What is narrative-driven fiction? (Take 2)

I've never heard of narrative-driven fiction. I've heard of narrative drive, where there's something going on that moves the story and keeps readers interested. But there are a lot of ways to achieve narrative drive.

Is this stated on legitimate, established agent sites or in places that are less reliable?

I took a course in college called "The Art of Narration." The textbook we used was great - Cambridge Intro to Narrative by Abbott and narrative writing was defined by the author as containing the following characteristics:

1) a narrator;
2) a relationship of the narrator to the reader;
3) scene;
4) plot;
5) characters & characterization;
6) theme or purpose.

But really, all fiction should have these elements.

When I read the term "narrative driven fiction" I think of something that reads more literary, that blends the constituent events, or bare bones of the story, with supplementary events and details that elevate the prose. Perhaps there is an overarching theme and a hidden, deeper theme throughout the work. The story is more than just episodic chapters loosely linked together. I saw the other postings that questioned whether this term meant plot-driven v. character-driven. I don't think it really refers to either, it is more about the marriage of plot and character in an engaging way, balanced against each other.

To me, this term "narrative driven fiction" feels like I a fancy pants way to say "I'm looking for a great story, a page-turner, or a book that makes me miss my subway stop."

alias octavia said:

When I read the term "narrative driven fiction" I think of something that reads more literary, that blends the constituent events, or bare bones of the story, with supplementary events and details that elevate the prose. Perhaps there is an overarching theme and a hidden, deeper theme throughout the work. The story is more than just episodic chapters loosely linked together.

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This is how I always took it, too; but whaddoiknow?

Actually, when I say more "narrative-driven," I mean that I want actual narration and not just a lot of dialogue strung together by bits of narration.

Z

Ok so I just started listening to Shopgirl by Steve Martin on Audio Book. (it caught my eye at the library) I haven't read it yet, but I ordered it. Would that book be an example of narrative driven book? It is being told my a omniscient narrator other than a character, and is almost all thoughts and motivations and has very little dialog.

Narration and "internal monologuing" are not the same thing, I feel. I haven't read shopgirl, so I don't know. Nelson DeMille is a fairly narrative-driven author. Robert Heinlein was also. I used to edit the Columbo mysteries by Bill Harrington and he was very dialogue-driven. Is it really that hard to recognize the difference?

Z

Well, about twenty different possible definitions for "narrative-driven fiction" were thrown out, some exactly the opposite of one another. As it happened, yours wasn't one of them. I think the consensus was that narrative-driven meant chronologically told with a conventional structure (exposition, development, climax, resolution). So I guess the answer is that it isn't at all easy to figure out what it means.

I think if you are trying to define it for a creative-writing class, that approach may work, but if you are just trying to figure out what an agent means, my guess is he or she means there's an actual narrative of action and events and not just line after line of "...," he said.

Is it really that hard to recognize the difference?

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If you look at the thread on this topic in the novel writing forum you would know the answer to this question.

I admit that I lurked on that thread and didn't say that I thought it might be about the actual 'narrative' part. There isn't much talk about that part on the boards, I've noticed. Or it is sometimes seen as a bad thing [ducking]. I don't like too much done through dialogue and wondered if I were just more odd than I thought