Point of View
What do you think about your Uncle Dick’s drunken spectacle at Thanksgiving dinner? Do you scorn him? Or do you wish you could have half as much “fun” as he did? What do you think about your prissy, uptight sister-in-law’s angry reaction? Are you ready for a shot of Vodka?
We filter the world through our unique (yet all too ordinary) personalities and point of view. Point of view occurs naturally. You might jump right in and start blazing into your story. If so, more often than not, you are the main character, the protagonist.
However, after writing for awhile from one viewpoint, you may start to feel uncomfortable. You may find yourself trapped. You may want to at least have the freedom to explore the thoughts of another.
So, as a writer, you must at least be aware of point of view (POV).
Who is “telling” your story? What is the view from which the story gets told? Who is your narrator? Who is your main character? What is the relationship of that person to the story? Are you going to stick with one, or veer off into others? Do you want the immediacy of first person, present tense, or would it be useful to distance yourself to explore other characters? To change the point of view, you might need to become an actor, modify your own personality. (See Character.)
Number of Protagonists
The single protagonist. You and the reader have no trouble identifying the hero or main character and this unique viewpoint carries throughout your story.
Dual protagonists. Two characters with more or less equal weight bound together by circumstances. In my novel, Where the River Splits, St. Louis couple David and Susan Brooks go on a canoe trip in the Canadian wilderness; it’s a last ditch effort to evaluate their marriage. The trip turns into disaster as their canoe capsizes leaving the couple stranded on opposite sides of the river and each believing the other is dead. The story alternates chapters between David’s and Susan’s point of view, converging in the last chapter where they gain a greater understand of each other and their failed relationship.
Multiple protagonists. More characters equals more difficulty. All characters must be bound by circumstances and carry more or less equal weight. (Faulkner succeeds in As I Lay Dying.)
First, Second, and Third Person
First Person. Provides immediate dramatic focus. Most straightforward option. Often intimate and sometimes confessional. However, can be restrictive, (unless your character can read minds, or see through walls, across time and distance to describe other scenes).
Second Person. Rare. I used this once, in “Sunfish” published around 1975. “You and I sat on the end of the dock. Our feet dangled in the green water. Minnows nibbled at our toes while we held bamboo poles and waited. You were pretty, just turned twenty, your hair the color of sunlight.”
Third Person. Most common. From Where the River Splits — “Susan dreamed that she was lying on her back, underwater, staring up at a distorted, bearded face leering over her.” While it tends to be less intimate, it helps avoid a potentially self-serving, self-indulgent, whiney first person tone.
Narrative Position
Central, or Subjective. Story told from the viewpoint of the main character; writer allows access to the mind of this character but not to the minds of any other characters.
Objective. Story is told completely from the outside. The writer is not participating in the story as in the central point of view, but rather, her or she is watching or observing the action.
Omniscient, God’s Eye View, Shifting or Multiple. Nothing is hidden, everything laid out like a map. Writer can tell the story from any point of view at any time within the story. She may tell it from one character, then shift to another, then interject her own position as author, and back again. Requires lots of discipline and can be disorienting to both the reader and the writer.
Peripheral. Story is told through the yes of a minor character; it is told from the edge. For example, the detective story—the writer can hide information. By doing so, the writer can often provide a surprise ending. If he told it through the eyes of the central character (the detective), he would often have to give information that would ruin the surprise. (Or, famously, Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby.)
Point of View Activities:
Change your, or another writer’s, third person character to first person.
Change a main character to a peripheral character.
Change objective into subjective, or subjective to objective.
Write a fight scene first from the view of a by-stander and then from one of the fighters.
I have taken the following famous first paragraph and changed the POV. Can you guess the writer and the story? (Original paragraph at end of article/chapter.)
Example A — Changed to third person and objective narrative position
He fidgeted and pinched his the loose skin on the back of his hands. But was he mad? The disease may have sharpened his senses, not dulled them. He claimed that his sense of hearing was most acute, saying that he could hear all things in heaven and earth. And he also claimed to hear things in hell. If his senses were as acute as he says they were, was he really mad? When he told the story about what happened, he appeared calm and healthy. Also, he didn’t seem to omit any details.
Example B — Changed only to third person
True! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous he had been and is: but why will you say that he is mad? The disease had sharpened his senses—not destroyed them—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. He heard all things in heaven and in the earth. He heard many things in hell. How, then, is he mad? Hearken and observe how healthily—how calmly he can tell you the whole story.
Tense
Present tense gives a sense of immediacy. Past tense is common. Future Tense is rare.
However, there are no rules. My Writers Digest Award story “Pluggin’ Leaks” and my Pushcart nominated “The Wells Creek Route” used all three tenses — present, past, and future.
Tense Activities: Change a passage from a past tense story to present tense or vice versa.
Tone
Is your main character sarcastic? Quick witted? Or is he Forrest Gump? The quality of your narrative, the language used, will reveal a lot about the character’s point of view. For example, a serial killer might use stark, distorted, disturbing language most of the time but soft, eerily loving language when referring to his pet snake, or rat.
Objective, impersonal language keeps the reader at a distance, possibly useful for irony or overly pathetic situations.
Intimate personal language is obviously less distant, and allows the reader to identify with the character. Contemporary novels often use intimate language.
Activity: Change the tone of one of your favorite characters. For example, make Forrest Gump a sarcastic, mean-spirited dumb-ass, with average intelligence.
Example C: Original First Paragraph.
From a famous writer and his famous short story.
True! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am: but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed them—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! And observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story
