A View of the World
Is anyone actually getting anything done these days? I suppose I’m technically doing stuff, but it never feels like I’m actually accomplishing anything or getting anywhere. I know I’m not the only one feeling this way, so I won’t dwell on it longer than necessary. You’d think you’d get used to treading the same water day after day.
My goal here isn’t to ruminate on the same quarantine angst that has pervaded every entry for almost a year now. Instead, I’m merely trying to extend to you, my dear reader, an entry point into my little world if only so we can commiserate for a brief moment. After all, when we share the same point of view, even just for the length of this writing, doesn’t that make the meaning behind the word a little more clear? Or at least more tangible? Maybe you see where I’m going with this entry’s topic already, but before we dive in, allow me to get my monthly progress updates out of the way.
Last time I mentioned that I needed to get my laptop repaired. Well, unfortunately it appears the only establishment nearby where I can get the specific service I need has temporarily closed. While this is a bummer, I’m privileged enough to have other options that are just slightly outside of my comfort zone. That said, I’ve found enough excuses over the course of my life to keep me from writing, so I’m simply going to make it work in order to prevent myself from falling into that trap again. All that aside, I have continued to make incredibly slow progress on my current project. I’m a mere couple chapters in, but I’m trying not to scold myself too much for my pathetic daily word counts, mostly because I’m in need of a legit vacation. I’m slightly strapped for cash at the moment and my previous attempts at quarantine vacations were fairly traumatizing, so I don’t have any plans to remedy this yet, so I’m just continuing to pace myself for the time being. All in all, my situation could be infinitely worse given the state of things, and whinging on here feels beyond tacky. So anyway, how’s that for an update?
This month, I want to talk about one of the most crucial decisions a fiction writer must make. It’s one of those areas of the craft that I thought I had a grasp on, yet after a few novel attempts, I don’t think it ever clicked fully until recently. While I can bemoan not having stuck with Creative Writing as my major in college, hopefully the scraps of wisdom I’ve acquired over years of flailing angst will have made the effort worthwhile. So without further delay, this time we’re talking about point of view!
Every work of fiction must be set within a certain perspective, just as every painting must be hung in a frame. This is one of the most crucial aspects of the medium and thus one of the most important decisions you must make at some point in your novel writing process - ideally early on. Over the next few paragraphs I’ll be explaining what the four main points of view are (if there are more than four, I would be fascinated to know what they are) and the pros and cons of opting for each, and maybe some examples if I’m feeling saucy.
Let’s keep things numerical by beginning with first person point of view. This one’s pretty easy to describe, because technically this blog happens to be written in the first person. Any story where the narrator is also a character within the story and is telling or retelling the events of the narrative to the reader is in first person. The benefits to a story like this is that it brings the reader and the narrator very close together (though not quite as close as the medium possibly allows, as we’ll see), thus making that intimate connection easier to forge. By making the narrator a character as well, the writer also has the added tool of implementing that character’s bias as another element of the story (you’ve of course heard the term “unreliable narrator”). Having a narrator with an intrinsic bias can deepen the reader’s immersion, help convey a theme, demonstrate a particular worldview, show how a specific character is viewed within the setting, or simply increase the entertainment factor as readers suss out whether they can trust or even agree with what the narrator has to say. First person is one of the more popular points of view for novels, and for an example of one I’ve recently finished reading I’d give Wuthering Heights. I point out this as an interesting example because typically you’d want to stick with a single perspective throughout a story, especially in first person - however, Brontë manages to convey the narrative through multiple first person point of view characters; to add a layer to the story, the two main narrators are actually from different social classes, thus framing the protagonists and their history firmly within multiple world views of the time.
