I have a question about voice in the story.

[Katie Wright]

Okay so I get that voice is different for different characters. I get how you change it. All my side characters have strong voices (not personality wise, but I know who they are as people really well). The one thing I am having issues with is my main character.

 

I can write her in first person, but when it comes to third person I freeze up and I think it is because I am not sure how the whole voice thing works in third person limited.

 

I understand the basics, being told from one persons perspective using he, she, or their name.

 

But the narrator isn't the same as your main character, right? The narrartor is just focusing on the main character and getting into their mind.

 

So your narrator voice should be different than your protagonist's voice?

 

The narrator should be my voice... right?

 

And sorry about taking so long to ask the question and thanks for helping / reading. :)

[Susan Kaye Quinn]

When I write third person, I write a really close third person, or deep POV. Everything is through character-colored glasses. There is no separate narrator. If you're writing a distant third, you could bring in a narrator voice without massive confusion, but honestly it depends on your style and mastery of the voice(s). Usually this is not easy to do without feeling like the author is intruding with their "author voice" to inform the reader of something, which then pulls the reader out of the story. I usually flag those moments in critiques and say "author voice sneaking in." Your Voice, on the other hand, should be seen through the style of the writing, rather than a "voice" of the character (does that even make sense? This stuff is tricky to talk about).

[Katie Wright]

That makes sense.  I have had several people explain this, but that makes the most sense. Thanks

[Jessie Harrell]

What Susan said...  ;)

 

IMO - 3d person is very hard to do as effectively as 1st, because you can really embed in your MC's head in 1st person. That being said, even in 3d, the readers have to know what your MC is thinking, feeling, etc. to connect with him/her.  The "voice" is going to be specific to the character you're focusing on.  For example, in my current book, when I write 3d person male perspective, I keep my sentences short (in my experience, young guys aren't as wordy as the girls), so the narrator voice compliments the MC I'm focusing on.  Don't know if that helps much, but now you've got another 2 cents thrown in.  good luck!

[Katie Wright]

Yes that helps as well, it is good to get multiple answers! Thanks :)

 

 

[Kurt Hartwig]

Leila Roy at Bookshelves of Doom just reviewed a book with a narrative voice that she really loathed for its condescension. You get to set the tone for the novel with narrative voice - Kiersten White's Paranormalcy has a serious teen heroine who longs for high school with lockers - and you get as much of her quirk from the way in which White describes her as you do from how she talks.

I guess I'm echoing Jessie a bit - expanding across her example of speech styles. Does the narrative voice make observations to the reader?

You might also check out Stranger than Fiction, an indie movie with Will Farrell and Maggie Gyllenhall, which has a whole lot to do with narrative voice, because Will Farrell's character starts hearing his life being narrated as he does it. BTW, he's nothing like most of his characters - it's a very different role for him.