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On September 3,
kitty_fic posted the POV Flowchart. It's a tool to supposedly help you choose your point-of-view when writing fiction.
I have been baffled by this chart; I can't say I really understand it. But there are many schools in Creative Writing, and one of the problems is that they all use different words to mean the same or similar things.
What I think is going on in the POV Flowchart is an attempt to talk about point-of-view and narrative distance.
I found one article that explains "Narrative Distance" quite well. It's awfully formatted, which is why I am reposting it here in its entirety:
( Narrative Distance, by Mary Rosenblum )
Important things to note:
• Narrative distance applies to all pov choices; it doesn't matter whether you write with a first or third (or second) person narrator.
• Narrative distance can and should change within the scene, depending on how close or how distanced you want your readers to be from your pov character.
• But the point-of-view character should never change within the scene (with exceptions.)
• All of us use narrative distancing intuitively; it's not something with clear-cut rules that one can study and learn.
• But if a passage does not feel right, if it feels too emotional or is lacking emotion, if it starts to get boring, the problem may be that the narrative distance is too distanced or too close.
Any thoughts, questions, more insights that you have in this topic, please comment. I love to discuss this stuff. Examples from your own or other fic are great, too. :)
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I have been baffled by this chart; I can't say I really understand it. But there are many schools in Creative Writing, and one of the problems is that they all use different words to mean the same or similar things.
What I think is going on in the POV Flowchart is an attempt to talk about point-of-view and narrative distance.
I found one article that explains "Narrative Distance" quite well. It's awfully formatted, which is why I am reposting it here in its entirety:
( Narrative Distance, by Mary Rosenblum )
Important things to note:
• Narrative distance applies to all pov choices; it doesn't matter whether you write with a first or third (or second) person narrator.
• Narrative distance can and should change within the scene, depending on how close or how distanced you want your readers to be from your pov character.
• But the point-of-view character should never change within the scene (with exceptions.)
• All of us use narrative distancing intuitively; it's not something with clear-cut rules that one can study and learn.
• But if a passage does not feel right, if it feels too emotional or is lacking emotion, if it starts to get boring, the problem may be that the narrative distance is too distanced or too close.
Any thoughts, questions, more insights that you have in this topic, please comment. I love to discuss this stuff. Examples from your own or other fic are great, too. :)