Persian Limes – Structure
Sabina
Anzuategui
In my book, the underlying structure
are the stages of love relationships. I don’t like stories with too
professional plots, in which characters are established in the beginning, and what
follows is logical or formulaic. Maybe it’s because I graduated in Film and
Screenwriting, so I got a little tired of these well-done scripts. I like
stories in which characters change their minds all the time, and are never sure
of anything, always making plans that they never fulfill, thinking and trying
to explain their own existence in a naive way. To avoid formulaic scenes, I
prefer to write based on memories. I sit and try to remember people that I have
met, and things they said, their dreams and problems. I choose what seems more
meaningful to me, and compose my characters as a mosaic of memories from
different people.
For years I’ve been planning to
write a book about love. A book that would go some stages in a love story: why
and when two people fall in love, and what happens next. To organize this book
I thought about four chapters: first times together / the moment when love
happens / the moments when passion fades into daily life / the moment when you
have to decide if you quit or stay together.
But at the same time I want to talk
about depression and the idea of suicide.
I have some ideas for these chapters,
but it is only a beginning. For each chapter, I plan to do memory exercises,
and compose some fragments. Then probably I will tie them together in the
method Minal describes as “The net and the air”.
