Story Types – Event

Christmas is near! Houses are lit up in dark with green and red bulbs, wreaths hang heavy on front doors, and malls become packed with increasingly desperate shoppers. So much happens during December for the sole purpose of this impending event. It brings families closer together (or tears them apart) and is the time for miracles as well!

Orson Scott Card describes the event variant as something that occurs which disrupts the natural order of the world. This can be an earthquake, invasion, birth of the anti-christ, anything like that! The conclusion of this story type typically comes about when a new world order is established or, sometimes, when the old world order is re-established.

Okay, so Christmas isn’t the “ideal” event story, as described by OSC, but I wanted to somehow tie in this crazy time of year with today’s topic.

Some great examples of event stories come from the fantasy genre. This is likely due to how grand in scope they tend to be. Take Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, Sauron’s forces grow and begin to influence the land of hobbits, men, dwarves, and elves. They must band together in hopes of surviving. Of course, destroy that pesky ring as well!

The best examples out there don’t attempt to info dump up front, but actually reveal the world slowly through the eyes of just a few characters. In A Song of Ice and Fire, the events of a vacant throne pitch an entire continent into war. This is described by a constantly-rotating list of first-person accounts chapter by chapter.

While I’ve taken a crack at this story type previously, non of those have been published. My current work in progress, a sci-fi novel, is actually event-based which I’m excited about.

If you have an example of an event story you’ve enjoyed, or written, feel free to let me know in the comments! Also, it continues to be a bit of a struggle to find writing time lately but I’m trying. My posts may only sporadically appear for the next month or two as I try to time manage better. For my readers, I appreciate your patience!

Enjoy the holiday season, it goes by quick!

Keep turning the page,

Chris