How to Handle Viewpoint in Fiction Books
The School of Creative Writing is packed with practical information which will dramatically increase your chances of publication. Hypertext links take you through the topics quickly, and there are 11 tests in the Self-Assessment Centre based on what you learn in the School. We can show you only a tiny fraction of the information on offer here. The following is a topic on how to handle viewpoint, taken from the section on writing Fiction Books:
How do you handle viewpoint?
One area which causes problems for many would-be novelists is viewpoint – the position from which a novel is told or a scene in the novel portrayed.Viewpoint is rather like the camera position chosen by a film director. Scenes in modern novels are usually shown through the eyes and other senses of one 'viewpoint character' rather than being recounted by the author. Up to a dozen different viewpoints are available to the novelist, but in practice only a few are regularly used.
First Person
This is arguably the simplest viewpoint to handle. A novel written this way is told from the point of view of a narrator. This person is usually also the character readers identify with, and appears as 'I' in the novel. Many successful novels have been written in the first person, the Philip Marlowe novels of Raymond Chandler being one well-known example.First person has the advantage of assisting reader identification, and can be a good vehicle for humour and irony. It does have its drawbacks, however. One is that you can show only events which involve the narrator, which limits your scope for plotting. Another is that the single narrative voice can become monotonous over a whole novel. Because of its limitations, first person is more common in short stories than in novels.
On the other hand, many romantic novels use first person viewpoint, and some publishers make it mandatory. It is also popular in detective fiction, where (so to speak) the reader stands beside the detective, watching as he or she solves the crime from the clues available.
Third Person
This is the most commonly used viewpoint for novels. Here there is no 'I' character – all are either 'he' or 'she', or 'they'. This gives the writer greater flexibility – for example, you can skip between scenes taking place simultaneously in London and New York. On the other hand, if you change viewpoint characters too often, there is a risk that reader identification will be lost.For a first novel, other things being equal, the best approach may be to write in the third person with one main viewpoint character for readers to identify with (this is a viewpoint sometimes known as third person limited). The scenes in such a novel will be portrayed through the eyes and other senses of your viewpoint character, and he or she will be the only person whose thoughts the reader has access to. Writing in the third (rather than first) person allows scope for the occasional scene without the main viewpoint character to provide variety and flesh out the plot. Very many successful novels are in fact written this way.
The Omniscient Viewpoint
In this viewpoint the writer acts as God, delving into the thoughts of all or any of the characters, and constantly flitting from one to another. This is a difficult viewpoint to handle effectively, and not recommended for a first novel. Chopping and changing between viewpoints can easily become confusing and disorientating for the reader.
Multiple Viewpoints
In recent years multiple viewpoint novels have become popular. In these novels sections are written from a number of different viewpoints. This works particularly well in suspense novels and thrillers: just as one character has reached a particularly dramatic moment, you skip to another, thus keeping your reader on tenterhooks. Multiple viewpoint novels are not easy to write. They must be meticulously planned, and you will still need a central character (or characters) for readers to identify with.Whatever viewpoint you choose for your novel, every scene should normally be portrayed through the eyes of just one viewpoint character. In a first person novel, this will obviously be the first person narrator. In a novel written in the third person, it is likely to be your main viewpoint character. The one thing to avoid – unless you are very confident about what you are doing and why – is cutting between one character's viewpoint and another's within a single scene.
Text Copyright © Nick Daws 1996
