Point of View POV Ref What If Bernays

Point of View (POV) Ref: ‘What If? ’ Bernays and Painter

A story doesn’t exist until you write it. It’s how you, the writer, puts it together that counts. VIEWPOINT TONE STYLE NARRATIVE SHAPE TIME DISTANCE These elements have as much to do with the story as a character and a plot.

• After creating your characters and giving them a situation and a plot, you need to think about who tells the story. • In Roald Dahl’s The Landlady, who actually sees, hears and feels what’s going on ? In which ‘grammatical person’ is it written - 1 st, 2 nd, or 3 rd person narrative?

Telling your story from a particular angle or vision • Writing about a car accident from the POV of the driver will be a very different account compared to that of the teenager in the back, or someone from the ambulance rescue team. • Each of you would have a different account of walking into the classroom today.

What can you tell me about the following grammatical persons and why they are used? • Omniscient 3 rd person • First person • Second person • Subjective 3 rd person • Objective 3 rd person

The omniscient POV (he, she, it = 3 rd person) • The writer gets inside the heads of several characters and lets us know what each is thinking, moving from one character to another in turn so that the narrative seems multi-faceted. • Everything is seen and heard. • Not as popular as it was in the 19 C. It is now the trend for writers to get into the heads of one or two main characters.

1 st person POV (I, we) • Subjective. Has the advantage of immediacy/ intimacy, a clear singular voice. But, you must remember the ‘I’ should be present when most of the action takes place – continuously observing, e. g. only the speaker observes what’s going on – their POV/their voice only. Therefore it is a narrow perspective. • Note: the narrator doesn’t have to be the main character (the narrator can be a stand-in for the author), e. g. ‘The Great Gatsby’ – Gatsby was observed by a neighbour (the narrator). • Novelists often write in the 3 rd person, then realise it would be better from the 1 st person perspective, and then change the whole novel! • The ‘I’ voice should speak for itself, e. g. your exercise on Perspectives.

nd 2 Person POV (you) • Subjective and objective. • The narrator is somewhat removed – making suggestions that it happens to all of us (see handout ‘On Writing Short Stories, ed. Tom Bailey). • Includes the reader (you) in the story – a clever technique. • Not often used.

3 rd Person Subjective (he, she, it) • Generally focuses on one person in the story. • As close as you can get to the first person narrative, but can include other perspectives. • Allows writers to be a little removed from the character (first person is completely tied/narrow perspective). Writers can pull back and include explanations/descriptions that a first person narrator wouldn’t say about themselves or a place/object etc. And, the focus character need not be present.

3 rd Person Objective POV (he, she, it) • The distant third person is less personal. A writer can provide a ‘wider’ view of the character, seeing other things – a bit like being a spy. • Includes lots of descriptions and explanations to avoid getting into the character’s head. Making observations. Some detective fiction can be like this.

The reminiscent narrator • Note: an account of something that happened when you were six or seven needs to be carefully worded from that perspective. If you then write an account of it as an adult, the vocabulary will be different as there will be insight, subtlety and comprehension.

The unreliable narrator • This is someone who tends to skew or hide the truth. The person is too subjective to be trusted. You must give your readers clues that this person may not be telling the truth. You create a narrator who unwittingly reveals things through subtle signals of language, details, contradictions and biases. The reader will then create a more objective view, making their own judgement… This often creates dramatic irony in a story – the readers know more than the character.

ACTIVITY 1 Read the following and note the POV.

The Life of the Party (Ref: Writing Great Short Stories, p. 51 -53) The party was full of noisy, unpleasant people, and Spanner was eager to get out of there until he saw Maria come in with James. Very nice, he thought as he watched her stroll across the room. Maria noticed him. She abandoned James at the bar, leaving him feeling sullen and resentful as he ordered his first gin and tonic of the evening. She walked up to Spanner and smiled, trying hard to charm him. Alison watched them with dismay. She’d been optimistic as the start of the evening, but now, seeing the sparks fly between Spanner and Maria, her hopes were dashed. Gary was alarmed by the encounter too. “Uh-oh, there’s going to be trouble, ” he muttered as he dug his pen and his palm-sized notebook out of his pocket. Spanner and Maria, enjoying each other’s company, were oblivious to the hateful looks Alison was giving them. James noticed, though. He sidled over to Gary. “Wanna make a deal? ” he asked.

ACTIVITY 2 Describe one of the characters (make notes).

The Life of the Party (Ref: Writing Great Short Stories, p. 51 -53) The party was full of noisy, unpleasant people, and Spanner was eager to get out of there until he saw Maria come in with James. Very nice, he thought as he watched her stroll across the room. Maria noticed him. She abandoned James at the bar, leaving him feeling sullen and resentful as he ordered his first gin and tonic of the evening. She walked up to Spanner and smiled, trying hard to charm him. Alison watched them with dismay. She’d been optimistic as the start of the evening, but now, seeing the sparks fly between Spanner and Maria, her hopes were dashed. Gary was alarmed by the encounter too. “Uh-oh, there’s going to be trouble, ” he muttered as he dug his pen and his palm-sized notebook out of his pocket. Spanner and Maria, enjoying each other’s company, were oblivious to the hateful looks Alison was giving them. James noticed, though. He sidled over to Gary. “Wanna make a deal? ” he asked.

ACTIVITY 3 Now re-write the scene from this person’s POV. Remember, you are re-writing this scene strictly from this person’s eyes. Use the first person.

The Life of the Party (Ref: Writing Great Short Stories, p. 51 -53) The party was full of noisy, unpleasant people, and Spanner was eager to get out of there until he saw Maria come in with James. Very nice, he thought as he watched her stroll across the room. Maria noticed him. She abandoned James at the bar, leaving him feeling sullen and resentful as he ordered his first gin and tonic of the evening. She walked up to Spanner and smiled, trying hard to charm him. Alison watched them with dismay. She’d been optimistic as the start of the evening, but now, seeing the sparks fly between Spanner and Maria, her hopes were dashed. Gary was alarmed by the encounter too. “Uh-oh, there’s going to be trouble, ” he muttered as he dug his pen and his palm-sized notebook out of his pocket. Spanner and Maria, enjoying each other’s company, were oblivious to the hateful looks Alison was giving them. James noticed, though. He sidled over to Gary. “Wanna make a deal? ” he asked.

ACTIVITY 4 Now re-write the scene using a POV other than the first person.

The Life of the Party (Ref: Writing Great Short Stories, p. 51 -53) The party was full of noisy, unpleasant people, and Spanner was eager to get out of there until he saw Maria come in with James. Very nice, he thought as he watched her stroll across the room. Maria noticed him. She abandoned James at the bar, leaving him feeling sullen and resentful as he ordered his first gin and tonic of the evening. She walked up to Spanner and smiled, trying hard to charm him. Alison watched them with dismay. She’d been optimistic as the start of the evening, but now, seeing the sparks fly between Spanner and Maria, her hopes were dashed. Gary was alarmed by the encounter too. “Uh-oh, there’s going to be trouble, ” he muttered as he dug his pen and his palm-sized notebook out of his pocket. Spanner and Maria, enjoying each other’s company, were oblivious to the hateful looks Alison was giving them. James noticed, though. He sidled over to Gary. “Wanna make a deal? ” he asked.

ACTIVITY 5 Write down some of the changes you had to make to your original to accommodate the new POV.