‘Over the Kite Path’: A novel and dissertation on the development of narrator and narrative voice.

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In the field of Creative Writing, much is written about narrative form and narrative voice. Narrator and narrative voice have always been important to me, and they were essential to the creation of my own novel, Over the Kite Path. It is my intention that this thesis (incorporating the novel itself, and the supporting dissertation) captures the creative process in a way that will be useful to other practitioners and writing scholars, by articulating complex and often abstract concepts in an accurate and unique way. The success of my novel was largely dependent on the success of my handling of its narrator and narrative voice, and my ability to create the illusion that my narrator was real. But how could this be measured, and – ultimately – how did extensive research and close analysis of my working practice contribute to this? While writing my novel, I researched many topics (including historical research, research on other practitioners in the field, and also the consideration of some of the philosophical and psychological aspects of my creativity), with a particular focus on the development of narrator and narrative voice. Within this context, I considered the novel’s place within the fields of literature and creative writing and compared my work – and my working practice – with other authors, in order to help me understand and analyse how my narrative voice had developed. As a result of this analysis and research, my novel has an original and convincing narrator. Whilst I am aware that the narrator can never be ‘real’, I am also comfortable with creating and maintaining the illusion of the narrator’s ‘reality’ for the reader. In addition, I have demonstrated the importance of this illusion to the writer during the creative process. Via a deeply analytical account my own experience while writing this novel, I have documented how my own creative work was enhanced by my research, and I believe I have provided new approaches and theories on the creative – and often existential - qualities of the writing process. It is my hope that these new approaches and theories make an original contribution to the field of Creative Writing, and will enhance the way in which the craft of writing is considered in the future by practitioners, critical theorists, and literary scholars alike.