Jonathan Safran Foer's novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close are both written in unconventional forms where in there are multiple story lines through multiple points in time interweaving over the course of each novel. This has multiple effects on the readers such as giving the stories a feeling of scale much larger than they would otherwise have felt had there been one straightforward story. It also often feels as if his stories are creating their own folklore for their own particular universe, with large stories behind not only major characters, but, especially in the case of Everything is Illuminated, stories of entire genealogical lines.
Creative Writing Prompt: This is a difficult one, after all, to pull off Jonathan Safran Foer's method took him the course of entire novels, however, we can give it a go.
Take an exercise or story you have already written which contains two or more characters. Read it over a couple times paying special attention to the characters themselves. Write each character a back story which interweaves into your work in such a way that the back story not only relates to the story as a whole, but expands upon it.
If time is not a factor for you, write a story from scratch with the elements discussed above. This will likely result in a much more organic feeling story.
Recommended Reading:
Jonathan Safran Foer is the contemporary author I would recommend to all writers. His books are unique in their tone, structure and themes, and he is not afraid to write about heavy issues, such as 9/11, and yet he balances these with a humanitarian spirit which creates a remarkable charm. Both books I highly recommend.
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