Spoiler Sunday: The Narrative Crossword

Plot threads made of silly string.

I’ve discussed the “narrative crossword” before, actually—many years ago. Here’s an example from 2017, with the theme clues followed by their answers. Note how it relies on fill-in-the-blanks:

"The race has just begun, and it looks like the car from Warsaw will ___!" : POLE INTO FIRST

"Listen! You can hear the thundering roar as the car from Moscow goes ___!" : RUSSIAN PAST

"We're getting close to the end as the car from Helsinki leads the way to the ___!" : FINNISH LINE

"Wow! The car from Prague ekes out the victory by a nose and takes the ___!" : CZECHERED FLAG

Sure, they’re themed puns, but the structure of the racing commentary gives them a little more interest. There’s an inciting action, there’s a buildup, there’s a climax.

Since the theme for the F section was (spoiler) FAMOUS FICTION FILL-IN-THE-BLANKS, I figured I could string together famous fiction titles to tell short stories. Here’s a pair of examples similar to the ones we used:

“Let’s get ON THE ROAD!” I said to Brenda, my traveling companion. “Are you still ironing?”

“It’s this steam iron’s fault,” Brenda replied. “It never gets rid of A WRINKLE IN TIME…”

You get the idea. I guess I could’ve done the first one as “Let’s get on THE ROAD,” too.

(Side note: are On The Road and The Road the only super-famous fiction books—or famous books—where the title of one is nested in the other and not broken up? I can think of kangaroos like Emma hiding in Remembrance of Things Past, but not another “unbroken” example like On The Road/The Road. Comment if you can find one!)

I created the stories as a sort of “reverse Mad Libs.” Fiction titles were selected almost at random (based on what’d fit into the space available, of course) and then I had to improvise a story that included them…but changed the context so that the title meant something other than its meaning in the work of fiction.

How’d I like the results?

(shrug)

They’re okay. I’m no Colin Mochrie, but I can improvise in a pinch.

This ended up being an exercise in experimental fiction all its own, like the assignment where you’ve got to write a story including a certain five words in a certain order. I think if I had it to do over again, I’d probably pick the fiction titles more deliberately, with general themes in mind, and maybe stick only to longer titles, so that I’d have fewer random words and phrases to string together.

But I’m not doing any completed parts of the Ubercross Abecedaria over again. That way lies madness!