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the more distance between the author and the narrator.

Depending upon the technique and attitude used by the author, an obtrusive narrator may appear anywhere on a continuum from quite remote to downright chummy with the reader. On the other extreme, a very unobtrusive narrator may be virtually unnoticeable to the reader.

Distance between narrator and character may seem as pronounced as between a radio announcer in a broadcast booth and the players on the football field. Or it might be as close as a character on the field narrating the story with a microphone and helmet camera.

Distance between the reader and the character may be a far as a spectator watching the character from the nosebleed section of the stadium, or so close that the reader feels he has been transplanted into the body and mind of the character.

The diminishing role of direct narration is consistent with trends over the last two hundred years. Donald Maas, in Writing the Breakout Novel, notes that since the invention of the novel it has been transformed by a progressive narrowing of point of view: from the once-essential author's voice, to omniscient narration, to objective narration, to first- and third-person narration, and most recently to close third-person narration.

Narration as a rhetorical mode may include all written fiction, but as a fiction-writing mode in modern storytelling, it plays a shrinking role.

Learn more about this author, Mike Klaassen.
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