Third person is a broader canvas for me, I can creep deep peeper into the story because I am not limmited to one Charicter. I have messed around with First, though it has the feeling of hearing a story first hand, I find if not done well, it lacks in color. I can use some practice, so maybe with time I would improve. When I read, I try to avoid stories written in first for that reason. I have read some that were excellent, but the majoritylost my interest after a few chapters. Just an odd preferance. I know a very nice lady who was oposed to any story written in third, She found it detatched. Though I don't quite share her view, I could understand how she could come to that conclusion.
We all have our own writing styles. Some tend to write longer sentences and paragraphs than others. Chapter lengths can vary, etc. That's cool, but I've been wondering, should you write in a style and voice that suits you? Or should they change depending on the story, or maybe it's dependent on the protagonist? People often say the author should be invisible in good writing, so does that mean you should write as the protagonist would? Thanks people .
Ack - you're overthinking it! The style should suit the work, AND be something you are comfortable with. As you become more experienced as a writer, your style "vocabulary" will expand and you will more naturally adjust the style for the work. Good luck. -Frank
Your style is the way you write. Some say that as long as your style adheres to grammar rules, you're in the clear. Others say breaking the rules for artistic reasons is okay. Some will hate your style and some will love it. What matters is that it's yours. Style is also difficult to define because atmosphere, word choice, dialogue, sentence structure, etc. all influence the mood of your piece.
...of course!... ...it's dependent on the 'pov'... who the narrator is... ...'people' aren't all always right!... you should write in the 'voice' of the protagonist only if s/he is the narrator... if not, then you should write in your own 'voice'... think of how various successful writers 'sound' to you as a reader... do tom clancy and dean koontz and margaret atwood all sound alike?... how about conan doyle, christie and poe?... get the point?
Keep your voice - the "invisible voice means good writer" stuff applies to info dumps, I think - no one wants to read a long, boring info dump in the author's voice, but if you're using your own voice to set up a creepy tone, describe something etc then it's all good.
I'm a fan of limited present-tense first person, so I would prefer to always use that, but I guess in certain rare circumstances I'd switch it for the benefit of the story. For the most part though, my style stays the same, plus the occasional evolution or refinement in how I handle certain types of event.
Write as well as you can within the type of novel you are writing. If you decide you want to write a horror story, you may have to change up your "voice," as opposed to telling a tale about fairies and gnomes. Depending on the characters, setting, theme, mood, etc. a different voice may be needed to effectively convey your message.
Slippery slopes. I'm a firm believer prose should often match the character being represented, as your job imo isn't so much as to tell a story (that's writer-centered) but to represent the story of the character (character centered). If your character is a child, long flowing passages of poet refinement and sophistication of world events is probably not appropriate. But you also don't want to baby talk in your prose. Your character isn't writing the story, but you're still representing them, so it's somewhere in between.
That's it. A style should match the story, which is the easiest way to get any story going. At the same time, a voice that's radically disjointed can be too alarming to the reader, and kick 'em out of the story entirely! For one reason or another, Animorphs, a book I read as a teen, popped into my mind at the idea. The style and language of the series was definitely aimed at younger audiences, but the themes were incredibly adult. Despite this audience gap, the style wasn't jarring to what was going on, so it worked wonders.
I change styles depending on the character, when and where the story is set etc. When i am writing older characters the sentences tend to be longer, language more grown up etc. I switched to third person to tell a seven year old POV because wasn't sure I could do that inside his head. For a seventeen year old boy fantasy I told it first person present, for two ladies from the past it was third person past - I used Scots words in the latter, more slang in the former. I always limit it to one or two POVs for my own ease. As much as possible I try to get the style to fit the character - my voice usually creeps in however. However part of that comes from in my main writing the character is telling the story not me.
Well if it's written in third person, it's not the protagonist telling the story. So it depends on who the narrator is. Your voice as the writer should still come through.
I think writing style is flexible. The more you learn about writing, the more the style shifts. Or if you read a book that really influences you, you might find yourself adopting some aspect of that style. It really changes as you change as a person. I think it's best to just go with what comes comfortably like FrankABlissett said. Though if you're writing a long piece and your style changes noticeably in the middle you might want to go back and edit things a bit to make it consistent. But even that is a stylistic choice I think.
They just sound better IMHO, many of the greatest audio book narrators are British. I think a good narrator can actually improve on the writer's prose and dialogue.
Look up Cbeebies Bedtime Stories on YouTube - some of them can read me a bedtime story anyday lol David Tennant is my favourite.
