Point of View
Memorizing the major points of view is boring! Instead, you'll spend this lesson writing from each of the points of view, then learning about them afterward. You will see how distance works in creative writing, and why your verb tense can make a big difference. This practice will give you as taste of each point of view option, and help you decide which you want to use in your own creative piece.
Introduction
What is your point of view? The phrase says exactly what it means. Where are you standing when you write your sentence, your paragraph, your story? Whose eyes are you looking out of, and what are they able to see? Your choices are many and powerful. Your story changes depending on the characteristics of the person telling it, and on how close that teller is to the action—both physically and emotionally. In this lesson, you'll learn by doing. First, you'll try out a range of point of view options. Then you'll learn the names, benefits, and limitations of each. You'll see how the story changes significantly depending on where you're standing and whose consciousness perceives the events. You'll see how distance in time, space, and emotion makes a critical difference in what you write.
Consider Different Points of View
Imagine that you're at your son Sammy's baseball game. You have a good seat where you can see all the action. Naturally, your main focus is on Sammy, how he bats, how he handles himself as catcher, and how cute he looks in his uniform. You cheer for Sammy's team—the visiting team—and hope the home team will lose. You're also squirming around on hard bleachers, wishing you had a hat to keep the sun out of your face, and thinking about how well you're doing as a single mother to a seven-year-old boy.
Now imagine you're Sammy's coach. Your focus is on your players, how they're performing today, whether your pitcher can go another inning, and if you should put in your less productive players. Your back is giving you trouble, and you wonder if you should have agreed to coach this year. The people in the bleachers are a blurry, negative influence. They want you to lose. You're one inning away from winning, if only your pitcher can last.
Next, imagine that you're seven-year-old Sammy. You're excited about the big game, but worry you'll drop the ball every time the pitcher winds up. You've dropped one this game, and even though no one scored, it was embarrassing. You hope you look cool in your uniform and all the catcher's gear. You like the sound of the ball thumping into your mitt. A pretty girl hangs on the chain link fence. Is she watching you?
Now imagine that you're flying over the field in a traffic helicopter. The kids on the field are little specks that move around a green and brown area next to the freeway where you're filming a traffic accident. It's a real pile-up. The ballgame barely registers on your consciousness.
There are many places to stand to tell a story. You can begin to make your choice by deciding whom you want to tell the story you're working on.
Learning About Point of View by Writing: First Person
Open a document and title it Point of View Samples. Write a paragraph about an event (like Sammy's baseball game) as if you are the main participant in the action like Sammy. Use the word I. Tell at least one of your feelings. Tell at least one of your thoughts.
Now write the same scene from the perspective of an outside observer (like a parent sitting in the bleachers.) Make sure that this person’s perception of the event is different from the narrator of your first sample. Still use the word I. Mention at least one other person you notice. Tell at least one of your feelings. Tell at least one of your thoughts.
You have just written two scenes in the first person point of view. Your I person narrated the story. You not only told what this narrator did, but also how your narrator felt and what he or she thought. When you use the first person point of view, nothing limits your reader from knowing the narrator's feelings and thoughts.
You'll find that the major limitation of first person point of view is that you cannot offer any perception of that event from any other consciousness. You are stuck with the view from one personality, from one body. You must write only what that person senses, knows, thinks, or feels. You can't offer your opinions if they're not your narrator's opinions.
In most cases using first person point of view, the narrator is the main character of the story (as in your first sample). However, other alternatives are available to you. You can use a narrator who is watching the main action (as in sample 2) but who is a peripheral character. F. Scott Fitzgerald used that point of view for The Great Gatsby. This person may or may not be a reliable reporter of reality. That's part of the fun.
Try Another Point of View: Third Person Limited
Now I want you to write a paragraph about the same event without using the word I or any other first person pronoun, such as me, my, us, we, and our. This time, view the action through one person's senses and consciousness, but use his or her name or describe him or her using third person pronouns such as he, she, they, or them. Like before, I want you to write actions, thoughts, and feelings.
There's a funny distinction here that you need to understand. The narrator is you, the writer. The action is told by the narrator from a character’s point of view. The narrator has access to the character’s feelings and thoughts. You're the invisible writer and narrator, but the character’s consciousness perceives the story. Your responsibility is to choose how to narrate the story, and your choices make a big difference.
The disadvantage of the third person limited point of view is the same as with first person point of view. You are limited to relating actions, feelings, and thoughts from only one consciousness.
One way to alleviate this limitation is to choose the third person multiple point of view instead. This point of view allows you to write from the consciousness of several different characters, but it has to be handled carefully, or you'll run into trouble.
Clearly, the trick is to limit how often you jump from consciousness to consciousness. Some writers claim that third person multiple point of view should be reserved for longer works like novellas or novels, in which the writer switches the point of view each chapter. In any case, you need to make the transition from one consciousness to another quite distinct.
Try Another Point of View: Third Person Omniscient
Another third person point of view is called third person omniscient. With this point of view, you get to perceive the action as if you are all-knowing and all-seeing. You know the past, present, and future. You can share what you know with the reader at any time. You can do all of the following:
· Describe event without any of the story's characters being present.
· Enter the mind of any character.
· Interpret the action.
· Offer judgments and commentary.
· Tell about the past leading up to the action.
· Tell about the future.
You may recognize this point of view from the pre-20th-century fiction you studied in school. It was used by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Leo Tolstoy, to name a few. Take a moment and write the event from the third person omniscient point of view. You can be opinionated, judgmental, and offer commentary. You know everything, and so you can include whatever details you like.
Where Do You Want to Stand?
Distance refers to your decision about how close you, as writer, want to be to the action. Really close, intimately feeling everything a character is feeling? Moderately close, narrating a character’s experience and surroundings as he or she might perceive them? Or far away, narrating the story from a distance? It's your choice. Distance is a tool to help highlight or minimize the reader's emotional connection.
You are free to move in and out with your distance as long as this movement makes sense to your inner eye. Think of how the camera zooms in and pans out in movies. You're doing the same thing. It will be too choppy if you alternate close and far distances, so if you want to move in or out, move smoothly.
Keeping the Point of View Contract
When you choose a point of view, you typically need to remain true to it throughout your work. You have to keep your reader firmly inside your written reality—your chosen place to stand and perceive, your point of viewing—by being consistent.
The good news is that as long as you keep your point of view and main verb tense consistent, you can vary your distance as needed. Move in close for an emotionally charged moment, or move to a far distance when you want to capture a larger environment.
Can you use more than one point of view in a creative piece? Yes, but usually this works best in a longer short story or a novel. This is third person multiple point of view. You can jump from one point of view to another at chapter breaks or in new sections, as long as you make it clear to your readers that you've done so.
Point of View Assignment:
Okay, let's practice writing some action. Think of a scenario in which a character runs into another character they are not expecting to see. You're going to write one paragraph (no more than five sentences) telling what happens. Before you begin writing, make these three choices:
1. Choose a point of view.
2. Choose a verb tense (past or present).
3. Choose your distance for this paragraph (close, moderate, or far).
Write your choices above your paragraph. When you're done, be ready to share so that other students can tell you what they like about it and whether the point of view is the best for that particular scene.