Tone, Voice, Narration, Point of View

In this installment, we will discuss tone, voice and narration or point-of-view. You are about to open a new electronic document on your computer and begin your book. 

In years past, you might roll a fresh sheet of paper into your typewriter. You are about to begin writing. 

You have your story and perhaps an outline. You have a list of characters and, hopefully, you know who they are and how they react to situations. There are several other factors you should consider before you begin. 

Let's talk first about tone and voice. Every book has a tone and every author has a voice. Some authors vary their approach depending on the topic of the fictional work or what seems to best suit the period or style of the piece. 





Some authors have a signature style and tone that their readers come to expect in every work they publish. 

There are numerous components to this consideration. First, you have to decide what tone you want to take (sarcastic, snarky, syrupy, logical, romantic, formal, short and to the point, very detailed and descriptive). 

Your tone should remain consistent throughout. 

You might give a detailed description of what a person looks like and how their voice sounds or you might wish to leave that to the imagination of the reader. 

You might include pop culture references (with appropriate attention to required copyright or trademark protection, course) or quote poems or songs. You might use very formal language or lots of localized slang. 

It's all up to you! Authors have more flexibility in a compilation of short stories as they can create a different tone for each story in the book. 

However, you will want to keep your audience in mind when you make these decisions. If a reader bought your book because your promotional material, book jacket or cover seems to indicate that it is a series of hard-boiled crime noir stories in the style of the 1940s, they will expect a tone that suits the style for every story. 

Let's talk for a moment about the tone you will set for your characters. If you are writing a period piece, be sure that your characters speak in a way that is suitable for the time in which the work takes place. 

It wouldn't make sense to have an 18th century heroine say something like 'dude, you never called me last night'. This kind of dissonance can be jarring for the reader and will instantly ruin the mood and imaginary world you have created.

You may have noticed that movies and TV programs sometimes take this liberty and, if you are a fan of fantasy works or stories that are told in merry old England, you'll be the first to notice the inappropriate use of slang, abbreviations or colloquialisms that don't fit the times. 

In stories that take place in a modern setting, your characters may have a distinctive tone that varies from one to another. For example, the son in your story might be a teenager whose style of speech is informal so, on paper, when she says 'go get them', the word may appear as 'go get 'em'. If his mother was poorly educated and born in the Southern U.S., you might depict her speech in this way: 'ol be rot back'. 

If you are writing a book that takes place in the future, you might even want to invent some words or a different style of speaking to give your novel a distinct flavor and environment.

Lastly, I want to talk about narratives and point of view (POV). Most fiction is written from a third-party point of view. New writers will probably find this the easiest style to sustain. 

Let's look at the choices:

First-Person: The author uses a narrator to tell the story. The narrator is a character in the book and tells the story from his or her view, including her or his feelings and thoughts about what is happening. However, this narrator does not talk about how another character feels unless he/she is describing what another character told him/her about their feelings. 

You can also change the first-person narration from one character to another in the book, if you wish, so that parts of the story are told from the perspective of different characters.

We won't discuss first-person plural here because it isn't as commonly used in literature. 

If you are an avid reader, you will occasionally find a first-person narrative that is told with insight into the feelings and thoughts of others because the narrator is omnipotent or has died and has insight into that is happening in the minds of others who are still alive. This is called first-person omniscient. This is the style used in Alice Sebold's novel, 'The Lovely Bones'.

Second-Person: This point of view is not used often in fiction. This point of view involves the reader as someone to whom the narrator is actively speaking. For example, the narrator (author) say to the reader , 'You know how you feel when you give your phone number to a guy and he never calls you back? I know you do, so don't lie to me.' Here's another example: 'Don't ask me why I opened the door to a stranger at two a.m. I know you wouldn't have done it, but I did, so don't give me a hard time.'

Third-Person: As I've said, third-person narrative is the most common style of narration and the most common form of third-person narrative is third-person singular. 

When referring to a character, the third-person singular point of view will always refer to, 'he' or 'she' and never use 'I' or 'you' to describe the actions or feelings of the characters or of the reader. He or she is not a character in the book; but is only the story-teller. 

The reader understands that the story is told by a third party - either someone who is not identified or someone who was not involved in the action but knows what happened and can, therefore, tell the story. 

