bell notificationshomepageloginNewPostedit profile

Topic : Re: What are some disadvantages of writing fiction in a diary format? I find writing in a diary-style is the easiest way to write fiction. The format is the same as a diary, with each entry beginning - selfpublishingguru.com

10% popularity

Another issue with diary-formatted fiction is that it may limit you to certain time periods and classes of society. While Victorian ladies often wrote copious diary entries and even passed the books around among their friends and family for entertainment (which would give such a diary a reason for detail and description), it's harder to imagine a modern working woman with so much spare time, and utterly unbelievable for characters from eras and locations that lacked time, literacy, or writing materials.

It also compels you to choose as your protagonist the sort of highly articulate, introspective person who would keep a diary. There's nothing necessarily wrong with this, of course.

An alternative to strictly-diary novels is to create a book from a mix of documents (newspaper clippings, letters, court reports, etc.) as Dorothy Sayers did in The Documents in the Case.


Load Full (0)

Login to follow topic

More posts by @Heady158

0 Comments

Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best

Back to top