Joaquín BaldwinMar 23
I’m considering writing my next novel in 5th-person future perfect continuous of a 4th-person conditional perfect continuous group of narrators telling a 1st-person story of the 5th-person narrator. Let me explain: 1/6
Show threadJoaquín BaldwinMar 23

A standard 3rd person past tense might say:

- Lago ran across the bridge. “I’m coming!” he screamed.

Boring! But in 5th-pfpc(4th[1st-pcpc]) that would read:

- The narrators will’ve told me that I would’ve ran across the bridge. “I’m coming!” ze will’ve said that I would’ve screamed.
2/6

Show threadJoaquín BaldwinMar 23
“The narrators” in this case is a 4th-person pluralistic entity telling the actual story, while the 5th-person true narrator is actually the main character! In this case, Lago. 3/6
Show threadJoaquín BaldwinMar 23
So, Lago is telling us that in a hypothetical future a pluralistic entity/narrator (with ze/zir pronouns) will’ve been telling him his own story, in the 1st person, but using a hypothetical past construction (“would’ve,” because they don’t fully trust the narrative). 4/6
Show threadJoaquín BaldwinMar 23
Rather than resorting to simplistic reliable/unreliable narrator forms, the pluralistic narrator will be composed of multiple entities each of which only tells lies or only tells truths. But to keep that from stagnating, ze will swap modes in each chapter. 5/6
Show threadJoaquín BaldwinMar 23
I kindly ask agents, publishers, editors, and Hollywood producers to refrain from spamming me regarding this project. I’m not currently querying, and I will be the one to contact you once the manuscript is ready, not the other way around. 6/6
Show threadTango

@joabaldwin I think I can hear your editor twitching from here.

I am two timezones away.

Mar 23 at 7:43pmWeb