 Short Stories: November 20, 2019 Issue [#9878] |
This week: Telling the Story Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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There is no greater agony
than bearing an untold story inside you.
Maya Angelou
Greetings, I am honored to be your guest host this week for the Short Story Newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to explore something that I often have trouble with in my own stories ~ whose story is it?. |
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Greetings, fellow storytellers ~
Let me tell you a story, about something -
- that happened
- that may have happened
- that didn't happen
- to me
- to my character
- to someone else.
But whose voice is it? Whose story am I telling?
I'm going to tell you a story, something I see, I hear, I sense; a story about a personal experience/adventure/action. How do I bring you, my reader, into the story; make you want to, maybe even have to, turn the page to know what happens next? How about I tell you a story?
Here goes - I entered the room and flicked the light switch, even though the power was out all over the city. My finger was so ingrained with the routine flip, I did it without thinking, and got the shock of my life when I heard a thump and saw, on the kitchen table....
First Person - I am the narrator/protagonist and I relate what I sense. I see, hear, taste, smell, sense/think (yes, all five-plus senses). In a short story, the first person can work well as long as we maintain the sensory reality. I would not know that you are thinking of slapping me for what I said, but I would observe your fist clenched and your lips pressed together as if unstated epithets clamored for release. See the sensory image? Have you ever seen someone and sense that it would take but one word or movement to make them 'flip'? Show that immediacy to your reader and you draw him/her into the character's vision, and allow him to empathize with you (the character) and wanting to see you succeed (or fail, maybe).
 First person viewpoint is limited to what the character/speaker actually perceives by use of senses and imagination. I think it's really important to minimize adverbs, which distance the reader. Allow your reader to walk alongside your character and draw his/her own conclusions as do you.
 First person viewpoint, however, doesn't have to be just me, myself, and I. I can step into character as a sentient being, even of another species, or perhaps an inanimate object, and relate 'my' story using relevant, unique, perspectives.
 First person viewpoint, can be used by a peripheral narrator - a character telling a story about someone else. Something like this... I watched Mike open the door and flick the light switch, even though the power had been out for several hours. His fingers then flicked the ineffective switch off, as he stared, agape, at what was on the kitchen table across the room. - Consider these classics of first-person narration = Nick Carraway in "The Great Gatsby" or Holden Caulfield in "The Catcher in the Rye".
So, as we see, first person doesn't have to be about me, it is a much more versatile and creative voice. It's not only journaling or 'telling' tales. First person, whether related by me personally or my character or me writing what I see another character do, needs active observation and vivid description of what I perceive. I want my reader to see what I see, smell what I smell, and perceive what I think before drawing his/her own conclusions up to the resolution I've plotted (but not before my character gets there).
I think I've got it now, and hope you also, fellow reader/writer, have enjoyed this exploration.
Write On
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Check out these stories, do they make you see, hear, sense what the speaker (either the writer, or character) is doing, thinking, or engaged in? Why not engage the story, and let the writers know your thoughts, with a review perchance? Then tell us 'your' story.
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Thank you for welcoming me to your virtual home, and for sharing this exploration with me.
Until we next meet, have fun telling your story, no matter whose tale it is  ,
Write On ~
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading |
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