Sequence in Stories

The necessity for a close study of sequence is shown by the fact that this quality is one of the essentials in good writing. Its presence or its absence shows the difference between an amateur and a finished writer. The lack of it shuts out a composition from consideration by editors and readers alike. Such deficiency indicates not only the lack of capability in writing, but also the poorer quality of mind; the mind stuff that is produced by the childish, the garrulous, the insane. Every one, be he writer or no, should look after the continuity of his thought, both for his own sake and that of the people with whom he comes in contact.

There are two phases of the subject for the writer, one dealing with the visible forms of sequence, and these are very important both as an aid to the reader and also as a means of keeping the mind of the writer steady; and the other phase is, in fact, but the enlargement of these visible aids to the whole field of correlated thought.

In the former case this relationship is indicated by words of retrospective and prospective reference. The pronouns, pronominal adjectives, certain adverbs, conjunctions where there is a choice or rejection of choice, all of these and some others are the links of the great chain of connected ideas. In the perfect adaptation of these to a production of thought we find great pleasure in the reading; without, there is none.

It is not enough, however, that words should show relationship of ideas; for as ideas grow and develop into thoughts they still require that power of connection, and this a power, too, that can not be relegated to guide-posts. Sequence of thought is a rather more complicated consideration than the sequence of verbal construction.

There is a close connection between thought correlation and unity of the whole; for without the one you can not very long maintain the other. Unity has to do with the assimilation of thought, but sequence is the active process of digestion. Unless the material is closely segregated in properly distributed and allied working stuff, there can be no proper assimilation—for the heart would have material for rebuilding liver cells, and vice versa, and so on to destruction.

In other words, without a prearranged and properly connected train of thought you can not construct a composition that will appeal as a unit to the mind. The relationship must be known to be true. The final judgment will proclaim this fact. For example, you listen to a lecture; it is clear, beautiful, well connected by nexus of words that give finish to the production and pleasure to the listener; but when it is over you find that you have nothing, absolutely nothing but a pleasant recollection of words and personality to take home for reflection.

"Was there coherence of ideas?" you ask yourself, and answer affirmatively.

"What then was the trouble?" and you can not but condemn yourself for being carried away by the speaker's magnetism; when in reality it was because of his deficiency in sequence of thought.

But, oh, the joy of listening to the man whose thoughts are like the streams flowing from the great watershed of the Mississippi Valley! Well-connected sentences flow into the grand trend of thought with a bound of distinction and greatness; the momentum of the whole carries the mind onward; you look back even while going ahead, and see where strong thoughts have been presented preparing the way for others yet to come, now here; and so great is the coherence of thought, so complete the sequence of the whole that you do not—for an instant, even while engaged in recollecting previous portions of the discourse —forget the thread of the thought. You are amazed at your own precocity. You believe in yourself; and you have a right to; for you have appreciated a really good thing.

Sequence, then, is an aid to both attention and memory. While it is giving strength to the power to heed it is also aiding the retentive faculty. It follows, therefore, that all those rules of association for the cultivation of memory will be of assistance to the student of sequence, as for example:

1.  Linking together ideas that are similar, either as synonymous, abstract and concrete, genus and species, or part and whole.

2.  Giving ideas prominence by contrast.

3.  Using connotation or force of suggestion, as in historic or personal associations, references to that which is already in the mind.

By the use of such means it is within the power of the writer so to fasten the parts of a theme together, even before it is written, that he can not by whatsoever interruptions or vagaries of thought lead the reader astray.

There are places in the body of an article where it would seem that the matter of sequence seems to be of paramount importance, positions where it should have its strongest hold. These are of no less importance to the writer in the proper guidance of his theme than they are to the reader in comprehension and retention of the thought. For many of us realize often to our sorrow what a willful beast is Pegasus; and frequently discover that we have started in faithfully with one premise, a premise selected after much deliberation and with reckonings of a correct judgment, that our deliberate plans are set aside in some unaccountable way, and the final conclusion is reached by an altogether different course. For this we have to blame only the lack of training in sequence, the inability to see the closest associations and to follow them out.

In the first few paragraphs there should come some closely associated thoughts; there should be no breaks here in the attention; everything should be done at this point to awaken interest and hold attention. This should be done not only to get the reader to continue the reading, but also to aid his memory of these facts when he has come to the later and dependent parts of the story. These may be associations of likeness or contrast.

Just before the climax there should be something to fix the attention upon that important point. This may be contrast, an alternative, a possibility of a different ending, or a doubt of some kind.

In the conclusion there should be some references that appeal strongly to the reader as the reader of that particular story, that he may hold it in his own mind as a well-connected whole forever afterward.