posted
Now I'm guessing since OSC, understandably, charges a fee for his tuition in creative writing (besides what's in Uncle Orson's writing class) that this question aint gonna be answered by him. But there are lots of other experienced writers here so I'll just ask....
How does being a narrator work? I take it you don't tell the story as if YOU (I the writer in this case) were there, you tell it as if you're a character in the story who was there. Right? Then, how much of the story does that person have to have been there for? And why do I find it pretentious when I try to write in "first person" but don't find it in the least pretentious when reading other writer's stories?
This is a big problem for me. I started pursuing a dream of being a writer about two years ago after reading several OSC stories (before I was capable of expanding to other authors ), and lately the fire has just died in me. I've tried writing a few stories, but quickly noticed my own feelings coming out too strongly in them (as well as them being extremely boring) and I just threw them all away and gave up again.
Someone help me please. Posts: 1138 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
You might want to head on over to the other side. Well, if you are over 18. The writer's forum is pretty helpful.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Most first person stories have the narrator being a charcter. So the story happens to them. So you're seeing the story through that person's eyes and they don't know what's going to happen. So if it didn't happen in front of the character, the character won't know about it- unless another character tells them. Even then, is the character who brought them that info credible? You can share the complete motivations of only one character. Thus they are the whole thing- they have to be. That character is also free to think anything they like about the other people in the story- you can have fun with that.You can always swap POVS, but it's kind of cheap.
Montana 1948 (Larry Watson) is a good example of a first person story, where the narrator is a character, but he isn't the character who everything happens to. Without saying too much, because I think you SHOULD read this book- it's a great read and really short, I will tell you what happens. The narrator is a middle aged man looking back on an incident of his childhood while his father was sheriff. The father was faced with a scandal involving the boy's uncle-and sided against his own brother in favor of morality. However, at the same time, the father did not want to make what had happened public. But the narrator was a preteen at the time- his parents weren't going to tell HIM anything. The actual incident happened in the house, but the narrator can learns foul play took place by eavesdropping. He has to. Watson has to contrive a lot of circumstances to make sure the boy and the reader have enough info to know what is going on. Anyway, read it twice- once to read it for the heck of it, and another time to watch the narration. It will only take two hours each time. Look at what the boy knows, how he gets information,and how much happens "off camera".
Roald Dahl in Matilda uses a first person narrator to state an opinion in the first chapter, than stops. He's basically the author.
I'm only a couple of chapters into it, but William Goldman's Princess Bride has a lot of autobiographical stuff in there. I'm not sure how much is real- don't tell me, please. I'm really reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell right now, so if I check this thread I don't want to see spoilers.
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brian makes the author a character as well. But there's a catch. A lot of the details in the book aren't real to Tim O'Brian- he messes with you on purpose.
If you don't want toThird person omniscent is the way to go. And swapping POVs isn't so bad. If you do have opinions- give them to the characters.
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Being a narrator is very much like being an actor. Think of in Galaxy Quest (Crap, that's what I left off my list of best sci-fi movies) where they are portraying actors portraying characters. At least, that's what I think of when I'm working on my novel. Or how I came to think of it. I don't know if I had developed that voice yet when I originally wrote large parts of my novel. I am in the process of rewriting it.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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), and lately the fire has just died in me. I've tried writing a few stories, but quickly noticed my own feelings coming out too strongly in them (as well as them being extremely boring) and I just threw them all away and gave up again.![[Frown]](frown.gif)
