Fair warning this may be confusing.... So after reading "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" I've been wanting to recreate something similiar to the bond the reader and main character share in it. Basically, the authour makes it seem as if the reader supposedly has a real connection with the main character. So the reader is a friend of a friend of the main charcter. However in the book he writes letters to the reader and I'd prefer it not to be in that diary entry sort of format. Any suggestions on how I could establish a connection with the reader and character??? But still making them strangers...if that makes any sense... Well if you managed to understand that then good work! Any suggestions much appreciated!
Hi, Haven't read the book, but what you're saying is that the author used a metaphor of a letter to the reader to establish the connection. It's been done elsewhere, and sometimes effectively. All of the Gor novels use an introduction letter from a writer telling how he met up with the character again or got a letter from him. John Carter of Mars is the same. Sherlock Holmes is similar in that Watson is the one retelling the tale, but he is the one who comes off as warm and human while viewing Sherlock through his strange rose coloured spectacles. You want to do it as I see it, without the medium of the fake letter. My thought is that in this age texts might be more appro, but of course that comes with the whole issue of text speak. An internet blog perhaps? Or you could just forego the lot and write it as though he's sitting in your lounge having a cupper and retelling his adventure to you in person. That would be my choice. It would be I assume mostly written as first person past tense, but with the advantage of hindsight allowing the character to recount things that he hadn't known at the time (eye of God). Cheers, Greg.
You have to write with emotions. How would you personally feel in certain plot points or actions of the character? Do you feel shock, disbelief, anger--and why? You immerse your own emotions into the character you're writing about.
Here's a good little article on first-person narrator/narration. http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/cc-1PN.htm Look into the section about the narrator's situation. Maybe you can get the idea of how you want to address the reader by thinking about the narrator's character - where is he, what does he "want" from the reader, what does he "want" from the story, etc. If well told, even an omniscient third person narrator can appear very close to the reader. It's more a matter of style and substance than form.
How about this the character is going through some sort of challenge and the challenge is so exciting that the reader is immediately pulled in because the reader want's to know if the character succeeds or fails the challenge that their facing.
