Writing Opinion Blog: Narrative styles - The Silent Author · 6:51pm Jul 12th, 2014
This is going to be a bit different from my previous blogs on writing. This is about style, and style is completely up to the author. This is my preferred style to write in. The Silent Author style. I may do blogs about others in the future, but this is mine.
Yes, styles. Like techniques from Ruronni Kenshin. I have a habit of naming ideas differently. This can also be considered a close third person perspective. I add a little bit to that, though, and I'd like to examine the purpose of the narrative as well and why I think it's good for character exploration pieces like Ghost of a Rose.
Let's start with how the Silent Author views the narrative.
As a person who tries to follow the Silent Author style, I see the point of the narrative to be the character's voice. It's what they see, experience, and feel. The narrative is their abstracted emotions, feelings, and inner monologue. Their dialogue is a more direct way of showing these things, and the narrative should support this, and feel a natural extension of their narrative voice.
I am, of course, talking about third person narrative. First person narrative should always be in the style of the Silent Author, since it's the character speaking directly to the reader, and thus the narrator (the character) should never be aware of things they couldn't be aware of, or point out things that the character wouldn't find interesting.
This is an important thing: what the character finds interesting. This is a type of POV filter, and filters out everything but what the character would pay especial attention to. This is a form of character building, as well, through showing. By showing only what the character finds relevant at the moment of narrative, it shows what the character values and, by extension, what is valuable to them.
I'm going to pick a few pieces out of an ongoing work - Ghost of a Rose to demonstrate.
Where are the bees? And the hummingbirds?
Rose lifted her nose. Where's the wind?
The thoughts trickled their way through Rose's mind, gloomy as the day was dim. It seemed morose without the sound of humming and buzzing, or even the gentle whisper of a light breeze winding its way through her garden of roses, calla lilies, daisies, and smaller plots of germaniums. It seemed odd as well that most of her garden looked wilted, as though she hadn't watered in a week.
She glanced up at the sky, but it remained stubbornly featureless and iron grey. Not even a dim glimpse of the sun shone through the clouds, and the half light that made it through cast everything in gloomy, washed out shades.
This bit is character setting. It's the first few paragraphs of the story. Take note of what Rose finds valuable. Bees. Hummingbirds, and the wind first of all. The first two are creatures that normally have a place in a garden. The next paragraph confirms it, that she is in her garden, and that is what she wants to focus on. She also values color, and bright, happy things. She's a happy mare, most of the time. She wants to be, anyway.
This is showing, by indirect means, what Rose values. Yes, her garden, but also the things that her garden represents in her life. The world is also described in terms of what she perceives. It doesn't 'seem morose' to the reader, it seems morose to Rose. It's her feelings.
Throughout this story, also, I have avoided the use of narrative questions - these are questions posed as third person perspective questions, or questions posed to the reader, not questions posed by the character. There's an important difference here.
Questions posed in the narrative third person voice are questions that are asked of the reader, and ask the reader to answer them. These are fine. Sometimes.
For the Silent Author style, they should be avoided, because they are the author asking the reader questions. They have the potential to break the reader out of the narrative because it's a subtle form of fourth wall breaking. It's not coming from the character, even though it may be written such that it appears that way.
"I– What? I–" What could she say? This wasn't something that she’d spent a lot of time obsessing over. It was just a lazy day fantasy; something that probably wouldn't ever happen. Something she had wished would happen, but left behind as she moved on with life. Could Twilight actually mean what she thought she meant?
First, let's look at one of those from a story I wrote: Shipping and Mishandling. This story is not one that I'm particularly proud of. It was written before I got a more solid grasp of the mechanics of storytelling, and as a result the whole mess of it feels... weird. This is part of it that really hit weird. It's asking the reader questions that Rainbow Dash should be asking.
"Dad..." How could I forget? Dad... why did I forget? What kind of terrible daughter am I? The grave markers faded behind a blur of tears, and she choked on the anguish that rushed up to strangle her.
Now let's take a look at an example of what could have been a series of narrative questions turned into a character's inner struggle with memory loss.
