Point with a View
Viewpoint is like a dinner wine. When it's good, it complements the literary entrée without being obtrusive or overpowering. And when it's bad, it can make the story taste like keg-dregs…
Just like a master vintner, in order to create the desired effect with your usage of viewpoint, you must know the rules. Some of the rules include:
- Select a narrative style and stick with it. Narrative styles include first person (the "ego-I"), second person ("you"), third person limited omniscient ("she said, smelled, touched, heard, saw, felt, thought"), and full omniscient, where the narrator, godlike, knows everything about every character. Each narrative style has its pros and cons, and the style you select depends on the unique needs of your story.
- For every viewpoint character, know him or her inside and out. This includes backstory, fears, goals, needs, likes, and dislikes, as well as the more obvious descriptive essentials such as physical characteristics, education, parentage, etc. Then make sure your character's actions, knowledge and thought patterns are portrayed consistently with his or her profile.
Using this information as a starting point, I apply a form of "method acting" meditation to project myself into the character's persona. Some characters are easier to get a handle on than others! But that's the basic process I use until the character becomes more familiar to me. Then, to get reacquainted after spending time in other characters' heads, I often will reread a key scene where the character appears.
If this process sounds time-consuming, you're right! Sometimes I've spent all of my alloted writing time just getting reacquainted with a character. But, in the long run, it works for me. - If you're using 3rd person limited omniscient narrative style -- which is the most popular format in fiction today -- stick with one viewpoint character per scene.
This is the rule; if you choose to break it, have good reasons for doing so! For instance, in the climactic love scene of Dawnflight, I switch from the heroine to the hero with increasing frequency to show their deepening intimacy. - Currently, the easiest to sell (especially in romance) is the 3rd-person limited novel with only two viewpoint characters. If you choose to include more viewpoint characters, as I do when dealing with a complex plot, make sure this choice supports the needs of the story.
- Choose the most appropriate viewpoint character for each scene. There are two primary approaches to this: either use the character who has the most at stake and thoroughly explore her (or his) feelings, or use another character as an observer to record everyone else's reactions. I tend to favor the former but have used the latter on occasion. Again, the needs of the story must factor into this decision.
As I mentioned before, these are simply rules. Guidelines. Tools. And you know the saying as well as I do about breaking the rules. A superior storyteller, however, not only knows the rules and breaks them on occasion but can fully justify his reasons for either following them to a T … or throwing them out the proverbial window.
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Revised 25 March 2009
