thoughts about writing
I've been thinking and thinking about POV with the novel because I'm about to break one of my pretty firm rules, which is that I find first person narratives are usually used as a short cut to intimacy with the reader. (I'm not talking well done first person novels like To Kill a Mockingbird or Catcher in the Rye.)
I'll be writing the next draft as a first person point of view, where the narrator is merely a reporter because she's dead and watching events unfold from Hades. So it should function a little like a "reporting" third person narrative, but it will be first person.
I'm trying to think of novels that have used this technique well and I do think to a certain degree To Kill a Mockingbird works that way. Scout gives us such a rich picture of the people around her and their world. Catcher in the Rye is too turned inward to do that. The Virgin Suicides is a good example of what I am talking about, although the plural first person there is not what I am aiming for. The Great Gatsby also is narrated by a first person telling a story about other characters.
Am I smoking crack or does the second person narrative in Written on the Body almost work that way? It's been a long time since I've read it.
Can you think of other first person narratives that focus on other characters so deeply and almost report the story? I'm drawing a blank.
I just reserved a library copy of Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell because that is the single best character capturing I have ever read in a first person narrative, although some of his work in non-fiction.
I'm going to schedule in a bunch of reading to do on the retreat this time.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth but you may comment here at LJ. ♥ There are
comments at Dreamwidth.
I'll be writing the next draft as a first person point of view, where the narrator is merely a reporter because she's dead and watching events unfold from Hades. So it should function a little like a "reporting" third person narrative, but it will be first person.
I'm trying to think of novels that have used this technique well and I do think to a certain degree To Kill a Mockingbird works that way. Scout gives us such a rich picture of the people around her and their world. Catcher in the Rye is too turned inward to do that. The Virgin Suicides is a good example of what I am talking about, although the plural first person there is not what I am aiming for. The Great Gatsby also is narrated by a first person telling a story about other characters.
Am I smoking crack or does the second person narrative in Written on the Body almost work that way? It's been a long time since I've read it.
Can you think of other first person narratives that focus on other characters so deeply and almost report the story? I'm drawing a blank.
I just reserved a library copy of Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell because that is the single best character capturing I have ever read in a first person narrative, although some of his work in non-fiction.
I'm going to schedule in a bunch of reading to do on the retreat this time.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth but you may comment here at LJ. ♥ There are
comments at Dreamwidth.