Novel narrative devices

[al55]

Hey everyone,

What are some unique, niche and novel literary devices to tell stories? I've heard of stories being told through letters and text messages etc. and I've also heard of the unreliable narrator device, but what other ways are there to tell stories that are novel?

 

[Rob_Royale]

Well, here's one I've heard works really well.
First, you come up with a plot and characters and a setting.
Then ... (and this is the good part) ... you add in a bunch of sex!
And if you want, you can get really weird. You add in demons and octopuses and what-not!
I can't wait to try it.

 

[caleb35]

Hey everyone,

What are some unique, niche and novel literary devices to tell stories? I've heard of stories being told through letters and text messages etc. and I've also heard of the unreliable narrator device, but what other ways are there to tell stories that are novel?

...hmmm.

Not necessarily an easy question to answer. Are you looking for a narrative device that hasn't been done before? Good luck with that. Are you just looking for ideas on different narrative devices? I'm sure lists of such already exist online. As you yourself mention, a story told through letters or text messages (in whole or part) are sometimes done (a story told through letters is so common though that I'm not sure it counts as unique anymore). One possibility is that you could tell a story using multiple different devices -- maybe part of it is through newspaper articles for the public view of the story, and then supplement that with diary entries written by one or more participants giving the insider view. You may also consider various novels for inspiration, such as Trust by Hernan Diaz; that novel tells roughly the same story roughly three or four times but each time is given from a different viewpoint and slant.

However, to somewhat echo @Rob_Royale's point, the first thing that you really have to do is come up with a story idea that would benefit from a unique narrative device. It's all well and good to be creative in terms of format but unfortunately you still have to have at least a decent story to tell. Come up with a good story idea that may be a touch unconventional, and that idea then should inform you as to how it wants to be told (i.e. through which narrative devices).

 

[anthrodisiac]

Niche novel literary devices tend to be those that have a very narrow audience, and are roughly 60k or more words.

I might come up with an actual useful answer at a later juncture, but you just get playful snark for now

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Hey everyone,

What are some unique, niche and novel literary devices to tell stories? I've heard of stories being told through letters and text messages etc. and I've also heard of the unreliable narrator device, but what other ways are there to tell stories that are novel?

"Novel" is a big ask.

Some unusual ones include having a minor character tell the story in first person (The Great Gatsby), having every section told by different authors (the Bible), having the narrator be young and naive and not understand what's really happening (can't think of an example, but it sounds like a fun challenge), and not using the letter "e" ( Gadsby).

 

[anthrodisiac]

You can do same story, multiple POVs. Those can be fun, but difficult to pull off in a way that the reader isn't bored by the third retelling of events.

I once did a story where the POV was a hive mind jostling for control of a single body, so literally different voices within a single hot mess of a story. I was trying something weird, and it definitely surpassed the mark on that level. Was it good? Not sure.

I currently have a shelved WIP where it's a D&D session, but jointly in the game universe and outside the game universe, and each character who's being controlled by a player has their narrative in-universe section take on the voice of the player, so you get wildly different narrative voices within the same section without specifying who is talking, letting the context clue the reader in to who's doing the talking rather than using some tag to tell the reader explicitly. I'm sure someone has done something like this before, but I've not seen it. It's definitely niche, you wouldn't want to use it except in places where you have multiple people telling a story, their distinct voice being used, but not specifying who's doing the telling.

 

[SmilingLez]

My favorite form of storytelling

Hula

 

[EmilyMiller]

Well, here's one I've heard works really well.
First, you come up with a plot and characters and a setting.
Then ... (and this is the good part) ... you add in a bunch of sex!
And if you want, you can get really weird. You add in demons and octopuses and what-not!
I can't wait to try it.

I feel someone is talking about me

 

[anthrodisiac]

I feel someone is talking about me

I haven't had a single octopus yet (well, not in scene, have one mentioned in-universe; and a cuttlefish on deck), so probably you, yeah. Maybe Nuc, but I don't think she's clearly done octopuses. Squid, tentacle monsters, but octopuses, I don't think so

Also, @Rob_Royale, you beautiful, beautiful man, thank you for using the correct plural of octopuses

 

[EmilyMiller]

Novel narrative devices​

Mine was to tell it first person past from the POV of a newly created cybernetic being with a considerable number of human parts (nearly 90,000 words and so meeting @anthrodisiac’s definition).

 

[Stanfield2025]

Hey everyone,

What are some unique, niche and novel literary devices to tell stories? I've heard of stories being told through letters and text messages etc. and I've also heard of the unreliable narrator device, but what other ways are there to tell stories that are novel?

Diary entries. That method gives the main protagonist an excuse to breath the fourth wall here and there.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

I've always been fascinated by the device where the story ends where it starts, so it's a loop.

