Narrative Drive
I’ve been thinking
a lot this last week about narrative drive. What it is. How it works. And
why it works. Every story I’ve read has been fodder for my thoughts on
the topic.
First, what is
narrative drive? It’s different from characters and setting. Many people say it
means a tale is “plot driven,” but I don’t think so. I believe
it means: “that element of a story that keeps you turning pages and wanting to
know what happens next.” This is most often tied to plot but is not identical
with it and also includes aspects of character and setting.
Narrative drive is
about information, specifically, the release of information to the reader. The
biggest tool writers have is that they know what’s going to happen in a story
ahead of readers. Information is the energy that drives a tale, and the
writers own all that information. To begin with, at least.
A story with
narrative drive releases that hoarded information to the reader in dribs and
drabs, giving only that information to the reader that the he or she wants and must
have to understand what is happening. Just that much information. And no
more.
Recently, for
example, I read The Outsider by Stephen King. It begins with a murder
and a suspect who just doesn’t seem capable of doing it. Yet, the evidence is
against him. As a reader, I want to know how this situation can be explained,
and King does a masterful job of releasing the information I want in little
bits at a time. You might say, he ‘milks’ the situation for all he can get, and
that kept me turning the pages, looking for the next tidbit. That’s narrative
drive.
In contrast, I
just finished an SF novella that failed the narrative drive test. This story
was written by an author I admire, who is gone now, and who I’ve enjoyed plenty
of stuff from in the past. The writing itself was excellent, better than King’s
prose, but the problem was that halfway through the author telegraphed
the ending and for the rest of the way the tale felt like a paint by numbers
piece.
With King’s story,
I was too absorbed to look ahead and see how many pages were left. With the SF
story, I looked ahead just to see how many pages were left. Meaning, how
many pages did I need to read before I could move on to something with greater
narrative drive.
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