There's a big difference there in tone, and meaning. In the first, it's me, the author, asking the reader to contemplate the question, and then answering it, sort of.
In the second, it's Rose, using what could have been narrative questions ("How could she forget? Why did she forget? What kind of daughter was she to have forgotten?") and turns them into Rose berating herself for forgetting something that she thinks happened.
This is one of the differences of the SIlent Author style. The author minimizes their voice throughout the narrative, and instead of asking the reader the questions, they find a way to have the character ask them instead, and then find a way to use events, or later inner dialogue to answer those questions for the character.
Silent Author style is harder to write in, because the author should know what the character wants, fears, and their reactions and the reasons for them intimately. Showing character growth is harder, since it takes adjusting that view, and taking the knowledge of the character and their probable reactions and reshaping them as time goes on so it feels real. Editing, then becomes harder as well, since those ideas adjust themselves and recalling a character's state of mind at the time becomes even harder.
That said, it's my opinion that there are few styles that are better suited to exploring the depths of a single character and their growth over the length of a dramatic story, and sucking the reader in. I've gotten a few comments that it's worked thus far from my pre-readers, and that's encouraged me to think more deeply about these ideas I've been focusing on for almost a month now since I started seriously tinkering with Ghost of a Rose.
So that's it. Silent Author style.
Let me know your thoughts below, or tell me your style. Come up with names for them, have fun!
As always, thanks for following.
Toodles.
I asked about narrative styles the day before on a group thread, so this blog post came in a very convenient time. Thanks for taking the time to write this up!
I think all but one of my stories uses this style. I like how it makes characters interact with the world around them. The POV filter lets the character overlook some things, but when a character is faced with something they can't ignore it's fun to figure out how they should react. Would Rainbow Dash clear an obstacle out of her way or just fly over it? Would Twilight analyze the obstacle and see how it got there? Putting the right character in the right situation can change the dynamic of the story.
And you make a good point about the narrative questions. I pull those out sometimes, and I'll need to think about them more carefully. Thanks!
I have no idea what I'd name my style. I guess I have a style, but I definitely can't be the one to tell you it. I don't see a pattern, but I am rather biased :P I guess I like subtle (not silent
) a lot. That shows up quite a bit in my writing and art. Another aspect of my style would be not having a normal style. I like to write outside the norm and differently than most people do. It's interesting. First person is my home, though I may rarely vacation in third person land. Past tense too, past tense is a must. And finally humor. Everything I write has to have humor in it, whether obvious, subtle, or just a simple pun.
So let's call my style "That Kooky Old Guy." Ooh, I like the sound of that
I've got a question, since this is usually the style I use.
Would you consider it appropriate to write the narration in the character's voice—or at least in a variation of their voice?
Hence, if Rainbow Dash is the focal character for the moment, the narrator might refer to something as "cool," and generally use simpler and more active diction. Basically, first person without actually being first person.
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I don't see why not. It'd have to be done right so it doesn't distract from the narrative play, and probably only used to punctuate something that RD is experiencing. Even then, it might be better as an internal dialogue if the rest of the narrative doesn't fit her particular mode of thought.
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You're quite welcome!
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It got mentioned that I used a lot of rhetorical narrative questions on Shipping and Mishandling, and that started me thinking about them.
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Not having a normal style is a kind of style on its own. Sort of eclectic, and there are authors that can get away with that.
my style is based :v
It's a worthy style for character-based pieces, and it's one I try to use more and more as I develop my own style. Emphasis on the 'try'; it is pretty hard to write in.
It's worth contrasting it with a style where the voice of the author is a lot more prevalent. I'm thinking of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, where the narrative itself outwith any character introspection is sprinkled with asides and quips (even footnotes on occasion) divorced from any direct experience by a given character. It works in Pratchett's case because he puts his Vocal Author style to work in producing a great deal of the series' comedy. Floundering characters can exist in sharp contrast with the events of the world around them, and the narration's free to indulge in a bit of wryness at their expense.
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I really should dive back into Terry's stuff now that I've gotten a lot more experience writing. I remember his being a really fun reading experience.