literature

Point of View

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Point of View – AKA Narrative Mode

Quite basically, who's telling the story? Not necessarily which character, since that doesn't always really play much of a factor, but rather who the chronicler is. As a general rule, you want the point of view to remain the same throughout, although, we'll talk a bit more on that later, and why people tend to hate it.

First Person

This is Running with Scissors or How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (the books; not the later live-action adaptations). The whole of the story is told in the words of the main character. By definition, first person point of view is limited, meaning that the narrator can only tell us what s/he has personally witnessed. And for obvious reasons.

° "It was one of those jobs that just got way too big way too fast. Before we knew it, the feds got called in for something completely unrelated. Course, we didn't know that, so we panicked."

The narrator tells us what they know, what they remember, occasionally what they'd been told by other people, and what's on their mind. Fiction can also be first person. Sideways and the Dexter series being popular examples (again, the books, and not the live-action adaptations that came later).

First Person Omniscient

It happens, but very, very rarely. In fact, the only example I can think of off the top of my head isn't even literary; it's film. In American Beauty Kevin Spacey tells us about his mid-life crisis, and he wasn't even there for half of it. It's exactly the same as first person, only the narrator knows about events, in great detail, that they did not personally witness. It's rather odd and wonky, and while I'm certain that it could be pulled off, it's not something you see too terribly often.

Multiple Person

This is Smack</B> by Melvin Burgess. Like first person omniscient, you don't see it very often. Partially, because it's weird, and often jarring or confusing.

In a nutshell, the narrator will change whenever it suits the narrative, but it's almost always exclusively in first person. In Smack, it apparently suited the narrative to change the narrator every three or four pages, and I got so ruddy confused that I stopped about four chapters in and never finished the damn thing.

Second Person

This is a "Chose Your own Adventure" book. You are the hero, and the narration tells you what you are doing.

° "You grip tightly to the plank as you make your way down the dark corridor. Somewhere in the distance, there's a very dim light, but it's unclear just how far off it actually is. Closer than the light is something that is most definitely alive. You can hear whatever it is breathing, and feel its body heat radiating from it in the narrow corridor."

It's clunky, and really doesn't often work very often. Kids love it, though, which is why so many of those sorts of books sell.

Third Person Limited

This is Harry Potter. The narrator tells us about all of Harry's adventures, but only tells us what Harry knows, thus creating a greater feeling of mystery and suspense for the reader. How interesting would the books have been if the first time Harry was in the Leaky Cauldron, the chronicler told us that the reason that Quirrell smelt of garlic was actually because he had He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named hiding in his turban? Wouldn't have sold ten copies, then.

° "He found the M4 easily enough, grateful for the second-hand game system keeping Nicky quiet and distracted through most of the ride. Until they got onto the A roads in Chiswick, at least. Nicky bounced in his seat, pressing his finger against the window. "Hey are we going to mum's?" he practically squealed."

Remember those pronouns that we talked about a long time ago? This is when you will use the biggest amount of them, since third person is all about him and her and what they did.

Third Person Omniscient

This is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's exactly the same as third person limited, only the narrator is all-knowing, and can tell you anything they want, whether they just jump between characters in the same room, or jump back millions of years to talk about a man that figured out how to make a fly smart enough to find its own way out of a half-opened window.

You're still going to use all the same pronouns, but you might not use this particular point of view for a murder mystery.

Alternating Person

This is what most people would consider bad writing. Take any one of the above-listed narrative modes. Write like that for a little bit, and now switch to any other mode. Preferably one that is the exact opposite. Bridget Jones' Diary (the novel; not the live-action adaptation that came later) did this, so, it can be done, and done well, clearly. My advice would be to use this mode sparingly. VERY sparingly. Every few chapters, and you should be fine. Every other 'graph, and no one will finish your story.

Like the tenses that we talked about earlier, many beginning writers will switch between narrative modes without even realising it. This is partially why alternating person isn't very well-liked, because switches are seen as a form of disorganisation. So, like in everything else, work on consistency first, and then start to experiment. Because, remember: rules are meant to be broken, but only if you know the rules to begin with.
Discussing the narrator of a story, and whether or not they actually know anything.
© 2009 - 2024 ML-Larson
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shadhardblogger's avatar
I read a second-person book before and it comes with "How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia" by Mohsin Hamid. It's a story of a man's life and his LTW (lifetime wish) is to get filthy rich in rising Asia. Each chapter comes with a different life stage from baby to toddler to child to teenager to YA (young adult) to adult to elder - it's a total of twelve because I am not going to spoil it for you guys if you have not read it already. You should see it for yourselves in 222 pages long.