Narrative compression Notes

Narrative Compression Lets Writers Cover More Story Time With Fewer Words

1. (aka: how writers squeeze a lot into a little)

2. Sometimes a story skips years in a sentence. Sometimes it summarises a whole relationship in a paragraph.
3. That’s not laziness. That’s narrative compression.
4. Compression is not "missing detail by accident". It is a deliberate structural choice that shapes pace, focus, and what readers infer about characters and themes.

Compression Works Through Summary, Ellipsis, And Selective Detail

Summary Tells What Happened Without Dramatizing Every Moment

1. In summary, the narrator reports events and outcomes in a few sentences instead of staging them as full scenes. Summary often uses broader language such as:
   1. time markers ("Over the next three weeks…", "That winter…")
   2. repeated actions ("Every evening, she…")
   3. reduced dialogue (reported speech rather than quoted speech)
2. Summary is useful when the exact words said are less important than the overall change.

Ellipsis Skips Time Completely

1. An ellipsis is a purposeful gap where part of the story is not narrated at all.
2. The narrative moves from one moment to a later moment, and the audience fills in what must have happened.
3. Ellipsis can be signalled by:
   1. a new chapter or scene break
   2. a new setting or time marker ("Two years later…")
   3. a changed situation that implies intervening events

Montage And Episodic Selection Compress In Film And Hybrid Texts

1. In film, a montage can compress months into minutes by showing a sequence of brief, selected shots.
2. In prose, writers can create a similar effect by choosing a few representative "episodes" rather than continuous narration.
3. The source material describes an episodic plot as a structure where the plot is broken into divisible episodes.
4. Selecting only certain episodes is a form of compression because the narrative leaves out what happens between them.

Narrative Structure Choices Often Rely On Compression

1. These structures, highlighted in the source material through the example of Cold Mountain, often depend on compression:
   1. Cyclical structure can skip large spans of time to show "return" and repetition.
   2. Parallel plots compress each storyline because page time or screen time must be shared.
   3. Flashbacks insert past scenes, but they also compress the "present" timeline by interrupting it.
   4. Foreshadowing compresses later consequences into a brief hint now, creating expectation.
   5. Framing can compress a long relationship arc into a repeated pattern (for example, separation and reunion).

Compression Changes Pacing, Suspense, And Characterization

Pacing And Reader Attention

1. Compression typically speeds up pacing. It prevents a narrative from stalling on routine actions and keeps attention on turning points.
2. However, compression can also slow reading psychologically.
3. When time is skipped, readers often pause to infer what happened, which can create a reflective pace even when story time moves quickly.

Suspense, Anticipation, And Foreboding

1. The glossary defines foreboding as a sense that something bad is going to happen.
2. Compression can create foreboding by moving quickly past "calm" time and landing on a changed, threatening situation.
3. Similarly, foreshadowing raises anticipation by offering small clues now, then controlling how much time the narrative spends before the consequence arrives.

Characterization Through What Gets Left Out

1. What a narrative compresses can reveal values and perspective:
   1. If everyday care work is summarized but battles are fully scened, the text may prioritize public conflict.
   2. If violence is compressed into a brief sentence, the text may be avoiding sensationalism, or it may be minimizing harm.
   3. Compression also interacts with flat characters and dynamic characters.
      1. A flat character (one with little complexity and little change) may appear even flatter if the narrative compresses the moments that would show inner conflict.
      2. A dynamic character often requires at least some expanded scenes to show change in awareness or attitude.

Using PEEL to analyse narrative compression

P: Point

1. Identify which type of narrative compression is used and its effect: summary, time jump/ellipsis, montage, selective detail

E: Evidence

Quote or refer to the compressed moment.

Example:
This is shown in “Over the next few months, their messages became shorter.”

E: Explain

1. Explain what is skipped or condensed and why.

L: Link

1. Link back to the same compression type and effect named in the Point.

Now it's your turn...