Workshop: Using Point of View to Tell a Story by Saavikam77

Nov 05, 2007 23:56


Using Point of View to Tell a Story

Intro

One of the most powerful tools in the writer's arsenal is point of view. Essentially, who is telling the story? One of the characters? An all knowing narrator? Point of view can mark the difference between a compelling tale and a confusing melange of scenes, can illustrate a character's frustration with not knowing all of the facts of events surrounding him or her, and can be used to inject a profound sense of irony into the tale, where the reader knows important facts that the main characters don't. Here, I'll give a brief review of the basics of point of view, and some helpful hints about using point of view to tell a story.

The Basics

First Person -
This point of view takes a personal perspective, where the story is told from the view of one of the characters. “I” is the most commonly used pronoun, and the story may resemble 'stream of consciousness', where the narrator's thoughts and perceptions are given nearly unfiltered. No italics are needed to show character thoughts in this case, as the entirety of the tale exists within the thoughts of the main character. Since this POV is so limited, showing the reader only what the narrator sees, it is quite useful for mysteries. Also, this point of view is most commonly used with present tense, though it can be used with past tense as well, with a slightly lesser impact.

Example #1: When I enter the room, I'm assaulted by an intense wave of pain and nausea. My chest constricts and suddenly I can't get enough oxygen. Dammit. I'm surrounded by kryptonite.

Example #2: When I entered the room, I was assaulted by an intense wave of pain and nausea. My chest constricted and suddenly I couldn't get enough oxygen. Dammit. I was surrounded by kryptonite.

Second Person -
With this point of view, the story is told from your perspective, making the reader an intimate participant in the tale. “You” is the most commonly used pronoun. This is a rarely used POV, outside of commercial advertising and political campaigns, but has been used to create an interesting effect in fiction. The most well-known fiction using second person is the “Create Your Own Adventure” children's book series.

Example
- From Lady Gwenevere Smith's “Sapphires, Crimson, and Rain”: He picks you up gently and suddenly, you’re airborne. You’re afraid of heights, and so you squeeze your eyes closed and grab him tighter. In doing so, you get a good smell of him. No mistake, he smells of pine trees. You don’t know what to think. Your mind races back to all the times Clark was missing. It all makes since now. Your beloved Clark Kent is Superman. You always thought he was special, but you had no idea. He’s not special. He’s SUPER.

Third Person -
This POV can be divided into two categories: omniscient and limited. Both present the story from slightly outside the view of a particular character. The most common pronouns used with third person are “he”, “she”, and “they”, and with either the limited or omniscient narrator, italics are required to show a
character's thoughts.

The third person omniscient narrator can jump between the point of view of several characters, giving various perspectives even within one scene. It can also provide details outside the specific POV of any character, including information unknown to main characters, creating a sense of situational irony. The omniscient narrator can be used to tell a complex tale with lots of details, including mysteries, and to give a broader perspective of events in a single scene.

The third person limited narrator is restricted to surrounding the POV of a single character, much as the first person narrator, and will persist throughout the entire story. If, however, the POV changes characters between scenes, the narrator is omniscient.

Example
- Limited - From my fic, “ Yellow Roses”: Letting his gaze wander some more, he found himself drawn to the arrangement Canary had been working on when he came in. Brilliant yellow roses reached up from a teardrop vase, petals spreading like the rays of the sun. Until recently, he hadn't had much exposure to flowers, but he remembered that yellow roses stood for friendship, platonic love. Unable to stop a smile at that, he thought of the way Roy had taken him in after his so-called 'brothers' had attacked him on the rooftop that fateful night. Roy had been the friend he'd needed, not just to heal his wounds and nurse him back to health, but to show him that he was worth the effort, worth having around.

