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browser1
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Okay. So I've been getting a lot of feedback on 'Suffer. The Little Children' since the start of June, and one fault that most of the reviews have highlighted is a sense of confusion over which of my two protagonists are narrating at any particular point in the story. You see, the story is told in the First Person, and switches tenses from past to present as the story progresses. The past tense is used to relay the events of the story, and the present tense is used when the events trigger an emotional response. In order to differentiate between narrators, I decided to make the speech patterns of one more formal then the other. I also decided to use a 'one section, one narrator' structure where each section was separated with an asterisk, and every second section alternated between narrators. Now, my question is this - in such a story, what is the best way to differentiate between narrators - is it better to go with something obvious, such as two separate fonts, or take the subtle approach, with a lead-in to the next narrator at the end of the previous section.
This post was last edited by browser1, 07 Jun 2011, 23:09
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pipio
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Quote: browser1, Tuesday, 7 Jun 2011 23:07Okay. So I've been getting a lot of feedback on 'Suffer. The Little Children' since the start of June, and one fault that most of the reviews have highlighted is a sense of confusion over which of my two protagonists are narrating at any particular point in the story. You see, the story is told in the First Person, and switches tenses from past to present as the story progresses. The past tense is used to relay the events of the story, and the present tense is used when the events trigger an emotional response. In order to differentiate between narrators, I decided to make the speech patterns of one more formal then the other. I also decided to use a 'one section, one narrator' structure where each section was separated with an asterisk, and every second section alternated between narrators. Now, my question is this - in such a story, what is the best way to differentiate between narrators - is it better to go with something obvious, such as two separate fonts, or take the subtle approach, with a lead-in to the next narrator at the end of the previous section. These days, different narrators are each given their own chapters in first person formats. Readers have to be spoonfed everything, bless them, and giving a clear reference to each character's musings really helps. Lots of authors do this. Malorie Blackman has a trilogy which uses first person narration, chapter by chapter, for each of her two characters - a boy and a girl. The chapters are clearly signposted with the character's name as the chapter title. Even then it can be tough because the gender difference sometimes gets blurred.
... an honest insult is so much better than an insincere flattery...
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Joe 90
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Quote: browser1, Tuesday, 7 Jun 2011 23:07Okay. So I've been getting a lot of feedback on 'Suffer. The Little Children' since the start of June, and one fault that most of the reviews have highlighted is a sense of confusion over which of my two protagonists are narrating at any particular point in the story. You see, the story is told in the First Person, and switches tenses from past to present as the story progresses. The past tense is used to relay the events of the story, and the present tense is used when the events trigger an emotional response. In order to differentiate between narrators, I decided to make the speech patterns of one more formal then the other. I also decided to use a 'one section, one narrator' structure where each section was separated with an asterisk, and every second section alternated between narrators. Now, my question is this - in such a story, what is the best way to differentiate between narrators - is it better to go with something obvious, such as two separate fonts, or take the subtle approach, with a lead-in to the next narrator at the end of the previous section. I'm not plugging my own stuff, but by way of an answer, in my ongoing work, "Swordsman of Calais" I simply use chapter headings with the name of the protagonist whose viewpoint I am writing from. At first it felt very contrived, but believe me it does grow on you. Obviously the viewpoints should be divergent enough to be clear without having to check. After a hundred or so pages, I threw in a third. Made for a breath of fresh, even although this guy was a nutter. Summary of my novel viewpoints could be: 1) man - executioner on verge of breakdown. 2) woman - in love with above. 3) Mad priest hates women and talks to statues. All good clean fun.
