Who Is Your Narrator? | StoryCraft Advent Calendar Day 9

Who is telling your story? This is something I ask of every author that I work with as an editor and writing coach and is one of the first things that I want to figure out as a reader. But it’s something that a lot of writers, if they’re not writing in first-person, can’t always answer. And, if they are writing in first-person, many still haven’t thought much about the interaction between their narrator and the reader.

For me, a great story is one where it feels like the narrator is talking directly to me. Even if they are a nameless entity, I still want it to feel as if they are standing beside me and guiding me through the world and action, rather than talking down to me like a voice from above that I have no connection to.

I think this comes from a background of starting to write for the stage and then the screen – where you are welcomed fully into the action. In those mediums, the audience is in control of their viewpoint, while being guided by the writing, direction, acting, and production elements that are happening in front of us. But in a book, it is up to the narrator to create every image that we “see” and experience that we have as a reader.

So, how do we get that same level of intimacy and feel the narrator’s presence within a book? The first step is to fully understand who your narrator is. If you’re writing in first-person, why are they telling this story? What are they getting out of it? Are they giving us all of the details exactly how they remember them or are they maneuvering the story to suit them? What does your narrator want the experience of reading to be? Do they want you to feel sorry for them? Celebrate their efforts? Understand everything they have endured? Is there a greater message?

Next, who is the reader to them? Are they telling this story to a trusted friend? A student or someone they are trying to teach or influence? A child? Someone older than them? Someone who they assume exists in a similar world or someone who will understand very little of the world they are walking into?

Pinpointing why your narrator is telling the story and who they are telling it to can help you make all kinds of decisions as an author. It can help you establish the tone and writing style and will help you understand what details to include in this telling of the story.

As I’m diving into my current project, a modern adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, I have been thinking a lot about the perspective that I want to use for the story and how this will affect the reading experience. The original was written in a close third-person. This book was written by Austen at the end of her life, after her own love affairs had come and gone and she remained unmarried herself. We get both a sense of longing for a happy ending and a commentary on the choices we make within the narration. It feels like Anne is a dear and trusted friend of the narrator.

But what if this story were told from Anne’s direct perspective? How does that change how we view her and the events? Or, I have also played with the idea of telling the story from both Anne and Fredrick’s perspectives. Does Fredrick have an equally interesting story to tell? How would readers benefit from hearing his side?

If your narrator is your protagonist, it’s important that they are filling both of these functions well. It’s not enough that we have full access to all of their thoughts and actions. We also need to see how this viewpoint is ideal for telling this story and how it gives us all of the access we need to see the story fully and experience it as we are meant to.

For those writing in third-person, you will have a little more work to do when it comes to building your narrator. How close is this person to your narrator? How much access to they have to in your characters’ thoughts? What is their viewpoint within scenes? How do they experience the action unfolding?

I like to think of most close third-person narrations as the protagonist’s best friend or sibling. They are someone who knows the character so well that they are able to interpret their actions and commonly can read their mind. But there is still one step of distance, where they might not understand every decision as the character is making it and can see the protagonist from a slightly more objective view than we can see ourselves.

Also, consider where your narrator is as you’re crafting your scenes. I usually will place them right beside the protagonist. This allows the view of the action to be similar to that of the story’s lead but we can still see the protagonist head on when needed.

When dealing with a more distant third-person, or one that is jumping from being alongside several characters, I will still come up with some traits that I want the narrator to have. Do they have allegiances to some characters more than others? Or are they trying to give a completely objective view, like a journalist would?

And, most importantly, I still try to figure out what their objective is in telling this story. Is there a theme or message that they are trying to convey? What sort of experience do they want readers to have? Is it different from your goals as the author? Is it you telling the story or is it someone living within this world?

Knowing as much as possible about your narrator is going to help you in so many different ways as you plan and craft your story. It will allow you to see what access you have into the world and action, what biases or objectives you might need to convey, and will help you frame your scenes so that readers can really feel like they are present in the story.

I commonly say that writing is always a conversation between the writer and the reader. Knowing more about both sides will allow you to craft the best possible story.

Happy Writing!

-Jess