How Fiction Works Writing Meme - Day 1
1 - What style of narration do you usually write in? Which do you prefer to read? First person singular, first person plural, second person singular (rarely well executed) , third person limited, third person omniscient? Are certain styles superior to others? Why or why not?
When writing fiction, I usually write in what I always thought of as 'third person limited omniscient,' though after reading James Wood's book I have learned the correct term is "free indirect style." I am an external, impartial narrator who knows all and sees all - but at any given time I know only what the character I am currently "inhabiting" knows. I find this style more flexible than first person, or the more traditional third person styles. Let's not even talk about second person.
Through using free indirect style, I am able to present a scene simultaneously from more than one character's POV, as well as my own external POV of the narrator. I say:
"Narcissa's lips were ruby red, and at times she imagined that they were coated in blood, a fantasy so far and yet so near to her reality that it made her want to scream. Lucius merely found them beautiful, for he could not see the shrieks waiting just behind them."
All at once, I am inhabiting both Narcissa and Lucius. I know how both of them feel about the color of her lips - and yet my words are so close to their consciousness that it is difficult to see where I stop narrating and they begin. I am at once a single narrator, and shifting narration between characters. This is the essence of free indirect style.
As for what I like to read - on the whole I prefer a third person type of style. I find first person jarring for reasons I can't fully explain, and maybe a trifle arrogant and unsophisticated. To write in first person is to say "I am them, and they are me, and everything I say is true as it pertains to myself." It leaves little room for interpretation unless you assume that the first person narrator is lying about a lot of the things they tell you - which opens a can of worms I'd rather not even get into.
The exception to this is in the realm of fanfiction. I prefer to read fanfiction that uses the same style as the source material. If the source material is written in a third person style, I want the fanfiction to be in third person. If the source material is in first person, like the Animorphs series, I find it hard to read fanfiction that is not also in the first person, because then it just doesn't feel like Animorphs.
Meme Index Post
When writing fiction, I usually write in what I always thought of as 'third person limited omniscient,' though after reading James Wood's book I have learned the correct term is "free indirect style." I am an external, impartial narrator who knows all and sees all - but at any given time I know only what the character I am currently "inhabiting" knows. I find this style more flexible than first person, or the more traditional third person styles. Let's not even talk about second person.
Through using free indirect style, I am able to present a scene simultaneously from more than one character's POV, as well as my own external POV of the narrator. I say:
"Narcissa's lips were ruby red, and at times she imagined that they were coated in blood, a fantasy so far and yet so near to her reality that it made her want to scream. Lucius merely found them beautiful, for he could not see the shrieks waiting just behind them."
All at once, I am inhabiting both Narcissa and Lucius. I know how both of them feel about the color of her lips - and yet my words are so close to their consciousness that it is difficult to see where I stop narrating and they begin. I am at once a single narrator, and shifting narration between characters. This is the essence of free indirect style.
As for what I like to read - on the whole I prefer a third person type of style. I find first person jarring for reasons I can't fully explain, and maybe a trifle arrogant and unsophisticated. To write in first person is to say "I am them, and they are me, and everything I say is true as it pertains to myself." It leaves little room for interpretation unless you assume that the first person narrator is lying about a lot of the things they tell you - which opens a can of worms I'd rather not even get into.
The exception to this is in the realm of fanfiction. I prefer to read fanfiction that uses the same style as the source material. If the source material is written in a third person style, I want the fanfiction to be in third person. If the source material is in first person, like the Animorphs series, I find it hard to read fanfiction that is not also in the first person, because then it just doesn't feel like Animorphs.
Meme Index Post