Post by Lady Hammer on Sept 24, 2007 13:34:24 GMT -5
Point Your Views! By Lady Hammer
Okay, short article today, guys. But I hope it will be useful, nonetheless! Today, I’m going to explain to you the pros and cons of each point of view, and help you pick the best one for the kind of story you’re writing. Hopefully I can offer insight to some lesser thought-of POVs, such as my favorite little outcast, 2nd person. I strongly urge everyone to write a serious story in 2nd person, or at least start to. Give it a horror setting, make your character a ghost perhaps, trying to find out how they died. It’s really fun, and you learn a lot from doing it. Come on – how do you think I got to be so good?
First to come, first to leave, is obviously 1st person. For some, this lone man is hated, and for some, this lone man is absolutely adored. What is so good, and what is so bad about 1st person Point of View? First off, every single pun intended, if your story is driven by mostly one character, and if inner dialogue is a tool you are viciously stabbing people with, 1st person is probably the best POV for you. It might not work so well for a story with multiple main characters, unless you want to switch back and forth from their perspective, because keep in mind that this point of view tells the story from one person’s eyes. Also, if you have more outer dialogue than inner dialogue, 3rd person is probably a better choice.
There are two different ways that 1st person is often employed. One, through the eyes of the main character, and two, through the eyes of a different narrator. It’s hard to use anything but past tense when writing 1st person, though, so keep that in mind when picking someone for perspective. A narrator may be telling a tale, but a main character may also be telling his tale, but the difference is where the inner dialogue is. Unless the character who’s telling the story is an empath or a psychic, they will not know what everyone else is feeling, and will only be able to determine this from the body language and tone of other characters. That is why 1st person stories are often much richer than other POV stories. The author has to show us the thoughts of one person, and show us their inner struggle (automatically employing a person vs. self conflict) that plagues every character, and also use body language and appearances to show that one person what a character is feeling, in order to show us. 1st person is harder than 3rd person sometimes because we, the reader, can’t just meander about like God and know what everyone is feeling, such as the author. We only get to know what that one person knows. We are limited to their eyes and their eyes only (unless you have multiple people you’re switching perspectives with).
But enough about 1st person. Let’s talk about my poor, misunderstood second person POV. Just like 1st person, we are limited to what we see, but unlike it, we don’t read over the pronoun “I”. We read over the pronoun “you”. We are seeing not through the main character’s eyes, but through our own, as if we were the main character, learning about everything as it comes. Both past and present tense are easily used, but present tense is the most exhilarating, and if you were to write a horror story in second person, I would use it. Because the reader’s opinions and thoughts suddenly become part of the story, this POV is sort of difficult to write. While you have to dictate for us and guide us along our path, showing us the plot, you also have to keep in mind our thoughts, our reactions to suddenness, etcetera. 2nd person POV is good for several types of stories though – if you want to give your reader a new experience, say, perhaps you want them to walk through the halls as a cat, it’s a good choice. Perhaps your main character is a ghost, or an amnesia victim. 2nd person makes for an interesting read. Here is an example of a few second person stories I wrote a loooong time ago:
“Go away, you scruffy fiend! There’s no food for you!” the maid hisses. Before she leaves, she promptly draws the large red draperies shut, and picks up her bucket of cleaning supplies. Hearing her loud, plunking footsteps echo lightly down the hall, your tiny black lips form a petite frown. You give a lonely whimper, and look down at your empty dish with despair.
You, of all things in this manor, were not scruffy! The Princess had your fur brushed and groomed neatly everyday, and you were bathed in sweetly scented mango soap at least once a week. Your faded black tabby coat always gleamed. Although… with the Princess’s absence, you have started to look a little less than your best. Without her, the manor doesn’t make money. And without money, well, all of the wonderful luxuries you usually enjoyed have been dwindling away. Perhaps that’s why the maid is so unhappy. Well, all you know is that you are rather unhappy, too. You want to eat, and you miss the Princess scratching on the heart-shaped patch of white fur on your chin.
I was going to post a scrap of my other one, but that one is too neat to just give you a tease of. If you want to read it, go here:
www.fictionpress.com/s/2193290/1/
And like I said, I strongly suggest everyone attempt writing in second person. You really do learn a lot, and it’s a fun challenge! Second person is not limited to those shoddily written “choose your own adventure” stories. HECKS NO. There is a whole new field to play in by venturing over to 2nd person!
