A Different look at Viewpoint

One of the most interesting things, to me, about reading old (like, 1930s or earlier) how-to-write books is the way they look at viewpoint. Modern writing texts focus mainly on who the viewpoint character is, or on the type of viewpoint (first, second, or third-person) and how that affects what the writer can and can’t do.

Older texts have a different – and, I think, instructive – perspective. They’re less concerned with “who” and “how” and more concerned with the angle from which readers get st...