Plot Strutcture and Narrative perspective

Narrative perspective - or Viewpoint - refers to the lense in which a story is told. The two most common ones being 'first-person perspective' and 'third-person perspective'.

The plot structure is the order of sequence of events in which the narrative unravels. The two that are most predominantly used in storytelling are 'linear' and 'non-linear'.

There are no official rules for how you tell your story, but the two often influence each other and should adapt according to the story and the genre - for example, memoirs require a first-person perspective - and depending on what you choose, it will hugely impact the telling of the story. Audiences do tend to prefer familiarity and consistency so it is recommended that you don't switch between different devices too regularly, for example, try to stick to one viewpoint in a single scene. According to the writer Amanda Patterson (Patterson, 2013) there are ten different rules you can structure a viewpoint using first-person, second-person and third-person perspectives. The first 6 come under the first-person perspective, this allows the reader/audience to feel a greater intimacy with the protagonist, however, the narrator is often biased and limited to what they know:

• Simple – One character tells the whole story from their perspective, e.g. 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Brontë

• Simple Unreliable Narrator – One character tells the story, but we don’t know if they are telling the truth, e.g. 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time', by Mark Haddon

• Rashomon Effect – Multiple characters tell their version of the same events in the story, often very different and highlighting the unreliability of memory, e.g. 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn

• Separate Multiple Viewpoints – Multiple characters tell their story from their own perspective, often from different parts of the world, which allows for their timeline to either overlap or be completely separate, e.g. 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelly

• Sequential Multiple Viewpoints – This means different characters tell the story from their perspective in a timeline or sequence. You may have one character narrating events in January, and another narrating events from February to June, e.g. 'The family sagas' by Susan Howatch.

• First Person Omniscient – The narrator is a character in the story, but also knows the thoughts and feelings of all the other characters. e.g. 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold.

The seventh rule on this list is the second-person narrative, which tells the story using the 'you' pronoun. It is the least common perspective authors use which allows for a unique experience. It is often used to make the reader feel uncomfortable. This tool is a good way to immerse the reader/ audience into the narrative and have them feel as though they are inside the world of the story. However, it is difficult to execute well and can alienate the reader/audience. A good example of this is 'Bright Lights, Big City' by Jay McInerney.

You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. - Bright Lights, Big City

Rules eight, nine and ten belong to Amanda Patterson's third-person category. This category offers a wider window into the world and the characters in this world, however, it does provide less intimacy between the characters and the readers/ audience :

• Subjective – The narrator focuses on one character and their thoughts and feelings, e.g. 'The Old Man And The Sea' by Ernest Hemingway. (You can also use separate multiple viewpoints and sequential multiple viewpoints in third person subjective.)

• Omniscient – The narrator gives a broad view of the story. The thoughts and feelings of many - or all - of the characters in the story e.g. 'Little Women' by Louisa May Alcott

• Objective – The narrator observes, and the story is told according to the actions of the character. Readers/ the audience have no idea what is going on inside the heads of the main characters, e.g. Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemmingway

There are really only two ways to structure the timeline of events in a story, through a linear timeline, or through a non-linear timeline. The writer is then free to play with the two, overlapping them and switching between. There are, however, countless ways to structure the events of a story in ways that allow for an overarching narrative. It was the Greek philosopher, Aristotle who developed the idea of a 'beginning, middle and end' (SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE, 2015) through his poetics, he split his plays into two actions: complication and unravelling. Roman poet Horace believed "a play should be no shorter or longer than 5 acts." The exposition, rising action, the climax, falling action, resolution (Horace, 1985). Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote plays in 3 and 4 acts, as well as 5 acts (Universal Compendium, 2021). The point I am making is that much like a narrative perspective, there are no rules regarding plot structure, just 'recommended' do's and dont's. The structure of a story is free for the writer to decide and free to be influenced by the viewpoint(s) of the story.

I am most interested in the idea of a story that uses the Rashomon effect and follows a non-linear structure - the Rashomon effect often has to use a non-linear structure as it relies on re-tellings of the same event in time and the use of flashbacks. There are a lot of risks around telling a story from multiple points of view, especially when telling it not in chronological order. It is difficult to make multiple plot lines as interesting as each other. Readers/ audiences will have their prefered character(s) and will get frustrated when they are frequently forced to read/watch a different story, unrelated to the one they are enjoying so much. it can also lead to an inability to follow the narrative and timeline, leaving readers/ audiences confused, which could take them out of the experience entirely. There are, however, simple ways to mitigate some of these issues. For example, keeping the viewpoints closely related, having the decisions made by one viewpoint character directly impact the other viewpoint characters - you want to avoid making it feel like someone is reading or watching two completely different stories, but instead, one story that is told through the use different vehicles. Another way is you can have the separate stories eventually come together and have the reader/audience suddenly realises that all the events that led up to this meeting were in fact hugely important, or vice versa, have the characters start together and then after a clear relationship is established, have them go their separate ways.

The reason I would like to use the Rashomon effect is that I am fascinated by what it reveals about the way humans perceive things and how our memories are flawed and unreliable. It forces us to question what is real and why we believe what we believe. It also has the ability to make us take a step back, and think about how we impact those around us. much like the VR and 360 video, it gives us a wider perspective and potentially an increased amount of empathy.

Brooks, L. (2013). 'Story physics : harnessing the underlying forces of storytelling'. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books.

Horace (1985). The Ars poetica. Cambridge U.A.: Univ. Press.

James, S. (2014). 'Story trumps structure : how to write unforgettable fiction by breaking the rules'. Cincinnati, Oh: Writer’s Digest Books.

Patterson, A. (2013) 'How Viewpoint Works – 10 Ways To Tell A Story'. [online] Writers Write. Available at: <https://www.writerswrite.co.za/how-viewpoint-works/> [Accessed 06 January 2021]

Sententiae Antiquae (2015). 'The Plot Has Beginning, Middle and End: Aristotle, Poetics 1450b-1451a'. [online] Sententiae Antiquae. Available at: <https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2015/06/21/the-plot-has-beginning-middle-and-end-aristotle-poetics-1450b-1451a/> [Accessed 26 Nov. 2020]. ‌Seymour, C. (1978). 'Story and discourse : Narrative structure in fiction and film'. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

Universal Compendium (2021). The Plays of Henrik Ibsen. [online] Universalcompendium.com Available at: <https://www.universalcompendium.com/tables/lit/ibsen.htm> [Accessed 06 January 2021].

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