\nOn Feb 22, 2012, unsocialized homeschooler wrote, What do you think about writing in questions in books? Like if a story was in third person and at the end of a paragraph I write something like “could this be true?” or “well, what would you do?” or something to that extent, like a narrator almost. I do that a lot in my writing without thinking, and I’m not sure if it\u2019s cheesy or if it sounds silly or not. If it does, is there a way to avoid this?<\/i><\/p>\n
I certainly don\u2019t think your practice is cheesy or silly. It\u2019s a matter of choice and voice and distance. When you ask these questions, your narrator, who can be first person as well as third, is addressing the reader directly. This speaking to the reader can be in the form of statements, not just questions, as in, You will soon learn the after-effects of the smart slap Duchess Claudette delivered to the cheek of Master Rex<\/i>.<\/p>\n
If you decide to address the reader, you need to do so early in your story or book and be consistent, not in every paragraph, which would likely be annoying, and maybe not even in every chapter (although possibly), but at least once in every, say, fifty pages. If the reader hears from the narrator for the first time on page 368, he is likely to be startled and possibly confused.<\/p>\n
(I can\u2019t remember if Charlotte Bronte ever speaks directly to the reader before she says **SPOILER ALERT** near the end \u201cReader, I married him.\u201d If she didn\u2019t, well, she\u2019s doing it in the wrapping-up, when the reader is already disengaging. You may be able to do that, too, once, right at the end. Try it, if you like. And, although this is a lame excuse, she is Charlotte Bronte and might have even gotten away with tossing a few kangaroos into a novel set in England!)<\/p>\n
I suspect you can also talk to the reader in a prologue and not again, because the prologue is a little separate from the story that follows.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the reader acknowledges that there is a reader and that this is a book or a story. The question or statement addressed to him takes him out for a beat. I\u2019m not saying this is bad or good; it just is. If the story has him by the throat, he\u2019ll dive right back in. If the story isn\u2019t engaging, whether or not you use this device, he\u2019s likely to wander off.<\/p>\n
This technique often has an old-fashioned tone, but that\u2019s not necessary. If the voice of the story is contemporary, the words to the reader can be too, or can be consistent with the time period. J. D. Salinger manages it in a contemporary way in Catcher in the Rye.<\/i> A narrator in a 1960’s novel might say to the reader, \u201cYou dig?\u201d A first-person narrator in love with science fiction might ask, \u201cYou grok?\u201d A modern, casual narrator might say, \u201cGet it?\u201d<\/p>\n
In Beloved Elodie<\/i> or whatever it\u2019s going to be called, one of the POV characters, the dragon Masteress Meenore, is itching to address the reader, but I\u2019m not letting IT because I haven\u2019t done so anywhere else and I don\u2019t want the reader spending even a second in thinking Huh? Why can IT do this and no one else? <\/i>(The others don\u2019t want to.)<\/p>\n
Which leads to a question worth asking yourself: What kind of narrator am I writing? Even an omniscient third-person narrator has a voice and an implied personality. Compare some books you have that are written in third person, both classic and contemporary. When you\u2019re making the decision about speaking to the reader or not, consider whether the voice is comfortable talking to beings outside the book.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a prompt: If you\u2019re in the habit of speaking to the reader, try deleting those sentences. How does your story read without them? If you decide to put them back in, consider whether you might phrase the statements or questions in a new way. If you never speak to the reader, try it. See how you feel.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll likely find that a narrator who speaks to the reader has a strong presence. He, she, or it, has an attitude toward the story. If you want your story\u2019s events to unfold naturalistically, you may want to steer clear of this kind of narrator.<\/p>\n
This blog takes a conversational tone. I do speak to you, and occasionally I struggle with perspective. Sometimes my we<\/i> refers to the reader and sometimes to the writer. Sometimes my you<\/i> is to the writers out there and then I worry that maybe I\u2019m being condescending, since we\u2019re all writers, but I do it anyway if it seems to suit the topic.<\/p>\n
Still, I might take a more academic approach and never talk to you. Let\u2019s look at the beginning of my second paragraph as an example. Instead of this:<\/p>\n
If you decide to address the reader, you need to do so early in your story or book and be consistent, not in every paragraph, which would likely be annoying, and maybe not even in every chapter (although possibly), but at least once in every, say, fifty pages…<\/i><\/p>\n
we\u2019d have this:<\/p>\n
When an author decides to address a reader directly, the technique will be most effective if begun early in the narrative and consistently applied thereafter, not constantly, which might annoy, but frequently enough…<\/i><\/p>\n
I\u2019d probably lose most of you.<\/p>\n
Here are some prompts. Think about which you enjoyed writing the most and which worked best. I hope you don\u2019t commit to any future voice, but just experiment.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Retell an anecdote from your life, preferably a funny one, from the POV of an irreverent narrator who speaks to the reader.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Retell it straight, using an invisible third-person narrator who doesn\u2019t intrude on the story.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Retell it yet again in your own voice as if you were telling a friend or relative who knew nothing about it.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Fictionalize the anecdote and introduce an embarrassing element. Make it not have happened to you if that helps. Have your narrator tell it in narration to a disapproving reader.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Pick a fairy tale to tell straight in an old-timey fairy tale voice, including asides to the reader.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Tell the fairy tale as if you were a stand-up comic, performing the tale in a nightclub or a one-person play.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Feb 22, 2012, unsocialized homeschooler wrote, What do you think about writing in questions in books? Like if a story was in third person and at the end of a paragraph I write something like “could this be true?” or “well, what would you do?” or something to that extent, like a narrator almost. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[120,73],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":387,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}