By Sabyasachi Roy
A few years ago, I decided to write a short story for a competition. It started as a simple tale of a man trying to return a library book, but somewhere along the way, my brain decided, “Hey, what if the story was told entirely through increasingly absurd footnotes?” What began as a straightforward narrative turned into a footnote frenzy. By the end, the main story was a single, lonely sentence at the top of the page, and the footnotes had developed their own subplot about a coffee cup rebellion. I submitted it anyway. The feedback I got? “We’re not sure what we just read, but we’re a little scared.” I didn’t win, but hey, I like to think I gave the judges a good story to tell at parties. So, here is my great revelation:
Some Stories Are Like Cats
You think you’re in charge, but suddenly they’re knocking over your carefully arranged plot points and insisting on sitting in the weirdest narrative structure possible. You start with normal prose, and before you know it, your novel demands to be told entirely through found journal entries, passive-aggressive post-it notes, or a spiraling chain of haikus. Yeah, your story just went full feral, and now you have to keep up.
When Your Story Won’t Stay in Its Lane
But here’s the thing—sometimes, letting your story do its weird little thing works wonders. There are many treasures in the realm of nontraditional storytelling where odd formats are not merely tricks but rather crucial to the narrative’s power. For example, Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves has you turn the book around as if you were solving a literary Rubik’s cube. More so, think about Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer’s Sorcery & Cecelia. This is essentially 300 pages of pen pals from the Regency period inadvertently engaging in magical espionage.
So, why go weird? For one, because normal is boring. Secondly, it’s the literary equivalent of ordering a mystery box on the internet—you never quite know what you’re going to get, but half the fun is in the confusion.
How to Get Weird Without Getting Lost
But how do you pull this off without turning your book into an unreadable mess? Well, first, remember that clarity is your friend. You can absolutely write a novel through text messages (like Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi), but readers need to know who’s texting whom. Label your chapters, use different fonts, toss in a pie chart if you must—just make sure your reader isn’t left wondering if they accidentally skipped 20 pages.
Another pro tip: commit to the bit. If your story is going to be told through diary entries, make those entries sound authentic. Not every page has to carry the weight of the plot. Throw in some “Today I had a bagel. It was fine.” Not only does this build character, but it also makes the world feel lived-in.
And for the love of all things holy, don’t overdo it. A story told entirely through IKEA instruction manuals sounds like a hilarious idea at ‘Why-Am-I-Awake O’Clock’, when even the shadows are like, ‘Bro, go to bed’, but by chapter three, your readers might feel like they’re building a mental bookshelf with missing screws.
Embrace the Weird, Win the Readers
Ultimately, unconventional formats are all about trust—earning it and keeping it. You’re asking readers to follow you into the wilderness, so give them a reason to keep walking. Whether it’s humor, mystery, or just the promise of a story they’ve never seen before, make sure your weirdness has purpose.
So, if your story wants to break out of the traditional prose cage and run wild, let it. Embrace the footnotes, the haikus, the back-and-forth of intercepted letters. The literary world has enough cookie-cutter novels—go ahead, be the post-it note manifesto you wish to see in the world.
Bio: Sabyasachi Roy is an academic writer, poet, artist, and photographer. His poetry has appeared in The Broken Spine, Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review, Dicey Brown, The Potomac, and more. He contributes craft essays to Authors Publish and has a cover image in Sanctuary Asia. His oil paintings have been published in The Hooghly Review. You can follow his writing on Substack here.
