[Writingworkshop] narrative voice

[Neale Morison]

I joined an online community called echo, (http://www.echonyc.com) based 
in New York. A lot of the members are involved in writing or publishing 
or teaching. Two of them published a book a few months ago:

How Not to Write a Novel
Howard Mittelmark, Sandra Newman

http://www.hownottowriteanovel.com/

The site has some samples and a worthwhile bookfomercial.

I got a copy online and it's just great. Very funny. The authors are 
editors as well as writers, and across their desks has passed some very 
bad stuff, which they gleefully parody.

Particularly relevant is the discussion of narrative stance. There's a 
section  headed "Persona Non Grata":
Certain late twentieth-century novelists used the second person singular 
successfully - notably Italo Calvino in If on a Winter's Night a 
Traveller and Jay McInerney in Bright Lights, Big City. But there it 
ended...very occasionally an editor sees past the contrivance and buys 
such a book - on the condition that the author revise it completely into 
a traditional third-person narrative.

Adam Holland wrote:
> OK, so my 15th college reunion is coming up, and there's the usual 
> "submit a brief description of what you are up to for the class bulletin"
> I usualyl eschew these, bu since the 5 year intervlas actually result 
> in a published volume, I submit something then, but try to have some 
> fun with it.
>
> For example, at my 10th, I rewrote the intro to one of the Conan 
> collections so that it was about me.
> "At this stage in Holland's wanderings, he is in his early thirties, 
> and at the height of his powers... etc."
>
> So I'm trying to decide what would be funny for this one, because If 
> I'm just going to do the boiler plate crap, what's the point?
>
> One idea I had was to somehow write it in the 2nd person.  But, I'd 
> like to see some models if possible.
> Are there any available examples of this being done even reasonably 
> well? 
>
> Adam
>
>     / From the discomfort of truth there is only one refuge, and that
>     is ignorance.
>     I do not need to be comfortable, and I will not take refuge.
>     I demand to know./
>
>
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-- 
Neale Morison
neale at nealemorison.com
http://www.nealemorison.com
35 Frazer St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
+61 417 661 427

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