Narration, Modes, Types, Techniques and Point of View

Point of view: narrator and character types

An author creates a person to tell the story, and this person is the narrator.
The narrator delivers the point of view of the story.
Multiple narrators of the story can also present multiple points of view.

A first person narrator

uses the pronoun "I" to tell the story, and can be either a major or minor character.
It may be easier for a reader to relate to a story told in a first person account.

A subjective narrator is generally unreliable

because he/she is in the story,
and can only speak to his/her experience within it.

A second person narrator

uses the pronoun "you" and is not used very often since it makes the reader a participant in the story (and you,
as reader, may be reluctant to be in the action!).

A third person narrator

uses the pronoun "he" or "she" and does not take part in the story.

objective narrator is an observer

and describes or interprets thoughts, feelings, motivations, of the characters. Details such as setting, scenes, and
what was said is stronger with an objective observer

An omniscient (omniscient = all knowing) narrator has access to all

the actions and thoughts within fiction

A limited narrator has a restricted view of events,

and doesn't "know" the whole story
Questions:
 How much does the narrator know?
Does he or she know everything, including the thoughts, feelings, motivations, etc. or present just limited
information?
Do you (the reader) know more?
 Time?
Do events take place "now" (verbs in the present tense)?
or in the past (verbs are in the past tense)?
Are past recollections fresh, or distant, and maybe hazy?
 Is the narrator a participant in, or a witness to, the action?
Is the story second-hand, related "as told to" the narrator?
Think of yourself telling someone something that happened:
How much of the event do you know, and how does that affect the story?
  Why is the story being told, and why now?
What is the motivation?

There are all kinds of narrators–going way beyond simple first or third person. Here’s a little study of the
different types.

First Person

1. The Protagonist

Relatively straightforward, this is a story the hero narrates. He’ll narrate the same way he talks, but with more
description and perhaps better grammar. The reader is privy to all his thoughts and opinions, which means we
get to know the hero faster, and often relate to him more easily.
Example:

…I take up my pen in the year of grace 17–, and go back to the time when my father kept the “Admiral
Benbow” inn, and the brown old seaman, with the saber cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.
Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

2. The Secondary Character

Someone close to the protagonist, but not the main hero. The same things in the above type apply to this type,
but the focus of the story moves away from the narrator.
Example:

“Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said Stamford, introducing us.

“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him
credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
“How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment.
“Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself.
Watson in A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Third Person

 Third person omniscient

This type knows all, peeking into the lives of major and minor characters, reading everyone’s thoughts. This
enables the writer to explore multiple facets of the story in depth. Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart trilogy, for
example.

 Third person limited

This type knows only what the main character, or characters, know. This is more restrictive, but increases
suspense and intrigue, because the reader only solves the mystery at the same time the characters do. 1984, by
George Orwell, is a good example.
The following types can fall into either omniscient or limited:

3. The Detached Observer

A detached third person narrator sticks to telling the story, and never inserts his own opinions—never slips in an
“I” or a “me” except in direct dialogue. You probably won’t notice voice at all. It’s fruitless to give an excerpt
showing what a writer didn’t do, but Orwell’s 1984 is, again, a good example.

4. The Commentator

This type never physically enters the story, but freely adds in his own amusing commentary. Allows voice
without the complication of using an existing character.
Example:

The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found
himself face-to-face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am
standing in the spirit at your elbow.
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

Somewhere in Between

Or maybe the narrator isn’t a strict “third person,” but is involved in the story in some way.

5. The Interviewer

This type has collected the details of the story after it happened, such as by interviewing the characters. This
lends a sense of reality to the story.
Example:

It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound. Edmund and Eustace would never talk about it
afterwards. Lucy could only say, “It would break your heart.” “Why,” said I, “was it so sad?” “Sad! No,” said
Lucy.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis

6. The Secret Character

Sometimes a narrator only pretends to removed from the story—they may refer to themselves in third person
right up to the end, but will eventually be mentioned by some other character, or revealed to be a major
character, even the villain, for an extra-pleasing plot twist.
Example:

“Lemony?” Violet repeated. “They would have named me Lemony? Where did they get that idea?”
“From someone who died, presumably,” Klaus said.
The End, by Lemony Snicket
7. The Unreliable Narrator

Usually first person, but occasionally third, an unreliable narrator has a flawed point of view. That is, the writer
intentionally made him biased, misinformed, insane, etc. Examples include Nelly in Wuthering Heights, by
Emily Brontë, or Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Here’s one from Poe.

Example:

“If still you think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the
concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the
corpse.”

The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe

Some of these (such as the Unreliable Narrator) are established terms, while I’ve coined many of them
myself. Can you think of any other types? What type are you using in your work in progress?

MODES OF NARRATION

DIRECT SPEECH
Direct speech repeats, or quotes, the exact words spoken. When we use direct speech in writing, we place the
words spoken between quotation marks (" ") and there is no change in these words. We may be reporting
something that's being said NOW (for example a telephone conversation), or telling someone later about a
previous conversation.

