![]() ![]() Having your readers question the narrator’s reliability before the main action of the story is even considered is a very useful tool for keeping them interested. ![]() Each of these characters approach the story with their own prejudices towards the main characters (think of how Nelly Dean dotes on Cathy and disparages Heathcliff), and a certain lack of insight into their own personalities (Lockwood seems particularly bumbling at the beginning of the book as he tries to justify his intrusion into Wuthering Heights to himself more than to Heathcliff). The task of narrating the tragic story of Cathy and Heathcliff falls mainly to Lockwood and Nelly Dean. One of the most famous cases of unreliable narrators in literature is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. They are particularly handy for filling in back story or setting up expectations about other characters that are then discovered later on. Unreliable narrators don’t have to be the main driving force of a story, either. Nothing can be taken at face value and so the reader enters into a dialogue with the book in trying to figure her out. By calling into question the narrative character’s reliability, the reader’s approach to each situation in the book is altered. Using it as an example again, throughout the book, the reader is tasked with trying to work out if Jane is telling the truth, lying, or is in fact insane. Last week I mentioned the book Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff. The credibility of your narrative voice can have a huge impact on how a reader engages with the story. When it comes to your first-person narratives, the choice isn’t so much between limited and omniscient as it is between Unreliable and Reliable. Given the scope of the series and number of characters there are to keep track of, this is probably a mercy! Character ![]() He even goes so far as to signpost exactly which character is steering each chapter. This is what George R R Martin does with A Song of Ice and Fire. This would be when a story is told from several different viewpoints, but rather than allowing the narrative to jump from person to person within a particular scene, the writer sticks to a single character’s viewpoint for the duration of the scene and only switches to someone else when there is a natural break in the action. Marissa Meyer uses this a lot in her writing, particularly in Heartless, as she follows Catherine on her journey to becoming the Queen of Hearts.īut what about finding some middle ground here? A Semi-Omniscient narrator. It maintains the element of detachment that comes with any third-person voice, but also stays relatively close to the one character you are following. If your story is centred around the actions of a single character, this can be quite effective. Either one character spills a secret when someone else is out of the room, or the writer simply chooses to let the reader in on what’s happening while the characters are still in the dark.Ī Limited third person, on the other hand, can be used on a smaller scale. This kind of omniscient third person can also be used to give the reader information that the characters don’t yet have. The ability to place yourself in the mind of any character at any given time is quite liberating and opens up an almost unlimited pool of thoughts and angles through which you can present your story. This is particularly useful for those big sprawling epics. What does your narrator know? This is where things get really interesting.Īs I mentioned last week, when writing in the third person, you need to work out if the narrative voice is going to be limited or omniscient, or even somewhere in between.Īn Omniscient third person will allow you to move freely between your characters and gives you as many view points as you can think of within your one story. This week, we’re looking into what can be done with knowledge and character in your narrative voices. ![]()
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