Don't get me wrong, my novel has substance in terms of the story line, but as a new writer I'm tripping up a little on the delivery. My novel is written in first person, it is a mystery type of novel, so the reader can't know all the facts. The story is told through my Main Character, but he has multiple voices in his head. Now if you heard a voice in your head, you would know instantly, right? You wouldn't give it a second thought if you were used to it. So I wouldn't say something like: "Look at that over there" Said Bob Because thats not how we think. My MC would know it was Bob. So my question really is, how do I not confuse the reader, when my MC has voices in his head....
Presumably when first person the person narrating also knows who is speaking to them, you still use dialogue beats, story and tags to identify the speaker.
Thoughts are a jumbled mess of abstract imagery, emotions, formulated dialogue and not so formulated dialogue. If you somehow managed to write thoughts as they are, nobody would be able to stand reading it. Even stream of consciousness is edited to have flow and make sense. Adding dialogue tags is a minor thing in this context. Even acid-heads like David Lynch use (visual) characters to represent paranoid hallucinations, and as such impose some kind of structure and order on things that really have none.
That's okay, because the reader doesn't tend to notice dialogue tags, they're just there in the background - just as your MC doesn't actively think about which voice is speaking. It's really not different from when a first-person narrator is having a conversation with a physical person in the story. The narrator doesn't think about who they're speaking to all the time, but you can still put "he said" and "she said" here and there to remind the reader of it.
Have you tried writing it in 3rd person? Sometimes things that you find you are fighting against end up working with you if you change the POV. And sometimes not, but it's always worth trying it, just to check.
Maybe each voice could have a distinctive character. Bob could sound old and archaic, like H.P. Lovecraft's style, while Frank could talk in colloquail slang. This way, readers will know who it is.
The MC is supposed to be telling you the story, so he has to tell you who's talking. Also, he needs to tell you that he hears voices. I look at first first as if you met a stranger in a bar and they start telling you their story to get it off their chest. If the storyteller has some amazing talent, then he has to tell me or the story won't make sense. Example: Ever since I was fourteen I've had a bunch of friends I could always count on, but then again I never got any privacy, if you know what I mean. I doubt you do though because these friends live in my head. I never told anyone that before because I heard it's a sign of being crazy and if I know anything, I know I'm not crazy. Bob, is this dude who sounds like this college professor type and Fred sounds like a farmer and both guys are smart and their advice has saved my ass multiple times. Janet talks with a New York accent and is a bit of a bitch, but she's practical. Dirk is like some kind of sociopath, but damn is he a funny dude, but he doesn't like Bob and Fred much and they create a freakin' racket in my head. That's when I need to hit the bottom and none of 'em like the hangover, so that's how I keep them in line. "Listen motherf@cker, you don't keep anybody in line," snarled Dirk. "Yeah, okay brother, I was just being figurative for the story, kay," I thought sarcastically. and so on. That's how I'd do it.
I have always said, execution. Only execution. In my mind, the style of a story is much more important than the content. You can take a retarded, cliché, overwritten idea, but if the style is new and unique, it will be much more entertaining. Style is what grabs people. What stands out. Content is just filling the 'space.' Content is important. I won't tell you it isn't. The content needs to be solid as well. But the style is the presentation. What people actually 'see.' They (readers) see the images and abstract concepts of your content in the mind. But that is transmitted to them through the style. If I had to make a scale, I would say style and execution of a concept is 80% of good story telling. The other 20% is for solid content, meaning believable characters, interesting setting, new ideas, clear visuals, and similar things. Just sit back and think 'how' you want to tell the story. You have the story you want to tell. Now you just need to figure out how. And to do that, you just need to make sure other people can understand it. Give people snipets of the writing you are worried about. Workshop it. Let people find out what isn't working. Or what parts are confusing. Then you can take that and use it. But it's hard. For me the style is the hardest part. Because it's a strange, unknow form of communication.
Thanks so far. I think I need to just keep writing, and hopefully a style I like will evolve, and then I'll go back and re-write for the 2nd draft. I did consider and almost robotic structure, like a screenplay... blah blah blah mc chats away about something Bob: Don't look now blah blah blah mc chats away about something Fred: Listen to Bob!!! etc Or maybe a rhythm, so over time the reader will recognise when a certain voice will speak up (eg when the MC is angry/happy etc). On the earlier post, can someone explain the David Lynch reference. I don't know much of his style/work.
