Perfect Narrators (with imperfections)
Contributor
Written by
Laura Page
July 2011
Contributor
Written by
Laura Page
July 2011
l love when a novel's narrator has that certain something that just invites you into his/her interior world from the very first sentence. I'm currently reading Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, and the narrator of this book is exactly like that. The narrator ofBrideshead is Charles Ryder, and he reminds me of Stephen Daedalus from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses by James Joyce, a narrator who also has that special something. I suppose it's just about being able to relate to the character. Maybe it's a personality thing. My eager-to-please, introverted type understands those traits in Ryder and Daedalus. Both narrators also have a hearty appreciation for a good bottle of vin, so that also probably has something to do with it!

(Speaking of which, I have an excellent glass of 2005 Ana Maria Chardonnay in front of me. Books certainly do pair well with wine!)

The narrating characters of these stories make me want to read slower because I don't want the narrative to end! I aspire to that kind of transparency in my characters when I'm writing. I hope someday I achieve that fluidity and authenticity of voice. As it is, I think that my characters come off very insecure, because I project my own insecurity onto them. They always seem tentative, which, if you're going for tentative, is fine. But I think my biggest area of improvement is in the confidence department. I need to build some confidence in myself as a writer and to learn to relinquish some control. Relinquish control to my characters, in fact. I need to let them be a little messy and unkempt physically, emotionally, spiritually, and so forth. We all know in our heads, as writers, that a character should have flaws. But I think perhaps it's a temptation for us as the ones creating these characters, to micromanage the development of these flaws. As oxymoronic as it sounds, I think maybe we--or at least I-- try to write my characters imperfections perfectly. So...I need to learn to relax. Pour another glass of wine, perhaps. And let the kids be kids on the page (even if they're 85 years old). I think that when I can do this, I will be able to create characters whose heads my readers can crawl into and relate to.

Let's be friends

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