Shapes of Stories

A masterclass with Aiysha Jahan

by Sudha Subramanian

Aiysha’s masterclass on plotting began a week ahead of the scheduled date with reading resources (that also made for a pleasant read).  Aiysha called it Shapes of Stories – a guide to plotting short stories. Our session began with Grant Snider’s comic strip called The Story Coaster, and this picture was a fantastic hint to what would unfold in the next hour and our understanding of the classical composition of a short story: 

Inciting incident –> rising conflict –> resolution

The inciting incident is the most critical aspect of the story, and we wasted no time decoding it. Peppered with examples, we explored what can cause the inciting incident, how can it impact the protagonist, and how can it be resolved. Excerpts from “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri, “What you Pawn I will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie, “My Chivalric Fiasco” by George Saunders and Adichie’s “A Private Experience” highlighted the moment of disruption in the character’s life. It was caused by: 

• something the character did
• a coincidence
• something we would learn about as the story progressed

These moments upset the ‘everyday’ and set the character up to face challenges. 

Aiysha also shared some advice on how we can include an inciting incident:

• By knowing our protagonist well: What is their every day like? Are they happy/satisfied with their lives? What is the thing that can set them on a journey to find fulfilment? What are their fears, and how can the story explore/challenge them? 
• By bringing in a noticeable shift in the character.

With the inciting incident in place, Aiysha spoke about how, as writers, we often struggle with the ending. Concluding the story should settle the rising tension and resolve the issues that have been set in motion by the inciting incident. One of the critical aspects for concluding the story is the use of an epiphany. We looked at examples from Dubliners where we explored the pivotal moment as a memorable phase of realisation. We also delved into the opposite idea, where stories have open endings or quiet moments with no overt wisdom gained, as expressed by Charles Baxter in his essay “Against Epiphanies”.

For me, however, the biggest takeaway was that the characters we create will live past the moment we capture in the story, and therefore, it is imperative to grant the readers a state of completeness.

The second aspect of lending shape to story-writing was the characters’ journey through scenes and summaries. 

Scene: A scene is a fundamental unit of a story that offers a glimpse of time and place. It also encapsulates conflict and tension for the reader. 

Summary: Summary helps bring the reader up to speed. It is often used to speed up time and offer context; a summary can be a phrase or a longer text that knits scenes together so that the reader is transported to the point of reference without details that may slow the story down. And the idea of scene and summary during the masterclass came alive with a humorous cartoon by Tom Gauld (What is a class without some laughs?).

We also discussed the importance of handling time smoothly when weaving together scenes and summaries. When planning a story, we have to consider if our story will be told in a linear manner, where the events occur chronologically, or non-linearly, where the narrative goes back and forth in time. We must also consider our timeline. Short stories usually have shorter timelines, and novels are spread across weeks, months, or even years. However, there are exceptions in both cases. 

With the ‘now’ of the story established, scenes and summaries can go back in time as a flashback (analepsis), or the natural order of the story can be interrupted to go forward (prolepsis), though this is not as common. Adiche’s “A Private Experience” is an excellent example of how prolepsis can be knit into a short story. However, the challenge is a smooth transition for the reader. 

In a nutshell, the shape of a story is how it morphs from a teeny seed of an idea, thickening with an inciting incident and growing through time and space and flourishing. To do this, we read, practise and watch our stories shape to perfection. 

The recommended reading list Aiysha shared: 

“Sealskin” by Tyler Keevil

“What you Pawn, I will redeem” by Sherman Alexie

“The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich

“Eyewall” by Lauren Groff

“My Chivalric Fiasco” by George Saunders

“Arrival” and “Red River” by Gurnaik Johal

“Stone Mattress” by Margaret Atwood

“Bullet In the Brain” by Tobias Wolff

“A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri

“A Private Experience” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie