Writing Style Inquiry

[Dualitas]

Hello.  Relatively new forum member.


I'll get to the point.


I'm looking for any story with a certain kind of writing style.  One where sentence structure, grammar, and description length are determined by the protagonist's state of mind in a second-person narrative.  Figured someone here might know.

 

[Dualitas]

-Wall of Information-

Reading that wall of text, it's got me thinking.  You're right, I may be right on the "unreliable narrator" front.  But I've chosen second-person because the narrative I believe I'm looking for goes a bit further than the norm.  What I'm talking about is not so much the narrator describing your state of mind in an usual orthodox way, but rather the very grammar and all associated with it itself gives off what the protagonist's state of mind is.


For instance, say we describe a statue.  Full details, perfect punctuation, no run-ons, whatsoever.  This should give the reader that they are in a calm state.  No worries, no troubles, anything of that sort.


Then we go on to a scene where that same statue is there, but this time reflected in a panicked, nearly hysterical state of mind.  The bare minimum of details are just able to squeeze in, punctuation starts taking hits, run-ons for ages.  Hell, if to go so far as to say the character goes insane, sentences, both in narration and dialogue become a literal mess to just simply look at.


Perhaps from a first-person view, it may work, but from a third-person view, it may not work as intended, since we can only describe so much on how insane the character is going.  Reason I choose second-person is as you said:  You tend not to find outside of CYOAs.  Well, CYOAs gets the reader engaged, for the most part, which is why I believe second-person may be the one I'm going for.


Even if I'm not doing CYOAs.

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

Reading that wall of text, it's got me thinking. You're right, I may be right on the "unreliable narrator" front. But I've chosen second-person because the narrative I believe I'm looking for goes a bit further than the norm. What I'm talking about is not so much the narrator describing your state of mind in an usual orthodox way, but rather the very grammar and all associated with it itself gives off what the protagonist's state of mind is.


For instance, say we describe a statue. Full details, perfect punctuation, no run-ons, whatsoever. This should give the reader that they are in a calm state. No worries, no troubles, anything of that sort.


Then we go on to a scene where that same statue is there, but this time reflected in a panicked, nearly hysterical state of mind. The bare minimum of details are just able to squeeze in, punctuation starts taking hits, run-ons for ages. Hell, if to go so far as to say the character goes insane, sentences, both in narration and dialogue become a literal mess to just simply look at.


Perhaps from a first-person view, it may work, but from a third-person view, it may not work as intended, since we can only describe so much on how insane the character is going. Reason I choose second-person is as you said: You tend not to find outside of CYOAs. Well, CYOAs gets the reader engaged, for the most part, which is why I believe second-person may be the one I'm going for.


Even if I'm not doing CYOAs.

I get what you are referring to, but such writing analogues of cool directing tricks are extremely hard to pull off because of how 'denser' and hard to absorb literature is as a medium. One of the reasons I never were able to fully enjoy any piece of experimental fiction was the amount of excruciatingly hard work that is required to absorb most of them due to using exactly those methods, among other things.


I however don't think that it's harder to do effectively depending on writing in first, second or third person.


Out of all the TiTS writers, @Nonesuch incorporates the narrative changing based on PC's mental state the most, but even he never goes as balls deep as the things you describe.

Then again, I struggle to see how second-person works outside of CYOA's at all, and I know (or have at least been told) there are some examples of true linear narratives written in second-person, so maybe it's just me not "getting it."

You aren't alone in this, because IMO it's not a narrative perspective that has telling a story as its main purpose and its strength.

 

[Dualitas]

I get what you are referring to, but such writing analogues of cool directing tricks are extremely hard to pull off because of how 'denser' and hard to absorb literature is as a medium. One of the reasons I never were able to fully enjoy any piece of experimental fiction was the amount of excruciatingly hard work that is required to absorb most of them due to using exactly those methods, among other things.

I figured it wouldn't be easy to write.  What I'm thinking is out there, I'll admit.  Interesting that you've read a few of these "experiments" that I'll take to calling them.


Can you point in any their directions, if you will?

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

I figured it wouldn't be easy to write.  What I'm thinking is out there, I'll admit.  Interesting that you've read a few of these "experiments" that I'll take to calling them.


Can you point in any their directions, if you will?

Keep in mind that my examples don't feature second person and are either in Russian or have been experienced by me mostly via translations, for the exact reason of the originals being too dense for me to be able fo emmerce myself Into them at the time. They are also almost universally either an outright science fiction or heavily rely on sci-fi elements. They are also not nearly as cutting edge, modern or experimental as my initial comment might have lead you to believe. 


However, they are almost universally good.


The big English ones are Philip K Dick and Roger Zelazny. 


Stanislav Lem is another major one, even though I've come to really dislike the man himself after reading more about his biography and views.


Bulgakov (Morphine and Dog's Heart, oh my)  and Pelevin starting recently.


Saltykov-Shedrin, and a lot of other satirists use quite a lot of it. Zamyatin's We is IMO an even better look inside the head of an dystopian citizen's warped mind than 1984, mostly because he had a lot more experience with the RL equivalents of doublespeak, doublethink and a police state. The first person perspective also helped.

 

[Dualitas]

Fantastic.  I'll be sure to at least look at one of them, if not more. (Assuming my shoddy memory doesn't get the best of me.)


Really, though, you two have been very helpful in my thirst of experimental writing knowledge, and for that, I'd just like to say "Thank you."

 

[StrangerDanger]

Hmmm....maybe a series of journal entries or something? off the top of my head, RE:Monster, which is a manga about a dude getting killed and reincarnated into a goblin. its mostly narrated from the protagonists point of view, with very little outside input on events. if your reading the manga, and not the light novel, the pictures help put things in better perspective for whats happening vs what he's "thinking" whenever there might be dissonance. other than that, i can't really recall anything like what you want.

EDIT: just read the posts that came after the initial, and nothing i know of specifically changes writing style to match the tone of the story. on the bright side, my inner nerd kicked in and i remembered another narration style light novel, which i will link a good English translation of for you. http://blastron01.tumblr.com/kumoko-contents