* Point of View (POV): This is the perspective from which the story is told. Common POVs include:
* First-person: The narrator is a character within the story, using "I" and "me." This offers intimacy but limits perspective to the narrator's knowledge and biases.
* Second-person: The narrator addresses the reader directly as "you," placing the reader into the story as the protagonist. This is less common.
* Third-person limited: The narrator focuses on the thoughts and feelings of a single character.
* Third-person omniscient: The narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters and can move freely between them, offering a broader perspective.
* Third-person objective: The narrator reports events without revealing any character's thoughts or feelings, like a detached observer.
* Tone: This is the author's attitude toward the subject matter and audience. It's conveyed through word choice, sentence structure, and imagery. Tone can be humorous, serious, sarcastic, sentimental, etc.
* Style: This refers to the author's distinctive way of writing, including their use of language, sentence structure, imagery, and overall approach to storytelling. A stylistic choice might be favoring short, declarative sentences or employing elaborate metaphors.
* Voice: This is a broader term than tone and style, encompassing the unique personality and perspective of the narrator. It includes their diction (word choice), syntax (sentence structure), and overall personality. It's what makes one narrator sound different from another. It's the *who* of the telling.
* Reliability: This refers to how trustworthy the narrator is. A reliable narrator presents information objectively and accurately, while an unreliable narrator may be biased, deceptive, or mentally unstable, leading to skewed or incomplete information.
* Persona: This is the specific role or mask the narrator adopts. It might be a detached observer, a deeply involved participant, or something else entirely.
In essence, the narrative voice is the combination of all these elements that creates the unique way a story is told, shaping the reader's experience and understanding of the events and characters. It's not just *what* is said, but *how* it's said.