Neutral Narration

[Nyx]

Do you think it's necessary for a narrator in a story to be neutral? Does help or ruin a story if the narrator is siding with characters?

Share what you think:D

[Imelda]

I like it when the narrator sides with characters. Novels where you get a flavour of the author's personality are the best, I think. Without it, everything's just words on a page to me.

Male authors are pretty chronic at injecting personality, I find. :p

[Andy]

Do you think it's necessary for a narrator in a story to be neutral? Does help or ruin a story if the narrator is siding with characters?

Share what you think:D
I agree with Imelda that it's nice when the narrator sides with a character. For one, it can help sway the reader the way you want them to be...swayed.

Also, you could consider having the narrator focus on things in the same way as the character they're following. For example, a narrator following a king's POV might describe peasants as dirty, unpleasant, etc. But a narrator following a peasant's POV might do it completely differently. It helps you see through that character's eyes.

A neutral narrator will probably be better for some stories, though. Like in ones where you want the reader to choose the ending. :D

[Carraka]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the topic, but I like it when the narrator lets the reader choose sides. The narrator can attempt to influence the reader, but if the author is there, blatantly saying, "Let us feel pity for this poor peasant," then I refuse to feel pity. If the narrator is the peasant, or the peasant is a narrator, that's something else altogether. I mean, "Feel pity for me," isn't that great either, but describing things in a way to elicit the pity is good.

[jordanisonfire]

Well, a narrator should be neutral, really, seeing as his role is just to tell the readers, listeners or viewers what happens.

[Shaun]

I prefer the narrator not to be too neutral and perhaps lean a little to one side or the other, however neutrality says ambiguity to me, and any novel or story that can create an ambiguous situation is doing something that most novels don't do. If the reader has to make the decision as to whether the evil bad guy is really all that bad then it can really be interesting. Then again, I can't think of any writers who actually have neutral narrators, or at least completely neutral narrators...

[jordanisonfire]

A writer doesn't really need a great deal of education (I emphasise the word 'need'), except english language and literature. However, everyone should have a proper education, despite what their careers are going to be, so it's best to play it safe and do your best in everything. The worst thing to do would be to flunk off school and then find that your novel or whatever gets rejected.

[angela]

very true. i agree on that one.