Story + Character: Tips and Tricks to Enhance Your Writing

Narrators and Point of View

~:|:~

~On Narrators~

As a writer about to tackle a new project, it doesn't hurt to consider all the various points of view from which your story could be told.

Think about the perennial classic The Great Gatsby, for instance.

How would the story have been different had Jay Gatsby been the one to tell it? What if Daisy Buchanan had been given narrator privileges? What about her husband? What if Myrtle Wilson had been allowed to tell her side of the story?

Each of these tellings would have given us a very different--very unique--look at a moment in the lives of these characters. (And no single telling would have been more "right" or "wrong" than another.)

Despite experiencing the same events, no two characters will ever tell the same story. This is especially important to keep in mind if you plan to write in the first person, because not only will the story be different, but who tells your story determines what kind of tone it will adopt.

So before you begin writing, it doesn't hurt to ask yourself what kind of story you want to tell.

Who will make the best narrator?

-The person who has the most to gain or lose

-The person who will be present at the climax

-The person who will appear in most of the major scenes of the story

-The person who can provide an interesting outlook or a fresh perspective

If you're not sure, sit down and write a few pages from each character's perspective and go with the one that feels most compelling. (You could also decide that two POVs are in order, or that everyone should have their say.)

Either way, it's worth the time and effort to find the narrator and point of view that will bring out the best in your writing and storytelling skills. After all, if you're going to string 75k coherent words together, the story needs to be riveting enough to keep you coming back to the page day after day, and choosing the right narrator is an important first step.

~:|:~

~First Person Narrators~

Novels narrated in the first person are super fascinating to read because they make for a very immersive experience since we are, in effect, inside the storyteller's head.

Writing a first-person narrator, however, can be tricky, since two different narrators witnessing the exact same event would give us two (sometimes very) different stories.

As a result, it's a limited and nuanced perspective (some might even say it's "self-centered").

With first-person narrators, opinions/viewpoints affect everything. Everything the character tells us has some kind of meaning (otherwise, why would they say or think it?). The details included are the ones the narrator feels are most important, and this adds a new depth to the story being told (especially if the reader is unsure if the narrator is trustworthy).

What kind of information is being presented? How is it being presented? What is the character leaving out and why? How do the other characters feel about this? The first person narrator, after all, can't tell us what others are thinking and feeling. They can infer, but there's never any certainty.

Think about the story you want to tell, then imagine putting on a pair of glasses with blue-tinted lenses (representing your narrator's point of view). Once the glasses are on, everything you see will be affected in some way. The sky would still be blue, but a deeper shade. The trees that had green leaves would now have a prussian tone. Sand might be powder blue. It's still the sky and trees and sand, but the lens affects how it appears according to the narrator's thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

If you're going to tackle the first person narrator, remember to put on those color-tinted glasses. It isn't about how you feel or your reactions, but how your narrator feels and reacts.

(It goes without saying that this requires knowing a lot about who your narrator is before you ever begin writing.)

~:|:~

First Person POV Violations

First person or third person, there is no "wrong" point of view for your story (provided, of course, you've made every effort to find the best point of view). There are pros and cons to each, though, and some things that should be taken into consideration if you do want to tackle that first person narrator.

The first is to remember that you don't have the same freedom with first person as you do third. Because you are speaking as I, me, we, our, etc., you are limited by what your narrator witnesses and experiences firsthand.

This also means there's a key feature you don't have access to as a writer:

The narrator's face.

Sure, you can describe what's happening if they're looking in a mirror, but we often consider that cheating.

Think about it:

She lined her plump, pink lips with a red pencil, brushed a few flecks of mascara off the high cheekbones she inherited from her grandmother.

And perhaps that's not awful. If you're going to use a mirror to describe a character, at least pick unusual features to discuss. That said, you can do better than giving us a basic blonde hair/blue-eyed summary of the girl we'll have to follow for the next two hundred pages just because she happens to be brushing her teeth.

But I digress.

Back to the face. In first person.

An expression of sadness crossed my face.

How do you know? You can't see your face. You can tell us you frowned, but describing a specific expression--something you would see on another character's face if you were standing in front of him or her--doesn't work in first person writing.

What about blushing?

My cheeks grew red with embarrassment.

Again, how do you know they're red? The first person narrator, when thrust in an awkward situation, doesn't know what color his cheeks are, so a different way is needed to convey this. He can feel the heat in his cheeks or the warmth creeping up his neck and into his cheeks, but he can't see the actual color.

Another thing to watch out for with the first person narrator: the phrase "to myself."

I said to myself.

I thought to myself.

There are more deft ways to characterize thinking or speaking to oneself, and this kind of phrasing is redundant. "I said" works perfectly fine. If you need to clarify that no one else can hear, then the character can "mutter" or "whisper." He can be speaking "so low she couldn't hear me" or "under my breath." And thoughts are just thoughts . . . which brings me to my next point:

Avoid announcements.

My thoughts drifted.

I remembered.

A writer doesn't have to tell the reader the narrator is thinking. We're smart enough to discern action from dialogue and something that's currently happening in the narrative versus something that happened in the past, so go ahead and present the memory without labeling it.

I know not every reader feels the same way, but I love a first person narrator done well. There are some pitfalls, but these can easily be avoided with additional attention to detail.