Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Hey Nathan,

Me again. What's the general opinion on a novel formatted like a diary, where the story is told episodically (day 1, day 2, etc.)? It seems like "if it works, it works" would be appropriate here, but I just haven't seen many such books on the shelves lately. Maybe I haven't been looking hard enough.

See, the problem is that the MC works alone--hence, no real dialogue with any other characters between destinations. So instead the reader would simply be presented with long, boring treks from one place to the next if I laid the book out normally rather than episodically. Plus, if anything did happen between destinations I could just add an entry for it. Again, it seems like it would work, but I didn't know if agents might frown on it or not.

If it works it works!

On the boring parts though, I don't know that you have to change an entire format in order to not have those. One of the great tricks in the novelist's arsenal are skipping things that don't need great detail to get the characters from Point A to Point B.

True, but it'd still seem a little episodic if I went that way. Ah well -- I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. Later, though. Thanks!