FOCUS

POINT OF VIEW

Terence Kuch

Arlington (Virginia) Writers Group

December 11, 2013

Outline of Presentation

1. What is POV? Looking From / Looking At

2. Points of View in Fiction: The Standard Account

2.1 Levels of POV in Fiction

2.2 Single POV

2.3 Limited POV

2.4 Omniscient POV

3. “Objective” Style and Mind-Reading

4. Interactions of POV / Person / Tense

5. “Rules” and Practices

> continued <

Outline of Presentation >continued<

6. The POV Character v. The Protagonist

7. Choosing a Point of View

8. Character and POV

9. Additional Topics

9.1 Aesthetic Distance

9.2 Reliable and Unreliable Narrators

10.Exercises (optional)

11.Selected Quotations (.doc only)

1 What is POV? Looking From / Looking At

“How the story is told”

“Method and perspective”

But we need to be more specific than that …

Think of Yourself a Camera

But with sometimes faulty perception

With a personality

With a predisposition to see some things and not others, and in certain ways

With a goal of telling a certain story, a certain kind of story

And with a point of view. Where is the point of view (looking from /

looking to) in ……….

2 Points of View in Fiction: The Standard Account

.. Single POV

.. Limited POV

.. Omniscient POV

Levels of Points of View

Actual Readers

The Writer’s Ideal Reader

The Narrator Inside the Story

The Writer Writing a Specific Piece

The Individual Who Writes, Sometimes

The Narrative Voice of the Piece

Human Beings in General

The Writer When He’s ‘Being a

Writer’

3 The ‘Objective’ Style - What it is; How to Use It

“Rob looked at his wife. ‘She’s so unhappy,’ he thought. He wondered what to say.”

How could this be effectively written in the ‘Objective’ style?

The ‘Objective’ style can be effective:

“Maude gave Jimmy a big smile and hugged him. ‘I love you,’ she said.”

But this kind of narrative is possible within an overall mind-reading style, too.

Single POV Limited POV Omniscient POV

First Person Frequent in short Infrequent in any Infrequent in any use;stories; used in a few use, May be jolting may become tedious

famous novels when POVs are switched

Third Person Frequent in short Frequent in novels; Frequent in shortstories and novels some use in short stories and novels

stories

Present tense Frequent in short Uncommon; may Uncommon; maystories become tedious become tedious

Past tense Frequent in short Frequent in short Frequent in shortstories and novels stories and novels stories and novels

4 POV in Relation to Person and Tense

5 ‘Rules’ And Practices

What readers expect

What editors expect

Breaking a ‘rule’

6 The POV Character v The Protagonist

POV is the Protagonist

POV is a “Buddy” of the Protagonist

POV is Some Other Character

POV is an Impersonal Narrator Not Present in the Story’s Action

POV is an Intrusive External Narrator; Is a Voice in the Story

7 Choosing A Point Of View

What you want your story to accomplish

What depth of character you want to portray

How you want to present your characters

How each major character relates to the others

What POV is best suited to the plot

Are there two main characters pitted against each other?

AND many other considerations

8 Character And Point Of View

In Single, Limited, Omniscient

In ‘Objective’ Style

9 Additional Topics

Aesthetic Distance

Reliable and Unreliable Narrators

10 Exercises (optional) – see .doc file

11 Appendix: Selected Quotations – see .doc file:

The End (from my point of view, anyway)