Which narrative perspective should I use?
I'm unsure which narrative perspective I should use for the story I'm currently writing… The main reason I'm having a hard time deciding is that I'm writing a story that goes in a rather abstract direction.
I would like to avoid having to mention the main character's name as much as possible, as it would otherwise lose its stylistic significance. However, this means that if I were to use the personal narrative, I would only be able to use he or she over and over again, which in turn
1. would lead to confusion (e.g.: She said something to her friend. Then she turned around. Who is "she" in this case?). The only thing I could think of would be to emphasize the "she," which serves as a substitute for the name, but I don't know how quickly readers will understand that.
2. There would be an extreme amount of repetition. I doubt this would be enjoyable to read in the long run.
However, if I write in the first-person perspective, I'm unsure whether it might lose some of its style. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the first-person perspective, as I think it takes away some of the freedom. The goal of my story is for the reader to think for themselves. They should form their own thoughts and not adopt those of the main character or use them as their sole point of reference. The reader should NOT become the character, but remain their own outside observer.
For an omniscient narrator, the entire story is simply too heavily predicated on the narrator's ignorance. The narrator should reveal just enough to allow the reader their own interpretation. Furthermore, the problem of the first narrative perspective, which I mentioned earlier, would still exist, and I wouldn't offer a solution to it.
I would be very grateful for some ideas on how to solve this…
(2 votes)
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You might try to use as much terms as possible that do not have the same personnel pronouns. (In the example, you could just take friend instead of girlfriend, or you take a name like the member and then use it.) Or you just have to formulate it as clearly as possible (e.g. with these, in the example this would be “this turned around” if it refers to the girlfriend.) Or it has to be read out from the context if, for example, it stands. She heard a sound behind her. “I think there’s something behind us,” she said to her girlfriend, and she turned around.
Finally, you have to say that it’s not the same bad now, if the reader doesn’t always know who’s doing what now. For example, it is possible to dissolve this, in which one writes “the girlfriend” again at the next step or by which nothing signals that it is not the girlfriend. It could also help to incorporate certain peculiarities for the figure. Thus, for example, one could hurt at the foot during history and then could signal that it is this figure by writing “they hung up on it”.
I therefore think it is not easy, but quite possible to implement it in perspective.
Basically, you’ve already decided. I don’t come into question, so narrative perspective. You can give the other name and it’s more understandable. Also with name he/she happens as often as “I” at the other narrative. I’d rather think about that.
It’s difficult. I’m not sure if this is really an interesting story. But this is your approach, so let’s see:
Requirements:
However, I would have two fundamentally different ideas for implementation. However, both of them do not realize whether they fit for you and your story: