What Happened?

[EternalGreen]

In their books, "Capitalism and Schizophrenia" authors Deleuze and Guattari have a chapter dedicated to the novella.

You can find the books publicly, but if you're just interested in this chapter, I've uploaded it here. (It's really helpful. Have a look.)

Their theory of the novella is "what happened?"

In cases where novellas focus on "mysterious" events, they are distinct from whodunits because "it" is unknown.

My novella follows this principle, at least in part.

[Taylor]

I tried to read this article but I think it is way over my head!

However, I like the premise of thinking in the three time periods "What happened?", "What is happening now?" and "What is going to happen?" I could see using that as a starting framework for any piece of fiction, when developing a plot.

I'll take another go at it later...not one to easliy get defeated. What are some of your other takeaways?

[EternalGreen]

Well I feel like "what happened" can make a story feel inevitable. An event happens with deterministically pushes the story along. Everything can be preordained before the first word of the first chapter.

This is how I think about my book. The events could never have turned out any other way . . .

[Taylor]

Well I feel like "what happened" can make a story feel inevitable. An event happens with deterministically pushes the story along. Everything can be preordained before the first word of the first chapter.

This is how I think about my book. The events could never have turned out any other way . . .

Ok, I see. So the way I understand it, there is a distinction between A)"what actually happened?" and B)"what events happened" inorder for this event to have occurred? So for the whodunit, A) would be the murder and B) would be all the clues to the 'who', that occur though out the book. I think what you are saying is your book or a novella starts with you determining B), without stating A) at the beginning. Is that right?

When I think about my novel it is the latter. I walk the reader through the events, but the event doesn't actually happen till the end. However, I hint that something, and very vague happened in the prologue. But I have been wondering if I need the prologue. I think I added it, in efforts to fit into the crime genre. What do you think?