Last but not least in this lesson comes 3rd person POV. It’s just as popular, if not more, than first person, and sadly, is used as a copout (especially omniscient POV) for actually delving into character behaviors. It’s so easy to say “she looked up hesitantly”, or “he scowled angrily”, isn’t it? Well don’t do it!
As most people are aware, there are two types of 3rd person: limited, and omniscient. Limited is very similar to 1st person, because you’re still following only one character and are only hearing one character’s inner dialogue, yet there is no “I”. Pronouns become “he”, “she”, and character names. Harry Potter was written in 3rd person limited, because while we were still free to see everyone else, we only heard inside Harry’s head, no one else’s. We saw the development of everyone else through Harry’s eyes and our own. My story, A Corps Perdu, is 3rd person limited through Rufina’s eyes. But, limited is not all that there is to 3rd person. There is also GOD, otherwise known as “omniscient”. I used to love this POV because I didn’t really have to do any work and I thought I had no restrictions! Wrong. Omniscient point of view makes it really easy to “accidentally” have 387058917 main characters, because we can see through anyone’s eyes we damn well please. Everyone’s inner dialogue, everyone’s inner conflicts, everyone’s opinions on everyone else’s opinions… it can be a lot to juggle. I would say that omniscient is the best because it opens you up to so much, but I’m actually going to say that omniscient is the worst POV to use.
“But Lady, why?”
Because we, as writers, have enough work to do tromping through scene indexes or wracking our brains to figure out what to write next. We have a hard enough time mapping out the routes of development our characters will take, and the last thing we need is to find a way to put a window to each person’s soul on the pages of your story. It’s impossible. Very few authors have managed to pull it off well. Omniscient is difficult to keep in check, it’s hard to keep it from getting messy, there are tons of things wrong with it. You’re trying to give every character the same attention that only a main character should get. There are main characters for a reason, after all. I made the mistake of writing Black Lotus in 3rd person omniscient, and let me tell you, boy did I screw myself over. It’s a huge story to begin with, what with having 40 chapters and everything, and I completely exhausted myself trying to tell the story from everyone’s eyes. It was too much work. If you have a smaller story, it might work well, but otherwise, please stay away from it. It’ll be easier for you in the long one, please dear god trust me.
Anyway, this concludes the Point Your Views article until us humans can comprehend more dimensions, and I am able to go into 4th person and 5th person POVs. Have a swell day everyone, and I hope you have learned something from this!
Okay, short article today, guys. But I hope it will be useful, nonetheless! Today, I’m going to explain to you the pros and cons of each point of view, and help you pick the best one for the kind of story you’re writing. Hopefully I can offer insight to some lesser thought-of POVs, such as my favorite little outcast, 2nd person. I strongly urge everyone to write a serious story in 2nd person, or at least start to. Give it a horror setting, make your character a ghost perhaps, trying to find out how they died. It’s really fun, and you learn a lot from doing it. Come on – how do you think I got to be so good?
First to come, first to leave, is obviously 1st person. For some, this lone man is hated, and for some, this lone man is absolutely adored. What is so good, and what is so bad about 1st person Point of View? First off, every single pun intended, if your story is driven by mostly one character, and if inner dialogue is a tool you are viciously stabbing people with, 1st person is probably the best POV for you. It might not work so well for a story with multiple main characters, unless you want to switch back and forth from their perspective, because keep in mind that this point of view tells the story from one person’s eyes. Also, if you have more outer dialogue than inner dialogue, 3rd person is probably a better choice.
There are two different ways that 1st person is often employed. One, through the eyes of the main character, and two, through the eyes of a different narrator. It’s hard to use anything but past tense when writing 1st person, though, so keep that in mind when picking someone for perspective. A narrator may be telling a tale, but a main character may also be telling his tale, but the difference is where the inner dialogue is. Unless the character who’s telling the story is an empath or a psychic, they will not know what everyone else is feeling, and will only be able to determine this from the body language and tone of other characters. That is why 1st person stories are often much richer than other POV stories. The author has to show us the thoughts of one person, and show us their inner struggle (automatically employing a person vs. self conflict) that plagues every character, and also use body language and appearances to show that one person what a character is feeling, in order to show us. 1st person is harder than 3rd person sometimes because we, the reader, can’t just meander about like God and know what everyone is feeling, such as the author. We only get to know what that one person knows. We are limited to their eyes and their eyes only (unless you have multiple people you’re switching perspectives with).
