idea for a story that’s just about somebody living life for a bit, go ahead and write it. I can’t guarantee that you’ll be a best seller, but I can assure you that somebody out there will read it and love it.
p.s. I’m open for being corrected though. I will admit that it’s been a bit since I read either of these books, and as I was writing this that I realized that the story of A Short Stay In Hell might not be the right choice for this post. Maybe I just needed an excuse to talk about that book because I loved it so much (and writing this post made me want to read it again). Nothing captures my imagination more than a character facing their own cosmic insignificance.
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