Pop quiz!
- Who’s the main character
of To Kill a Mockingbird?
- Who’s the main character
of Moby Dick?
- Who’s the main character
of The Great Gatsby?
Did you have to think about
that for a minute? Are you even maybe still thinking about it?
These three classics all use
the same structural technique. They’ve created a mythic character (and three
timeless novels) by telling the story through the eyes of what I’m going to
call “The Narrator Character.” The actual literary term for it - the
“intradiegetic narrator” - has never exactly caught fire, for pretty obvious
reasons .
I’m talking about the
narrator who is within the story but NOT the main character. The narrator who
observes the main character, and in good stories, is changed by the influence
of the main character.
I could make a strong
argument that in both fiction and film, a great way to create a mythic character
is to keep their point-of-view minimal, and instead depict them mainly from the
outside observation of a narrator or point-of-view character: Nick Carraway
observing Gatsby, Ishmael observing Captain Ahab, Scout Finch observing
Atticus, Watson observing Holmes, Marlow observing Captain Kurtz.
The Shawshank Redemption, which we re-watched last night, is another classic
example of that very effective structural paradigm, with narrator Red observing
Andy Dufresne.
And for a TV example (on a smaller level, but also effective) – there’s
the first season of True Detective. We
are never really inside Rust, but rather observing him ourselves or through his
partner’s eyes, and that’s a big part of what made that character the most
interesting part of the show. Bloodline
also does this to a certain extent, with Kyle Chandler/John’s point-of-view
narration serving to create a more layered character in his brother Danny.
Note that this is different
from the more widely dissected “Unreliable Narrator” storytelling technique.
The Narrator Character can certainly be an unreliable narrator – you can even
argue that a narrator character is always
an unreliable narrator, because an outside person will never have the full
scoop on the character they’re talking about. But you could equally argue that
no human being is capable of telling the full truth about their own experience
(I know for freaking sure that I’m not!)
and by that standard, no story is ever fully “reliable.”
Anyway, the point is - the
term “Unreliable Narrator” is usually used to describe a narrator who is
deliberately holding something back from the reader (The Death of Roger Ackroyd), or incapable of telling the full story
because of mental illness or impairment, youth, etc. The lying narrator creates
a twist in the story because the narrator knows more than the reader, and the
reveal of the lie plays as a surprise.
The impaired narrator creates a sense of pathos for the reader by
putting them in a position of knowing more than the narrator (Flowers for Algernon and Charly, To Kill a Mockingbird).
A narrator
character can be overt or covert. Nick Carraway and Ishmael are overt
narrators, first person tellers of their tales. In the original Road Warrior movie,
it’s only at the end that we understand that the narrator is the Feral Boy, and
that reveal plays as a satisfying twist.
A narrator
character can be useful when the main character is disintegrating mentally or
morally, because that point of view character can pull back from hero or
heroine worship to arrive at moral judgment.
And I should
point out that in film, you don’t have to necessarily use voiceover to achieve
the effects of a narrator character. In film Inception, there is no narration, but the Ellen Page character,
Ariadne, is set up as a point of view character who observes (and falls for) Cobb,
the Leonardo DiCaprio character, giving him a bit of a mythic quality. Then Ariadne
gradually takes charge of the action herself as Cobb falls apart. I don’t think
this was done particularly well in this movie – mostly because of bad casting.
But if you can look past that misfire, you can see the potential is there in
the script.
You don’t have to go all out
with this technique with it to be useful and powerful, either. I actually use
it in my Huntress Moon thriller series. In one way, the books have the normal
structure of protagonist vs. antagonist: my FBI lead, Roarke, is hunting a
vicious mass killer, The Huntress. But the uniqueness of the books is that
Roarke is also a Narrator Character who is constantly observing and commenting
on the Huntress. For my purposes, this structure helps to keep the Huntress
mysterious. There’s an elusive quality about her that is much more effective
than shining too much light on her.
Reviewers have also made the
point about the Huntress books that
as a man, Roarke is struggling to understand the world of female experience,
and that we need the more familiar male point of view or “male gaze” to take us
into that alien world. (Then of course, I can turn that point of view
completely inside out.)
So what are some other
examples of the Narrator Character in movies, books, and TV?
I’d also love to hear about examples
from authors who have a Narrator Character in their own books. How is that working
for you?
For the New Year I’m experimenting – I’ve just set up
a separate Facebook page where I can get deeply into topics like this, and
where people might be more inclined to join a discussion than on a blog.
If this kind of thing interests you, come on over to Stealing Hollywood for the discussion (and Like the page if you want to get
updates in your FB feed).
- Alex
STEALING HOLLYWOOD
This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.
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This new workbook updates all the text in the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors ebook with all the many tricks I’ve learned over my last few years of writing and teaching—and doubles the material of the first book, as well as adding six more full story breakdowns.
STEALING HOLLYWOOD ebook $3.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $12.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
STEALING HOLLYWOOD US print $12.99
STEALING HOLLYWOOD print, all countries
WRITING LOVE
Writing Love is a shorter version of the workbook, using examples from love stories, romantic suspense, and romantic comedy - available in e formats for just $2.99.

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- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
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1 comment:
Great information.Thank you so much for sharing this post.
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