{"id":28091,"date":"2024-02-22T03:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=28091"},"modified":"2024-02-19T07:42:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T15:42:23","slug":"at-through-or-to-point-of-view-narrative-distance-in-fiction-by-fallon-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/22\/at-through-or-to-point-of-view-narrative-distance-in-fiction-by-fallon-clark\/","title":{"rendered":"At, Through, or To: Point of View & Narrative Distance in Fiction by Fallon Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"At,<\/a>Let\u2019s welcome back Fallon Clark<\/a> as she shares with us \u201cAt, Through, or To: Point of View & Narrative Distance in Fiction\u201d Enjoy!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was a bit of dialogue you tuned into on a random Thursday evening.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps you saw your character in a peculiar setting or found them under unusual circumstances.<\/p>\n

Maybe you saw an apocalyptic event and a regular Joe navigating and besting the aftermath.<\/p>\n

Many stories begin with a character\u2019s voice and an idea<\/strong>, but regardless of the story\u2019s genesis, you started writing and picked a pronoun for your viewpoint character telling–or living–the story.<\/p>\n

Now that you\u2019re revising, it\u2019s time to analyze that chosen POV to ensure it\u2019s delivering the message you want your reader to receive in the way you want them to receive it.<\/p>\n

There are lots of how-to articles online describing what the first, second, and third person are. I won\u2019t rehash those basics.<\/p>\n

Instead, this article is about the narrative distance allowed through your chosen POV<\/strong>–how close to or far away from your viewpoint character you want the reader to be–and offers some creative ways to use POV to best fit your needs.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dig in.<\/p>\n

Looking At Your Character
\n<\/b><\/h2>\n

When you write or read back through your story, you see it happening cinematically.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s your character picking their way through the literary landscape<\/strong> on their transformative journey from here to there. Look at what they do, how they do it, who they move, and the challenges they face!<\/p>\n

Getting readers to look at<\/i> your character means distancing the reader from the character so the reader doesn\u2019t step into your character\u2019s shoes. Not completely, anyway, if at all.<\/p>\n

Both the objective POV and the omniscient POV offer ways to get readers looking at your characters, and you\u2019ll use these POVs for different purposes.<\/p>\n

Within the objective POV,<\/strong> the narrator blends into the background to become a fly on the proverbial wall who can overhear and observe but never interact with the characters or the scene in front of them.<\/p>\n

Notice how you don\u2019t get into anyone\u2019s head or heart in this excerpt from Earnest Hemingway\u2019s short story, Hills Like White Elephants<\/i>:<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t it mean anything to you? We could get along.\u201d
\n\u201cOf course it does. But I don\u2019t want anybody but you. I don\u2019t want anyone else. And I know it\u2019s perfectly simple.\u201d
\n\u201cYes, you know it\u2019s perfectly simple.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s all right for you to say that, but I do know it.\u201d
\n\u201cWould you do something for me now?\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019d do anything for you.\u201d
\n\u201cWould you please please please please please please please stop talking?\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, the tension comes from the dialogue alone, and, indeed, the dialogue must bear the weight of the emotionally heavy scene.<\/p>\n

The objective POV works particularly well when big emotions may cause a character to pull back<\/strong>, especially when you need to give readers the space to figure out how they<\/i> feel about the topic or theme being uncovered.<\/p>\n

But the objective POV can be limiting and keeps readers at an arm\u2019s length, which can also tax readers over the length of a novel.<\/p>\n

Balancing the objective with a more expansive POV<\/strong>, like the omniscient, can help keep the flow of information moving even if your characters aren\u2019t, as in this excerpt from Alan Dean Foster\u2019s Dinotopia Lost:<\/i><\/p>\n

Although they did not know it, there was not one of the great meat-eaters lurking in the vicinity of their camp but half a dozen, and the crew of the Condor<\/i> encountered them not in their nightmares but on the following morning, which was bright and full of sunshine.<\/p>\n

The omniscient POV pulls in a narrative voice that delivers information to the reader that the characters can\u2019t know, which increases dramatic irony.<\/p>\n

And the best part is that you get to decide whether your omniscient narrator tells some truth<\/strong>, the whole truth, or whether they\u2019re lying through their fictional teeth while readers look at your characters.<\/p>\n

Looking Through Your Character<\/b><\/h2>\n

Where the objective and omniscient POVs have readers looking at your characters, both the first- and third-person POVs can get readers looking through<\/i> your characters to experience the story, rather than just reading about it.<\/p>\n

