Breaking the fourth wall by Annie Try

 

The local writing group I set up comprises of; some complete beginners who know nothing about writing, a lady who has written many long novels but not yet published, a poet, a writer who can’t place herself but has written great drama in our meetings, those hoping to become memoir writers, and some who used to write and are finding their way back.

At present, I am the leader of the group of twelve ladies. Most come to each monthly meeting. The preferred format is for each person to read out their ‘homework’, everyone to comment on it and then turn to the next subject, which is whatever I have prepared to talk about and discuss. Everybody reads and everybody discusses, the comments are encouraging and I am the only one who has missed a homework task. And the writing from everyone is thoughtful and of good quality. I can hardly keep up with their enthusiasm and it’s great fun.

For the last session our previous homework had been on dialogue and this led quite neatly to talking about point of view. Along the way I started talking to the dramatist about breaking the fourth wall - which seemed to capture everyone’s attention far more than 1st, 2nd and 3rd person and left me explaining it wasn’t the 4th person at all. More like a second person through a barrier. No-one had heard of it before, so I was very grateful to Miranda Hart who uses it in her comedy.

I expect you know that the fourth wall is the invisible wall between stage and audience. We watch the show unfolding in front of us as Miranda has troubles with her love life, ongoing conflict with the petite manager of her joke shop and countering the opinions of her own bossy mother. Every now and then Miranda makes an aside to her audience - telling us how she feels or what she’s done. That is breaking the fourth wall.

It is called the ‘fourth wall’ because the phrase came from stage directions - backstage, left stage, right stage - making the audience the fourth direction.

It can happen without a stage, when the writer steps out of the fictional narrative. I didn’t ask any  Wereham Writers to give me an example from fiction but have since remembered that Charlotte Brontë uses it to great effect in the first line of the last chapter of Jane Eyre.

So I have a question for you but only use the New Testament to answer:

‘When has God spoken loudly and clearly to humans, thus breaking the invisible barrier between God and us?’

Annie

Annie Try, writer of contemporary fiction with a touch of faith.