Young Writers Society

After playing Breath of the Wild (I am by no means finished with the main story, so no spoilers), I had an idea. Could a novel with a silent protagonist work? Not just a main character who was mute, but one who didn't communicate at all. Every emotion would have to be conveyed through actions and facial expressions. If this could even work, what would you do with it? How far would you go? What type of story would work well with this? What POV? I just want to hear your thoughts.

That sounds really cool! I feel like third person would work the best for something like that, but I'm not sure what situation would allow for a character to only convey things through actions and facial expressions. I'm guessing acting things out is out of the question?

Yeah, I can't imagine acting things out would work so well. I should have been clearer on the POV question though; I meant omniscient or limited. I'm a bit torn because I can see the serious upsides to both.

Well, it might work if you had an omniscient narrator and the muteness was somehow explained. However, it would be hard to connect to the main character on a personal level. The hard part is that you can't read the character's emotions, so the character would have to be very expressive. If done right, though, I think it could be interesting. If you made it really clear what the narrator was feeling based on the expressions, it could work well.

Hmm...this is interesting! I'd actually prefer 1st person, because even though the character can't communicate, they can have a voice through their inner monologue. 1st person allows you to go deeply into that character so I'd suggest 1st person limited.

@PrincessInk The problem with first person limited is that it would almost be cheating. The character would not only be mute, but not communicate with any other characters. I feel like giving the MC some sort of voice to the reader isn't what I was thinking of. If you've played an rpg like Pokemon or Legend of Zelda, then you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Wait, that gives me an idea. What about second person?

I'd firstly redefine "communication" before you go about writing this.

Actions and facial expression is communication. Anything that gets across what you want or how you feel is communication; it's not just verbal. There's body language, facial expression, gestures, sign language, pictures (drawing/putting them in sequence) and writing— all of it not involving a single spoken word.

I'd also be very careful about "can't communicate at all", because in my experience people who aren't very verbal or are full out nonverbal do communicate fine. Their body language might be different, and their words to express emotions might be different, but they definitely still have an inner life and can definitely still relate to people/ have friends/ form relationships.

Nonverbal or barely verbal people have a fairly extensive presence on the internet. I know of several nonverbal individuals who still think, feel, and generally communicate no problem. A tentative or non relationship with words doesn't remove communication— it just makes it different.

In order to do this story justice, you'll really need to break the association between communication and words. Otherwise, you won't be able to build the character, and might shortchange them on inner life because of past associations.

I agree with Rosendorn on the communications stuff. And although 1st person limited POV would make the mute protagonist more relatable for the reader, I can see 3rd person limited (or omniscient) working well for a mystery genre...

If it were me approaching this idea, I would design an intriguing mystery in which the mute protagonist knows the truth, yet because the story is in 3rd person the reader can only get clues from what the protagonist reveals or communicates externally (through body language etc.). I feel like that would be really fun as a reader of the story, especially since the protagonist is normally the character you know the most about XD

This sounds interesting. I've toyed with a similar idea before but never tried it. What I particularly like about RPG characters like you described is that instead of having to empathise with a character who might be very different from myself, I get to play as myself (albeit with yellow hair and a green elf suit,) and there's no forced personality or communication to break the immersion. The last second-person book I read made assumptions about its audience that weren't true to me and made me feel alienated, I didn't like that much for the same reason.

I think it would work well with a story based around exciting, maybe something with a quest or goal to be achieved that the reader can feel like they're a part of. Something fantasy based would be good, though I would avoid anything with too much drama as that would probably require a more specific response from the MC. I think second-person would work best if you followed that kind of RPG feeling.

You could try writing a chapter or short piece in the style you want to look at and then post it on the forum with a note at the top asking for particular feedback. It sounds like a great idea.

@Tenyo I may do that sometime and play around eith it before I think about a larger project with it. I was considering a fantasy adventure setting because I think it fits those rpgs really well, and a lot of character drama wouldn't fit as well. Maybe some sort of adventure where the MC is alone for most of it would work well.

Tag me if you post it up! = D

Will do!