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Choosing a narrator



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Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:51 pm
jumpingsheep says...



I feel like this is a weird problem to have...

I'm working on this sci-fi story in which a group of kids start an underground radio station following a militaristic coup.

So far, the story has been told from the radio show's host's point of view, describing the formation of the station and so on and so forth. However, I've been doing some thinking and I'm wondering if the story would be more effective told in one of the following ways:

1) Told from the point of view of a listener of the show, most likely a child. As the world gets darker under the new regime, they turn to the show as a source of comfort. We also learn more about these mysterious radio hosts as the show progresses.
The cons of this format would be that I'd have to rehash this entire story when I finish, and it would be hard to portray what happens to the kids who host the radio show, since a majority of the events in the novel happens to them, not the kid tuning in to the show.

2) Told from the point of view of the child and of the radio host. We'd get the child's perspective as they listen to the show and also the radio host's perspective. The cons of this would be that this format would take some of the mystery out of who is behind the radio show.

3) Keep the narrator as the radio host for the entire story. The only cons of this would be that there would be no mystery surrounding this underground broadcast and the reader would know everything about the main characters.

4) Tell the story from a limited point of view, in which the radio host narrates the story, but rarely divulges personal information about them self, unless it is pertinent to the story.

Tell me what you think! I could really use some help!
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Wed Sep 02, 2015 9:45 pm
Kale says...



It's a pretty common problem, actually. If you look through this forum and Writing Tips, you'll find lots of topics asking about how to figure out which narrator to go with.

As for your specific story, I'd ask whether it's really important to have an air of mystery about who is running the radio show. Is it a key element of the story, or is it something that you just think adds a bit of intrigue?

From what you've mentioned, 1 is out completely since it means missing out on a lot of plot-important events. 2 could be manipulated with a combination of 4 to preserve the mystery. Otherwise, 3 is probably the most solid bet since it's the most likely way to showcase the plot-important events that happen to the children running the radio show.
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