The Shape of the Story: Using the Lemniscate as a Narrative Structure for Writing Non-Linear Stories

The Shape of the Story: Using the Lemniscate as a Narrative
Structure for Writing Non-Linear Stories

Just as geometers must choose the proper setting for a mathematical problem, writers must choose the most suitable shape for a story. However, this task is difficult for writers whose work does not conform to a linear form. This is because linear narrative, which is typically structured around a beginning, middle, and end, does not serve a story that defies chronological order, such as an illness memoir, which is marked by relapse, or a story of diaspora, which is fragmented. The frustration that writers often feel when confronted with structural problems may be alleviated through deeper consideration of the relationship between content and form, or what a story says and how a story works. This paper proposes the lemniscate as a new way of writing non-linear stories that oscillate between spatio-temporal constructs, such as past and present. The lemniscate, as the mathematical symbol for infinity (∞), is a line that moves continuously forward as it moves continuously backward. As the shape is defined by continuity, counterpoint, and simultaneity, it may assemble stories with the same qualities. This paper demonstrates how the lemniscate differs to other non-linear structures, such as the rhizome, and as such, is a new tool for bringing shape to narrative.