Book contents
- Reviews
- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write
- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- – 1 – Getting started
- – 2 – Memory and imagination
- – 3 – Character
- – 4 – Plot and structure I
- – 5 – Plot and structure II
- – 6 – Form and length
- – 7 – Dialogue
- – 8 – Narrative viewpoint and narrative voice
- – 9 – Beginnings and endings; tension and pace
- – 10 – Description
- – 11 – Research
- – 12 – Drawing it all together
- – 13 – Publication and the writing life
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
– 8 – - Narrative viewpoint and narrative voice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2022
Book contents
- Reviews
- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write
- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- – 1 – Getting started
- – 2 – Memory and imagination
- – 3 – Character
- – 4 – Plot and structure I
- – 5 – Plot and structure II
- – 6 – Form and length
- – 7 – Dialogue
- – 8 – Narrative viewpoint and narrative voice
- – 9 – Beginnings and endings; tension and pace
- – 10 – Description
- – 11 – Research
- – 12 – Drawing it all together
- – 13 – Publication and the writing life
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Who is telling the story and how are they telling it? The difference between the author and the narrator. Respective advantages and disadvantages of first- and third-person narrative voices. Varieties of first-person narrative. Unreliable narrators. Varieties of third-person narrative. Multiple narrative viewpoints. Direct address to the reader. ‘Other world’ narrative voices.
‘Most stories pivot on the question of which character knows what and – crucially – what your reader knows and when you let them know it. The choice of narrative voice and point of view defines how much the reader can know.’
Keywords
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- The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to WriteA Handbook for Fiction Writers, pp. 119 - 160Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022