How Fiction Works Writing Meme - Day Five

5 - According to James Wood, the author is always working with three languages: the author's own language of style, perceptual equipment, plot necessities and so on; the character's presumed language and style (for example, a British undertaker may narrate much differently than an elf of the forest); and the language of the world which the author inherits before they even begin - the mechanics of everyday speech. Do you, as Wood suggests, feel the weight of this "tripleness"? Have you ever struggled with striking a balance among the three?

I'm not sure I understand what the issues would be. Taking the latter point first, I'm writing in my native language, so the mechanics are not a problem – although there is always more to learn, rules to remember – and occasionally break, and vocabulary to be developed.

Then there's the character; I primarily write characters I understand and/or identify with, especially for fanfic, and if I don't know the original characters I'm creating then I need to go away and work on them until I do understand them. If you know the character, the language should come easily.

Finally, there's the author's own language. This to me seems to referring to the individual author's style or voice. Unless you're deliberately writing outside your comfort zone – first person POV when you never use it, for example, or trying to mimic a particular author's style that's very distinct and unlike your own – I don't see how this is an issue either.

I might be misunderstanding the question or over-estimating my abilities, but to me, if you're struggling with any of these, you need to look at why.

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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