Download - Novel Writing: Point-of-View
Point of View:The Voice of Your Story
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Bob MayerFor more Information:
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Wednesday, June 19, 13
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Wednesday, June 19, 13
What Is Reality?• In real life, POV is different perspectives on a situation.
• 3 people see an event, three different POVs.
• In writing, POV is the author’s choice of the perspective through which the story is told.
• 3 people see an event, we only get the POV the author chooses to show it through.
•Or three different POVs that conflict.
•Which is real?
• It is the number one style problem writers have because it is their ‘voice’.
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•We are transmitting both logic and emotion.
•We are transmitting on the conscious and subconscious levels.
•We are externalizing something internal.
What is Communication?
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•Writing makes things real.
•We speak differently than we write.
•Think like the reader.
•Less is better.
•Writing is the only art form that isn’t sensual.
Written Communication:
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Who Is Telling The Story?•You are.
•But whose voice does the reader ‘hear’ when they read?
•You are getting a story that is alive in your head, into the reader’s head, through the medium of the printed word.
•The POV you choose is the format of that medium.
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The Camera
•POV is the camera through which the story is recorded.
•All that counts is what is recorded.
•Get out of your head and focus on the camera and what the reader ‘sees’.
•A shift in POV is a shift in the camera= a cut.
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A Cut
•You stop the camera, restart the same one in a new time and/or place.
•You stop the camera, go to a new camera. Can be same place (head-hopping) or a new time and/or place (a new point of view character).
•Or you as the author control the camera and can go anywhere and any time you want (omniscient point of view).
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First Person
•Most limiting.
•Narrator is not the author.
•The narrator always has the camera.
•Narrator has to be present in every scene or get information second-hand.
•Works for mysteries. Hard for thrillers.
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First Person Time Sense
• I remember when . . .
•Already know what happened and are withholding.
•No suspense over fate of the narrator.
• In real time.
•Come along with me.
• Emotionally overwhelming events.
• Both are usually told in past tense which further confuses things.
•You usually end up mixing the two modes.
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Third Person Limited
•Everything is channelled through various characters’ points of view.
•Cuts have to be very clear to readers.
•Each POV character must be distinct.
•First, third stories.
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Third Person Limited•Cutting in the middle of a scene: is there a purpose?
•How many points of view can you-- and the reader-- handle?
•Too many POV characters:
•The reader ends up knowing more than any of the characters.
•Diffuse attention from your protagonist.
•The line between Third Limited and Omniscient is a thin one.
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Omniscient
•Authorial narrative.
•Camera is above, all-seeing and all-knowing.
•Must be the story psychologist.
•Good for action scenes.
•Be careful of head-hopping.
•More authoritative.
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Examples• First: Years ago, I was told that to be an effective sniper, I
had to be a man who could shoot another human being on nothing but an order and stop; also on order. The stopping is important. I’d been told I was one of those people.
•Third: Years ago, Horace Chase was told that an effective sniper was a man who could shoot another human being on nothing but an order and stop; also on order. The stopping is important. He knew he was one of those people.
•Omniscient: An effective sniper is a man who can shoot another human being on nothing but an order and stop; also on order. The stopping is important. Horace Chase was one of those people and that made him dangerous.
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Variations
•Second person.
•Multiple first person.
•Mixing points of view.
•Write in one, rewrite in another
•Going from first to third, you go through omniscient.
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Point Of View and Voice
•The filter over the camera lens.
•All voices must be distinctive.
•In third, the voice must change slightly for each POV character.
•In omniscient, the voice must be knowledgeable.
•Every writer must find their own voice.
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Voice
•You will tend to write in the voice you enjoy reading.
•It’s a psychological issue.
•Often the voice we fear to write in is our best one.
•Your voice stems from your passion.
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