Okay, so if I want to tell this story as a first person reminiscence, how important is it to establish why I am telling the story now? And is "because inquiring minds want to know" a good enough reason?
Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
I don't think it's important at all. But then, "because I felt like it" has always been sufficient reason for me.
Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
It isn't important at first, but by the end of the piece the reader shouldn't be wondering why you bothered to write it. They should be thinking about what you said, instead.
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
I'm quite all right with first person stories being unframed. I don't need them typing it into a computer or on a typewriter for posterity, writing in a journal, or spinning a yarn at the bar. It can simply start and stop and the narrator can just tell a story. It's the story itself that needs to be interesting and if that's done well, I won't be thinking very hard about the narrator.
That said, if you don't do the story well and I have time to wonder about the narrator and why they're telling the story you're in trouble. For example, I find diction in first person narration completely distracting. I don't care if the character is uneducated, the fact that you write it that way reminds me that someone is writing this down and then I start to wonder why they are.
I just critiqued some well done first person today in which I scarcely noticed I was reading a first person story. Now that's good story-telling. I should probably have mentioned that to them in the crit...
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
Catcher in the Rye is first person, is it not? Everyone shredded me for using first person when I posted on F&F. They were like "you better have some compelling reason". But I guess if you are expecting speculative fiction, it can be jarring.
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
Hey beth, did you see the announcement I posted on the writer's workshop in Salt Lake? The author leading it is not primarily speculative fiction. I got a couple of her books. I should try reading some. But I think she is in what I don't like to call chick lit and also non-fiction.
Posted by BuffySquirrel (Member # 2780) on :
Just write the story . It used to be very popular in Victorian literature to write an explanation (or justification) for how the narrative had come into being because at that time novels were a relatively new idea, and having to overcome reader prejudice by pretending to be true stories. That time has gone.
[This message has been edited by BuffySquirrel (edited August 30, 2005).]
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
Franc, I think I found the story in F&F you were talking about and I didn't think there was an overwhelming outcry for rationale, nor did I think the fragment was at all a bad sample of first person writing. In fact, it was smooth and natural and I don't think you need help on use of first person, at least by that sample. Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
It's basically a relationship story right? If you begin it in the right place, you don't need to explain anything.
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
Yes, but it's knowing the right place. And the primary relationship in the story is my relationship with God. Which began when I was like 4. I prayed for something, and while it came true, I was afraid to ever pray for that again because if it didn't come true I'd be up a creek.
I don't know if I relate that anywhere in the story as it exists.
I think what my story might need is for me to flesh out one of my female confidants. It's hard to do, though, without making the story about my relationship with that friend.
I guess "Laura" would be the most natural choice. She is a rare person who is a very loyal friend but never got enmeshed with my problems.
. It used to be very popular in Victorian literature to write an explanation (or justification) for how the narrative had come into being because at that time novels were a relatively new idea, and having to overcome reader prejudice by pretending to be true stories. That time has gone.