Dearelliot
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2010
- Posts
- 1,394
I wonder how well it can work, writing in first person, if I try using an omniscient narrator to set the stage for the next scene.
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It can work. I did something similar in Boat Talk, where two old friends meet at a reunion. The main story follows them current day with each getting a pocket story to tell what happened to their respective marriages. It's all first person, but the concept is the same, and it worked pretty well.I wonder how well it can work, writing in first person, if I try using an omniscient narrator to set the stage for the next scene.
You're right, of course. My 'narrator' is not omniscient and not really a narrator. My intent was to illustrate that the story structure can work, that having a wrapper around the chapters in a separate voice or POV can work. It is also tricky to do effectively which is why I put a warming in a prologue to the story: "Be warned, the little three asterisk thing; ***, indicates a change in voice."I'm curious what you mean by "omniscient" in the first person. Is the narrator a character in the story, or an invisible narrator in the sky?
I scanned ShelbyDawn57's story example, and I don't see that as omniscient. It's first person told from the point of view of the first person narrator, who has no access to the thoughts of others. Omniscient point of view is when the narrator can read and disclose the thoughts of all the characters in the story.
The two big problems with a first person omniscient narrator, as I see it, are a) the improbability that one person can read the minds of other characters, and b) the unnecessary intrusiveness of the first person narrator. Why do it that way? Why not just switch to third person omniscient, which is more traditional and "makes more sense" in most cases?
EDIT: And I got another free view on one of my favorite stories.![]()
First person makes a character out of the narrator, rather than an invisible speaker in the sky (thanks, @SimonDoom). So if the narrator is a character, they, by definition, can't know all the thoughts of the other characters. Unless you're writing some weird kind of Sci Fi.
More than that, the worlds and characters we create and let loose upon the universes live on beyond us as readers wrap them in their imaginations, taking our ideas, our creations and making them their own. How many of our creations live in the fantasies and dreams of others, morphing, changing, evolving, growing for the rest of eternity? How many universes have we created, how many 'realities' have manifested from our words? We are eternal. We are gods.We are never closer to being a god than when we write. Our world unfolds before us, and we decide who lives or dies, who mates with whom, and what the weather is like. A dark and stormy night, a bright and sunny day, the midday sun beats down and scorches everything in sight.
Gods who proclaim from on high, "Let there be cum!"We are gods.
Gods who proclaim from on high, "Let there be cum!"
And there was cum, and it was good cum, copious cum..."Gods who proclaim from on high, "Let there be cum!"
And they were fruitful and begat hordes of children in their own image, in the image of their god did they beget.And there was cum, and it was good cum, copious cum..."
I don’t think I have much to contribute to this thread, because excellent advice has already been proffered.
I just wanted to pop in and say that I’d like to read more about the adventures of Sir Robin the Bold and his trusty, if a little obstinate steed Cumrag.
It might work but I don't like it. That is one of the hard things about first person. The reader knows what he knows. How you manipulate the story so he discovers things is the trick. I prefer first person because of the ease to relate emotion or lack thereof.I wonder how well it can work, writing in first person, if I try using an omniscient narrator to set the stage for the next scene.
If you're trying to go for a Henry V style 'Chorus' character that narrates certain scenes, I think that would work as long as you specifically delineate where the omniscient voice ends and the POV character takes over. Something like:
Dear Reader, cast your memory back to the days of yore, when knights rode brave and tall and fair maidens swooned at their approach. On this day, one knight in particular, our dear Sir Robin the Bold, rode forth on his trusty steed Cumrag, looking for adventure. Would he find it? Yes. Would he survive it? Well, you'll see. But you're in for a ride, nonetheless.
Join me as Sir Robin begins his adventure ...
-----------
"You are the worst fucking horse in the kingdom, do you realize that Cumrag?" I growled. This fucking horse just up and quit on me again, deciding that instead of actually carrying me onward, he'd stop and crop the grass for the third time in the last ten minutes. It's like he didn't care at all that I was on his back, that I had places to be, maidens to woo, or all that.
I slapped him on his ass, spurred him with the symbols of my knightly caste strapped to my boots, and instead of moving, he ripped a massive fart and kept eating.
I hate this fucking horse.
Etc.
Something like that would work, I think.