narrative voice
Who tells it
Narrative voice is the distinctive personality, perspective, and style through which a story is told.
It encompasses who speaks (first person, third person, omniscient) and how they speak—their tone, attitude, and relationship to events.
A narrative voice can be intimate or distant, reliable or deceptive, formal or conversational: The novel's sardonic narrative voice made even tragic scenes darkly funny.
- first-person"I" as narrator
- second personGrammatical viewpoint using "you"
- formal toneImpersonal, elevated language style
- third-personGrammatical category for others
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
once upon a time · show don't tell · telling detail · interior monologue · tone · conversational tone · point of view · ironic tone · focalization · dramatic monologue · dialogue · satirical tone · melancholic tone · minimalist style · lyrical · introspection · irony · memoir
- literaturebooks, book, fiction, poetry, stories
- storytellingstorytelling, story, tale, storyteller, story time
- writingwriting, drafting, authors, author, books
- literary elementsplot, character, setting, theme, conflict
- Writing Worldnovelists, style, poets, tone, playwrights
- inner thoughtsinner monologue, self-talk, internal dialogue, thoughts, thinking