Pitching an Editor on Craft Choices

In addition to dialogues like the one we've had this week, one of my goals for Write About Now is to post the occasional Q & A. If you've ever wanted to get my opinion on something, or to demand an explanation of something I've said, this is your opportunity. Just e-mail me the question and let me know if you'd like to be anonymous (in which case you get an inventive pseudonym) or use your real name.

Our inaugural question comes from an avid reader whom I'll dub Quentin:

Q. "I was wondering if you might do a post on Write About Now about the use of multiple narrators in fiction - such as in Kenneth Fearing's The Big Clock, or several of Douglas Coupland's more recent novels - though not in the sense that Elizabeth Kostova uses the technique in The Historian. I ask because I'm preparing for a new novel where I'm strongly considering it; but I wonder if it would be a disastrous idea to try to pitch to an editor, and its seldom written about in books on writing."

A. Well, Quentin, I'm going to start by advising you to take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. In the immortal words of Johnny Rotten: "I could be wrong, I could be right." With the disclaimer out of the way, I'm going to start at the end and work my way back. You're worried that trying to pitch an editor on multiple first person narrators might make her eyes glaze over. It just might. Some editors would definitely see that as a red flag, as they would any signal that the author plans to do something ... different. On the other hand, some editors are looking for authors who aren't afraid to experiment.

But let's face it, a narrative technique used by a mid-twentieth century genre novelist -- and used successfully, without anyone accusing him of being too artistic or French -- isn't really cutting edge. An editor would have to be fairly conventional, fairly limited in her reading to think of this as an unprecedented risk.

There's a larger issue, though. Why are you pitching an editor on craft choices? The thing to pitch is the story. You're selling your project to an editor the same way back cover copy sells the book to readers. When was the last time you saw "written with multiple first-person narrators" on the back cover? As long as it works, readers don't care, and I think the same is true of editors. It's not an issue unless you make it one. Bringing it up in your pitch makes it an issue.

The other way to make it an issue, of course, is to attempt the technique and fail, which brings us to the first part of the question: how to pull it off. If you haven't seen much about it in guidebooks, there are two reasons. It's comparatively rare, and the technical skill set is the same as any first person narration. The only difference is, you've got to make each narrator essential to the story action, and each must have a voice distinctive enough to set it apart.

As it happens, I'm writing a novel at the moment with a first person narrator, and discussing some chapters with a fellow writer, the topic of multiple first person narration came up. "I can't even think about that," I said, "because I'd never make the voices distinctive enough." Some authors have that gift, others don't. If I do, it's still nascent.

You won't know if you do until you try. The harder it is to keep the narrators distinct, the more signals you'll have that you've chosen the wrong approach. If it comes easily and naturally, you've chosen the right one.

So let's say it works. You write the manuscript -- and you'll probably have to write the whole thing before selling it, so keep that in mind -- and at your next conference you decide to pitch the idea to an editor. Sell her the story, not the POV. If she requests the proposal, she'll see how it's written right away and determine whether it works or not. If she requests the manuscript, then you're in good shape.

To make a long story short: the best way to sell an unusual approach to craft is by convincing an editor to read the manuscript, and the best way to do that is to pitch the story, not the unusual approach.

Comments

[Christopher Fisher]

Recommendation for Quentin: Check out Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down. It's told through four 1st-person narrators, each with a very distinctive voice.