We're back! This week in Reading with Daniel, the novel-reading club for writers, we are talking about the late-early chapters of our current novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles -- focusing on how the author-narrator has begun sign posting events and consequences to come later in the story. This is a technique we might call hyperlinking, or future-flagging, or portal-ling.

A Gentleman in Moscow: portal-ling

Synposis:

(Alert that suicidal thoughts play a role in these chapters)

These chapters are relatively happy for the Count, although the pressures from the outside world, and from his own exiled consciousness, keep growing. Time has begun passing: the 1920s are progressing, and Nina does not stay nine years old. In addition, the Soviet regime's brutality is becoming clearer, as one of Count's friends is exiled unexpectedly. The Count begins a romance with a confident woman, yet the narrator tells us that in the near future, the Count will decide to take his own life.

In addition to these events, the reader possesses knowledge that the Count lacks: this era of Soviet rule will not only last for generations, but much more brutality and authoritarianism is on its way. For me, personally, this knowledge makes the Count's predicament much more hopeless and wretched.

Craft Lesson : future flagging

Most craft classes warn writers against authorial intervention. We are advised not to "head hop," jumping from one character's thoughts to another in the middle of a chapter, speaking via whichever brain seems most appealing in the moment; however, much worse than head hopping is the insertion of knowledge only an author could have. No one in 1922 has reliable knowledge of what 1923 or 1924 will bring; as individuals, we don't even know what we will be thinking and feeling in the future.

Yes, this sort of overt, obvious storytelling is natural to do in some contexts ("little did he know that soon he would be..."), but the serious, self-conscious novel has generally avoided it. Authors cleverly use a range of more subtle techniques -- foreshadowing, interior monologue etc -- to build up a sense of the protagonist's mental world. This feels to many writers (and readers) a more elegant approach than either informing or teasing us about the future of a fictional event we (as readers) have not yet reached.

Yet this novel, AGIM, even in the early-ish chapters, already includes multiple authorial comments that flag future events.

- the narrator tells us to look out for a particular side character.

- the narrator explains why the Count never had his planned meeting with a friend.

- the narrator alerts us that the Count will decide to kill himself some years after the chapter in which that news is delivered.

This novel, I think, shows the benefits and value of future flagging. Sometimes you find yourself writing a story where, either for a part of the tale or the whole, it's not really possible to use the standard plotting devices of the typical author. Perhaps you are writing a roadtrip novel, or a wide-angled society commentary. Perhaps there is no way to design a tight, forward-leaning, conventional, act-structured tale -- not without revising everything.

Future-flagging can be a great way of creating a kind of substitute plot in such a novel.

The Count is not, in these chapters, trying solve a murder. He isn't trying to finish a second radical poem. He is just living -- in pleasant confined exile. So there isn't a standard plot here, with the action building and the Count having to take bolder steps each time.

Most teachers would tell you to revise such a novel; but this technique shows you a way to keep your existing struture but do what your teachers and peers are asking for -- to give the feeling that this is a story, not just a series of slices of life. When the reader asks, "Um, I like Count Rostov, but this feels like it's dragging a little--" the novel neatly provides us with a reason to keep reading.

It isn't a full subtitute for a novel, but it really works here!

Do you want to try this out?

Imagine the main character in your current novel or an imaginary main character. Maybe this is someone a lot like you.

Sketch out or plan out a new scene with this character. You might write about a trip they made to a local shop to get some essential goods for their friend's party. Imagine that this scene involves some tension, some challenge -- but the character heads to the friend's house basically content.

Now add a future flag, from the narrator, explaining something the protagonist did not understand at the time. Ideally, for this exercise, the future flag should describe a real, external challenge that the protagonist will face (i.e. not simply a misunderstood social moment).

Be shameless! Don't try to be artful and subtle. Do it now and blame me if someone finds your notes and is shocked.

Yours,

Daniel

To Anonymity: on future flagging

This course is only available for enrolled students only.

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