Welcome to Day 2!
Yesterday, you worked on the premise of your story, and it was so fun to read what you have, workshop things with you, and answer questions.
I’m recording it on the 2nd of January, around midday-ish, which means that not all of you will have gotten to yesterday’s homework yet…and that is completely fine. I’ll be spending the evening catching up with the after-work crew.
For those of you who have done it, I’ve had so much fun reading through your premises. A few of you and I have gone back and forth workshopping them a bit, tightening things up and making them as intriguing and clear as possible, and that’s been genuinely really fun.
So if you haven’t written your premise yet, please make sure you do that before moving on to the next videos, because everything we’re doing this week builds on that groundwork.
And remember: these are bite-sized lessons. The first week or so is very much about groundwork, and I know some of it can feel a little bit silly at first. But once you’re in it, you start to realise that distilling a whole story down into one sentence is actually quite difficult.
Editing is hard.
It’s often the hardest part of writing, because you’re taking big, messy ideas and forcing them to become clear.
The groundwork we’re doing now is what will make things feel much easier later on, when we start putting your full blueprint together. And it needs to feel easier then, because that’s when things start to get a bit more intense.
Some housekeeping before we start
Before we get into today’s lesson, I want to clear up a few things that have come up.
First:
A couple of people mentioned that in order to participate in the Substack chat, you’re being asked to do an age verification, which involves uploading ID and a photo of yourself. I completely understand that some of you are not comfortable with that, and that is absolutely fine. That’s a newer Substack feature, and not everyone is happy about it.
If you don’t want to do the age verification, please don’t worry: you do not have to be in the chat. You can still participate fully by replying in the comments below the post, and I’ll do my best to respond and engage with you there as well.
That said, if you are comfortable using the chat, it does make things a little easier for me organisationally. The way we’re doing it going forward is this:
Comments are for the actual homework (like posting your premise or your narrator).
Chat is for talking about the process: what felt hard, what clarified things, what questions came up. I’ll give you prompts for those reflections.
That separation helps me keep track of who I’m talking to and makes sure things don’t get lost. But again, if the chat isn’t for you, that’s completely fine.
Second:
You will be getting a worksheet to build your book blueprint on. I’ve already made it for you. I’m just not giving it to you until next week, after we’ve done this initial groundwork. That way, when it arrives, we’re all working from the same document and things stay streamlined.
Third:
A disclaimer: When I suggest books (like Big Magic yesterday), the links will go to The Canterbury Bookshop, which is the independent bookshop I own. (It’s still very small, and we’re looking for a storefront!) If you do buy through those links, The Canterbury Bookshop gets the commission.
Now, I don’t want you to feel any pressure to do that. BUT, I would encourage you, if possible, to avoid Amazon and support another independent bookshop instead. If you go to bookshop.org, you can choose a local independent bookshop near you to receive the credit.
Use my link if you’d like, use another indie if you prefer…the important thing is supporting independent bookshops where you can.
Okay. That’s it for housekeeping. Let’s get into today’s lesson.
Today’s topic: Narrator
Today we’re talking about your narrator.
Narrator is different from point of view. They’re related, and they work together, but they’re not the same thing. (We’ll talk about point of view tomorrow.) Today, I want you to focus only on the narrator.
It’s important to figure out who your narrator is before you decide what the point of view of that narrator is.
So for today, think of your narrator as a distinct character of its own.
A lot of people get caught up thinking that they are the narrator of their book. But you’re not. You have to choose a narrator.
That narrator could be the main character. It doesn’t have to be. It could be a secondary character, a tertiary character, or even someone you’ve completely made up who just happens to be telling the story.
We’ll talk about whether that narrator is first person or third person tomorrow, so don’t worry about that yet. Today, just about deciding who they are.
A note for memoir writers:
If you’re writing a memoir—and a few of you are—I really want you to remember this: the narrator is not necessarily you.
It might be a version of you, but it’s not the you that you know right now. It could be the version of you who lived the story. It could be a future version of you, a slightly wiser version, or even a version of you that you want your audience to see, rather than the full, messy reality of who you are in everyday life.
Even in memoir, you have to choose which version of yourself is narrating the story.
Questions to think about when choosing your narrator
Here are some options and questions to help you think this through:
Is the narrator a future version of one of the characters?
Is it the main character?
Is it a secondary or tertiary character?
Is it someone we only meet briefly…and we’re not even aware that they’re the one telling us the story?
Is it someone you’ve completely made up who’s watching from the outside?
Is the narrator reliable?
Are they telling the truth?
What are they hiding?
What do they care about showing the reader?
Does the narrator care about the characters or the outcome of the story?
Think about their personality too:
Are they snarky or cheeky?
Funny?
Defensive?
Straightforward and factual?
Do they want to tell you the story with emotion, or just give you the nuts and bolts?
Some examples
When I think about narrators with very distinct voices, I always come back to Harry Potter. If you read the very first paragraph of the first book, there’s that slightly cheeky “thankyouverymuch” tone that immediately tells you something about how this story is going to be told.
We don’t actually know who the narrator is—it’s not J.K. Rowling—it’s a created narrative voice with its own cadence and attitude. And that “thankyouverymuch” does have a bit of Dursley snark to it, don’t you think?
Then there are unreliable narrators, like in Gone Girl, (spoilers!) where you eventually realise that the narrator has been lying to you the entire time, which completely reframes the story.
The Girl on the Train does something similar: she’s often drunk or has memory loss, and as a reader you start to question whether you can trust what she’s telling you.
Some books switch narrators. The Time Traveler’s Wife does this beautifully, moving between characters. Little Fires Everywhere also uses multiple narrators.
And then there’s The Princess Bride, where the grandfather is narrating the story. He’s not just reading it; he’s telling it, and we move in and out of the story through him, which adds another layer entirely.
Your assignment for today
Your task today is to figure out who your narrator is.
You don’t need to give them a name, but I want you to know their personality. I want you to know whether they’re in the story or outside of it. And if it’s a version of yourself, I want you to know which version.
Your tasks:
Put who your narrator is in the comments below this post. Tell me how they’re related or not related to the story being told, and what their personality is like.
In the chat (or in the comments if you don’t want to do the verification), your prompt will be: How does your narrator’s personality affect the way that the story feels? Did picking this narrator change how you’re going to tell your story? Did it clarify anything about your story or allow anything to fall into place?
I’ll open that thread in the chat around 9am tomorrow (British time).
Before I go
As usual, feel free to email me anytime at shelly@academyofstory.com (there’s no e before the y in Shelly, just in case anything bounced back earlier!)
It’s usually easiest if you email me directly there.
You can also reply to this email as well, but sometimes things get lost in long reply chains.
ALSO: it’s still not too late to join! It’ll be easy to catch up until about the 8th of January, so do share this with a friend. We’re over 250 participants strong now, which is incredible!
Have fun figuring out who your narrator is, and I’ll see you tomorrow, when we’ll talk about point of view…bringing that together with the narrator you chose today.
Talk to you soon,
Shelly x
