Writing and Selling the YA Novel by K L Going

Author:K L Going [Going, K L]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2011-04-27T07:00:00+00:00

THIRD-PERSON AND OMNISCIENT POINTS OF VIEW_

For the moment, let's skip over second-person point of view and take a more in-depth look at third-person and omniscient points of view, which actually overlap since third person is a form of the omniscient viewpoint.

Let's begin by studying third person. This is the "he/she" voice where the narrator is outside of the events of the story, telling us about what happened to someone else. We see third-person narrative often in novels, and it's a technique that works well for telling almost any type of story. Third-person narration is very versatile, and while it

might sometimes lack the conversational tone of first person, it can be an exceptional point of view to use when you're looking to create a distinct mood or tone for your book. It can offer the writer plenty of ways to convey information without the limitations of what the narrator alone would tell us.

Let's take a look at that same passage from before, now written in third person. Watch how the text changes as the point of view shifts.

Version four:

The day Jeff found the note in his locker was one of the worst days he'd ever had—it was even worse than the day his parents announced their divorce. In fact, up until the moment the crumpled note fell onto his sneaker and he smoothed out the paper in order to read the scrawled words, he hadn't known that days could get so bad.

Or so dangerous.

Jeff squinted at the words on the page.

I know all your secrets.

They couldn't possibly mean what he thought they meant. Or could they? He looked up, glancing around the hallway for someone nearby—some practical joker, ready to say, "You should have seen your face!" But there was no one. The hallway was empty.

Had he missed the bell?

He shoved the note into his pocket and hurried to class, glancing over his shoulder again and again.

This is a third-person point of view where we are still following a single character. You might also hear this referred to as a limited omniscient

voice because the narrator is the all-seeing author of the book, but the author chooses to follow one particular character instead of many different characters. It's very similar to first-person point of view, except now the narrator isn't telling you about something that happened directly to him, or even to someone he knows. He's telling you about someone else, and he has complete access to that person's thoughts, feelings, and past history.

In third person, the narrator often begins to fade from the page, and you become less concerned with who he is than who the characters are. Do you want your reader to be wondering about you halfway through your story about Jeff? Probably not. Instead, you hope to write with enough skill that the reader becomes completely enveloped in the world you've created. In third-person narration, the reader should be able to sit back and enjoy the ride, ready and able to suspend her disbelief in order to be taken on a wonderful journey.

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