Literary Devices: Narration

Narration is the voice behind a story and the key to engaging readers. Having a successful narration in a story can take a story from words with a plot to an engaging novel that readers won’t want to put down. There are many different forms of narration and many things included in narration, and being familiar with all of them can really take the narration in a story to the next level.

Narrative Point of View

Narrative point of view refers to the narrator’s position in relation to the story. There are four types of narrative point of view:

• First Person Narrative, which where the narrator is an active participant or character in the story.
• Second Person Narrative, in which the narrator makes the reader feel as if they are part of the story my referring to the characters as “you”.
• Third Person Narrative; in which the narrator is not a character in the story and usually knows more than the characters. There are different types of this narrative point of view.
• Alternating Person View, in which the narrator switches between narratives, usually first and third.

More information on point of view can be found here.

Narrative Voice

Narrative voice refers to the way the story is conveyed. It is important for the narrative voice to remain consistent, or else it gets confusing and annoying for the reader. It is also important for the narrative voice to be realistic; a child wouldn't know the whole dictionary and an adult wouldn't call their parents "Mommy" and "Daddy". Word choice is very important when related to the narrative voice. More information on tone and narrative voice can be found HERE.

There are two exceptions to consistent narration, though. They follow different rules which make them unique forms of narrative.

Stream of Consciousness Narration

Stream of Conciousness narration gives the narrator's perspective by trying to replicate the thought process. More information about stream of consciousness narration can be found HERE.

Unrelaible Narration

Unreliable narration refers to when a narrator lies or is untrustworthy throughout the story. Normally, the reader knows they are being lied to, and when done right, it can be a very interesting narration technique. It can give the reader a sense of mystery or suspense as they try and decide what information they've been given is true and which is false. In order for unreliable narration to be successful though, the reader must know that the narrator is unreliable either by the narrator relaying the information or making it incredibly obvious that they are lying. If the reader is unaware that the narrator is unreliable, it can be confusing for the reader.

Epistolary Narration

Epistolary narrative voice uses letters or similar documents in order to convey the plot of the story. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is written with an epistolary narrative voice, as the plot is conveyed through Charlie's letters to an unmentioned friend. There are a few important rules that keep in mind when writing an epistolary novel.

1. Every letter doesn’t need to start with "Dear...". It isn't necessary to always address the person being written to, as the readers will understand that it is the same person. That being said, beginning every letter that way
2. Time gaps are important and should be utilized. A character doesn’t need to write a letter, email, diary, or whatever it is they are writing every day. “Filler letters” aren’t needed, and they can become monotonous and boring. Leaving a week between letters sometimes, or even just a couple days, is a good way to avoid unwanted fillers.
3. Make sure the story still follows a narrative arc, even though letters are being written. It still needs to follow the basic format of a plot and each letter needs to push the plot forward in some way.

Epistolary narration can be a very interesting way for a story to be told if it is formatted and executed correctly.

Multiple Narrators

Multiple narrators can be used to tell a story from the point of view of different characters, instead of just one. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult has multiple narrators, which allows the readers to see how each character is affected by Kate’s cancer instead of just Kate or just Anna. Though this can be a very effective way to tell a story, there are a few things that must be taken into consideration:

• Is there balance between the narrators?
• Is the switch between narrators happening to suddenly or is it confusing?
• Is the story being broken up logically or is it being sliced into too many different pieces?

Telling the story from the point of view of different people can be very helpful and effective, but it can also be confusing and cause the story to fall apart. The best way to find out if multiple narrators would work for a story is to experiment with it and see if multiple narrators would help or hinder the writing process.

Narrative Tense

Narrative tense, sometimes referred to as narrative time, is something that a lot of writers struggle to perfect. There are three tense, past, present, and future.

• Past tense: This is the most common tense for a story to be written in. The events in the plot occurred sometime before the story is being told, so phrases such as “they went [somewhere].” are used.
• Present tense: This tense is used more often in narrative conversations than in narrative literature. The events in the plot to the character are present happening, therefore phrases such as “they are going [somewhere]” are used.
• Future tense: This tense is used very rarely in literature, as it is used to describe things that are going to happen eventually. The events of the plot have not yet happened, therefore phrases such as “they will go [somewhere]” are used.

It is important to always know which tense you plan to write and then stick to that tense in order to avoid confusion in your story.

Once the basics of narration are understood and you are aware of the many different options that are available, it will become easier to write without worrying whether or not the narrative makes sense to the readers or whether or not you picked the correct form of narration to use. It will soon become second nature and will be one less thing to worry about when writing a story.