Example
- Omniscient - From my fic, “ Superman: Aftermath”: (thoughts in non-italicized script)

After Clark took a deep breath in relief, he noticed Lois's reaction to the sight before them. Her expression was a mixture of fear, hope, and... something; he wasn't sure what.... Her eyes were wet, then a single tear slipped down her cheek, and Clark heard her breaths coming quickly, matching the anxious staccato of her heartbeat. She seemed scared out of her mind, worried, and it seemed to Clark that she might just break down and cry again at any moment.

“Lois,” he said, his tone firm and soft as he dropped into his alter-ego register. “I'm sure he's ok.”

Lois's head whipped around again, her hair bouncing and glinting beautifully, Clark thought, in the sunlight. Her eyes shone with unshed tears as she glared at him.

She had caught the sudden familiarity of his voice, the way it seemed to change in an instant. What the hell? she thought. Why do you have to sound, and look, so much like Kal-El?

Another voice inside her head screamed, Put it together already!!! That fierce shove hit her again, hard.

No. Just... No! Lois railed against the sudden notion that what she'd been missing could possibly be some connection between Clark and Kal-El. No way. Uh-uh. That is the most ridiculous thing you've ever dreamed up, Lane. Get a grip.

Tips and Tricks

When choosing the POV you want to present your story with, there are a few questions you have to ask. First, how much detail do you want to give away? If you want to keep details hidden to the reader, to be revealed later, you might want to choose either first person of third person limited. Second, how invested do you want the reader to be in the story? If you want to create a strong emotional reaction in the reader, you might choose first person, or even second person - the most personal of views. Third, do you want to create a profound sense of situational irony, where important information is known to the reader but not the characters for which the information could prove vital? If so, then the third person omniscient is what you need.

If you've chosen first or second person, or even third person limited for your story, then the rest is pretty simple. Anything presented to the reader must somehow surround that singular point of view. If, however, you've chosen third person omniscient, things can get tricky. You will need to decide which characters will have the focus of the story, and how to present changes between the characters' POV. When you've chosen which character or characters to focus the story around, you just need to keep the majority of scenes centered around their perspective. Other characters can have the focus occasionally, but shouldn't be used too often, or else the focus on the main characters might become lost in the shuffle.

Presenting changes between the characters' POV is the often the most challenging aspect of using third person omniscient. One option is to limit the POV to one character per scene or chapter. This is an easy way to transition, and presents few headaches. It can be used effectively to give the varying points of view of action sequences, in particular.

Example
- From “Superman: Aftermath”: The crystal star tumbled through the remains of the fireball, several of its
projecting spires cracked from the force of the blast, one torn off completely. Halting in the middle of the dying blaze, it scanned itself, and finding no fatal damage, ran a cursory scan of the area.

All localized corrupted crystals were accounted for. Destroyed.

Satisfied, it extended its scan for many miles.

Its sensors detected more of the same offending minerals far to the west, above land.

Deciding to leave the Human craft be and once again ignore Kryptonian Kal-El, the ship changed course immediately and shot straight west, toward the source of the readings, another priority target.

* * * *
Clark was stricken when the ship exited the field of smoke and zipped away, many of its spires cracked and broken, their internal light dimmed. He looked in the direction of the tiny star's flight.

Metropolis.

Oh, no...

Snapping to action, he hurtled himself after it once again.

* * * *
The crew of the B-2 watched helplessly as the ship shot west, Superman following in its wake, both at incredible speeds that none of their aircraft could presently match, and the pilot addressed the carrier over the radio, now cleared of the previous static, “Kitty Hawk, Bomber One. Target appeared heavily damaged but has escaped toward the west. Superman has followed in pursuit. All K bearing payload has been
destroyed. Awaiting orders.”

“Bomber One, Kitty Hawk. This is Captain Ortiz. Recommend you return to base. There's nothing more you can do out there. And good job. Thanks gentlemen.”

“Our pleasure, sir,” the pilot responded. “Bomber Group returning to base.”

