In Today’s Journal
* My Quote of the Day
* POV, Part 1
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
My Quote of the Day
“‘Narrator’ (like ‘POV’) is just another after-the-fact observation of a critic or reader. Once you’re aware of the concept as a writer, forget it and Just Write the Story.” Harvey
POV, Part 1
In this post and the next, I’m elaborating on a conversation I had with another writer. I’ll refer to him as Ed.
Personal to Ed—I’m elaborating a LOT. Please read this and the next post.
Ed emailed to say this:
“I’m curious how you approach writing in third person. In that case you are still running through the story with the characters and recording it all down, but the perspective is obviously different.”
I should have pointed this out succinctly in my initial response to Ed: Actually, the perspective (POV) is NOT different. More on this below.
“When you write third person, do you still imagine the characters within are directly telling the story? Or do you instead think of it as talking to a storyteller (the narrator), who’s telling you the story of the characters, and you’re copying that all down?”
First, I don’t ‘imagine.’ In my own writing practice, I know. But I do take your point. More on this below.
Second, nope. I’m not getting the story third-hand from a storyteller or narrator who’s telling me the story of the characters. I’m not even getting the story second-hand from the characters.
In first- or third-person POV, I’m the storyteller. And I’m witnessing the story first-hand by running through the story with the characters as it unfolds all around us.
The writer plays two roles in this process:
First, I’m the Recorder.
Like Stephen King, who witnessed the weird events in that hotel, I’m witnessing everything in the story. That includes even eavesdropping on the characters’ conversations.
Then, as the Presenter, I’m reporting those events to my readers as succinctly as possible so they will experience the story as I experienced it.
Again, I’m in the story with the characters, but only as an observer (so I’m not physically affected).
And again, more on all of this later. Finally, Ed wrote,
“I suppose that makes sense given the external POV, and would still obviously give you a unique voice and perspective on the events even if it’s not happening directly to the narrator themselves.”
“I wanted to get your take on it. Maybe good thought fodder for the blog!”
Ed is correct. This is great fodder for a blog post (as it turns out, two blog posts).
But as I told Ed, understanding that every word of the story or novel must come from the POV character even when the story is presented in third-person is essential.
Frankly, it took me awhile to wrap my head around that one myself. But with a lot of practice (putting new words on the page) I finally got it.
Still, that one concept is easily among the most difficult techniques to explain. With these two posts, I’m giving it a shot. Read on.
Note that this is one of those weird understandings that will kind of sneak up on you if you continue to bear in mind a few main points. At least that’s how it was for me.
Try to Bear in Mind
- Whether you’re writing in first-person or third-person (or occasionally even slipping into the second-person ‘you’), POV doesn’t really matter. POV is more an after the fact observation of a critic or reader than a device for use by the writer.
- The characters, not the writer, are actually living and experiencing the story as it unfolds. The events are happening to and affecting them, not us.
- We who write into the dark are in the story with them (as the Recorder) but even then what happens doesn’t affect us directly (e.g., if a building blows up, a character might be harmed, but the explosion will never harm us). We only observe. Therefore,
- Every word that goes onto the page, whether descriptions or opinions of the setting or other characters, should be directly from and filtered through the POV character and his physical and emotional senses.
So even when you’re writing in third-person, the ‘voice’ of the ‘narrator’ is also that of the POV character.
Be careful not to get wrapped around the wheel on such things. As Dean Wesley Smith wrote to me in response to a similar email I sent him several years ago, “Do you even know what a narrator is?”
I thought that was a little rude (grin), but it was exactly what I needed and I’ve never forgotten it over all these years.
Today, as I wrote in My Quote of the Day above, I believe ‘Narrator’ (like ‘POV’) is just another after-the-fact observation of a critic or reader. Once you’re aware of the concept as a writer, forget it and Just Write the Story.
In fact, I’m betting that advanced Stage 3 writers and all Stage 4 writers don’t even think about POV or a ‘narrator’ or any other after-the-fact construct.
They just write and, as Ed put it in a later email, “Either way you let all the words flow from the characters.”
In that thought, Ed is absolutely spot-on.
Back tomorrow with “POV, Part 2.”
Of Interest
Writing Advice From John Steinbeck Thanks to KC for this link.
Market Saturation? Nonsense. Perfect. Spot-on.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 900
Writing of Blackwell Ops 38: Paul Stone
Day 1…… 4071 words. To date…… 4071
Day 2…… 2711 words. To date…… 6782
Day 3…… 3434 words. To date…… 10216
Day 4…… 4185 words. To date…… 14401
Day 5…… 4149 words. To date…… 18550
Day 6…… 4104 words. To date…… 22654
Day 7…… 2010 words. To date…… 24664
Day 8…… 1413 words. To date…… 26077
Day 9…… 4091 words. To date…… 30168
Day 10…. 3434 words. To date…… 33602
Fiction for March…………………….. 8938
Fiction for 2025………………………. 194769
Nonfiction for March………………. 3410
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 57340
2025 consumable words…………….. 245599
Average Fiction WPD (March)…….. 2979
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 4
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 9
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 108
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 279
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.