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Meme: Musing Mondays

Feb 28, 2010 Meme

It’s a bit late as I type this, I’m typing out an assignment as I answer this question and I still have to study for a midterm so please bear with me if my answer’s not making complete sense xD

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about a story format.

How do you feel about books written in a differing format – whether this be journals or letters (epistolary), verse novels, or any other form? Is this something you enjoy? Or do you prefer straight forward chapter prose.

- Just One More Page

I usually prefer straight-forward chapter prose; I guess I’m old-fashioned that way, lol. With the third-person narration, you get a sense of the scope of the story from a bird’s eye perspective (if that makes sense; I’m not going to resort to my grade school English class right now to get the terminologies right =P) whereas with something like journals or letters or first person narration, you’ve more or less got only that one perspective going for you in the story. Plus, like the question described it, it’s pretty straight forward, you get a sense of what’s going on and your imagination fills in the blanks =)

But I also like stories written in journal or letter format (when executed nicely, of course). There’s something about journal and letter format that really adds to the depth and perception of the character narrating events, thoughts and feelings. Sometimes journal and letter formats reveal particular things about the character or the way he or she explains an event, which is interesting. I think journal or letter format is great for the more character-centred stories because it’s such an expression of individuality. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society comes to mind as a wonderful example of a story conducted through the form of letters as a narrative (love this book btw; if you haven’t read it, you should =P).

Tags: meme: musing mondays