It's All in How You Tell It
by Rosalind Foley on 04/26/12
John Francois' short story "White Sandy Beaches" is a finalist in the "Country Roads" contest and will be in the June issue of that magazine. Reading a ms. copy of it got me thinking about those tricky fiction essentials: Voice, and Point of View. They're often close, but not exactly the same.
Voice, to me, is the tone of the telling. It sets the mood of the piece, whether dark (Jane Eyre), sardonic (The Great Gatsby) or poignant (Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.) It signals right away what kind of story we're reading. Finding the right voice for a particular piece is critical. That voice must be consistent throughout.
Point of view tells us who's doing the telling, an observer or a participant. A short story should have only one POV. A novel is allowed two and occasionally more.
John's story is told from the POV of a young boy. Its voice places us in the time of the hero's coming of age. I thought John got both just right.
