First Person Narrators who Break the Fourth Wall

[mpeters]

I think I’ve done that once or twice in almost every story I’ve written, but writing in first person makes it easier.

 

[LilyWaters]

I want to try writing in a style where the narrator addresses the reader, breaks the fourth wall, and acknowledges they're telling a story.

Things like:







But it's intimidating. Even writing those examples above makes me uncomfortable. I feel like I'm doing it wrong.

Have you done anything in this style? Or have you read something that you liked? Smack them here! I want to read them. Snarky narrators especially.

General discussion of this technique also welcome, of course. Especially if you have nuggets of wisdom for a writer dipping her toe in.

One thing I'm struggling with is that it feels jarring whenever I break the fourth wall. Like, I feel like I need to do it enough that it's not weird. But if you do it too much, it's kind of tedious, no?

Note: I think maybe I'm describing "metafiction" here? I know metafiction does a lot of fourth wall breaking and I-know-I'm-in-a-story. But I think also it's associated with narratives that are about the nature of narrative--which is not necessarily what I'm going for. Someone with an English degree can probably set me straight.

This is actually pretty common. Many classics do this with varying degrees of subtlety: Nick in The Great Gatsby, Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five, Celie in The Color Purple, etc. In fact, you could argue that MOST first-person narrators are acknowledging some kind of reader, as they are telling their story to SOMEBODY as they move through their lives.

Given the sentences you've described, I don't think it would be jarring to sprinkle a few instances of direct address into your work and see how it sits with you. And no, I don't think you need it too much at all. I would argue that some of the best writing - like the examples I have described above - draws the reader into the action so that they FORGET it's a direct address between instances. That could be personal preference, but... I don't think you need to be constantly reminding the reader about it.

Try it out! Have some fun! See what sticks.

 

[SimonDoom]

I’m not suggesting the author should be talking directly to the reader in every paragraph. But the author can move the point of view in and out for valuable effect. I think calling this change in POV a wall is the wrong metaphor. It’s more of a bridge, or maybe an FPV drone the author pilots. Let’s take as an example one of OP’s lines:



Here are ways to move in steps from all the way in the scene to the OP’s line:









Or we could move even further out:




Okay, I had fun with that last example and laid it on pretty thick. But I don’t see a barrier here, I see a continuum. A few tweaks could move any of those lines closer or further away from the action. And do for the story whatever the author wants.

I agree it's a continuum and I like your examples. I'd say your last example is a good example of what NOT to do unless you are striving for a comic effect and trying to sound 19th century.