EXAMPLES

 She says, "What time will you be home?"

 She said, "What time will you be home?" and I said, "I don't know! "

INDIRECT SPEECH
Reported or indirect speech is usually used to talk about the past, so we normally change the tense of the words
spoken. We use reporting verbs like 'say', 'tell', 'ask', and we may use the word 'that' to introduce the reported
words. Inverted commas are not used.

She said, "I saw him." (direct speech) = She said that she had seen him. (indirect speech)

'That' may be omitted:

She told him that she was happy. = She told him she was happy.

FREE INDIRECT NARRATION

Free indirect discourse is a way of representing a characters speech or thought by combining direct
discourse with narratorial commentary.
Free indirect speech, free indirect discourse involves both a character's speech and the narrator's
comments or presentation, or direct discourse and indirect discourse. Famously utilized by James Joyce,
free indirect discourse is a more comprehensive method of representation--one which many times makes
indistinguishable the thoughts of the narrator and the thoughts of a character. Thus, the method typically
privileges the past tense, yet cannot be discerned through merely grammatical indicators.
Examples

"Gabriel could not listen while Mary Jane was playing her Academy piece, full of runs and difficult passages, to
the hushed drawing room. He liked music but the piece she was playing had no melody for him and he doubted
whether it had any melody for the other listeners, though they had begged Mary Jane to play something."

-James Joyce, "The Dead"

Character Thoughts: Direct and Indirect Interior Monologues

The infamous Show-Don’t-Tell mantra fails to take into account the importance of character thoughts. If you
purely do action, dialogue and description, you have few tools to let the reader know the character’s inner life.
Instead, you need to include thoughts at some point.

Direct Interior Monologue

When a character is thinking about something you can give the reader direct access to those thoughts.
“I like the blue dress best, she thought.”
Sometimes, you can even leave off the “she thought” part and give it as if the reader is inside the character’s
head. These thoughts are in the character’s language and diction, not the narrator’s.

Indirect Interior Monologue

Direct thoughts become indirect thoughts when you do two things: change from present to past tense, and
change from 1st person to 3rd person.
“She liked the blue dress best, she thought.”
The “she thought” part is still correct, even though it’s an indirect thought. And the language is still in the
character’s voice.
These two methods of bringing a character’s thoughts to the reader have an important distinction: for direct
thoughts, the character isn’t consciously narrating. Instead, s/he is just thinking. This isn’t a stream-of-
consciousness because this isn’t just impressions and ideas as they come to the character. For a stream-of-
consciousness, you might get this:
“It’s blue. Nice fabric. The red feels rougher. Blue matches my eye color, too.”
The reader still understands that the character likes blue best, but the thoughts are more immediate and show the
chain of thoughts. Indirect interior monologue reflects the character’s thoughts, but it still maintains a distance
because it’s still narrated, even if it’s narrated by the character. Direct interior monologue delves deeper into a
character because the thoughts are presented directly.
Stream of Consciousness
In literature, stream of consciousness is a method of narration that describes happenings in the flow of thoughts
in the minds of the characters. The term was initially coined by psychologist William James in his research, The
Principles of Psychology. Another appropriate term for this device is “interior monologue,” where the
individual thought processes of a character, associated to his or her actions, are portrayed in the form of a
monologue that addresses the character itself. Therefore, it is different from the “dramatic monologue” or
“soliloquy,” where the speaker addresses the audience or the third person.

Definition
Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's
extended thought process, often by incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax, and
rough grammar.
Some additional key details about stream of consciousness:

Stream of consciousness writing is associated with the early 20th-century Modernist movement.

The term “stream of consciousness” originated in psychology before literary critics began using it to
describe a narrative style that depicts how people think.

Stream of consciousness is used primarily in fiction and poetry, but the term has also been used to
describe plays and films that attempt to visually represent a character's thoughts.

Understanding Stream of Consciousness

Stream of consciousness writing allows readers to “listen in” on a character's thoughts. The technique often
involves the use of language in unconventional ways in an attempt to replicate the complicated pathways that
thoughts take as they unfold and move through the mind. In short, it's the use of language to mimic the
"streaming" nature of "conscious" thought (thus "stream of consciousness"). Stream of consciousness can be
written in the first person as well as the third person.

What Makes Stream of Consciousness Different?

Traditional prose writing is highly linear—one thing or idea follows after another in a more or less logical
sequence, as in a line. Stream of consciousness is often non-linearin a few key ways that define the style: it
makes use of unusual syntax and grammar, associative leaps, repetition, and plot structure.

