In my last post, I briefly mentioned how beginnings and endings often know each other in fiction.

This lends itself for me to introduce a writing technique I’d like to discuss today: tracking.

By repeatedly addressing familiar objects, sounds, themes, and threads, a writer can effectively string together a body of work as one complete and coherent piece.

I often talk about this in my classes at Fullerton College because it can apply to essay writing, too. Like writing a thirty-page essay, writing a thirty-page story carries with it its own challenges.

One of them is establishing coherence from the beginning of the essay/story to its end. We want our readers to recognize that they are reading the same essay on page five as they are on page twenty five.

For example, I want you to think of one of your favorite songs on the radio. Though the verses may change, the meter and choruses in these songs hold everything together.

Stories are no different, whether the story is a short one or a longer one. The difference is what the writer allows us to track.

I often use Denis Johnson’s “Emergency” to talk about tracking. In this story, Johnson lets us track a hunting knife and his use of danger/humor, among other things. (He has this technique of presenting dangerous situations and ratcheting them up until we have no choice but to laugh!) If you haven’t read this story before, The New Yorker has posted a podcast of Tobias Wolff (another one of my favorite writers) reading “Emergency.” I’ve also embedded it below for your listening pleasure. (Thanks, George LidstoneWheeler!) If you’d like a complete copy of the story, it can be found in Johnson’s short story collection, Jesus’ Son: Stories.

https://soundcloud.com/george-lidstonewheeler/tobias-wolff-reads-denis

For this week, I would like you to think about how you use tracking in your stories, and please feel free to send me a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time, write your heart out!

Photo credit: jenny downing / Foter.com / CC BY