First-person present technique

[Toby Frost]

With first-past, I'm often looking for signs of when the narrator is meant to be telling the story, and in what form.

I've had this thought in a very vague way about first-person narratives, but my brain is happy to settle for something like "This is how the character would tell the story if he had to". Something like Raymond Chandler's crime novels, where the hero is intelligent but not literary or an intellectual, would fit into this.

 

[Ursa major]

some don’t apparently

Really...?! I'm having trouble imagining that.

Well, still having trouble: in John Scalzi's Old Man's War series, there's an intelligent species that does not possess consciousness -- I won't go into the details because spoilers -- and when it was mentioned it (very briefly) pulled me out of the story. (It was my own fault for not being imaginitive enough, really. )

 

[HareBrain]

I've had this thought in a very vague way about first-person narratives, but my brain is happy to settle for something like "This is how the character would tell the story if he had to".

Well, that's far too sensible for me.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Jo mentioned internal monologues, giving me a great chance to mention a really fascinating book called The Voices Within.
Here's my review.