Hi WriteByNighters,
I have a writer friend who operates under the premise that any novel he reads is a book written by its narrator.
How many of you just said aloud "That's absolutely insane" and how many of you just nodded and said, "Yeah, and?"
So in my writer friend's mind, The Great Gatsby's first-person narrator, Nick Carraway, sat down to write a book about his friend Gatsby, began that book by writing "In my younger and more vulnerable years," and then titled that book The Great Gatsby.
Now, my writer friend fully understands that Nick Carraway is the invention of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
But he believes Fitzgerald's intention is for us to see the book as having been written by Nick. And that this is the intention of any fiction writer. (Including himself.)
I've never written fiction meant to be interpreted as the written product of my narrator's storytelling. But maybe I'm in the minority?
As a reader, do you approach a novel as if it's a book written and then published by the narrator?
As a writer, do you approach your fiction as if the final product is meant to be interpreted as a book written by your narrator?