The next point of view we’ll talk about is second person, which is wild as hell. This perspective is the least common and probably the most tricky to describe due to having the most limited examples. The main thing to wrap your head around is that the pronouns used in second person frame you, the reader, as a character within the story. Technically, you could just replace the “I’s” of first person with “you’s” and you’d just about have it, though it can be quite jarring until you’ve grown accustomed to it. The advantage of this perspective is that it puts the reader as close to the action as possible within the constraints of the medium - think of it like the VR of novel perspectives. One example of a series in this style is N.K. Jemisin’s phenomenal and devastating The Broken Earth trilogy. Once you get over any initial disorientation of the perspective, this series will deeply immerse you in the viscera of the narrative, both the literal and the figurative (and while the multiple Hugo Award winning series doesn’t need my recommendation, I would strongly encourage checking these books out if you haven’t yet).
Next up we have third person point of view, and of course I’m going to split these out into the two different types of third person, because it’s incredibly important to understand the distinction. Let’s begin with third person omniscient. In this point of view, the narrator is a godlike entity who knows everything going on in the setting, or at least more than any given character would know. An omniscient narrator can have a specific voice or not, but again, the general vibe is that they probably aren’t a character, but more of a stand-in for the author or storyteller. This type of perspective is great for fantasy novels with a lot of characters and world building, think The Lord of the Rings. This style isn’t super popular these days, as it can remove the reader from the action somewhat and limit the intimacy the reader has with the perspectives of the characters therein. However, if the style is done well and with intent, there is no reason why it can’t be effective for your story.
To contrast with third person omniscient is third person limited. Similarly to third omniscient, the narrator is not a specific entity within the frame of the story, and thus uses third person pronouns to refer to the characters. However, this perspective is aligned very closely to a particular character within the story, the camera is “on the character’s shoulder,” as they say. While typically a writer using this point of view would stick with one character throughout, this style does make it fairly easy to switch between character’s whose point of view we’re following. That said, one must be careful of head-hopping, a pitfall both forms of third person can be vulnerable to, so be clear and judicious about which character’s perspective the story is being told from at any given time. Essentially, head-hopping is when changes in perspective character are so rapid or inconsistent that the reader is overloaded with too many points of view and can become confused or disoriented, or worse, be reminded that they are reading a story instead of experiencing one. Head hopping was something I was guilty of with some of my stories, in particular, I had the habit of merging multiple character’s perspective into one - say if the protagonist and their close ally are participating in the same scene, I would often blend their reactions together to both the story’s and character’s detriment. That said, while head-hopping should be avoided if you’re a newer writer, like any technique, it can feasibly be a useful tool to achieve a certain effect. Though, trite but true, one must learn the rules before they can break them effectively.
So which point of view is best? I believe most people when researching this will find the claim that third person (limited, in particular) stories are published most often these days. However, I recently read a tweet (and I really need to get in the habit of saving important tweets because I can’t find it now to cite the author) that had basically done a little number crunching and found that first person stories made up more of the NYT bestsellers list with higher frequency - or something to that effect. Ultimately, one must keep in mind that trends in publishing are dynamic and change wildly with the times, both in the short term and long term. The most important thing to remember is that the point of view you select must be the best possible point of view for that particular story. Obviously what this means will be different based on your intent, your genre, your theme, and countless other qualities that I’m still coming to understand myself. What’s important is to be deliberate in the perspective chosen and to know the craft well enough that your point of view is consistent throughout the writing. It can be stressful to ponder over whether or not you’re making the right choice for your book, I know this very well - but remember that revision is always a crucial part of the novel writing process, so don’t be afraid of making your decision and running with it. Just make sure you understand the point of view you’ve selected, both in terms of how to write it effectively and why you chose it for your particular story.
Well now, this entry ran a little longer than I try to make these - but take that as evidence for how crucial this decision is. As always, think it through, but take action before you get stuck mulling over one thing for too long! Think but don’t overthink, and most of all, follow your passion! Hopefully I didn’t spend too long rambling through my own perspective, but with any luck I immersed you in the moment and maybe it will mean all the more when I say thank you so much for reading.