my website
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Athene
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Quote: browser1, Tuesday, 7 Jun 2011 23:07Okay. So I've been getting a lot of feedback on 'Suffer. The Little Children' since the start of June, and one fault that most of the reviews have highlighted is a sense of confusion over which of my two protagonists are narrating at any particular point in the story. You see, the story is told in the First Person, and switches tenses from past to present as the story progresses. The past tense is used to relay the events of the story, and the present tense is used when the events trigger an emotional response. In order to differentiate between narrators, I decided to make the speech patterns of one more formal then the other. I also decided to use a 'one section, one narrator' structure where each section was separated with an asterisk, and every second section alternated between narrators. Now, my question is this - in such a story, what is the best way to differentiate between narrators - is it better to go with something obvious, such as two separate fonts, or take the subtle approach, with a lead-in to the next narrator at the end of the previous section. I'm not surprised readers have got confused! Just asterisks won't do: to me that would simply suggest a new episode, not a change of narrator. I'd say head each section with the name of the narrator. If you don't make that clear, then readers will have to keep going back to re-read sections when they realise (if indeed they ever do) that they have been "hearing" the wrong voice, and so misinterpreting the story. It's not a matter of spoon-feeding, just a matter of making yourself clear. It's easy to forget that your readers are not as familiar as you are with your story and your characters and what's going on in your head - even the best writers do this. I've just finished "Wolf Hall," which I think is probably the best novel I've read so far this century - except that the writer almost always uses "he" for her protagonist instead of using his name, which means huge potential for confusion every time any other "he" is mentioned.
This post was last edited by Athene, 08 Jun 2011, 11:12
Scias te fortasse Romanum esse si animal convivialissimum arbitreris esse caprum (Henricus Barbatus) my website
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caz2108
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Hi Simon
I've read lots of books where the chapters are headed with the particular narrator's name. Some use different fonts. Some both. It doesn't look contrived to me, but I often found myself sighing as I left one narrator and moved on to another, but that's another issue - trying to get all your characters to be euqally compelling!!
Good luck.
Caz
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browser1
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Thanks, everyone, for your inputs. I actually like the idea of using every second chapter for changing narrator. But because some of my sections would only merit a little over a page, I think seperating into chapters would be overkill. So, at the moment, I'm hoping to subdivide it into verses or canto's, so that it's in keeping with the religous theme of the piece. What do you guys think? Or am I giving too much away? I'd like to think that both narrators are as compelling as the concept of using two different viewpoints to advance the story.
This post was last edited by browser1, 08 Jun 2011, 14:07
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RoseRed
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Quote: Athene, Wednesday, 8 Jun 2011 10:53 Just asterisks won't do: to me that would simply suggest a new episode, not a change of narrator. I think 'just asterisks' is fine so long as it's made clear at the start of each part whose head we are in. That requires naming the current character, as with 'Jane wasn't sure what she should do about Alice,' rather than 'She wasn't sure what she do about Alice,' which could refer to the thoughts of the female character in the previous part. Even if swapping gender, it's probably best to name. Separate chapters for the different characters are fine if you've got enough to keep each one roughly as long as the previous one, but where you want to show events through the eyes of a peripheral character this might not be the case.
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browser1
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Quote: RoseRed, Wednesday, 8 Jun 2011 17:03Quote: Athene, Wednesday, 8 Jun 2011 10:53 Just asterisks won't do: to me that would simply suggest a new episode, not a change of narrator. I think 'just asterisks' is fine so long as it's made clear at the start of each part whose head we are in. That requires naming the current character, as with 'Jane wasn't sure what she should do about Alice,' rather than 'She wasn't sure what she do about Alice,' which could refer to the thoughts of the female character in the previous part. Even if swapping gender, it's probably best to name. Separate chapters for the different characters are fine if you've got enough to keep each one roughly as long as the previous one, but where you want to show events through the eyes of a peripheral character this might not be the case. That's a good point actually. I was thinking of something similar with the use of leadins. At the moment, however, I'm still debating the pros and cons of the different suggestions.
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maggie may
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Quote: browser1, Tuesday, 7 Jun 2011 23:07Now, my question is this - in such a story, what is the best way to differentiate between narrators - is it better to go with something obvious, such as two separate fonts, or take the subtle approach, with a lead-in to the next narrator at the end of the previous section. I quite like the use of appropriate symbols, such as those used by Joanne Harris in Holy Fools, especially if some of the sections are quite short. MM
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browser1
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Symbols? Interesting! I hadn't thought of that, to be honest.
I've finally decided on what to do. I'm going seperate the story in seperate sections - Canto 1, Canto 2 etc, followed by the narrators name. My only problem now is to decided on a word to use. My example above, Canto - refers to verses in a poem - but my story isn't a poem.
I'm going to see if I can find a more appropriate word to use.
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Differentiating between multiple narrators using First Person
07 Jun 2011, 23:07
