Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How do I avoid rambling in first person narratives?

When writing in first person narrative, there are points when the narrator expresses their opinion on a situation, the emotions they're feeling and so on. I've read books where there are several pa...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by K. Bailey‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:23:53Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/27767
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar K. Bailey‭ · 2019-12-08T06:23:53Z (about 5 years ago)
When writing in first person narrative, there are points when the narrator expresses their opinion on a situation, the emotions they're feeling and so on. I've read books where there are several paragraphs at once of just the narrator talking about something and how they feel about it or recalling past events or filling in the reader on pertinent information. Even simple things like their hatred of the green sweater their grandma bought them or how the lock on their front door needs to be changed.

But when does it stop being character development or story development and start being annoying? When do I cross the line between what is acceptable and just unnecessary rambling?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-04-27T00:08:22Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 5