V is for Viewpoint
Those of you who live in Malta know we’ve been experiencing the worst storm of the year these last few days. I hope you’re all keeping safe and as far as possible avoiding the coastal roads. The sea is beautiful but when it’s this rough it can be a terrifying beast.
On that note, let’s go to today’s literary device.
V is for Viewpoint
One of the first decisions a writer takes when writing a story is the work’s point of view (pov), that is, from which perspective the events will be revealed. As a literary device, point of view is revealed through the use of pronouns: he/she for third person, you for second person and I for first person. The most used viewpoints are third person or first person.
Third person point of view can be either omniscient or limited. In the past, novels were predominantly written from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, that is one that is all-knowing. This narrative style has the narrative voice recounting the events and sometimes even commenting about them. Third person limited, on the other hand, is written from the point of view of one of the characters (not necessarily the protagonist’s) and as readers we only get that character’s limited or incomplete knowledge.
The Hyllethan Trilogy is written in third person limited. My work in progress—the Firedance duology—started out with a third person limited pov but as soon as the 0-draft was written I knew I needed to change it to first person to create a more intimate relationship with the protagonist’s viewpoint. This intimacy can also be reached through third person limited but not to the same extent, I feel.
Through first person and third person limited pov, we hear the narrator’s thoughts and see the events and experience the scene through their eyes. Therefore, we are shown only what interests the narrator, with words/vocabulary they would use (a child’s vocabulary differs from an adult’s, for example), and imagery taken from their world. In other words, since the Hyllethan Trilogy is set in a medieval setting in an alternative world, I couldn’t have Shael compare the towers at Hylletha to skyscrapers or to the Tower of Pisa.
A case in point is found in the following extract where we experience Shael and her brother’s first sight of stalagmites:
The tunnel curved, and they spilled out into another cave, the torch light reflecting off numerous translucent pillars rising from the ground and kissing those hanging from the ceiling.
Tomas gasped, echoing Shael’s awe. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said. “They look like miniature Hyllethan towers.”
“Or a knobbly winter forest,” Tomas said.
Days of Wind and Snow
(Hyllethan Gifts #2)
An evocative example of limited third person pov can be found in the poem The Discovery by J.C. Squire where the native first sees Columbus’ ships and doesn’t have the vocabulary to describe them:
‘For in the bay, where nothing was before,
Moved on the sea, by magic, huge canoes,
With bellying cloths on poles, and not one oar,
And fluttering coloured signs and clambering clews’
First person pov and third person limited pov also help create suspense as the reader cannot know what other people think (e.g. if the love interest reciprocates the feelings, or if a shady character is the culprit).
Many novels that have multiple pov’s tend to focus on one character’s pov for a whole chapter and only switch perspectives in another chapter. This is because switching from the pov of one character to another within the same chapter, or worse from one sentence to the next can be confusing to the reader and irritating too.
Some embarrassing self-promo – ignore this section if you’re sick of it!
Dawn of Purple and Grey, book 1 in the Hyllethan Gifts series is available from Amazon as a paperback and as an ebook, as well as from Barnes and Noble and Books Depository. Days of Wind and Snow, book 2 is available as an ebook and a paperback from Amazon.
In the Inner Lands, there are three ways sixteen-year-old Shael can get herself and her family killed—by looking like the enemy; by working with the enemy; by becoming the enemy.
When sixteen-year-old Shael unknowingly helps a mortally wounded thief, he entrusts her with delivering three figurines to the lord of her castle. Too late, Shael discovers that the figurines were stolen from the Hyllethans, her country’s feared enemies. And since she cut her fingers on the figurines while handling them, she is now linked to them. Any breakage or pressure on the clay is felt on her flesh.
Despite her reluctance to aid the enemy, Shael teams up with three Hyllethans to retrieve the figurines and break the connection. Shael is caught in the tussle for the thrones of the two lands. To avoid becoming a pawn—or dangle from a hangman’s noose—she has to regain possession of the figurines and face the unsuspected secrets of her lost past.
Three thrones. Two power-hungry mages. One girl standing in their way.
Exiled in Hylletha, sixteen-year-old Shael longs to return to the land of her birth but her brother Iysel, the new, terrifying mage-king of the Inner Lands, wants her dead. Shael’s very existence threatens Iysel’s right to the throne since she is the holder of the magical Gift of Touch, which is traditionally held by the monarch.
To ensure peace, Theis, the young man Shael loves, goes to Iysel’s court to negotiate the reunification of Hylletha and the Inner Lands under one ruler. But when Shael’s young foster brother is abducted and held prisoner in the Inner Lands, Shael has only her limited knowledge of spellcraft to help her stay out of Iysel’s reach, rescue her foster brother and make sure Theis doesn’t bear the brunt of Iysel’s rage.
Complicating matters further, Iysel has won the unexpected support of their wily cousin—the son of the king of a neighbouring land and an extraordinary mage—who has his own reasons for wanting to get hold of Shael.
The stability of the three realms lies in the balance. Faced by intrigue and betrayal from all sides, Shael must choose between protecting the lives of those she loves or taking up her role as princess and heir to the thrones to safeguard the welfare of the people.
Night of Rites and Wraiths
Coming soon!
Caroline