But enough about 1st person. Let’s talk about my poor, misunderstood second person POV. Just like 1st person, we are limited to what we see, but unlike it, we don’t read over the pronoun “I”. We read over the pronoun “you”. We are seeing not through the main character’s eyes, but through our own, as if we were the main character, learning about everything as it comes. Both past and present tense are easily used, but present tense is the most exhilarating, and if you were to write a horror story in second person, I would use it. Because the reader’s opinions and thoughts suddenly become part of the story, this POV is sort of difficult to write. While you have to dictate for us and guide us along our path, showing us the plot, you also have to keep in mind our thoughts, our reactions to suddenness, etcetera. 2nd person POV is good for several types of stories though – if you want to give your reader a new experience, say, perhaps you want them to walk through the halls as a cat, it’s a good choice. Perhaps your main character is a ghost, or an amnesia victim. 2nd person makes for an interesting read. Here is an example of a few second person stories I wrote a loooong time ago:
“Go away, you scruffy fiend! There’s no food for you!” the maid hisses. Before she leaves, she promptly draws the large red draperies shut, and picks up her bucket of cleaning supplies. Hearing her loud, plunking footsteps echo lightly down the hall, your tiny black lips form a petite frown. You give a lonely whimper, and look down at your empty dish with despair.
You, of all things in this manor, were not scruffy! The Princess had your fur brushed and groomed neatly everyday, and you were bathed in sweetly scented mango soap at least once a week. Your faded black tabby coat always gleamed. Although… with the Princess’s absence, you have started to look a little less than your best. Without her, the manor doesn’t make money. And without money, well, all of the wonderful luxuries you usually enjoyed have been dwindling away. Perhaps that’s why the maid is so unhappy. Well, all you know is that you are rather unhappy, too. You want to eat, and you miss the Princess scratching on the heart-shaped patch of white fur on your chin.
I was going to post a scrap of my other one, but that one is too neat to just give you a tease of. If you want to read it, go here:
www.fictionpress.com/s/2193290/1/
And like I said, I strongly suggest everyone attempt writing in second person. You really do learn a lot, and it’s a fun challenge! Second person is not limited to those shoddily written “choose your own adventure” stories. HECKS NO. There is a whole new field to play in by venturing over to 2nd person!
Last but not least in this lesson comes 3rd person POV. It’s just as popular, if not more, than first person, and sadly, is used as a copout (especially omniscient POV) for actually delving into character behaviors. It’s so easy to say “she looked up hesitantly”, or “he scowled angrily”, isn’t it? Well don’t do it!
As most people are aware, there are two types of 3rd person: limited, and omniscient. Limited is very similar to 1st person, because you’re still following only one character and are only hearing one character’s inner dialogue, yet there is no “I”. Pronouns become “he”, “she”, and character names. Harry Potter was written in 3rd person limited, because while we were still free to see everyone else, we only heard inside Harry’s head, no one else’s. We saw the development of everyone else through Harry’s eyes and our own. My story, A Corps Perdu, is 3rd person limited through Rufina’s eyes. But, limited is not all that there is to 3rd person. There is also GOD, otherwise known as “omniscient”. I used to love this POV because I didn’t really have to do any work and I thought I had no restrictions! Wrong. Omniscient point of view makes it really easy to “accidentally” have 387058917 main characters, because we can see through anyone’s eyes we damn well please. Everyone’s inner dialogue, everyone’s inner conflicts, everyone’s opinions on everyone else’s opinions… it can be a lot to juggle. I would say that omniscient is the best because it opens you up to so much, but I’m actually going to say that omniscient is the worst POV to use.
“But Lady, why?”
Because we, as writers, have enough work to do tromping through scene indexes or wracking our brains to figure out what to write next. We have a hard enough time mapping out the routes of development our characters will take, and the last thing we need is to find a way to put a window to each person’s soul on the pages of your story. It’s impossible. Very few authors have managed to pull it off well. Omniscient is difficult to keep in check, it’s hard to keep it from getting messy, there are tons of things wrong with it. You’re trying to give every character the same attention that only a main character should get. There are main characters for a reason, after all. I made the mistake of writing Black Lotus in 3rd person omniscient, and let me tell you, boy did I screw myself over. It’s a huge story to begin with, what with having 40 chapters and everything, and I completely exhausted myself trying to tell the story from everyone’s eyes. It was too much work. If you have a smaller story, it might work well, but otherwise, please stay away from it. It’ll be easier for you in the long one, please dear god trust me.
Anyway, this concludes the Point Your Views article until us humans can comprehend more dimensions, and I am able to go into 4th person and 5th person POVs. Have a swell day everyone, and I hope you have learned something from this!
