epistolary novels

I am also experimenting with this style at the moment. The best thing I can recommend is reading other novels that use journal entries to tell the story. My recommendations are: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (the last two are told in letters if I remember correctly, but like you said, it's pretty much the same thing). These are all really different books but will give you a good idea on how to tell an engaging story in an epistolary style, and how they deal with the things you have trouble with. My difficulties were making sure there is still a strong narrative and not getting too caught up in the protagonist's feelings, and at first I wasn't including much dialogue as I thought it was unrealistic for the narrator to remember dialogue word for word - but after reading other stories like this I figured people are willing to give you some licence with this, and a story needs dialogue to move along, so it's best to pretend your narrator has a really good memory.

I believe Dracula is also told partially in journal entries but I haven't read it to recommend. I think epistolary novels can be really effective when done well, but like you suggested I am only telling 40-50% of mine in a journal style - so this might be something to experiment with too. Good luck!

Yes, that's right on Dracula--told through diary entries. And yes, of course these are fictions--no one duplicates dialogue in diary entries like an author does. It's just a frame for the story. Many authors use it to start a section of text, but then it's clear they segue into a third-person narrative just like any other, especially if the "diary" entries are lengthy. After 10 pages, you don't really read it as a diary entry anymore. I think if you feel the form is choking you, then try softening the realistic restrictions on that form (such as that people don't remember details of a three-page conversation) and just write the way the story is unfolding. You can then, on edit, decide if the form is crucial to the book as a whole, or just a device which doesn't need to be there for the whole to succeed.

I have a WIP where it's more of a confessional--there is no explicit diary structure, but the narrator only speaks to the reader directly, reporting conversations and incidents she witnesses.

Love that you mentioned I Capture the Castle. I have issues with the ending, but the narrative voice is so great.

I'd add Catherine, Called Birdy to the above list. A fourteen-year-old girl in the year 1290, in England, decides to keep a journal. The whole story is told with journal entries. It's sometimes funny, sometimes serious and even sad, and always entertaining.

This isn't fiction, but my dad used to keep diaries when he and my mom traveled, and he'd share them with us later. They were entertaining and hilarious. There was actually a lot of "showing" or "storytelling" in these accounts, even re-creations of dialog. My dad had a talent for finding "bargain" hotels in large, expensive cities, and his account of his and my mom's misadventures in the one he chose in Paris, with suspiciously stained mattresses and where the tub was so small he got stuck in it were done in the style of narration. He was also a keen observer of human behavior, so he had all kinds of little details about the various people they encountered and the things they said and did.

The secret to making this kind of story entertaining (and not just a series of dry letters or journal entries) is to have the narrator be a storytelling kind of person.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? is a good book to read to check out this type of novel.

I just wrote a YA fantasy in epistolary format. As others have noted, I've found that many works written this way do seem to take a bit of license as far as duplicating dialogue, etc. I have a few more titles to add to other suggestions you might consider looking into to get an idea of how other authors have tackled the format:

Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, and its sequel The Grand Tour (YA Fantasy set in Victorian England)
Wolf's Tower and the rest of the Claidi Journals series by Tanith Lee (YA fantasy)
Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman (contemporary lit)
Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (18th Century Lit)

I've written one novel entirely as a journal, a 'year in the life' kind of thing. My narrator is a writer (!) who admits to taking all kinds of creative license: he deletes stuff, rewrites entire passages, writes when he's sober and shitfaced, lies, omits...some of his rants are almost 'stream of consciousness'. He admits to paying extremely close attention to dialogue so a lot of his journal is dialogue, which helps with that 'telling' issue.

Some people who've read some or all of the book take umbrage with the 'journal' aspect, others really like it. I had to decide which way to go, and I decided to leave it as it is. Like my narrator says, It's my journal so I can write whatever the hell I want.

*whew*

I wrote a different novel narrated in first person by a kid. I never reveal the manner in which he's telling his story, but the sense is that he's relating what happened to somebody, perhaps verbally. So the story is told in his voice. Again, dialogue-heavy, which works pretty well for me.

Good luck, gumansoda, whatever you decide to do.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is one of my very favorite books. I second the recommendation!

Like others have said, I think books done with this lens work best when you play with the form of it. Lizzieamy and kkbe made good points. With this POV, you can do so many things to make the story engaging that a straightforward narrative can't. The thing is that the protagonist is choosing what to tell and telling the story their way in written form. You can use an unreliable narrator here to great effect. If passing your story though that lens feels like a chore and doesn't add anything of value, I would suggest just writing the narrative without the use of a framing structure.

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk is told in a similar way, but more like the different POV characters are telling you about what just happened over a cup of coffee. His narrators are admitted liars and part of the murder mystery is paying attention to the ways people choose to present themselves to you.

It might seem unrelated, but I would also highly suggest reading/listening to Michael Drout's lecture series on oral history. He gives a phenomenal exploration on how oral history works differently than written literature, and really helped me add layers of complexity to my WIP. It might help you develop a strong voice for a journal entry style.

Adding also to the list, The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks and Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira. There are a ton more, but these are two of my favorites.

I wrote a YA epistolary entirely written through email/Instant messages between two characters. It was tough, but I felt it was pretty strong. I pitched it at a writer's conference and my now agent for a different book was intrigued by the concept but ended up passing after reading. She said it was a great idea but very difficult to pull off, especially as a debut.

If I could do it all again, and my advice to you, is to use the journals as a part of the story to compliment your normal narrative. That's what I did for my next novel. I broke up my story into journal entries and first person narrative of two characters. And the same agent signed me!

I love epistolary and it has become extremely popular. And it's a ton of fun to write to break up the narrative.