Immediacy in Fiction
Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon
Reality consists not just of what has happened and what will happen, but also of what might have happened before and could happen next. In the present, there is a cloud of probabilities (as in quantum physics) that will be resolved when a decision is made or an action is taken. This reminds me of chess (Think Like a Grandmaster by Kotov) where after every move a new set of candidate next moves is revealed in a branching pattern. In my favorite novels, every moment is enriched by such a cloud of potential (as you make very clear). A moment seen from the perspective of someone who sees those possibilities is much more interesting and complex than the single narrow path of events that is evident when looking back at what actually happened. Readers should feel like they are present as events unfold and decisions are made.
I strive for that kind of immediacy in my novels. the difference between reading contemporary news reports and letters and reading a history book which is written teleologically, in full knowledge of what happened next and hence only paying attention to what led to the outcome. I want to feel the immediacy of events as they unfold, the narrative power of anticipation. What characters expect and what they fear loom large as they live through events.
