Thursday, August 11, 2011

Different perspectives of writing

Another question from one of our readers today! colorgirl asks: I heard there are different forms of writing, like when I read, the main character of the story would be telling the story. Or a different person would be writing the story. So could you explain this? Thanks.

Yes, colorgirl, I can explain this. I did a bit of research and I found some info off of a blog called creative writer's den. I am now going to explain some of these points in further detail, with my own explanations.

So, the different perspectives of writing are the following: 

Objective 
First-Person
Third-Person
Omniscient or Limited Omniscient 
Multiple


Let's look into the objective writing. 

Objective: You must tell what happens without a statement of the character's thoughts, leaving the reader to assume points in the story, which must be assumed by the reader in order for the reader to follow along with the story. You must narrate the story as an observer. Observers can only know the following: physical description, what they hear the character say, what they see the character do and where they see the character go. The observer does not know the character's feelings or thoughts.  

Let's take a look at the point of view of the first-person.

First-Person: In the first-person, you must assume the role of a character. It can be any character in the story, major or minor. You then write from the character's point of view. You must keep the following in mind: What might this character say, do or think? You must assume the role of the character, you ARE the character. 

Let's check out how to write the third-person:

Third-Person: You must write as an outside voice. You know the character's thoughts, so you are NOT an observer, but a distant voice that knows everything from where the characters go, to what they do, to what they say, to what they hear and to what they think. This is the most common perspective of writing.  

How to write omniscient or limited omniscient writing:

Omniscient or Limited Omniscient: This perspective is similar to third-person writing. Omniscient is when you know everything about all of the characters. Limited Omniscient is when you have a knowledge limited to only one character. Limited Omniscient writing is also very common. (More like the third-person than omniscient is) 

Last but not least, we explore multiple writing:

Multiple: There are 3 main ways to write form a multiple perspective.WAY #1 is when you write from different points of view (different characters) in different chapters or parts of the book.(Like first-person writing, but with more characters) WAY #2 is multiple points of view brought together in the same parts (more unusual) WAY #3 is writing from the point of view of one character who changes dramatically in the story to make it as if there were two different characters.

I hope this helps you colorgirl! Thank you to all! Keep the questions coming!

Zemmzemm



3 comments:

  1. There it is colorgirl! It may be long, but do take the time to read it, I think you shall benefit from it!

    Your friend,

    Zemmzemm

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey thanks a millon! this will help me a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're very welcome, I do my best to please everyone!

    ReplyDelete