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Point of View. First, Second, Third Omniscient and Third Limited. First Person POV. Use “I” or “We” Story filtered through narrator Details limited to what character can see, hear, touch, taste, smell, think, feel and know
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Point of View First, Second, Third Omniscient and Third Limited
First Person POV • Use “I” or “We” • Story filtered through narrator • Details limited to what character can see, hear, touch, taste, smell, think, feel and know • “If only I had known that our lives would never be the same.” Foreshadow, not outside realm of narrators knowledge • Narrator cannot know unspoken thoughts/feelings, only guess • First person is intimate w/readers • Feel like charas, best friend, knows stuff chara wouldn’t tell anyone
Cont…. Challenges: • Cannot use language your character wouldn’t use • Cannot describe things your character wouldn’t notice • Hard to show rather than tell • Being trapped in POV can get tedious • Voice of narration consistent with character’s cultural, social, educational and regional background. • Voice should be unique not annoying, being mindful of cultural dialect political correctness issues • Careful word choice • Develop character through thought, and dialect • Thought must show appropriate reactions to situations around • SHOW don’t TELL • Remember Character needs to react physically as well as mentally
Genres • Young Adult(12 and up) • Shows how teens react and act differently • Short stories • Chick-lit and romance • Gothic genre
Styles and Variations • Detective Novels: First person through out, and third person doing other characters • Rashmon Effect: Named after a Japanese film showing the same event in the perspective of four different characters, each revealing something different • Sequential Multiple Viewpoints: Each chapter has a different characters POV and they rotate either chronologically or thematically • Be cautious to make EACH CHARACTER’s voice DIFFERENT • Story must flow in one direction • Separate Multiple Viewpoints: Each chap done in diff. POV seemingly unrelated, coming back together in the end • Room for subplots and ect.
3rd Person Pov • Use “she” “he” and “they” • Common in all genres but young adult • IMPORTANT: Consistency • Very flexible • Tell entire story through one character in third person • Two or more characters, and rotate perspectives
Omniscient Pov • Use third person pronouns • God-like-view • Can enter the heads of any character • Reveal future and past events • Challenges: • Character voices must be very distinct, so not to confuse readers • Can write a main story with my many small subplots that tie together in the end (writing different perspectives) • Weakness: Losing tensions • Like passing a camera around a party and each character gets time to shine for a bit
Limited omniscient • God-like, but one head at a time • Can switch characters as many times as necessary in a scene • Head hopping easier by physical contact, or physical presence of character jumping to (Within one scene)
2nd Person POV • Not used often • Considered annoying • Can come across as bossy and commanding • Not used in long fics • Can’t formally address a group of people
Sources • http://www.the-writers-craft.com/second-person-point-of-view.html