Sorry I’m a day late, I got called in for a double shift last minute. Anyway, I’m part of another blog tour, this one with many of the same people as the Coffin Hop tour. A lot of people are doing interviews and cool giveaways, so go check them out. You can click on the image or (here) to see a list of participants.
My participation, aside from trying to win as many free goodies as possible and meet cool people, is to host a series of questions on this website regarding fiction. This includes movies, publishing, prose style, favorite authors, new authors, etc.I’ll post a question each day. In order to entice your participation, I’m going to keep the posts short and simple, with the hope that you’ll spend more time writing your thoughts and reading others than reading what I think. Every meaningful comment will be an entry towards your choice of a $5 Amazon card or ebook under $5. I will announce the winner on this site the day after the tour is over.
Today’s question:
What do you guys think about journal format for stories, such as Day by Day Armageddon? Is it too much telling, or a perfect 
way of summarizing only what’s worth telling? How about the fact that the hero must have survived to tell the tale, so some of the suspense is lost as he describes the action? Any well done or poorly done examples of this format?
Hi Tim,
I’m not an authority on it – I’ve read one Indie book so far utilizing a journal form of storytelling. That was “Verland, The Transformation” by B.E. Scully. I should point out it made use of third person narrative, mixed with first person accounts of the title character’s journal. Enjoyable read and there was some suspense in regards to what would/could happen to Verland, himself.
Thanks for participating in the Creepfest Hop!
/Rebecca
Hi fellow hopper,
You know, I kinda like this kind of books as a reader, however, I do find them much too constricting as a writer. I don’t think I will ever try this style for a novel but I can see myself trying it for more than a couple short stories. Actually, I have one posted right now as my first for the creepfest. Come by my blog and let me know your thoughts on it. From a respected author, I thoroughly enjoyed World War Z by Max Brooks (written as an official report after the war) and The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer by Ridley Person. Freaking awesome!!
http://www.diaryofawriterinprogress.blogspot.com
Happy creepfest!
Tim,
Journal format is either done well or not. It really has to capture my interest to keep me reading in this format. If the plot doesn’t advance along quickly, you can lose your reader with tiny details they don’t care about. That’s my two cents. Hope it was worth it.
-Nora
Thanks Nora. I’m noticing a fair amount of telling in this style and am also wondering if journal entry is unbelievable because of the fact that most people wouldn’t sit down and write all that.
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I’m very interested in journal writing! When i was writing one of my short stories, I had one of the characters find a journal from her Grandfather. I ended up cutting that entire section (since it was a short story
) but I thought if i ever expand the story into a novella or novel, I would use the journal entries there.
Sounds like I will need to make sure the journal entries are compelling and not long-winded if I want to keep my readers’ attentions
One of the benefits seems to be summarizing only what is necessary, and therefore allows you to move the story along faster. Of course, you can do that with normal prose, but that’s what I’ve seen. I’m taking notes as I read Day By Day Armageddon, and will make a post about it. There’s some good uses of journal writing in that one. Any that you’ve especially liked, Mary?
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