[ SECRET POST #2433 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2433 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 073 secrets from Secret Submission Post #348.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Brainless narrators and heartless narrators (a non-fandom secret, apparently)

[dreemyweird]

So I'm reading a ton of relatively modern books right now, and I'm noticing these two kinds of narrators who, essentially, are both born from the "show not tell" rule. Some of the authors I encounter follow the aforementioned rule so thoroughly that they start showing things from inside first-person narrators without recounting any of their thoughts and feelings. I do not mind the trend as such (in fact, I find it very interesting), but some aspects of it take the characters right into the uncanny valley.

Like, it is supposed to be an actual person, why does nothing happen in their head?? The way they're written, they resemble a patient of a mental ward with some peculiar sort of personality disorder. I'm not sure why these people around them don't freak out every time there's human interaction happening.

If the majority of the first-person narrator's thoughts are omitted and the feelings are described as mechanical processes with no or little interpretation, I start to think that the real storyteller is The Alien sitting in the presumed narrator's intestines.

Your opinion, f!s? Is it a thing? Do you mind it?

Re: Brainless narrators and heartless narrators (a non-fandom secret, apparently)

[(Anonymous)]

Granted, I don't read much anymore, and I don't think I've ever come across this, but I think it would annoy the shit out of me. If I can't understand the character's purpose or motivation, I'm really not going to like them or the story that's trying to be told. I can't connect with a character that doesn't feel believable or influential to the story.

Re: Brainless narrators and heartless narrators (a non-fandom secret, apparently)

[dreemyweird]

Well, when not too OTT, it simply sounds like third-person narration with limited access to the characters' inner worlds. The fact that it is technically Ich-Erzählung just gives it a slightly surrealistic air.

Re: Brainless narrators and heartless narrators (a non-fandom secret, apparently)

[blueonblue]

Are you reading Tao Lin?

Re: Brainless narrators and heartless narrators (a non-fandom secret, apparently)

[(Anonymous)]

Mm...See, that reminds me of a conversation I was a part of in an rp community a long time ago. [Relevant because prose rping is, basically, writing with another person.]

Show don't tell is a good *general* rule, but telling has it's place in writing, and honestly the best writing uses both in the right places. If nothing else, there are simply somethings that you can't show without. Or, in the case of memories, you can't show without a flashback, and not every memory deserves that level of treatment.

Also, with due respect, as a someone whose been a patient of a mental ward with a personality disorder could you please not imply that we don't think anything? We do - and that's not how personality disorders work anyways.

Re: Brainless narrators and heartless narrators (a non-fandom secret, apparently)

[(Anonymous)]

I'm reminded of roleplaying as well. I love seeing inside the characters' heads, and even having lengthy parenthetical IC exchanges (or semi-in character? From the character's point of view and addressing the other character, but without either of them actually *saying* anything) about stuff wildly unrelated to the situation at hand. It's not just about telling the story, it's also about exploring the person telling it.