Sometimes finding my way into a story is nearly impossible.
In front of me now, I have the facts of an interesting crime story my son brought to me. It's got pathos, humor, intrigue, violence and a cast of colorful characters.
It can't miss.
But I can't find the right voice to tell the story, the right character to filter it through.
I know if I can figure out whose story it is, it'll be much easier. But is the right voice the victim's, the murderer's, the drug dealer's, the cop's, the girlfriend's, the bartender's, the prosecutor's, the ex-wife's.
Whose story is it? I can't figure it out. Until I do, I'm stuck.
Does this happen to you?
21 comments:
I know what you're saying, Patti, and I wish I could help you. I'm reading S. J. Bolton's BLOOD HARVEST and I'm struggling with it. Bolton's first two novels had female narrators, but this book is told in the third person. The story is compelling, but the character of a vicar isn't quite right to carry the story.
Patti - I know exactly what you mean. The voice really does make a difference. If the story's got more than one interesting character, perhaps you could try multiple points of view? That can work well.
Would it help to pose this question to your characters?
I wonder why she changed a perfect formula. I guess she was trying to stretch.
I think that would work well in a novel, Margot and maybe that's what it should be.
That's a cool idea, Ron. I will try it.
Multiple POV will work in shorter work, as well (Bloch, particularly, loved to do that; Wilhelm does it, too). I would also suggest trying an apparatus approach...telling the story in the form of a social worker's or other investigator's report, etc...that might not be the final form, but it might also clarify things for you.
(And, of course, RASHOMON was based on Akutagawa's short stories.)
I was going to suggest you write from the perspective of the character changed most by the events, but that's not necessarily the most interesting.
Multiple points of view sounds good. Or maybe you can choose someone unexpected and more removed, like a court stenographer, the door man, or someone like that. They can observe details that don't make sense until the whole story is told--a bit like writing from a child's perspective.
Good luck with it!
Maybe the bartender would work best.
Multiple POVs always trip me up--even reading them. I am a very linear person.
And again, this is the problem with a story that comes to you already told.
That's often one of the hardest decisions. Usually I do whatever comes naturally and it generally works, but sometimes the voice just won't come right and i have to start over more than once.
It may well be one of those, Charles.
Been there. Hell, sometimes I think I live there. Many a story idea pops fully formed into my head, only to wither and die because I can't figure out whose story it is. I'm far more likely to get somewhere when it's the voice that clicks first; stories are a dime a dozen, but an interesting voice? That's something special.
Well, that depends. For novels I have never had much doubt which (main) perspective to write them from, but for flash fiction and short stories I experience much more - and I have learned that one character´s story is not the same as another character´s.
(I should also know that from real life. We are three sisters, and when we tell stories from our childhood, you would hardly guess we grew up in the same home. Fortunately, mine was the funniest and the happiest).
Chris-exactly. And that's why I almost dread hearing a good story. I need that voice to tell me one.
And that trait still seems to reside in you, Dorte.
I always like the ones told from the perspective of the dog. If there is a dog. If not, why not?
I have never owned a dog so I'd be ill-prepared to know his thoughts.
All the time. I wrote the first two chapters of a novel half a dozen times, trying to get the voice right. The novel didn't sell, but I got props for the manner of its telling; the story just didn't go over as well as I'd hoped.
Another problem with even the best story ideas is, the story may need to be told in a manner other than how I can write it, i.e. it's not a good story FOR ME, maybe for someone else. That happens to me quite a bit, as well.
Yes, just this morning I had to drum the humor out of a story. It was funny to me but destroying the mood of the story. Sometimes I think I write just to entertain myself and when I find myself doing that I must get strict.
Though maybe entertaining yourself would help you find the character? Sometimes cutting loose is the way in.
You could be right.
Yes, this happens to me all the time. I write multiple POV stories and often write a scene a few times from different a character's POV until I find the one that works.
I used to think that after I'd done it often enough I'd get better at it and not need to write so many scenes that I couldn't use, but it still happens all the time.
The toughest decision still seems to be what information do we need to be in the middle of as it unfolds and what works better being related by a character - therefore developing that character a little more and getting the information across.
Good luck with it.
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