When you want readers looking through the eyes of your viewpoint character<\/strong> — wearing their clothes and shoes, eating their meals, petting their cats — getting readers up close and personal with your character is key.<\/p>\n

This excerpt from Sara Gruen\u2019s Water For Elephants<\/i> allows readers to get inside Jacob\u2019s (the viewpoint \u201cI\u201d) head as he processes the realities of circus life and falls for a woman he\u2019s not supposed to love:<\/p>\n

My jaw moves, but it\u2019s several seconds before anything comes out. \u201cMarlena, what are you saying?\u201d
\nWhen I look up, her face is cherry red. She\u2019s clasping and unclasping her hands, staring hard at her lap.
\n\u201cMarlena,\u201d I say, rising and taking a step forward.
\n\u201cI think you should go now,\u201d she says.
\nI stare at her for a few seconds.
\n\u201cPlease,\u201d she says, without looking up.
\nAnd so I leave, although every bone in my body screams against it.<\/p>\n

In this centrally narrated first-person POV<\/strong>, readers are pulled into the story because they exist–for the length of the novel–in Jacob\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

Readers hear his thoughts and how he processes his emotions. They feel how he struggles to stay composed or act appropriately. They see the circus and the world through Jacob\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

And the third-person POV, not be outdone by its \u201cI\u201d counterpart, also gets readers close to your characters when limited to a single character\u2019s perspective, as in this excerpt from The Midnight Library<\/i> by Matt Haig:<\/p>\n

That, she supposed, was the basis of depression as well as the difference between fear and despair. Fear was when you wandered into a cellar and worried that the door would close shut. Despair was when the door closed and locked behind you.
\nBut with every life she saw that metaphorical door widen a little further as she grew better at using her imagination.<\/p>\n

In this example, there\u2019s almost a stream-of-consciousness style in the way Nora<\/strong> (the viewpoint \u201cshe\u201d) processes her feelings along her soul-searching journey to a fulfilled life, a style that is not dissimilar from the first-person narrative style.<\/p>\n

Looking To Your Character<\/b><\/h2>\n

Now, you may want readers looking to<\/i> your character, rather than at or through them. And for this narrative style, the second-person POV may be the perspective you need.<\/p>\n

While many hear \u201csecond person\u201d<\/strong> and immediately think of the choose-your-own-adventure books of our childhoods, many others hear in it a world of possibility of inviting readers to take part in the story or in allowing a character to explore other parts of themselves within the story.<\/p>\n

If your story is one rife with trauma or shock, the second-person POV may allow your character to dissociate, to see themselves as other, to look to other parts of themselves, as in this excerpt from Tamsyn Muir\u2019s Harrow the Ninth<\/i>:<\/p>\n

It was very cold. A fine shimmer of frost now coated your cheeks, your hair, your eyelashes. In that smothering dark, your breath emerged as wisps of wet grey smoke. Sometimes you screamed a little, which no longer embarrassed you. You understood your body\u2019s reaction to the proximity. Screaming was the least of what might happen.<\/p>\n

Here, the viewpoint character detaches<\/strong>, distances herself from the trauma she experienced, which ends up shining a bright light on that trauma for readers.<\/p>\n

But second-person POV can immerse as much as it can detach, pulling the reader into the literary fold and giving them a role to play. Erin Morgenstern\u2019s The Night Circus<\/i> uses short, recurring passages written in the second person to create a dreamy quality, something like magic, for the reader to experience:<\/p>\n

The tunnel twists and turns, the tiny lights providing the only illumination. You have no way of discerning how far you have gone or which direction you are moving in.
\nFinally you reach another curtain. Fabric that feels as soft as velvet beneath your hands parts easily when you touch it.
\nThe light on the other side is blinding.<\/p>\n

And readers of second person will have to look to themselves<\/strong> as they move along the story to find its meaning.<\/p>\n

Similarly to the objective POV, the second-person POV can be taxing over the length of a novel because it constantly asks readers to do something. So, balancing the second person with a more expansive POV, like the omniscient or a limited third person, can help bring balance to a novel.<\/p>\n

Choosing Your POV<\/b><\/h2>\n

Consider how close you want your readers to be to your viewpoint character when analyzing your POV and choosing whether to change it, whether all or in part.<\/p>\n