Points of View

Some working perspective from inside the latest novel.

As a writer, I discover that I must reinvent the wheel with each book. Today's wheel: whose story IS it?! 

Skip this part if you know all about POV.

When telling a story, there are a variety of points of view (POV) to pick to make the story do what you want.  For instance, you can tell it in first person ("I woke with a freaky sensation"), second person ("So you wake up and you find things have changed.") or third person ("As Gregor Sampsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams.").

Franz Kafka selected third person, and then, rather than going with an omniscient third-person, he uses a close third-person, mostly limiting the story to what Gregor sees and feels after his transformation into an insect (naturally you recognized this masterpiece as the opening to The Metamorphosis!).

Had he picked omniscient third, the narrator of the story (who is, by the magic of story-telling, not quite the author) would have known everything about each character. But there's genius for you: Kafka picked a POV where Gregor Sampsa's slightly horrifying, surreal experience becomes more and more bizarre because we readers can only eavesdrop on Gregor himself.

All of which to sidle up to that wheel that needs reinventing.

As alert readers know, I've been working on novel #2 for a year. Maybe 18 months. Whatevs.  "Which will be ready when it's ready," as Killick has been known to snarl.

ANYway, part of the challenge for me has been that this novel, about true love and a curse, is set in a fairy-tale world, which would point toward an old-fashioned omniscient POV.  (Think The Princess Bride.)

But as it turns out, these characters seem to have complicated interior lives, and the novel's themes would seem to be better served by a close third-person narration.

One of my writing heroes, Kate Atkinson, does this thing with close third/stream of consciousness narrative that absolutely slays: she'll change the very close focus from one character to another WITHOUT losing the reader or making it weird. In general, she goes a chapter at a time with one character then another in a next chapter, which gives the reader time to adjust our bustle, as it were.

Oh, Kate Atkinson, you rockstar. Her debut novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, was told in first-person, but with an unexpected and engaging omniscience. She won the Whitbread (now Booker) because of it, I think.

​Here's the opening line: "I exist! I am conceived to the chimes of midnight on the clock on the mantelpiece in the room across the hall." 

But I digress.

I am not a master at this. For She Taught Me Everything, I used a straightforward first-person POV so that readers are 100% with the main character as she tries to figure things out.

WIth this current book, I wrestle with the focus. It's a story about two kids in love and it's also about their whole village. How can I be sure that the reader knows who's the focus?  (Which presupposes that I myself get whose POV would be most useful at any given time. QED)

In revision, where I am right now, I want to be sure everything points back to the best POV person to tell any particular part of the story.

This means both large and tiny changes.  For instance in this exchange between Auda and her father, I want to highlight Auda's viewpoint. ​

Instead of referring to  "his shoulders," she notices "her father's shoulders." Not sure this tiny connection between them is earth-shaking, but I think it adds up.

And then, to make sure the reader understands the mix of feelings and impulses that Auda feels (affection and responsibility), I've expanded on her sense of guilt and presented some physical evidence of how she's managing her emotions.

All this attention for a wee bitty scene in a made-up story: one might ask, without irony, why?  

I know, believe me, I know. I ask myself this existential question on the regular. Why am I doing this? 

The short answer: because otherwise these people and their little troubles just rattle around in my beezer, firmly requesting my attention when I have a minute, please, hey you, how does it all turn out?  I haven't the willpower, honestly, to ignore them.

And besides, it might be fun for someone else to hear.

Thanks, readers, for sticking with me.

​Wish the story luck, for it's going back to the editor this week!