Quantum Storytelling

Writing the rough draft of Cameron Fields & the Thieves of Time in thirty days didn’t leave much room for research. I was aware of my glaring ignorance during the writing process. This is why I’ve always railed against preaching glory of the drafting process. Key problems generating a first draft in thirty days:

• I didn’t know anything about private investigation
• I didn’t know anything about criminal investigation

While reading How to Tell a Story: The Secrets of Writing Captivating Tales, I encountered a section on direct and indirect narrative.

Direct narrative is when you describe the action or events in detail. It’s an actual scene. Indirect narrative is when you gloss over the actions or events. An indirect narrative is a bridge or segue from one scene to another.

For example, if you were to write your character walking down the street and every detail of that experience, it would be a direct narrative. If the character is only walking down the street so you can get to the next scene of the story, you would keep it short and just say; “Bob walked down the street and entered the hotel.” Thus it becomes indirect narrative.

What’s amazing to me is that the direct narrative vs. indirect narrative haven’t been discussed in any of the storytelling books I’ve read to date. That or I just don’t remember, which illustrates the benefit to revising your knowledge of the craft.

One of the major problems of my first draft is that all the investigative portions are indirect narrative. Why? Because I don’t know anything about investigations, or how they are conducted. I didn’t have time to find out either. Fifty-thousand words in thirty days demands ignorance. Just write! Write, write, write!

You’ve got to read, too. Research! Otherwise your story will sink into indirect narrative in parts that should be direct narrative, and vice versa.