How Fiction Works Writing Meme - Day Two

[meridian_rose]

2 - Are the writing styles from the first question the only ones we have to work with? Do other styles, as James Wood says, not resemble narration?
I tried to research other styles; epistolary is the only one I could find that either has multiple narrators, or if you prefer, no direct narrator at all; novels like 'Dracula' and 'Les Liaisons dangereuses'.

Do other styles resemble narration? I'm not sure what other styles we're talking about. Outside of fiction there are things like biographies, newspaper articles, company statements on their goals and values, instruction manuals. These all construct a – to a point – factual rather than fictional story about a person, an event, a business, a tale of how to construct a bookcase from a few pieces of pre-drilled wood and some supplied screws. In many ways they do resemble narration, having beginnings, middles, and ends; themes and or purpose[s]; one or more authors; an intended audience.

Maybe I'm just over thinking now :D

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I'll make an index post when I've completed the meme with links to all my answers; they will all be tagged #how fiction works meme. You can find the full set of questions at pristineungift's entry:here

Comments

[hrhrionastar.livejournal.com]

Excellent point about all the other things that tell a story, or at least give some kind of theme.

Really, art and conversation and music and almost anything can be stretched to fit 'narrative,' I think.

[meridian_rose]

Yes, absolutely :D Operas certainly tell a story, and many songs are narratives in their own right.