One thing I played around with last year was a narrative format called kishōtenketsu. I had read about it many years ago - basically stumbled on some random article about it - and was immediately hooked and wanted to try it. To summarize - it’s a format with no explicit conflict. Instead, a kishōtenketsu story includes two different and apparently unrelated plot lines, which are resolved in the conclusion.

So finally last year I gave this thing a whirl! It was the format for my short story The Game. In fact I used the format twice over - once for the story as a whole, and another time for part 3. I don’t really know the first thing about writing, let alone writing in a format which I don’t often encounter in my everyday reading, so it was a bit of flying blind. But I really enjoyed it!

I’ve always been a little bit uncomfortable with the idea that good stories should contain conflict. No doubt there are plenty of great stories that contain conflict… but is it really absolutely necessary?

Kishōtenketsu grabbed my interest. lo these many years ago, because it sounded so harmonious and you might say mellow. I feel that it came through in this story. I like to think it’s an interesting story which grabs the reader’s attention - without really pitting any characters against one another. I also think it wound up fitting the overall idea of this story reasonably well. Of course you’re welcome to judge for yourself.

Naturally - this story format is one not native to me, I’ve borrowed it pretty licentiously from another culture. I hope I’ve paid it due respect without appropriating it or making light of it. Certainly I learned a lot along the way. I hope you like it!