Getting Their Stories Straight

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Well, dammit.

I just realized exactly what Doctors! needs to make it work—how to fix that nagging sense that something is wrong with it.

Editing sure is a fine art, isn’t it? I make all sorts of minor changes that ultimately make a better story, fine-tuning and fiddling and WHAT WAS THAT YOU SAID I NEEDED AN ENTIRELY NEW NARRATOR? OH, SHIT.

Even though I’ve got an excellent candidate already in place, with an engaging voice and clever ideas and an actual sense of humor,* there are two major problems with this:

1. It will mean a massive overhaul of the entire structure of the story, so I’d basically be rewriting it, and
2. I really, really like the narrator I’ve currently got.

I mean it. He’s a great character—a real sweetheart, and smart, and so very earnest. But as a narrator, he’s just fucking boring. The dude thinks in parameters and infodumps. Plus, he’s not human, so there’s no frame of reference like there would be if I switched to the human. He’d benefit from the switch as well, it’s just … I also think his worldview is really fun to write.** I’d miss him if I were no longer in his head.

I’m definitely going to change it—what do they say about being ruthless and tearing out your heart for the sake of the story—but by god, it’s tough sometimes to get these darn things right.


*As versus the bitchy contrariness that so often gets mistaken for A Sassy Sense Of Humor in narrators.

**Especially that one time he got a concussion. That was a blast.

Comments

[beccastareyes]

You can always promise yourself another story where the alien gets to take the narrative reins.

[cjtremlett.livejournal.com]

Alternate narrators by chapter? Or occasionally have an interlude narrated by the non-human? I've seen both the alternating chapters and the occasional alternative narrator used well. Especially since your alternative narrator isn't human and has such a different world-view, you could even sometimes have a scene or sequence narrated by the regular narrator and then an interlude with the same sequence narrated by the non-human.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I considered that, but I think the structure of the book would be better-served with one narrative voice (at the moment I've been alternating, but that's awkward too). It really has been sifficult to write his voice, too, since he's not all that good at articulating what's going on in his head without coming off as Data.

I may be able to give him a chance to tell a story later on, but in this case, I'm going to have to just do the rewrite.

[shadesofmauve]

Maybe your current narrator could tell a story or two later? Then you wouldn't have to say goodbye entirely.