The Almudena Grandes effect (How Not to Write 2)
Im being a bit unfair because as time goes by, Grandes writes better and better, but there we go. Almudena Grandes is a Spanish novelist. As far as Ive read, all her novels have first person narrators: one of them has four alternating narrators (each narrator a chapter). The problem is that all her narrators, all of them, even the four women in Atlas de Geografía Humana, have the exact same voice.
If you are going to write narrative, please dont make a teenager and his grandmother use the same register. Dont be Almudena Grandes and dont make your readers confused about who is telling what. The moment one of my characters opens his or her mouth, I want the reader to know whos talking.
Someone criticised my short stories because the female characters are far more articulate than the male ones. I dont do that on purpose, and I dont think my women are better or more intelligent/educated than my men; it simply came naturally to make the women resemble me, but with a more ornate expression. The men are a bit like some of my male friends, precisely the ones who express themselves very differently from me. All I have been able to manage so far is to make characters that dont have all the same voice, although I dont think my dialogue is good.
If you are going to write narrative, please dont make a teenager and his grandmother use the same register. Dont be Almudena Grandes and dont make your readers confused about who is telling what. The moment one of my characters opens his or her mouth, I want the reader to know whos talking.
Someone criticised my short stories because the female characters are far more articulate than the male ones. I dont do that on purpose, and I dont think my women are better or more intelligent/educated than my men; it simply came naturally to make the women resemble me, but with a more ornate expression. The men are a bit like some of my male friends, precisely the ones who express themselves very differently from me. All I have been able to manage so far is to make characters that dont have all the same voice, although I dont think my dialogue is good.
2 comentarios
Rilke -
ChicaXL -
No he vuelto a leer nada de esta mujer...pero no ha sido a propósito, sólo que por esta cuestión no me llama la atención como autora.