Writing for the Story

When setting out to construct a story, there's two ways to approach narrative choice: write the story in the narrative style the writer has developed for themselves, or write the story in the narrative style that best serves the story.  It's a decision each writer either deliberately makes for their career, or falls into as they begin to compile a body of work.

There are a number of authors known for their distinct style, a kind of personal branding that will be found in everything they write.  When they write a story, the plot and characters will be filtered through that style.  It may serve that author well (Hemingway's distinct style became a trademark of his writing, whatever plot or character he may have been writing about) or it may not serve that author well (Chuck Palahniuk's narrative style, while unique, sounds like the same character has written every single one of his books.)  The reader inherently will follow that author's brand; even though they may "know what they're going to get" they look to see how that author will treat whatever storyline they've chosen for their work.

The converse is to alter narrative style depending upon the needs of the story, using sentence structure, vocabulary, POV, etc, to add to the emotion and experience evoked by the story.  It's certainly more of a challenge to the author, who has to adjust their writing style each time they sit down to their computer.  It creates less of a personal brand, forcing the focus instead on the integrity and craft of the writing.  For example, writing a novel about intellectuals may mean adopting a broader vocabulary, intricately crafted sentences, and use of high style and imagery to create the environment's feel; writing a novel about farmers may mean adopting a simple vocabulary, shorter sentences, and imagery that includes a higher awareness of the earth and animals.  Writing a novel from the point of view of a teenage boy in NYC is going to need to sound a lot different than writing a novel from the point of view of a middle aged woman in China.  Susan Minot has adopted this kind of story-by-story altered form in order to serve her novels.  Evening utilizes a non-linear narrative with stream-of-consciousness passages that replicate the wandering thoughts and memories of a dying woman on morphine; Folly is a more plot-driven novel and uses a straight forward narrative voice.  Colson Whitehead, author of the new release Zone One, talked recently of his narrative voice decisions in the novels he's written, and how a particular style did or did not fit the main character or the themes of the book.  In writing a story about a character who is spiritually dead and in a cyclic lifestyle, I used repeated phrases and scenes in order to evoke that feeling to the reader.

The next story you write, or as you move forward with your writing career, make sure to have that conversation with yourself: am I writing for my own style, or am I writing for the story's style?