Third-person plural perspective refers to the characters as 'they' or 'them'. This is not as common as third-person singular but can be used in combination with third-person singular, so that the story alternates between talking about how 'he' feels and how 'they feel' as a group. 

In 'Dreams of the Many', I used this combination to reveal the feelings of the protagonist, Brody Murphy, and the group of friends who shared common experiences and dreams. I wrote about Brody's physical or emotional pain and thoughts.

"Brody reeled with the intensity of the memories. He

dropped his head between his knees, and touched the cool

tile fl oor. Nothing like this had happened to him before.

Throughout his life he had always done an excellent job of

burying the memories, but not today. Today, he was back in

the cramped apartment, locked under the kitchen sink."

At other times, I talked about the fears and experiences shared by every person who took the journey with Brody.

"This ‘knowing’ was something he 

shared with Casey 

and apparently, it was now spreading like

a virus."

Epistolary Narrative: This is a point of view revealed in letters, documents, notes or diaries and sometimes includes the POV of several people. For example, an author might include letters between a husband and his wife as in an exchange between Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln.

In a previous blog entry, we talked about creating a believable character. Our next blog entry will offer some tips to create a character your readers will love.

The Process of Writing

From time to time a renowned author decides to write a book on the process of writing. A number of years ago, Stephen King wrote 'On Writing', a great book for aspiring authors. If you are a published author, people will often ask you questions about the process. Here are some of the most typical questions an author of fiction is asked by readers and prospective authors. 


1.  What is your process for writing, e.g., writing outlines, creating believable characters, writing a particular time of day, writing for a particular audience, finding and sustaining your voice, creating a character that your readers will love.
2.  What happens when you get writer's block?
3.  Do you write every day?
4.  Has writing become a tedious job for you or do you still love it?
5.  How long does it take to write a novel?
6.  How do you get your book published?
7.  Do you need an agent?
8.  In an age where so many books are published, can I ever hope to find an audience for my work?


Since people have been asking me these questions a lot lately, I thought I might try to tackle them in some orderly fashion. Of course, this is purely MY perspective since every author will answer these questions differently. 


Today, I will take on part one of the first question. Does my process include an outline and a process to create a detailed character?


I have written with and without an outline. If the story is simple, I sometimes like to let it take me wherever it goes and worry about adding the bones after I have created the skeleton. 


When I do create an outline, some will be very general in providing a sequence and flow and others will be extremely detailed. The more complex the story and the characters, the more detailed the outline. 


The detailed outlines arise from a need to capture all the ideas I have in my head about the story and how it will evolve. With a summary description in the outline, I can refer to the next piece of the story and remind myself where I am going so I don't get lost in the ebb and flow of the tale. Without that guide, I may forget the great idea I had about a character, a location, a relationship or an event. 


There is one caveat in my outlining process and that is that I NEVER allow the structure of the outline to DICTATE the story or evolution. Writing is, after all, a creative process and sometimes the muse takes you in a different direction. If I get to a certain point in the story and the next thing in my outline doesn't seem to make sense, I may have to follow my gut and be confident in the idea that the story or character has taken on a life of its own. While this might seem a bit hokey, there are times when the story takes the author on a journey and refuses to go in the direction the author has planned. That may be a bit frustrating but it is also exciting and wondrous because the journey is a real one and the work has taken on a flow that is magical. 


If you are going to develop an outline, you may choose to create a character summary as well. Even if you never describe what your character looks like in the book (you may choose to leave that to your reader's imagination), you should have some picture in your own mind to make the character real for you.


Character detail may include a 'back story'. This comes rather naturally to me since I have a background in the theater and I know that, if I am going to create a believable three dimensional character, I must know where the character came from, the life experiences that molded her and her goals and the reasons for her actions. In a fictional novel, this can be of some help (especially if you have never been the shepherd for a character and taken on the very real responsibility of getting the character safely through 200-400 pages of life and evolution). 


You NEVER want the reader to question whether a character's actions or thoughts are believable in a given situation. Be sure that the character's traits and values are consistent throughout the novel. If the character goes through a life-changing event, their behavior might change in some ways, but the reader must see how and why that change took place or they will not stay with the character and embrace them. I will take on the topic of creating a character your readers will love, in a later blog.


In the next blog, I will discuss the logistics of writing, e.g., time of day, place, etc.