POV by BJ Neblett
POV
by BJ Neblett
© 2013
Advice about using different voices and points of view is dead on target. I sight Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian. In it the author uses a different member of an extended family to voice each chapter. It is very effective. I especially liked the way a bird (get it: Bird's Eye View) caps one of the final chapters.
In my own novel Elysian Dreams, which is actually three interconnected stories, I use the somewhat unusual third person, present tense (he takes, she goes) in the first section; the more traditional third person past tense (he took, she went) in section two; and first person, past tense (I took, I went) in the concluding section. I have been told it works beautifully... I tend to agree.
As to why it works? In the first section Collin Crowly lives his live going back and forth between 1988 and 1928. I wanted the section to sound as if it were 'happening right now' regardless of where the scene took place. I believe it helps to put the reader into what is happening to Crowly (the plot). The second section is of course the more familiar and traditional form and since the action all takes place in the past, it gives the reader a deeper sense of 'having already happened'. Section three is told by a teenage girl as she writes a note of farewell to her mother. It is her own thoughts and recollections; therefore the only choice was first person, past tense. There are also chapters in the final section where her mother has found the note and is relating what has happened as she is aware. She tells her story, much the same story as her daughter has just related, through her own eyes and point of view. Naturally there are some subtle as well as sharp differences between the two accounts. (Remember the old childhood game of Passing the Secret?) The mother tells her story also from first person, past tense.
It's fun to play around with tense and point of view. Try rewriting sections, even whole chapters using a different voice and point of view. Even try having different characters tell the story.
In short... it is your story, you are creating the scene, the mood, the characters and everything else. Play the role of creator and do whatever feels best and natural to you.
BJ
by BJ Neblett
© 2013
Advice about using different voices and points of view is dead on target. I sight Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian. In it the author uses a different member of an extended family to voice each chapter. It is very effective. I especially liked the way a bird (get it: Bird's Eye View) caps one of the final chapters.
In my own novel Elysian Dreams, which is actually three interconnected stories, I use the somewhat unusual third person, present tense (he takes, she goes) in the first section; the more traditional third person past tense (he took, she went) in section two; and first person, past tense (I took, I went) in the concluding section. I have been told it works beautifully... I tend to agree.
As to why it works? In the first section Collin Crowly lives his live going back and forth between 1988 and 1928. I wanted the section to sound as if it were 'happening right now' regardless of where the scene took place. I believe it helps to put the reader into what is happening to Crowly (the plot). The second section is of course the more familiar and traditional form and since the action all takes place in the past, it gives the reader a deeper sense of 'having already happened'. Section three is told by a teenage girl as she writes a note of farewell to her mother. It is her own thoughts and recollections; therefore the only choice was first person, past tense. There are also chapters in the final section where her mother has found the note and is relating what has happened as she is aware. She tells her story, much the same story as her daughter has just related, through her own eyes and point of view. Naturally there are some subtle as well as sharp differences between the two accounts. (Remember the old childhood game of Passing the Secret?) The mother tells her story also from first person, past tense.
It's fun to play around with tense and point of view. Try rewriting sections, even whole chapters using a different voice and point of view. Even try having different characters tell the story.
In short... it is your story, you are creating the scene, the mood, the characters and everything else. Play the role of creator and do whatever feels best and natural to you.
BJ
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