Paternity Poll: Favorite Narrator

[Mark Arbour]

When I post a chapter, I usually get a few people telling me they like either Wade or Will better. I was curious about that, and knowing how Sharon loves polls, I figured I'd start one up and ask you which narrator you like best. Votes aren't public, so no one will know who you picked. Unless you tell us.

[GLH]

Either one, though I was really starting to miss Wade.

[Canuk]

Will annoys me so much I couldn't vote for him even if the alternative was Wades mother!

 

But then, it says something about how good an author we have that a character can piss me off that much (as opposed to the effect of Grainger <sigh> has on me )

Edited July 25, 2012 by Canuk

[methodwriter85]

I really liked Will as narrator when he was just a kid having fun with his friends at Harvard-Westlake, but the war with Brad really turned me off on him, as well as the guy's insistence on being 24 at 14. So I guess I'm back to liking Wade more.

[sat8997]

Stefan.

 

Variety is the spice of life, therefore polls need more than two choices.

[Mark Arbour]

Will annoys me so much I couldn't vote for him even if the alternative was Wades mother!

 

But then, it says something about how good an author we have that a character can piss me off that much (as opposed to the effect of Grainger <sigh> has on me )

 

I'm glad I can evoke an emotional response. Will's supposed to be mildly annoying. Most teenagers are.

 

 

Stefan.

 

Variety is the spice of life, therefore polls need more than two choices.

 

Ah, yes, the GA rule that someone must complain about the poll. Good job!

[Hermetically Sealed]

I really liked Will as narrator when he was just a kid having fun with his friends at Harvard-Westlake, but the war with Brad really turned me off on him, as well as the guy's insistence on being 24 at 14. So I guess I'm back to liking Wade more.

 

I agree with this. I like Will when he was hanging with friends, and being a teen. this whole family feud (so to speak) just made me hate him, he's just become so two dimensional. Wade on the other hand has been a great narrator, not to mention shown to be a complex and interesting character.

 

I don't know, I think Will needs a few more years before he should be a narrator again. His arrogance and constant temper tantrums are just tiring.

[sat8997]

Ah, yes, the GA rule that someone must complain about the poll. Good job!

 

Just doing my part to keep things classy.

[Mari]

I like Will better even though he is bratty, that's actually what I like about him Wade's good too but he's a little stuffy at times. Will's has two tons of character and just explodes off the screen at you.

[GLH]

As I said, I'm not too picky about who narrates, I'll just sit back and patiently wait the four days, thirteen hours and twenty-eight minutes from chapter to chapter. Isn't insomnia grand?

[Daddydavek]

I currently like Wade better. Will's story is gripping but the teenage angst needs the balance of Wade's POV to keep the story from becoming too much like an emotional roller coaster. Just my opinion!

[methodwriter85]

I currently like Wade better. Will's story is gripping but the teenage angst needs the balance of Wade's POV to keep the story from becoming too much like an emotional roller coaster. Just my opinion!

 

I think you hit on what the problem was with Poor Man's Son. Will's teenage angst and Gathan's teenage angst were both too much. If Will had been the comedic B-story of wacky 13-year old hijincks to Gathan's A-story of coming to terms with both his past and his newfound wealth, it would have been a much better story because there would have been more of a balance. Mark was coming at it full-throttle with the angst on both sides, and it became too much. Here, there's much more of a balance.

[Gene Splicer PHD]

I would like to see Mark Arbour as the narrator. Not the storyteller - the narrator. Divorcing himself as the storyteller, he goes into the story. How does Mark see the characters when he puts himself there in his own voice?

 

THAT would be revealing

[methodwriter85]

He kind of did that with the April Fool's chapter of Poor Man's Son.

[Mark Arbour]

I think you hit on what the problem was with Poor Man's Son. Will's teenage angst and Gathan's teenage angst were both too much. If Will had been the comedic B-story of wacky 13-year old hijincks to Gathan's A-story of coming to terms with both his past and his newfound wealth, it would have been a much better story because there would have been more of a balance. Mark was coming at it full-throttle with the angst on both sides, and it became too much. Here, there's much more of a balance.

 

Gee. I'm sorry you didn't like PMS. I'm actually pleased with the way it turned out in the end.

 

I would like to see Mark Arbour as the narrator. Not the storyteller - the narrator. Divorcing himself as the storyteller, he goes into the story. How does Mark see the characters when he puts himself there in his own voice?

 

THAT would be revealing

 

You're asking what's going through my mind, and what I'm trying to accomplish, as I'm writing?

[Gene Splicer PHD]

Gee. I'm sorry you didn't like PMS. I'm actually pleased with the way it turned out in the end.

 

 

 

You're asking what's going through my mind, and what I'm trying to accomplish, as I'm writing?

 

No, not really, although that would ALSO be fun.

