Writing

Questions tagged [narrator]

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This tag should be used for questions relating to the usage of a narrator in your own fictional writing.

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Using multiple first-person narrators, should I do it or avoid it?

I'm writing a novel. My main character - Bob - is the first-person narrator. However the 2nd character - Larry, his travel buddy - has a few deep conversations with Bob. Bob tells anecdotes. They ...
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3answers
163 views

Does an omniscient narrator have to be objective?

When writing a story narrated in the third person, I often find passages in my text where the narrator's opinions seem to conflate with the opinions of the character the narration is following: ...
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4answers
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Do I need an overall narrator for a collection of 1st person linked stories which may be a novel. If so, who would the narrator be?

I am writing a collection of short stories. Each short story is written in 1st person present tense from that particular protagonist’s POV, telling us his/her own story through their actions and ...
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1answer
63 views

Questions in third person narration

I'm writing in the past tense, and in third person. Is it appropriate to include questions, like this? A spell to conceal her would be helpful. If there was such a spell, of course. She turned back. ...
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2answers
53 views

How to "inform" the reader of changes in narrator?

Writing low-quality novels on my spare time is my hobby and I'm currently "working" on one where the story about a country with an ongoing civil war. I'd like to alternate between different ...
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2answers
56 views

Characters feelings; Using them for pacing/tension

I'm writing a novel and in the opening chapter, one of the main characters finds herself traveling by foot through a very severe sandstorm. I used the character's feelings of choking/suffocating to ...
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3answers
121 views

Can the first-person narrator use both past and present tenses?

My first person narrator is telling his story in the past tense but there are present tense realities too that get me confused what tense to use. For instance, here are two paragraphs: When I came ...
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1answer
83 views

Is There a Term or Description For When the Narrator Inserts their Own Personal Perspective Into a Third Person POV?

Occasionally I have read stories where the third person Omniscient/Limited POV Narrator will describe a scene and feelings from a characters POV, but sometimes it seems like the narrator is presuming ...
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2answers
217 views

How to write in a clear narrative voice

I am writing a Narrated novel. Here is my 1st Person Narration followed by 3rd Person Account of Same Incident Grandmother was an old woman left to fend for herself. Ranjho's Mother walked ...
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1answer
57 views

How much of a Novel's Point of View should be from the Narrator

I am writing a Novel. How much of the story should be from the Narrator's Point of View. For instance, Narrator knows that person A was engaged to person B decades ago. But Narrator does not know ...
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2answers
211 views

How much "throat-clearing," or introduction and exposition, is acceptable to introduce a narrator?

I am writing Historical Fiction Novel. A Reporter is interviewing a Centenarian who narrates the story. The Centenarian's hobby is closely related the novel. The throat-clearing also introduces two ...
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1answer
86 views

How to present a 1st-person Narrator with a 3rd-person account of the same incident

I am writing a Historic Fiction novel. The story is being narrated by someone. The entire story is from the Point of View of the Narrator, based on information she knows. What is the best way to ...
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2answers
164 views

How can I create an unreliable first-person narrator who is interesting and effective?

I have a series idea that I am toying with that has one character who becomes a bit less reliable mentally than her usual for a section of the story (this downward spiral is brought upon her largely ...
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4answers
192 views

Multiple First Person Narrators: how should I differentiate?

I am writing a novel (it will eventually be a series of five novels) and there are multiple first-person narrators. Each chapter starts of with the character's name in parentheses after the chapter ...
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2answers
171 views

How much uncertainity will the 'general (Non-YA) fantasy reader' tolerate?

In my current project my goal is to go for the following narrative style within scenes: Show only what the POV-Char can see, hear,... sense. Show their emotional reaction (through body-feelings, ...
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3answers
3k views

Describing the taste of food

I’m asking about this not because I have a tendency to do so myself, but rather because I find it unusually aggravating when I come across it in other people’s works. I’m wondering if this sort of ...
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3answers
247 views

Is the MC in first person singular always all knowing?

While writing a first-person singular novel, is the MC all-knowing? How do we handle plots which do not include the MC, like something happening with others but not including MC? Will it be taken as ...
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4answers
4k views

Is it bad style if the personal first person narrator of a story dies during said story?

Right now I'm writing a novel in which I use the changing perspectives of two main characters with limited information each to slowly unveil the whole plot to the reader. Both use the past tense and ...
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4answers
163 views

1st person addressing a narrator

I'm writing a story in first person, but with a third person narrator for the secondary character. I was wondering if there were any books or stories to research how the first person character could ...
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3answers
223 views

Alternatives to Second-Person POV Narration

I am someone with no formal writing background, who has come to love writing for the fantasy adventure role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (fifth edition) during my free time. I am currently ...
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4answers
140 views

In one book can one narrator be in present and the other in past?

I'm currently planning a book series that is told from the first person perspective of 5 different characters. I have a different voice for all of the characters, but I think that 2 of the characters ...
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2answers
274 views

In third-person limited POV, what can be described?

In 3rd person limited, when the protagonist is present in a scene, can the narrator describe something in a scene that the protagonist cannot see?
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2answers
3k views

Can a third-person narrator ask questions instead of the characters?

In novels, when the PoV follows a particular character, is pretty common that we get to hear his/her thoughts. Sometimes, those thoughts take the form of questions that the character ask himself: ...
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6answers
5k views

Should a narrator ever describe things based on a character's view instead of facts?

There is something I find myself doing often while writing, and I don't even know what to call it, but I would like to know if its good practice. It happens when I'm writing from a third-person ...
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1answer
163 views

Distinguishing between unreliable frame narrator and narrator of framed story

I'm writing a work which is bookended by a frame story with an unreliable narrator. How do I prevent confusion for the reader when the frame narrator interjects? In the framed story, the characters ...
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5answers
1k views

What should the omniscient narrator call a character?

