Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I've tapped into the interior narrative voice I've been prospecting for. A lighthearted yet hardboiled cynical voice akin to Will Roger's laconic narrative stylisms. A voice that could be an old cowboy's or an old salt's updated to reflect today's dialects and dictions. A voice readers wherever they may be from can hear in their own accents.

polymath wrote:I've tapped into the interior narrative voice I've been prospecting for. A lighthearted yet hardboiled cynical voice akin to Will Roger's laconic narrative stylisms. A voice that could be an old cowboy's or an old salt's updated to reflect today's dialects and dictions. A voice readers wherever they may be from can hear in their own accents.

Will Rogers - Everyone keeps complaining about all the money the government's giving away, my question is why do you keep taking it?

There's a lot to be said for someone who refuses to call a spade a shovel because he's afraid to hurt its feelings.

Did I put that report icon there? I'm sure I was aimin' for the "quote" button. Sorry

"You've got to go out on a limb sometimes because that's where the fruit is."
Will Rogers

Voice is such a difficult element to find and sustain. Congratulations on striking narrator gold!

Awesome, polymath!! Way to go!

Thank you-all, dios4vida, HillaryJ, and Watcher55.

Tapping a voice isn't the be-all, end-all of my writing struggles, though it's in the top tiers. I am finalizing some of my narrative choices for the sorts of stories I lean toward, voice among them. Close narrative distance? So close it's visceral. Covert or overt narrator? In between with a narrator expressing commentary though not as a reader surrogate. Singular or multiple focal viewpoint characters? A couple anyway. Emotional, intellectual, and/or spiritual payoffs? Emotional emphasis. Tragic or favorable outcomes? Beautifully tragic outcomes with favorable accommodations. Self-serving or self-sacrificing motivations? Everyday complications with epic disproportions from self-serving motivations requiring self-sacrificing recognitions for denouement. Complex or simple plots? Complex for sure. So many choices finally coming to a head.

Yup, I toy with narrative now and then. It might come as a surprise that my voice is the old man in a rockin' chair with his whittlin' stick spinnin' yarns for the young 'uns. I still haven't reached the consistency I'm lookin' for, but he's gettin' there. Mebbe some day.

Reading through the elements you're talking about speaks to the block I'm bashin' my head against. My MC is literally faced with, and has to do battle with, the fatal flaw he's been cartin' around without being aware of it.

If his fatal flaw is the complication he's intended to address, plot points then could be gradually discovering he's blocking his own way. HIs reversals could be resorting to the methods he's always resorted to that immediately gratify, but are dead ends in the long term. Gradual recognition might be the key, stepped through a trail he must blaze himself. The grand recognition then could be a duh-huh moment.

Like, in a pinch, a hammer will drive a lag bolt, but the hammer won't make the lag bolt right and tight. Kicking himself when it falls apart unexpectedly but predictably. Slow and steady as she goes, patience with the right driver and knowledge will hold.

polymath wrote:If his fatal flaw is the complication he's intended to address, plot points then could be gradually discovering he's blocking his own way. HIs reversals could be resorting to the methods he's always resorted to that immediately gratify, but are dead ends in the long term. Gradual recognition might be the key, stepped through a trail he must blaze himself. The grand recognition then could be a duh-huh moment.

Like, in a pinch, a hammer will drive a lag bolt, but the hammer won't make the lag bolt right and tight. Kicking himself when it falls apart unexpectedly but predictably. Slow and steady as she goes, patience with the right driver and knowledge will hold.

You been rummaging through my hard drive? Spot on, except that the flaw is magnified by the fact that he's a god and its fatal nature extends to all involved.

I guess going with a few hints I can channel some hard drives, some minds sort of.

Congrats Poly!!

I spent all day deepening and distinguishing the various voices in my WiP.

One thing I found interesting was that they are that different, mostly. The narrator voice has a similar
dialect as the main supporting character.

With opposite characters
(i.e., one playing the shadow side, the other playing the light side) there are very interesting differences as
they are two sides of a same character.

It is a real thrill when the voices come to life, I agree.