Writing Fiction (2nd Edition) by Janet Burroway

Author:Janet Burroway [Burroway, Janet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-12T08:00:00+00:00

22.3

Better, since we are dealing with a verbal medium, these questions might be translated: Who speaks? To whom? In what form? At what distance from the action? With what limitations? All these issues go into the determination of the point of view. Because the author inevitably wants to convince us to share the same perspective, the answers will also help reveal her or his final opinion, judgment, attitude, or message.

This chapter deals with the first three questions: Who speaks? To whom? In what form? Distance and limitations are considered in chapter 8.

Who Speaks?

The primary point-of-view decision that you as author must make before you can set down the first sentence of the story is person. This is the simplest and crudest subdivision that must be made in deciding who speaks. The story can be told in the third person (She walked out into the harsh sunlight), the second person (You walked out into the harsh sunlight), or the first person (I walked out into the harsh sunlight). Third- and second-person stories are "told" by an author; first-person stories, by a character.

THIRD PERSON

Third person, in which the author is telling the story, can be subdivided again according to the degree of knowledge, or omniscience the author assumes. Notice that since this is a matter of degree, the subdivisions are again only a crude indication of the variations possible. As an author you are free to decide how much you know. You may know every universal and eternal truth; you may know what is in the mind of one character but not what is in the mind of another; or you may know only what can be externally observed. You decide, and very early in the story you signal to the reader what degree of omniscience you have chosen. Once given, this signal constitutes a "contract" between author and reader, and it will be difficult to break the contract gracefully. If you have restricted yourself to the mind of James Lordly for five pages, as he observes the actions of Mrs. Grumms and her cats, you will violate the contract by suddenly dipping into Mrs. Grumms's mind to let us know what she thinks of James Lordly. We are likely to feel misused, and likely to cancel the contract altogether, if you suddenly give us the thoughts of the cats.

The omniscient author, sometimes referred to as the editorial omniscient author, because she or he tells us directly what we are supposed to think, has total knowledge. As omniscient author you are God. You can—

1. Objectively report what is happening;

2. Go into the mind of any character;

3. Interpret for us that character's appearance, speech, actions, and thoughts, even if the character cannot do so;

4. Move freely in time or space to give us a panoramic, telescopic, microscopic, or historical view; tell us what has happened elsewhere or in the past or what will happen in the future; 5. Provide general reflections, judgments, and truths.

In all these aspects, we will accept what the omniscient author tells us.

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