Can I get some opinions on a writing style?

[fatamy]

Our NaNo board is pretty dead, so I could use some opinions!

I am writing a novel and the general story line is two characters meet in an airport when their flights are delayed. Main female character is taking a sabbatical and is without a phone but has a laptop. 

I'm about 25k words in, and they're now going their separate ways for 6 weeks. It's written in 3rd person. I want to remain really neutral with the perspective of things, so I don't want to follow the main female or the main male. Would it be weird to have the middle third of the book be written completely in letter correspondence? Should I intersperse them but still follow the main female? 

The ending third (or more) will have them reunited, for the most part, so it will go back to regular third person narrative. 

[smock]

I'm also writing a trilogy about two people who are sometimes together, sometimes apart. I'm alternating POV chapters (while still writing in 3rd person) so maybe you could follow both of them in alternating chapters? Letters in the middle of a book might be jarring to me, especially because it sounds like a relatively long period (a third of the book?) but I'm sure some people wouldn't mind.

You could also jump ahead six weeks and tell what happened in between in dialogue or flashbacks.

[Nonny]

I personally wouldn't do that, because as a writer it would feel wrong to switch up my style like that in the middle, and as a reader it would take me out of the story.

I would either do as Smock suggests and include the pertinent details via conversations once they meet back up, or go back and add other bits of communication sprinkled throughout the other chapters.  If the female character doesn't have a phone, but does have a laptop, you could do email, comments on each other social media, messenger chats, etc.

You might check out The Woman in Cabin 10 for some examples of this; plot wise it's pretty iffy, but she does a good job of mixing in different media content (email, text messages, news reports, customer service chats, etc.) into the story in a way that fits the flow of the narrative.

[ufcasey]

So I kind of have a strong love of epistolary novels, so I'm perfectly ok with the idea of letters/emails taking up part of a book if not the whole book. Some books are more successful at doing it than others though. I've listed the ones I have read down below in order of my personal preference (best first).

Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole: historical fiction/romance; freaking love this book, only composed of letters
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell: contemporary romance; the book mixes between emails and normal narration
Three Weeks With Lady X by Eloisa James: historical romance; it has letters in the middle of it, they were amusing and I enjoyed it
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer: historical fiction/romance; reminded me a little of Letters from Skye, also only composed of letters/notes
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley: sci-fi/urban fantasy; the plot hinges on a woman with no memory reading letters she has written to herself
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff: non-fiction; composed entirely of real letters
When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare: historical romance; the letters are only in the beginning and were the best part of this book
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware: mystery/thriller; see Nonny's description above but I only kind of liked this book only if I didn't think about it too much
Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller: fiction; I stopped reading this book because the letters were obnoxiously detailed and written for someone who was there to experience the events being described in the letter so it made zero sense
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple: fiction; I hated this book, but a LOT of people loved it

[Nonny]

Dec 15, 2017 9:24:45 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple: fiction; I hated this book, but a LOT of people loved it

I loathe this book, but not for the writing style with the letters and emails, but because the content of it sucked and it had a major plot hole. The actual presentation of the content was fine. LOL!

[idahome]

Dec 15, 2017 13:27:33 GMT -5 Nonny said:

Dec 15, 2017 9:24:45 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple: fiction; I hated this book, but a LOT of people loved it

I loathe this book, but not for the writing style with the letters and emails, but because the content of it sucked and it had a major plot hole. The actual presentation of the content was fine. LOL!

I am SO glad I’m not the only one who didn’t like this book. Seriously, the story was not good.

[CheeringCharm]

I actually like when authors do that - and also when they get clever by including receipts and stuff to give you a better understanding of the character as a full person - but I think it's really hard to do well which may be why more don't. Sounds like a really interesting premise though!

eta: I agree that Where'd you go Bernadette is a good example! It has a lot of different things in there besides just letters or emails to give you a fuller sense of what is going on with Bernadette.