There's a cracking film called Tale of Cinema where, half way through the film, the film seems to stop and it's revealed that everything you've seen so far is in fact a film, which the characters are watching. Moreover, one of the people watching the film is the main actress in the film-within-the-film, who you see exiting the screening of that film and you then follow for the rest of the story. Not sure how you'd pull that off as a novelistic device but it would pretty niche if you could, I'm sure.

 

[EmilyMiller]

using the correct plural of octopuses

The customary plural, not the pedantically correct plural of octopodes.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Hmm...

Through letters, text messages, e-mails, and even journal entries is what Letters & Transcripts is all about. This is what the Epistolary Fiction looks like. I've done it through journal entries here.

There's also the Lemony Narrator, which started with Lemony Snickett, but Terry Pratchett used it wholeheartedly on the entire Discworld universe. I haven't gotten fully in with that, but I've done it in a writing exercise here as a way to rehearse what would The Woman at the Speakeasy would look like if it was actually told through the eyes of a radio host who happens to be a fucking psycho; pretty much a Deb from The Deb of Night expy, but extra unhinged because it is a more feverish show than something out of Vampire: The Masquerade.

This is how I prefer third person narration though. It gives the narrator a more Gonzo feeling.

Doyle also narrated all the Holmes adventures through the eyes of Watson, and Watson has written reports and journal entries that moved the story forward as well.

 

[NotWise]

I used a story teller in two of my stories, and will use the method again. The third-person narrator becomes a character without actually being part of the story. It's essentially metafiction, similar the The Princess Bride.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Also, @Rob_Royale, you beautiful, beautiful man, thank you for using the correct plural of octopuses

Acceptably handsome is the most I will boast. 'Octopi' has such a clinical sound, and I love anything that ends in 'puses'.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I haven't had a single octopus yet (well, not in scene, have one mentioned in-universe; and a cuttlefish on deck), so probably you, yeah. Maybe Nuc, but I don't think she's clearly done octopuses. Squid, tentacle monsters, but octopuses, I don't think so

Also, @Rob_Royale, you beautiful, beautiful man, thank you for using the correct plural of octopuses

There's an octopus or two in Neptune's Blessings. But they're just part of the wildlife.

I don't have any demons either. I have an angel who get's mistaken for a demon, and who by the end of the tale has fallen and therefore might fit the definition of devil though.

On the whole, I think he was talking about his own secret stash or about Emily. ^_^

 

[Stanfield2025]

Last time I saw an octopus in a story was in The Boys.

 

[liliput1]

Diary entries. That method gives the main protagonist an excuse to breath the fourth wall here and there.

It's too bad we can't do much typesetting in our story submissions. I would love to see someone make use of CSS tricks to mostly black out a sentence of text but leave enough that we can still guess what it says. There are some things you don't even confess to your diary.

 

[Stanfield2025]

It's too bad we can't do much typesetting in our story submissions. I would love to see someone make use of CSS tricks to mostly black out a sentence of text but leave enough that we can still guess what it says. There are some things you don't even confess to your diary.

That would be epic. Reminds me of SCP files.

 

[liliput1]

novel plot devices that you can copy without just sounding derivative is a bit trickier.

norafares has an ASD woman who talks to her plants and interprets their behavior a bit like a horoscope to make life decisions.

I don't want anyone to steal that though. But if you tried to make something like that, it would probably just look like you were basing it on horoscopes or tarot. And maybe that's okay.

But it's hard to keep readers invested in a story that seems to involve randomness. They're hoping they are following a person making decisions that they understand even if they don't condone them. But they say tarot is down to making the cards say what you want them to say anyway, so maybe there's a target you can hit.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

It's too bad we can't do much typesetting in our story submissions. I would love to see someone make use of CSS tricks to mostly black out a sentence of text but leave enough that we can still guess what it says. There are some things you don't even confess to your diary.

Cowards.

 

[liliput1]

Cowards.

Look. There are people here writing characters who ghost their girlfriends for over a month and then end up HAE. And I'm totally not mad about it so stop asking. I'm not deflecting you're deflecting.

There's a lot of cowardly characters here. What's ten more?

 

[NuclearFairy]

Cowards.

A diary will talk with anyone who'll tickle it just right. o.o Do you know what they say about keeping secrets?

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Look. There are people here writing characters who ghost their girlfriends for over a month and then end up HAE. And I'm totally not mad about it so stop asking. I'm not deflecting you're deflecting.

There's a lot of cowardly characters here. What's ten more?

I'm not talking about the characters, I'm talking about the people who swallow their fucked up shit instead of writing it down, facing it right there, and burning the paper down if they want.

COWARDS!

*KoS has confessed some of her most fucked up shit in her journal.*

A diary will talk with anyone who'll tickle it just right. o.o Do you know what they say about keeping secrets?

Honey, if you're reading my sex journal without my consent, you're just begging for me to take you tie you up to bed and blindfold you at this point. Maybe rub some cold metal on your skin while I narrate you an entry?