Too much ‘I’ can be laborious to read and can result in a told, reported narrative rather than shown prose (see also the chapter on filter words). Furthermore, if the unveiling of how, why and when is too slow, the story could begin to drag. Readers can access only one version of events, which can render the prose restrictive if it doesn’t allow for the telling of other interpretations we are forced to trust that the narrator’s telling is reliable.However, used throughout an entire novel, from on character only, it can be problematic for the following reasons: We are compelled to move through the story knowing only what they know, and at their pace. We can only see, hear, smell and feel what the character sees, hears, smells and feels. The reader is privy to an individual character’s thoughts, emotions and experiences, all told through a distinctive voice. Third-person limited (also called third-person subjective)įirst-person narrative POVs are the most intimate, the most immediate, but they’re less flexible.What you choose will shape not only the story you tell but also your readers’ understanding of it. Some are more popular than others, and some easier to master. There are multiple ways in which to narrate a novel. Plus, the fix might not be as elegant as it would have been if any problems had been attended to before the sentence-level work began. If you go straight to working with a line editor or copyeditor, and they encounter major POV problems, it’s likely that their editing will have to be more invasive than either of you would have liked. This is the shaping stage in which decisions about how POV will be handled are made. A better fix: Some beginner authors, for reasons of budget, choose not to work with a developmental editor.A better price: If you’re working with a professional editor, whether a story-level editor (developmental, structural editing) or a sentence-level editor (line editing, copyediting, proofreading), there’ll be less to fix if your POV doesn’t jar.I’m assuming you want your book to be the best it can be, so understanding how narrative POV works, and how to use viewpoint with intent, will help you in that endeavour. It might even confuse or frustrate your reader. A better read: The right POV in the right place enriches the reader’s experience the opposite will mean your book is not as immersive as it might have been.Pro editors and experienced writers agree on one thing: it’s worth the beginner author’s time to understand POV so that they can make decisions about which to use, where, and why. POV can be tricky and my aim is to keep the guidance as straightforward as possible, not because I think you should only do it this way or that way, but because most people (myself included) handle complexity best when they start with the foundations and build up and outwards. And to complicate things, editors’ and authors’ opinions differ as to which approach works best, and what jars and why. There can be multiple viewpoints in a book, not all of which have to belong to a single character. from whose perspective we discover what’s going on – and the smells, sounds, sights and emotions involved. Point of view (POV) describes whose head we’re in when we read a book.
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