To extend a little bit on my article of last week, about telling stories vs writing them, I wanted to return to a favorite traditional song example that I referenced here for a different article 3 years ago — Lady Diamond. Check at the above link for the text of the song and its background.

Lady Diamond is a bog-standard British-traditional ballad, one of the cleanest examples (along with Lord Musgrave) I know of a story structure that we still adhere to (a lot of the time) in plotting our stories.

Getting more into the detail than the simple “4-act structure with pivot point”, I wanted to explore the way rhetoric is used to move the plot along. To begin with, it tells, setting the scene and explaining the opening state of affairs. Then it dwells on the chance action of the king which sets off the discovery of the crime.

It tells of the king’s set of actions, and then dwells expansively upon the results, one by one, as they ensue, capped by the daughter’s response. When that response completes, the song tells of the the daughter’s death and the king’s dismay, and then dwells upon his regret.

Each of these tell sections are painting for the listener the events that happen. Each of the dwell sections are invitations for the listener to feel what the character feels, both in primary content, and (to some degree) in length of description. That back and forth is what gives the tale its structure and balance — the presentation, and the invitation to empathize.

A ballad is a miniature compared to a novel, and yet it tells a full and affective story. It assumes that a gripping and memorable tale needs both narrative explanation and plenty of room to breathe and reflect, that those two constructive requirements embody the texture of a good tale. We could do worse than follow the rhythmic back and forth of that seesaw in our own tales, in whole or in part.

Do you notice older story-telling rhetoric in your narrative efforts when you write? Where does it come from, for you?

I get it from dead languages and older forms such as epic, ballad, fairy tales, and oral-formulaic poetry (I blame Tolkien for pushing me down that path – and I’m grateful).