SOME CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT FIRST-PERSON NARRATORS

 

1.     Is the narrator writing, speaking, or thinking?

2.     Is the narrator aware of having an audience?

3.     Where does the level of diction fall between very colloquial and very formal?

4.     How does the narrator structure the events he or she is relating? Loosely? Strictly? By meandering or by a rigid principle?

5.     Is the narrator at the center of the action or at  the periphery? The subject of the story or its reflector? The protagonist or the witness?

6.     How aware is the narrator of his or her own character traits and of the impression he or she might be leaving upon the reader?

7.     To what extent is the narrator “credible” or not? Is the narrator able to induce your trust in his or her version of events? Upon what does the narrator’s credibility or lack thereof depend in this story?

8.     Is the narrator a person toward whom you feel sympathy?

9.     What is the relationship in time between the events described and the telling of them? Does the size of the distance effect the narrator or the way he or she narrates his or her story?

10. Is the narrator’s voice consistent?

11. Are there any specialized orthographic devices utilized in the voice? (Weird spelling, in other words.)

12. How capable is the narrator as a story-teller in pacing, describing, creating suspense, using images, etc., the way a “writer” must to keep an audience?

13. How strong (compelling, interesting) is the narrator’s voice?

14. Do questions of “authority” arise? How does the  narrator come to learn the things he or she is reporting and can the reports be deemed valid?