I've been thinking about this because my four-year old Mason is
currently very into the Scooby-Doo mystery chapter books by James Gelsey. One of the things that Mason and I first noticed was the formula. For these books, it goes something like this: Chapters 1 - 4the suspects and situation are introduced. Chapter 5, the monster shows up! Chapter 6, Velma finds a clue (note: it is almost always Velma who finds the clue, as Fred and Daphne are off together somewhere "goofing off.") Chapter 6, the Mystery, Inc. gang takes the case. Chapter 7, Velma solves the case, but doesn't reveal who the monster is. Chapter 8, they set the trap Fred thinks up, which always includes Scooby and Shaggy as bait. Chapter 9, everything goes awry, but the villain is defeated anyway and mystery revealed.Mason LIVES for this formula. In fact, part of the enjoyment for Mason is knowing, in advance, what's going to happen and when to start anticipating the excitement. I think that there's something important about this in terms of becoming a life-long reader. Knowing that books (unlike life) are, in point of fact, somewhat predictable is what makes them both comforting and exciting. But more on the exciting, because the moment we know Bob Smith hates the amusement park going in next door, Mason and I start trying to guess if he will be the villain revealed at the end, and then suddenly everything Smith does is fraught with meaning and the whole story becomes more engaging.
I don't know what I want to say about this, except that I noticed it now for the first time after having read over a dozen of these in that many days, and I think there's something here that's important to writers of all books -- not just writers of mystery or YA. Formulas aren't bad. In fact, I think they're necessary. The reader needs them to anticipate, and the writers needs to know them to write against them.
2 comments:
One can argue "the formula" is human storytelling in its most basic form.
I used to read a lot of thriller/suspense novels, and the formula goes something like this: there's a prologue with Strange Happenings. Chapter One opens with Strange Happenings that have absolutely nothing to do with the Strange Happenings in the prologue. The remainder of the book is spent tying the two Strange Happenings together while our Hero eludes the Bad Guys Who Are After Him while simultaneously Solving The Mystery.
As a reader, I know that the story's going to go like that, and I know that the Good Guys will win and the Bad Guys will lose, but I don't know how the two events are tied together and how everything's are going to shake out. That's the fun of reading.
I'll go a step further and say that when stories aren't told in the usual way it can feel very wrong.
I saw a movie not too long ago, an indie, that a lot of people had praised, but to me it was basically a bunch of character sketches strung together. They didn't build. Nobody changed. And somewhere along the way, the never-ending lack of tension- building left me quite bored and then kind of irritated.
The guy I saw the movie with said that it was supposed to be a reflection of real life, which of course doesn't always a build to a climax.
I was like..."Real life. I believe I'm living that, and it's far from interesting at times." Call me crazy, but I like to be entertained by my entertainment. I love that stories have a beginnings and twisting, tension-filled middles that lead to statisfying endings.
I agree with you, Tate. Give me the formula.
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