experimental writing exercises: all the persons (HP and a bit of SGA)

All that talking about persons and tenses has made me realise that I haven't written any stylistic experiments for a while (and sheldrake may spank me for it, *g*). But I decided that one of my weaknesses is plot structure, so that plot structure is the thing I want to practise next. There is only so far you can go in experimental snippets and ficlets because you end up practising micro-structure (prose style, paragraphs, voice etc.) but not macro-structure (pace, rhythm, interval, chapters and sub-chapters / sections, temporal elisions, duration, frequency, order, the architecture of plot).

So I thought I would use my wraith!fic to practise plot structure. After trying out a few styles, I also thought I would try a rather neutral, third person, fairly detached observer!narratorial voice and a prose style using mostly complete sentences (the latter comes very uneasy to me; I keep truncating). I am finding that style a struggle so it is probably all the more important to keep going with it as it might mean I will learn something. I got the idea after re-reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Diary of a Castaway which is written in a very neutral style, suited to a Robinson-Crusoeish adventure story. And wraith!fic is a castaway story so I thought that style might also suit.
But it is hard! Except I get to veer into wraith-pov at intervals, hahaha. And that is going to be pure joy. Because I learned one thing replying to that many-comments-generating post on persons and tenses: that first person plural will be eminently suited to wraith!pov because it is such a hive voice! (Eh, Gerard, you never knew that, did you? Genette, that is. My hero. *sighs* Oh, and Mikhail. He is my hero, too. Mikhail Bakhtin.)

I am also reading Jane Smiley's Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel of which the most interesting chapters are the two practical How-To ones. I may post useful shards of advice anon.

I am not sure all of my flist knows this; there have been a few newcomers over the last year, but I am actually writing a book on narrative for which I read loads of narrative theory so I love (LOVE) applying the theory to actual writing. And the actual writing sometimes disproves the theory, or sheds new light on it, or spins it around in an interesting way.

( Persons, all of them; fandom: Harry Potteroonie; experimental writing exercises )

Phew, that was more exhausting than expected. And I still can't keep all those bloody focalisations distinct in my brain. I had to have my list of narrative terms open in another window for reference. Maybe this is a symptom that there is something flawed about these terms. But what?