Here's what I found out through my "play" time:
- I didn't know enough about this secondary character who wants to do the narrating.
- I'm distanced from this character for personal reasons and there's just no room for that in novel writing.
- The narrator wants the reader to discover his/her identity. In other words, I'm not supposed to say who it is. Wants you to believe it's for modesty's sake, but it isn't. This character can be dramatic and self-centered.
- Making a seamless transition from narrator to story isn't as easy as you'd think, especially when said character is in the story and doesn't want to say "I" in the scenes pertaining to him/her.
- The narrator sets the tone of the entire novel.
- I don't like fiction gimmicks, so where did this one come from?
My official word count remains the same since these words are not on the manuscript yet. I haven't determined if the narrator stays or if I'm just using an unconventional method to find out more about the character.
Beyond the narrator thing, I had some fun: I cut out pictures from catalogues and magazines that reminded me of my characters. So far, I have Heidi, Dave, Scott, Lynette, and Kirsten. I have a *maybe* on Sophie and a tiny picture of Cortanie. I'd still like pictures for Brady and Bill, Grandpa, Cecelia, Claudia, John and Suze, and some of the minor characters like Sunflower and Rich. Unfortunately, catalogues and magazines aren't ideal places to find your characters' faces. I don't envision models when I'm writing a story.
I also read through a good bit of the last manuscript and while there are some entertaining and well-written scenes, it reads like a warm-up to the story I'm writing now. It's like I have this 300 page outline, much of which is background information and side notes.
4 comments:
Just be careful you aren't walking into a cliche with this narrator (for example, you say that the narrator is wanting someone to find out who they are. The danger here is that this has been done with teenage novels a lot. A story is told by someone, and you're not supposed to know that they are the quiet teen in the background until the end This would be really cliche, and if it IS a teen, you'd be better off showing who it is from the beginning. Or maybe make it obvious to readers as to who it is, but have the narrator stay in the dark as to whether the readers know or not). I think anything that tries to trick the reader, or makes them guess who a character is can be very dangerous, because it could be obvious to a reader from the beginning, and hence flop. it could feel contrived, in other words. And also, that the narrator is someone who would really know about everything that happened in the story, that it is believable that this person knows everything. So in other words, the story would be completely from this person's POV, much like a 1st person POV story, and so you are limited to showing only her viewpoint and no one else's.
On the other hand, if you know these dangers, and write being aware of them, you can take steps so that your story is NOT cliche and is believable as coming from the narrator's POV.
OK, this is probably all coming out as mumble jumble. I have a kid making his Little People do some sort of popcorn dance on the couch next to me and I think I'm getting a little of that over-stimulation problem. I can't hear myself think! so I hope i'm not coming across as too negative! I'm just trying to give pointers in case you haven't thought of them yet. but knowing you, you probably have!!
melanie
LOL why am I signed in under my daughter's identity? Oops. Oh, well.
Thanks, Mel. Boy, have I thought of all those things! I don't like cliches, nor do I want to be limited by this narrator's POV. You've brought up all the arguments I've been wrestling with. I might just write these scenes out and all that will come of it is further knowledge of the character, or it might actually be a good way to reveal the story (by limiting the viewpoint). We'll see. In the meantime, thank you for keeping me on my toes!
Haha!! boy "cortanie" you sound so grown up...
So did my ramblings actually make sense? I'm not kidding, I had an acute case of the worst sort of stimulitis this morning!! too much coffee maybe!
I'm confused by the whole post - lol - like this narrator thing and all - I thought you had just started rewriting from the get go? Where did a narrator come from? Why the secrets of the character? - I don't know much about all this so I'm just going to say whatever works for you and gets the story written - go for it - E :)
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