Try Another Way

For as long as I've been writing fiction I have tried to dramatize my stories; that is, to make them as much like films as possible. That is what the writing gurus taught and still teach. Show events; don't tell about them. Use live scenes, not narrative. Use narrative simply to bridge the scenes. Make narrative the equivalent of fade-ins or fade-outs on film.

The problem is that such fiction is always pallid compared to films, where the camera catches events far more compellingly than a string of words on a page.

I've come to question the whole idea of dramatized fiction, a hand-me-down from the film business. A lot of dramatized scenes are dull; especially ones full of trivial dialogue. A story could be moved along much faster, but perhaps with less immediacy, employing narrative.

Before novels became imitation films, novelists had far more latitude. The protagonist might well be an observed character. The narrator might be the novelist himself or herself, and that narrator might be full of sharp opinions or cheerful observations about the character under the lens of the author.

I'd love to do a story with myself as the narrator, commenting on the foibles of the protagonists and others. That's similar to the way Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim was written.

I've read in several places that American fiction is pallid and exhausted. If I were a little younger than my eighty years, I would try writing a story that would be largely narrative, full of prejudices, and an entertainment for anyone who might enjoy a good roast. Or maybe just an old narrator honoring the tenderness and courage of a young protagonist, or pointing to the strength of character of someone in the story.