Syntax and grammar: Stream of consciousness writing does not usually follow ordinary rules of
grammar and syntax (or word order). This is because thoughts are often not fully formed, or they
change course in the middle and become "run-on sentences," or they are interrupted by another
thought. So grammar and syntax can be used to replicate this process in ways that aren't
grammatically or syntactically "correct," but that nonetheless feel accurate.

o For instance, in Death in Venice, Thomas Mann uses subtly irregular syntax and grammar to
help convey his main character's gradual descent into madness as part of a stream of
consciousness passage that begins: "For beauty, Phaedrus, take note! beauty alone is godlike
and visible at the same time."

o Additionally, writers of stream of consciousness often use punctuation in unconventional

ways (using italics, ellipses, dashes, and line breaks to indicate pauses and shifts in the
character's train of thought).
 Association: Stream of consciousness also makes use of associative thought. In this style of writing,
writers transition between ideas using loose connections that are often based on a character's personal
experiences and memories. The idea is that this technique helps writers convey the experience of
human thought more accurately than they could by using a series of ideas connected with clear,
logical transitions. Associative thought can seem "random" as it leaps from one thing to the next, with
the help of only ambiguous or seemingly nonexistent connections, even as it can also feel similar to
the actual random leaps that are a part of people's everyday thoughts.

o As an example, characters' thoughts are often presented to the reader in response to sensory
impressions—fragmented observations describing what the character sees, hears, smells,
feels, tastes, and so on.

Repetition: Writers might use repetition to indicate that the character keeps coming back to, or is
fixating on, a certain thought or sensory impression. Repeated words and phrases can act as a sign
posts, pointing readers towards significant themes and motifs.

o For example, if a character's mind is constantly returning to the scent of a woman's perfume,
the reader might conclude that the character is fascinated by or attracted to that woman.

Plot structure: Many writers who employ stream of consciousness also experiment with structure,
incorporating elements like multiple unreliable narrators or a nonlinear plot structure (i.e., one
that moves forward and backward in time).

o Some writers shift rapidly between the perspectives of different characters, allowing readers
to experience the “stream of consciousness” of multiple people. For example, in one chapter
of his novel Sometimes A Great Notion, Ken Kesey alternates between the thoughts,
emotions, and impressions of several characters (including a dog), using italics and different
styles of punctuation to indicate which character is thinking each word, phrase, or sentence.

o Some writers may also choose to arrange events out of chronological order, or to give
readers details about the past through a character’s memories. In The Sound and the Fury,
William Faulkner conveys many important events and details through memories that arise
as part of his different characters’ streams of consciousness.

Stream of Consciousness vs. Interior Monologue

Both interior monologue and stream of consciousness involve the presentation of a character's thoughts to the
reader. However, there are differences between the two.

In interior monologue, unlike in stream of consciousness, the character's thoughts are often presented
using traditional grammar and syntax, and usually have a clear logical progression from one sentence
to the next and one idea to the next. Interior monologue relates a character's thoughts as coherent,
fully formed sentences, as if the character is talking to him or herself.

Stream of consciousness, in contrast, seeks to portray the actual experience of thinking, in all its chaos
and distraction. Stream of consciousness is not just an attempt to relay a character's thoughts, but to
make the reader experience those thoughts in the same way that the character is thinking them.

Stream of Consciousness Examples

Stream of consciousness became widespread as a literary technique during the Modernist movement that
flourished in the years just before and then after World War I (the early to mid 20th century). Even as
Modernism gave way to other movements, it remained as a technique, and is still used not infrequently today.

Stream of Consciousness in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is known for using stream of consciousness in her writing. The novel Mrs. Dalloway follows the
thoughts, experiences, and memories of several characters on a single day in London. In this passage, the title
character, Clarissa Dalloway, watches cars driving by:
She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always
had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day. Not that she thought herself clever, or
much out of the ordinary. How she had got through life on the few twigs of knowledge Fraulein Daniels gave
them she could not think. She knew nothing; no language, no history; she scarcely read a book now, except
memoirs in bed; and yet to her it was absolutely absorbing; all this; the cabs passing; and she would not say of
Peter, she would not say of herself, I am this, I am that.
Woolf does more than simply say "Mrs. Dalloway watched the taxis and thought about her life." Rather, she lets
the reader into the character's thoughts by using long sentences with semicolons to show the slow drift of ideas
and the transitions between thoughts. Readers are able to watch as Mrs. Dalloway's mind moves from
observations about things she is seeing to reflections on her general attitude towards life, and then moves on to
memories from her childhood, then back to the taxi cabs in the street, and finally to Peter, a former romantic
interest. This is an excellent example of using associative leaps and sensory impressions to create a stream of
consciousness. Woolf manages to convey not only the content but the structure and process of Mrs. Dalloway's
thoughts, a fact which is all the more impressive because she does so while writing in the third person.
Difference Between Stream of Consciousness and Free Writing
The activity of free writing is a technique to remove inhibitions from creativity. Free writing encourages a
writer to get words down on paper without editing or worrying about the product, knowing that most of it will
not necessarily be all that interesting. Stream of consciousness, on the other hand, is writing that has been
polished and has a purpose, even while giving the impression that it is somewhat “random.” Authors who use
the technique of stream of consciousness do so with intentions to guide the character from one place to the next
internally and not just let the character’s thoughts go haywire.