Writing POV's
I mentioned writing different points of view in the last post, remember? Well, I'd like to apologize for something real quick. I made a mistake and was wrong in my explanation of the three main 'persons'.
Here's my revised explanation:
1st Person is where the main character is speaking, so the narrative is "I did this" and "I said that".
3rd person is where someone other than the characters of the story is narrating, so it goes like "she did this" and "she said that".
And about 2nd person...that's where I was wrong!
I said that 2nd person was also called omnipresent, and it's where the narrative jumps around into different characters' heads instead of staying with just one. Well, that's not true. I mean, what I said about the omnipresent point of view was true, but it's not 2nd person--it's one of the 'sub' forms of 3rd person. And it's actually called "3rd Person Omniscient".
The real 2nd person is told like "you". As in, "So, after that, you have to remember that whoever talks to you doesn't mean what they say." It's very, very rarely used in the narrative of fiction writing, because it seems to address the reader directly, and not any actual characters.
Wow, I really messed up, huh?
So I'd like to say sorry for that. I didn't mean to give any false information. I'm just glad that I got corrected so I could tell you guys about my mistake! This website's all about helping people, not trying to look smart.
Oh, here's the link to the website that corrected me:
http://www.thebeginningwriter.com/2012/03/look-at-different-types-of-point-of.html
'The Beginning Writer' is fairly similar to 'The Teenage Writer' in a lot of ways, and besides that, just a really helpful blog. So make sure to check it out!
Allrighty, let's move on, now that we've got everything straight! I was going to tell you guys the stuff I've learned about the best ways to use each POV.
It's just a few small tips, because the most important thing to know was how the three main persons worked.
FIRST PERSON
When writing in the 1st person, I've learned it's important to avoid sounding distant at all costs. How can you be distant in 1st person? Well, it's still possible to talk in the past tense when saying "I...". Let me explain what I mean. There are two (unofficial) ways to write in the 1st person narrative:
' Even back then, I knew that it was a bad idea. I still don't understand why I'd choose to do something so stupid. But before I could stop myself, the words had already come out of my mouth. "Sure, I can help you." I'd said. '
and..
' I couldn't shake the feeling that this was a bad idea. Would I end up regretting saying yes? Would I look back, years later, kicking myself for this decision? There was no way of knowing. So I just went with my instinct. "Sure, I can help you." I said. '
Did you notice the difference?
They both spoke of the same moment, the same decision--but one was spoken of years after, and one was spoken of at the exact time it all took place.
There have been books where the entire story is told from the main character's perspective many years later. But as you'll notice, most novels in 1st person narrative are told in the moment. And there's a reason.
I've been told that making the main character look back on the past can create distance between the reader and that character. Since the story is being told from much later, there's a lot less tension. We know that the main character will turn out alive and okay in the end, so any cliffhangers or moments of action won't have the same effect. That may be okay for some people, of course. But I switched to a more present point of view because it seemed to work better with my story.
THIRD PERSON AND OMNISCIENT
Writing in 3rd person narrative is pretty common, but I've heard it said often that it's much harder to pull off than 1st person. It may be because with 3rd person, you have so many options that it can be easy to get mixed up.
You can write centered around the main character (knowing things they don't) or even a side character (though watching and talking about the main character). Either way, 3rd person is much more straight-forward and concise than 1st person, because when you're looking at the world from someone's point of view, everything is filtered through their thoughts and emotions. With 1st person, the character himself doesn't know how he feels most of the time, so the reader guesses by watching his actions. But in 3rd person--although 'show don't tell' is still a good method--the narrative can just outright tell us the main character's deepest wishes.
Okay, now let's discuss what I called the 'omnipresent' point of view. 3rd person omniscient can be a bit tricky, too, but lots of fun. You can basically switch around and peek into the heads of various different characters in the story. This is great if you feel like you have a lot of important characters that you want your readers to get to know better. I think one of the hardest parts about this POV is the transitions. How can you switch from one character's head to the next without it being awkward and chunky?
Well, first of all, you don't use your god-like powers of mind reading just for fun. If you're telling your readers what's going on in someone's head, it needs to be important to the story. Remember Chikov's Gun? Every single line you present to you readers should be vital to the plot or to understanding the characters in some way. So, keeping that in mind, you should only stay with a character as long as they're doing or saying something important. If the event or conversation can't be told in any other way, than go ahead and use someone random. But you'll need to keep introducing characters that are later useless to a bare minimum.
Oh, and as for the moment of the transition. The key thing is probably just being smooth and sneaky about it. I don't know as much about this, but if it helps, here's how I usually do it:
' Jacob turned to his younger sister, giving her a look that he hoped she'd understand. He needed to be alone right now. But after staring back up at him a few seconds, she just frowned. Liza watched, confused, as her brother let out an exasperated sigh and turned away. Had she done something wrong?
"You can be so hard sometimes, y'know that?" he said.
"Whatever," Liza replied. Teenagers were so weird. '
Reedsy wrote an article on this that explains it much better than I can:
https://blog.reedsy.com/third-person-omniscient-vs-limited/
Check this out if you need even more details on the subject of 3rd person narrative:
http://greatstorybook.com/write-third-person-narrative/
Whatever POV you use is totally your choice, and is tied closely with choosing whoever you'd like to be your #1 main character in a group of interesting people.
Here's an article that helped me a lot:
http://www.thebeginningwriter.com/2012/03/point-of-view-pov-finding-best-for-your.html
Anyways, with that, I'll think I'll sign out. I hope all of this helps you guys. Make sure to have a great long weekend! And thank you for reading!
