As the title. Would reading through the first act of a novel be enough to identify a Storyform?
Or would the perspective provided be too narrow? When folks around here analyze, the seem to point out multiple examples throughout a film.
I’m interested in doing some limited analyses with novels. I’m wondering if looking at act one would be enough. Or would it be too open to subjective interpretation with just a helping of the story?
Thanks.
In my experience. No. Mostly. You won’t get some key details. The outcome, etc. In some novels, you’d have a broken limit, or some other twist in the end. What should be most apparent is the OS and MC themes. Perhaps the OS concern too.
What I’d recommend is a short work. Not a short story but a short book. I read one book late last year and frankly, it was my best read last year.
Book: Jane Doe by Victoria Helen stone. Some of the best writing I’ve read in my life, and a complete storyform. If you’re inclined to try, we could all read it and work on an analysis together.
Agree with @Khodu. You can guess at certain parts of the storyform, and you might turn out to be right. Certain things like Concern location (top-right, bottom-left, etc.) can often be felt early in the story. But many of your guesses may turn out to be wrong. Every part of the story can be used to communicate the storyform, and twists at the end can reveal a very different structure.
Plus, like @Khodu says, some points – Resolve, Outcome, Judgment – are impossible to know before you get to the end. (They can sometimes be inferred ahead of time if you think you know other story points, but you’ll never know for sure until the story’s over.)
And just to quote the late, great, Steve Jobs. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”.
Understanding is gained in hindsight.
Don’t forget that the first act might set up a great storyform only to have it all fall apart at the beginning of the third act!
You have to read the whole thing. Every time I think I have a storyform figured out from the beginning, I end up finding out I was way off!
Thanks. I appreciate the offer of co-analysis, and I’ll surely take you up on it in the future.
Thanks to all for your relies.
At the moment, I’m dissecting kids stories such as: The Worst Witch. With a word count just over 2200, I am curious what I can find. I feel like the shorter length and the handholding that goes along with kid’s storytelling should allow for a faster analysis.
After I get a feel for the process, I hope to tackle The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I’m often puzzled why reading seems much more of a chore in my middle age so I’m going back in time.
You’re welcome. What I’ve found is that most kids stories are anecdotes. Tales in the Dramatica sense. Hence, lacking a complete storyform.
For those that do have a complete storyform, you’ll find that the resolution while exploring the story points is very broad strokes. Often hovering at the Type level.
@chuntley has actually written an analysis already of the film version, which is very faithful to the book:
http://dramatica.com/articles/the-chronicles-of-narnia-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe
Good idea. Faster analysis is one of the main reasons why there are a lot more film analyses than book analyses, since most screenplays are shorter than most novels.