One technique I use in my prose is analogous to the dramatic technique known as breaching the fourth wall.
It involves "sudden ruptures in the otherwise omniscient narrative voice [and] unnerving descents into the second person" [ P. Julian - Style Note #1].
The effect is startling because the fourth wall acts like a two way mirror. The audience can see through the veil but the characters/narrator cannot see them watching on. To have that invisibility and impunity snatched away can create a strong impact even on sophisticated readers: perhaps the same sense a voyeur gets when s/he is caught in the act of watching.
The fact that the language accuses and warns only adds to this striking effect: in ordinary readers but especially those readers who might feel directly accused or compromised by the accusations made.
P. Julian
28 June 2018
"For the wicked there was no mercy. Ruby tore their hearts out of their chests and presented them for judgment, and upon their own pronouncement her victims stood condemned. She ripped minds out of heads and interrogated them, she read the very guts and entrails of those who gorged themselves on cruelty, drawing them out for the divination of the truths that resided there.
For the wicked there can be no mercy. Sooner or later judgment will be executed upon them, swift and terrible and leaving no time for appeal or remorse.
To those who would harm the innocent: rightly should you fear. Those who would abuse children, in the dire secrecy of your crimes: rightly should you fear. Those who would lie and exploit and slander, consuming the goodwill of the world: rightly should you fear.
Especially under the full moon, when Ruby always hunted."
P. Julian - From the Chronicles of Lupa - Volume 1 Chapter 9
Comments