Create a narrator intimate to the story but outside it as well. The wonderful effect of a narrator who is intertwined with a story but also essentially unimportant to its outcomes is that you have more leisure to explore the complexities of the plot, the kinks in it, and the gaps of knowledge this cheerful spectator is going to have. Don't make her omniscient or even close - though she can guess expertly at the problems she is observing and can even be wrenched by the emotional logjams she is witness to.
Wordcount: 800 (+/- 10%)
I'm particularly curious about the description of the narrator as a 'cheerful spectator' and think this could be (for me) the most difficult part - any thoughts on how to interpret this?
ReplyDeleteHehe I am not sure eh, just writing what it said in the book. I guess your spectator could be an optimist, or be amused by the ridiculous dramas of the lives they watch? Or you could take it in a more 'throw away comment' sense and therefore just ignore it?
ReplyDeleteTrue :) I am currently resisting temptation to do a Dr Who fanfic - that seems to be the most common sort of use for this PoV in recent times! It might be helpful to go back to authors who've used it in older literature - W. Somerset Maugham's 'The Razor's Edge' comes to mind...and maybe even Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher'.
ReplyDeleteHehehe sounds awesome!
ReplyDeleteIconoclast - you know, I think a DW fanfic version of this exercise would be great *laughs* go on, you know you want to...
ReplyDeleteHehehe yeah, you definitely should do this - after you have handed in your thesis!!!!!!
ReplyDelete