I do like epistolary stories. They allow very strong sensations of mystery and tension in the time leaps between two messages.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is an excellent novel and an international best seller, all written in letters. The Color Purple is another example. Frankenstein starts with a series of letters. If it is done well it is a great form to use for a novel. Good luck with it
A Stephen King short story is also wrote in for form of diary entries. I can't remember what it was called, it was good though.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a really good book, which is comprised of fictional letters between demons.
Yes, Dracula was. Tracy Chevalier's Falling Angels was as well. I'd say it's fairly popular since so many of us are able to come up with at least moderately successful examples of it.
It's more accurate to say it was fairly popular. Epistolary novels do still occasionally appear, but they have largely fallen out of favor, because the reader is removed from the action. The reader only sees the actual events as interpreted by the letter writer. Explicitly filtering the events through the perceptions of the characters writing each communique may hold some appeal in terms of revealing character, but most modern readers would rather experience the action more directly and interpret characters through their actions rather than through their ruminations.
I think it would be more successful if the entire novel wasn't written that way, but part of it...even most of it would be preferable. Personally, I love that type of writing, but I can see where an entire novel written that way would get old. As Cogito said, the reader is so far removed from the action that they'd slowly become bored. Not to say that it couldn't be done...I'm sure it can. I just think you'd have a greater time getting a larger audience if you used it as one of many tools.
There are situations in which an epistolary form fits the requirements of a story better than any others, for example to show events from the point of view of someone with a particularly unusual thought process. As an example, I point to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Data's Day. That episode is told in the form of a communication from Data to Professor Mattucks, to give the audience a unique insight into how Data, an android still learning about the subtleties of human emotion and behavior, interprets events taking place over a twenty-four hour period. The epistolary form allows not only the direct first-person experiences, but also offers an opportunity for Data to indulge in introspection naturally.
I imagine part of the style's decline has to do with the obsolescence of letter writing in general. It's not something people can relate to as easily as was once the case, what with the convenience of txting and all. I don't see why it couldn't be an intriguing novelty however.
So I shouldn't send you a copy of TTYL by Lauren Myracle for Christmas? lol Apparently the whole book is in the form of IM's and texts or whatever.
I enjoy reading books made up of letters, diary entries and e-mails (although that wouldn't go down so well in a WWII novel) so I don't see a problem with it. My book is also set during WWII but isn't told through letters and is more of a chicklit sort of book.
I have always thought that this kind of writing is interesting. It's a great way to tell a story, especially one that revolves around historic events. ~Eliza
I'm a little puzzled by how many threads there are that start with "I have this idea with this theme and these characters, can you please help me come up with a plot?" or "I have this plot which requires these actors, can you help me come up with characters?" I'm puzzled, not annoyed, because I don't understand why anyone would want others to write their plot or characters. To me, coming up with ideas is the easy and fun part - those are what inspires me to write a story - and doing the writing which makes it all come together is the laborious part. Is it the other way around for some people?
I am very precious about my characters and my world etc its mine I came up with it. But I have just had a wobble reading the fantasy fans thread, as I don't know much about the genre I like reading it but I am not a massive fan, but I want to know if my story is a cliche. It was just my way of telling my storyt. Also i think there maybe nerves about things, I didn't have the chance for nerves until i joined the forum and posted my work, my writing had come out of my doodling Maybe also a desire to get it just right, and wondering if I am capable. Its only now my first novel is half way through its second draft publishing it has become a consideration, I didn't start off with that as an intention, so now other people's opinions are important. I guess if you start out with the intention of publishing they are important from the start
Well. Sometimes I ask for help because I'm still brainstorming. Sometimes I even go against what others say and even what I said in the beginning. All stories begin somewhere and all stories have a rough draft. They a blue print you may or may not follow. I ask people for help because, I like to brainstorm that way. The way I brainstorm is to talk through with some people. Especially if it's a rough idea that can't come to me quickly. But if it's an idea that I really really feel I can write it without needing to have a conversation with people. Don't just assume why people ask for help.
Crutches. We live in a modern society ready to give us a crutch for every little thing that we find inconvenient. It is the basic mode of existence for those fortunate enough to live in that tiny slice of the industrialized, technologically affluent human paradigm. I won't go into individual examples because I am bound to offend someone or everyone. The fact remains that there are some who have become dependent on this dynamic, who cannot move or walk or think without this support system. It is a sadness, truly, because it marks a threshold where more is taken than what is put into the system. I would feel offended if anyone tried to write my work for me. And the wish to have one's work written by another denotes a lassitude that is shameful.
There are those who ask for specific help when they have a genuine problem... like a thread I read few weeks ago where the poster wanted how his character can steal something from a store/mall without triggering the alarm or, a poster asking how a lesbian might react in some situations. I think they did the right thing posting here and I think they did get help here saving a lot of time in research. Most of the other thread posters seem like they are totally unsure of what they are writing. It seems like they prematurely worry (no matter what they say) about the commercial success of their stories. Some worry even before they start writing and some just don't have faith in the idea they come up with. Hence the need to know if people will like the plot, the characters etc. I believe if a writer comes up with a story idea, he/she should have no problem developing the characters, the storyline and the plot at least. Have some faith WRITERS and remember nobody (no matter how big a writer they are) doesn't have the insight to the story as you do. I think asking for opinion prematurely will only corrupt the idea. My advice to them will be to complete one or two drafts and then seek for opinion. Edit: Totally agree with Wreybies.
