posted
Survivor and a couple others made the point that my short story "Fire on the Sea", a WIP, could use a strong narrator. I agree, and know that it could greatly benefit from this. But, despite endless hours of working on the problem, (and I have a heap of discarded paper that is as black and blue [with ink] as my brain feels [as in, bruised] to prove it) I still can't seem to get it down. Or even to get a good start on it. Now, this story has been a tough one to drag out of my subconcious mind from the start. But still, it shouldn't feel like I'm beating myself up over the head just to make any progress.
Ahem. Rant over.
So: How does one go about creating a limited omniscient, uninvolved narrator? Is it necessary that the narrator be involved in the story? How do you know when you've "got" the voice down? How do you know what works, and what doesn't? Are there any good books/short stories that I can use to learn off of? Any websites with useful advice? Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance.
posted
If the narrator is omniscient and impersonal, then it isn't a narrator, you're writing in Full Omniscient.
A good narrator is just a person telling a story. To that end, a narrator has personality and an interest in the events of the story. Now that interest could be something very serious (like a disciple of the first dragon to become a knight) or something less serious (like a jester telling a funny story he heard). Which best suits your story is up to you. The personality can vary in the same way.
For starters, just work out the story and how you want to tell it. Use yourself as a model for this narrator. Feel free to caper about on the stage, being a narrator gives you an excuse to do that, you know. There are a lot of things you can do with a narrator, since a narrator is allowed to violate the "fourth wall" without penalty.
Then, if that works well for the story, you can try writing a fictional narrator. This narrator is not you, but a character that you create. You're telling a fictional story in which this narrator character tells a story to a fictional audience. The fictional narrator is allowed to violate the fourth wall of the inner story, but cannot violate the fourth wall of the outer story...well, that might be getting a bit complicated. These kinds of narrators aren't used much outside of SF and fantasy.
I usually stick to POV myself, it's just less complicated that way. But some stories work better with a narrator.
OSC was the first thing I tried. I scoured C&V, but no help. I tried on my own, and kept running into mental walls. I know FotS would be great with a narrator. Thanks for the encouragement, Survivor...I'm going to go play around and see what I come up with.
posted
This is the story about the dragon that want's to be a knight, right?
Assuming he eventually becomes a knight, does he have a squire?
If he does the squire could make for an entertaining and different narrator.
Maybe he's telling the story to children or a tavern, where he recounts that not all dragons are bad or something to that effect and then goes on to tell how he was squire to this rare beast.
posted
For that matter, it might be the old knight telling the story to his grandchildren. He's obviously going to know all of the details -- and all of the dragon's thoughts -- but since he's trying to conceal the punchline that he's the dragon, he's going to refer to everyone in the story in the third person: Then the dragon did this, then he did that. Presto! First-person narrator using third-person voice ...
Posts: 47 | Registered: Dec 2004
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