Let there be a character. Let the character's name be, for example, Alexander. Now, Alexander's parents call him 'Sasha'. His friends call him 'Xander'. His girlfriend calls him 'Alex'. In formal ...
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3answers
441 views

Naming things the POV character doesn't know

My middle-grade novel is third person with one primary and one secondary viewpoint character. Sometimes the narrator hovers a bit more, sometimes the narrator is more in the character's head. The ...
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4answers
2k views

Everyone is beautiful

I've noticed a quirk with the narrator voice of one of the two novels I'm working on. This narrator only describes the beautiful aspects of every character's features. You might think the women are ...
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1answer
52 views

How do we properly manage the state of transition between unknown and known?

I often have a passage that sounds like this. I don't know why, but I always found these passages a bit odd sounding. A stranger was lying, face into the sands, belly down, on the beach all alone....
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10answers
2k views

Is it possible to narrate a novel in a faux-historical style without alienating the reader?

One thing that often annoys me in historical fiction or fantasy books is the dissonance between the writing style and the events and historical period described in the book. The writing is usually ...
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3answers
80 views

Could I have some characters reveal more internal monologue than others?

For context, I am writing a graphic novel. I always used to imagine I would have some characters (mainly protagonists) reveal their internal monologue while others (mainly the antagonists) don't. They ...
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4answers
683 views

Can my characters interact with my narrator? (and vice versa)

I know that this idea is not totally 'revolutionary' as this type of narration has been used in Breakfast of champions, for example. But, Unlike Vonnegut, I want the 'Narrator talks to the characters ...
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5answers
90 views

Should I change from past to present tense to state a fact that continues into the present and is unyielding?

Within narration in past tense, should a statement of a universally true fact be in past tense or in present tense? For example, in the short text: It was late afternoon in Zubrin. The air was ...
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3answers
564 views

Effectively conveying an unreliable narrator

I have been working on a post-apocalyptic novel for about a year. My female narrator/protagonist, named Eris, was isolated for almost all of her life until meeting a rogue group of survivors and ...
2
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3answers
366 views

How to describe a horse from the POV of someone who has never seen one? [closed]

In my story, my narrator has only recently met other humans and the biggest creature she has ever interacted with are dogs. In the survivors' camp, she encounters their horses and is pretty freaked ...
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8answers
5k views

What to call a main character who changes names?

I'd like to write a story, in the third-person perspective, centering on a character who changes her name several times in the course of the story. She uses her birth name for the first couple of ...
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2answers
80 views

Can there be written narratives (not movies or films, but books) without any narrator?

Would it be possible? It strikes me as impossible but I am still curious to know what you think.
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15answers
13k views

Is it acceptable to use words like "heaven" and "god" when the narrator is agnostic?

The main character, and the person whose viewpoint the story is told from, is a scientist and subscribes to agnosticism. And there are sentences in my story like: "Trees stretched into the sky ...
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2answers
270 views

Third person into first person as the protagonist becomes the same entity as the narrator

I'm attempting to write a sci-fi novel in a dystopian future baring semblance to that within 1984. I'm using third person to describe what the protagonist sees, what he feels and what he thinks, ...
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2answers
525 views

What are ways to shade the narrator in alternating chapters of dual POV?

I've heard advice that in an alternating third person limited POV, the narration alone should be enough to seat the reader within the POV. I like this concept. What are some concrete ways in which ...
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1answer
130 views

What would be an effective way to narrate this story? [closed]

I don't want the story being told from the point of view of the protagonist. Could a third person (limited omniscient) be effective in telling this story? Giving points of view from other character'...
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1answer
130 views

Character who always thinks aloud like a narrator

Are there any examples of characters who always thinks aloud, as a character flaw, as if narrating their own lives. Such a character might for example be at a supermarket till and say out loud "I ...
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5answers
2k views

What are the advantages and disadvantages to leaving the narrator unnamed?

As I begin to write a narrative (I haven't decided yet how long it should be), and as I develop the plot, I was wondering whether or not I should give the narrator a name. It was one of those random ...
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3answers
3k views

What is the difference between limited third-person narrative and free indirect discourse?

Free indirect discourse is a writing technique that makes the writing display the character's thoughts whilst still remaining in third-person narrative, with 'he' or 'she' as pronouns. As an example, ...
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5answers
709 views

Should the narrator use pseudonyms in writing?

I have characters who have to use false names. Should the narrator use their real name or false name? For example, if person A was being called Adam when their real name was Archie, person B would ...
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3answers
685 views

In first person narrative, is it acceptable to end rhetorical questions with a period?

In first person narrative, would it be acceptable to use a period in place of a question mark when the narrator is asking a rhetorical question? example: My car broke down again. Why does this always ...
2
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1answer
247 views

Writing a narrator with a different character to the author

Many authors use a narrator with a similar character across several books - to the extent that it resembles a brand identity. Others have used different narration characters for different books (Ian ...
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2answers
458 views

How do readers/writers alike feel about too much narration in a story?

My question is pretty much summed up in the title. My story includes a lot of narration. Narrating events, narrating character's thoughts. There are several intervals in each chapter where the ...
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1answer
127 views

Using the Voice wisely

Of course, there aren't any rules in writing. But when something is used in exaggeration (or even Isn't used at all!) without prudence, it can ruins everything. A voice is like a guide to see the ...
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2answers
1k views

What is Third Person Dramatic?

Often told as "Third Person Objective" or "Third Person Camera" it is some kind of mixture between cinema and writing. (Crazy stuff, I know.) What is this Third Person Dramatic? What are his pros and ...

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