This technique is also perfect for presenting a fic in several parts, with a change in character POV between each section to give a different perspective on events. The sections can overlap, to show the varied view of a single scene, as in ShadoLibrarian's “Plane Storm”, where several action sequences are shown from the varying perspectives of two different sets of Loises and Clarks, or they can be sequential, as in my fic, “ Confrontation, Atonement, and Absolution”, where each section is from the POV of a different Robin.

Another option is to switch POV within a scene. While many 'authorities' will tell you to always limit the POV to one character per scene, this particular maneuver can be quite effective if handled properly. It can be used to show varying perspectives within conversations, highlighting differences of opinion, miscommunication, and forms of irony, where one character knows something that another character
doesn't.

The trick, here, is in the transition. In order to effectively switch POV from one character to another, a clue must be given to the reader. This almost always comes as a subtle, unspoken cue in the text. In a comic, similar POV switch is often shown using a different colored thought box, as is seen often in the “Superman/Batman” comic, where Clark's boxes are yellow, and Bruce's are blue. In fiction, a new paragraph should almost always be started for each POV, with the paragraph break itself serving as a switch cue.

Example:
From my fic, “ One Night at the Planet”: (this starts from Lois's POV; clues to the POV switch are highlighted in red)

She looked up at him, met his worried eyes with her own, saw how dark they were, clouded and concerned, and almost the color of midnight. “Sorry,” she murmured. “I... I guess this past month has been a lot harder than I'd thought.”

Not sure any words could possibly comfort her at this point, Clark lifted a hand and gently placed it on her arm, giving her a warm smile.

Feeling the heat of his hand caress her arm, Lois took a single step closer to him, soaking in his warmth, craving it.

Clark felt the subtle shift in her mood as she came closer, and let his hand move around to her back, still wondering if she was going to try to out his secret. But then the thought occurred to him, as it had often over the last few months, that he should just tell her, and save her the heartache of not really knowing for sure, if she had any idea to begin with. “Lois, I...” he started, but chickened out at the last second, exhaling hard through his nose. No, she didn't need this, not with the way she seemed to be handling her breakup with Richard.

“What is it?” she asked, looking way up at him.

“Um, nothing,” he lied, trying not to look her in the eyes.

She nodded, accepting his excuse, then turned back to watch the city again, her face drawn down by a sadness Clark couldn't quite reach. Sighing, she leaned back into his chest and the crook of his arm, laying her head back.

An example of what NOT to do: “Where are you going?” Lois asked Clark as he moved to slip hurriedly past her toward the door. I swear, he's always rushing somewhere! He paused, thinking a moment, despising the need to concoct another excuse when his time could be better spent getting to the scene of the explosion. “Well!?” Lois pressed him, crossing her arms over her chest.

When you change POV in the middle of a paragraph, it can often serve as a source of confusion to the reader, taking them out of the story immediately. It can be a clumsy move that might fool the reader into thinking there is a speaker change in the paragraph, too, which is a big no-no, and also destroys the illusion for the reader. However! If handled delicately, such a switch can be smooth and hardly noticeable. The last paragraph of the above example (from “One Night at the Planet”) has three POV switches, starting with “She nodded...” Did you notice? This technique should be used sparingly, and works better if there is no spoken text in the paragraph.

It is important to note that alternating POV within a scene should not be started right away. Giving the opening character a few paragraphs to establish the scene is a good idea, before switching to a different character. It is even possible to start a scene with one character, give a few switches part of the way in, and end the scene with a few paragraphs from another character's POV. When using this particular technique, make sure you have more than a single switch in the middle, or else you could lose the reader.

By far, one of the most effective techniques for POV change comes in the combination of these two broader methods, switching POV between scenes, and occasionally having a scene where the POV is switched from paragraph to paragraph. This can keep the reader on his or her toes, without creating confusion - as long as the proper switch cues are given.

Above all, relax, practice, and have fun with POV. Since it can make or break your story, it's an important tool to have a good grasp of. Happy writing!

workshop, saavkam77, pov

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