The Eleventh Step - Writing Style - Narrators and Voice


General points

  • The narrator can take part is some scenes
  • How old is the narrator?
  • Pick the narrator to suit the story

Who can be a narrator?

  • A fireside storyteller - tell it in the third person
  • Oneself - tell it in the first person
  • A forgotten childhood companion
  • A brother or sister
  • A partner
  • An unusual person - a magician, alchemist, prophet, sage, shaman or priest?
  • Someone who may be in danger and needs to pass the story on

There are a number of different options in choosing the voice of the narrator:

  • First person

It is immediate and quickly engages the reader

It is useful for stories with a small cast of characters

It conveys a sense of believability

But the disadvantages are the narrator can relate only what he or she knows, must be in every scene, and except by guesswork, can never get inside the mind of the other characters

This technique is usually only successful if the narrator is the principal character.

  • Second person - not recommended
  • Third person, omniscient observer

He / she knows and sees all

The author can jump from New York to Beijing from paragraph to paragraph if he wants to

He can view a battle from a god's eye view and then focus on an individual soldier

Using this technique the author can focus on one person and then on another person, revealing not only their actions and speeches, but also their thoughts and motives

Possibly too advanced for a beginning author

It is a hard technique to control

It is ususally only successful when the story is exceptional

  • Restricted third person - an easier way

Limit the story to what one, or at most a small group of people can see

Readers can then enter the minds of several characters

You must establish that several viewpoints are going to be used close to the beginning, so that readers know what to expect

This technique is most often used and usually more successful

Do not switch viewpoints in the middle of a scene – readers will be confused

  • If changing POV, then:

Be consistent

Be careful

Use a break – signal it to the reader using **** or a line space

  • Is it possible to have more than one narrator in a story? Yes, but with conditions:

It must be sensible for the story – e.g. use different narrators to each cover their own period of time

It must be comprehensible to the reader

It must be signalled to the reader via a mechanism – e.g. split the novel into sections, or chapters or volumes - to give the reader a jolt