What's your favorite style of narration?
Myself, I'm a sucker for good old-fashioned hardboiled first-person narration--I read too many private detective novels and pulp fiction books. But one very important critic disagrees with me.
Today Leon Neyfakh has an article about New Yorker books critic James Wood, exploring why this scholar thinks free indirect narration is best.
That style perches on the shoulder of your characters, allowing their thoughts to blend with the actual narration--eliminating clumsy phrases like "Jason thought" or "Mister Boog pondered." Let's make today Free Indirect Narration Day and write a couple pages like that...
Read this article for its interviews with great writers like Mark Sarvas and Charles Bock. Then pick up a copy of How Fiction Works, Wood's new writing manual. Check it out:
"'I have heard Columbia M.F.A.’s talk about him somewhat—very admiringly for the most part. They are very struck by his mandate that free indirect narration is the highest form of fiction writing, and I do think quite a few of them have tried to practice that technique,' [said author Becky Curtis.]"
Oddly enough, I just spotted two Wood-ish posts. Read Sarah Weinman's take and Ed Champion's indirect alligator.
» The Publishing Spot Library: Novelist DeLauné Michel from ThePublishingSpot
Yesterday was Free Indirect Narration Day, and today is Dialogue Day. Out of all my guests this year, novelist DeLauné Michel had the best ear for writing dialogue. You could hear it when she read the work out-loud--her characters were... [Read More]
Tracked on: August 2, 2008 1:43 PM | Permalink to Trackback