Fellow writers! Any English majors in the crowd! Some advice, if you would be so kind…
POSTED BY: EmpireX
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 20:05
VIEWED: 11319
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I'm not sure I'd limit things to the 'verse and I see no reason not to just write episodically.
One of the biggest influences on my writing is Stoker's Dracula because it is written as a collection of different sources i.e. character's journals, the main protagonist's point of view and so on. I have taken this as license to write my books from multiple perspective sometimes leaving a point of view deliberately behind to pull back in later, either jumping back in time to catch up or skipping straight in with the current time line.
Also, if you write in scenes and manage them as complete units, you can move them about how you please until you figure out the best way to make the narrative flow, which certainly does not have to be in a linear time flow. Time does not flow linearly if you believe the physicists so why should stories.
My favourite examples of this is in the Iain M Banks novel, Use of Weapons where the story is written in two strands put forward in alternating chapter one of which moving forward in time and the other moving back. The secound is Alasdair Gray's, Lanark which is just the most amazing book, written in four parts that run Three, One, Two, Four and includes a prologue at the beginning and an Epilogue before the end. It totally blew my mind on what was possible with a book. Hopefully it might open you up to all sorts of ways of writing your story.
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All great advice, and stuff I would echo.
Moondog is absolutely right, don't force it. If you are finding it easy to write a scene here or a scene there, follow your muse. When you can't write anymore, step back and see what you have. A lot of people I know use this 'jigsaw' approach. They then string together what they have and sculpt it to the shape they want or that resonates the best for them.
And Gee, I just finished experimenting with the various points of view and what an eye opener it was. The assignment was to write a story in the POV you are most comfortable writing in, ie First Person "I", Second person "you did...", Third person limited, "He said.." where you only know that the protagonist can know, and finally Third Person Omniscient, "God's eye" where you can know what EVERY character can know, as the reader that is... Then rewrite the story in the other points of veiw. It totally changed my story, for the good.
So writing for various points of veiw is definitely doable and fairly unique, if done well. But I'm no English Major. Just a hack takin' classes and such. ;)
Good luck with it, but above all, have FUN with it.
_______________________________________________________________
"Got a headful of lightning
And a heart full of rain
And I know that I said
I'd never do it again
Oh and I love you sweet baby but I always take the long way home."
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