WriteHive Online Conference 2024: Tell Me a Story: Exploring Narrative Styles
Now that the 2024 WriteHive Online Conference panels are available on their YouTube channel, I’m catching up on the ones I missed during the conference itself and sharing some of the things I gleaned from them here!
“Tell Me a Story: Exploring Narrative Styles” was a great panel on writing stories in ways that are less commonly used. The panelists talked about why they might use an alternate narrative style, how to tell if the narrative style you’re using is working, and more. When it came to talking about the “rules” for alternate narrative styles, I appreciated the panelists saying that there aren’t necessarily rules, and that authors should question all the conventional wisdom about any rules that people say are part of an alternate narrative style. They particularly mentioned second person stories and multiple point of view stories as things that a lot of people say you can’t do. But you absolutely can, so long as you know what you’re doing, and so long as you have a reason for doing so. For example, they noted that while second person works really well for thriller and horror stories, there might be other genres where it’s not a good fit.
They also talked about what you should consider when you’re choosing a narrative style, and here mentioned that it can be a harder sell if the style goes against audience expectations for the genre. If you use an oddball narrative style, it might be too weird and confusing for your audience. By the same token, though, if you only stick with the standard narrative styles for a genre, that can wind up too normal and boring. Finally, the panelists made several points about trying to avoid narrative styles that make your story feel too gimmicky, as that tends to not benefit the story you’re trying to tell.
If this panel seems like something you’d like to watch, you can find it here. It clocks in at 51 minutes!
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