Fictional diary for a novel

Question

When it is appropriate to use the diary form for a novel?

Which are the most effective published examples? (I mean fictional diaries, so not Anne Frank's diary).

Answer 1

Diary form is used when a deep immersion of reader is wanted. Yeah, we all want to immerse readers into our universes, but it comes with a price, and not a small one. With diary form you can reveal only one point of view: of character who keeps a diary.

So, I guess, this is the rule: You should use diary as a narrator, when you want to bring more realism, but ready to neglect different viewpoints on your story.

Examples are:

• Bridget Jones diary (it's really ok)
• Poor Folk (letters used instead of diary, but a very good example)
• Survivor Type (a very good example, and a short story though, so read it just now)

Answer 2

I would investigate The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigg by Rainer Maria Rilke. It is a proto-Modernist text that deals with the interiority of the narrator, and his gradual retreat from the social sphere into the mental sphere.

In my experience, the diary form is a device used to foreground the unreliability of the narrator's perspective. It does not necessarily have to be used with unreliability in mind; however, it is a way to emphasize the inherent subjectivity in narrative perspective. Remember, though, that diary and epistolary devices serve different purposes: the diary speaks often to the self, or a fictional audience; the epistolary speaks to a specific, definite audience. Dracula is pre-dominantly epistolary, insofar as many passages are intended to relate information to particular individuals. As is the case with Shelley's Frankenstein. I very much hope that no one strikes Stoker's masterpiece from their Reading List, as it is a fantastic read.

As for appropriateness, that depends entirely on the author, and the tone they wish to achieve.

Answer 3

For an example

Alberto Moravia, L'attenzione (Attention)

It tells the story of a man who wants to write a novel and decides to start a diary to rework it later into novel form. He ends up writing about his own life and his seeming lack of attention for what is happening around him.

Answer 4

As neilfein pointed out, Flowers for Algernon. I think what makes it particularly effective is that the very viewpoint of the narrator is itself a major plot point, so the diary form is a logical choice.

I'm not sure this counts as a diary, but The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is also told from a single (and very interesting) perspective.

Answer 5

You could also consider having a diary-form be only part of your novel. Lately I've read fiction that changes point of view from first to third person as the book moves forward. At first I found it a little disconcerting. But if the changes have their own rhythm to them, and they are somewhat predictable, then I think it can work well.

Answer 6

Here are some good ones:

1. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
2. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3. Dracula by Bram Stoker
4. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn - not really a diary but you really get inside the protagonists head and it is tremendously moving.

Enjoy

Answer 7

A classic example of the diary form is Henry Reed's Journey by Keith Robertson.

When it is appropriate to use the diary form for a novel?

When you feel like it. When you, for reasons even you don't fully understand feel like writing your story, or some part of it, in the form of a journal.

If that's how you feel, then you have no other option but to use the journal form. To use another form would be an act of self-betrayal. If you don't feel like it, then you must not it because in that case to doing so would be phony and pretentious.

More to the point, you're going to have to live with this thing until you finish it, so you'd best write it in the form you find most interesting, regardless of whether it's journal, third person omniscient, "close third," epistolary, ePistolary, tweets, or something you just made up.

Answer 8

A novel in the form of a diary tends to concentrate attention on the narrator's PoV, even more than a more usual first-person narrative. It also tends to focus things more on the passage of tiem, because each entry must be made without knowledge of future events, while a non-diary first-person work can include intentional foreshadowing by the narrator, and retrospective comments.

Some readers will dislike the form, or find it confusing because it is no longer common (it was once a very common form). Others may enjoy it as a novelty. It avoids the classic problem in a first-person story of "when and why was this account written by the narrator?" A diary also lends itself to an unreliable narrator.

It is possible to have only part of the test be a diary, or to have multiple diaries, which allows for multiple POVs.

I would like to call attention to a particularly interesting and complex example: Freedom & Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull (1997) It won the 1998 Locus award for "Best Fantasy Novel", although some would argue that it is not a work of fantasy but o historical fiction. It consists of fictional letters and diary entries, plus a few excerpts from manuscripts dates decades before the main action.

There are four main narrative points of view, as well as quit a few occasional writers. Each item is dated, and is from one person, and (if a letter) addressed to another. The reader must keep this in mind, be cause narrators will admit some things to some recipients, but conceal them (or even lie about them) from others. Also, letters cross in transit, so some writers are not aware of previously mentioned events, even those mentioned in a previous letter to that writer. So the reader must pay attention to who is writing to whom, and when. Goodreads thought well of it, Kirkus was less positive. The novel is set in 1849, mostly in England. Frederich Engels is a major but non-protagonist character, Marx has a couple of brief appearances. The outer facts of history are accurate. The hidden conspiracys are, I belive, fictional.

Answer 9

"Dangerous Liaisons" is originally told through the letters that the various characters send to each other (mainly Valmont and The Marquise). This makes it possible to mix several points of view (as opposed to with single diary, as mentioned by Daniel Excinsky's answer), but it makes it also more difficult to read for some people. Not sure if it fits what you're looking for ("diary as a novel") but it sure fits the more general "epistolary novel" category that you may want to look into for more options and storytelling techniques.

Answer 10

The Autobiography of Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes is one of my favourite novels in this form. It's a spin off from the Twin Peaks television series and highlights the idiosyncrasies of one of the series's most idiosyncratic characters.

One of the features of this type of form is that you can cover a lot of time in a single novel in a relatively short period.

Answer 11

To answer your question about published examples, some of Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole series are deceptively clever and very funny all in diary form

Answer 12

A diary novel is not like other novels, so doesn't fit the "story leading to climactic moral choice moment" structure described on this site. It's all about the narrator and his/her character and viewpoint - in the case of Adrian Mole the joke is that he is such a hilariously unreliable narrator. I absolutely agree with Willbill that Adrian Mole is deceptively clever, and I would say the diary form is particularly useful if you wish to write in a comic vein.