 

My idea is half-baked, which may imply that I am fully baked I'm not sure I can clearly articulate the thought, but bear with me.

 

First, you divorce yourself from the characters. They're in your head now, but in THIS story, they're not. They are independent beings, and you have no idea what they're thinking or doing or planning. How can this be? I don't know.

 

Now, set yourself in the story. Choose an age that's appropriate for the story. Whatever.

- Sit down and have dinner with the family at Escorial. Engage Stefan and JP in a conversation. Would they like you? Would you like them? Would you have anything to talk about? Again, whatever. Point being, you don't know what the conversation will be about. You just go with the flow and tell us about it.

- Move around in the story. Go to a game with Matt. Observe him, take him to bed... Take Stefan shopping.. Go see David, tell him about Robbie. Take Brad out back and pistol whip him. Still with the whatever.

 

Think Galaxy Quest, where the cast of a show ends up in the show, which happens to be a real place and they have no idea how to be the characters they're acting. Or flip it around - years ago I read a story where the crew of the starship Enterprise beamed up from a planet, but didn't end up on the ship - they ended up on the set in Burbank. Suddenly cameras!

Escorial is real, the characters are real. If they walked into your living room, what would you say to them? How would you introduce them to your family?

 

Tell us the story through the eyes of Mark Arbour the individual and not the author, and not through Wade's or Will's point of view, but your own. In order to do this, you have to make the characters very real, and the timeline too - because you'll be moving along the same storyline as the characters are. And you judge them and their actions according to YOUR moral compass, not theirs.

 

So, within the confines of the universe you've created, interact with your characters as if they were totally real, and you are totally there. You can't dictate what they do, you have to let them go do their thing, and tell us about it.

 

Which is probably exactly how you write anyway, or, you may need to address this while baked. Whatever

 

I TOLD you it was half baked...

Edited July 27, 2012 by Gene Splicer PHD

[centexhairysub]

I am voting for Wade; I have come to love Will but I just relate a little more to Wade. Having said that, it really doesn't matter... Your average chapter is so much better than everything else online that it is truly scary....

[methodwriter85]

Gee. I'm sorry you didn't like PMS. I'm actually pleased with the way it turned out in the end.

 

I liked PMS, and I liked how you ended it. But there were problems to the story, and one of the problems was the lack of balance between the narrators. You hit that much better here.

[centexhairysub]

I liked PMS, and I liked how you ended it. But there were problems to the story, and one of the problems was the lack of balance between the narrators. You hit that much better here.

 

Oy Vey, I swear some people are just never happy.... LOL....

[methodwriter85]

No, I was just raised on Television Without Pity, where we critiqued t.v. shows for fun.

Edited July 27, 2012 by methodwriter85

[Mark Arbour]

I liked PMS, and I liked how you ended it. But there were problems to the story, and one of the problems was the lack of balance between the narrators. You hit that much better here.

 

You are entitled to your opinion. My concern is that you forget it's just an opinion.

[methodwriter85]

Your mileage may vary, of course.

[Westie]

I can't vote on my phone, but I will when I get home tonight, but I prefer Wade. Actually the preference is mostly about story... I prefer the more intricate plot lines of complex stories, which is why my favourite was millennium. Stories that are more soap opera than substance just don't do it for me.

 

Don't get me wrong, Mark's sheer talent as a writer will always keep me coming back - but teen drama isn't as interesting to me as a more tangled web. That said, I suspect that The teen drama is easier to write than a highly complex story like millennium (though I might be wrong) - and do its necessary to avoid burning out mark's creative talent.

 

Finally, I agree with Sharon. If there were more options on the poll, the horny guy would ALWAYS choose Matt as narrator. But the guy who just loves the stories? Stefan is KING

[GLH]

Your average chapter is so much better than everything else online that it is truly scary....

 

My sentiments exactly.

[Hermetically Sealed]

I can't vote on my phone, but I will when I get home tonight, but I prefer Wade. Actually the preference is mostly about story... I prefer the more intricate plot lines of complex stories, which is why my favourite was millennium. Stories that are more soap opera than substance just don't do it for me.

 

Don't get me wrong, Mark's sheer talent as a writer will always keep me coming back - but teen drama isn't as interesting to me as a more tangled web. That said, I suspect that The teen drama is easier to write than a highly complex story like millennium (though I might be wrong) - and do its necessary to avoid burning out mark's creative talent.

 

Finally, I agree with Sharon. If there were more options on the poll, the horny guy would ALWAYS choose Matt as narrator. But the guy who just loves the stories? Stefan is KING

 

I would have to agree with this entire post, except for the last. JP will always be my King narrator, followed by a three-way tie of Brad/Wade/Matt, and Gathan in third. Stefan, while I loved the stories themselves, I find him to be too much of a pretencious ass. He seems to get off too much on putting others down, and just being a bit of a bully.