Archive for category POV
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – review and lessons
Posted by smokingpen in Books in Scrutiny, Description, On Writing, POV, book reviews on November 22, 2007
I recently picked up a copy of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and read the whole thing. This was an entertaining book written by an author that goes by the name AVI. You can walk into almost any bookstore, go to the children’s section, look under Independent Reader ages 8 – 12 and you will see shelves of his books. He is, at the least, a prolific author in his chosen genre and field.
The reason I picked up a copy of this book, in particular, is that I was told I didn’t have a good enough grasp of how to write a young girls POV when describing how she would see someone else, like her mother or an older version of herself. What I’d done was write something that consisted of a man, adult, looking at a woman who was meant to be very attractive with specific features. These features, though, would be something that a young girl would notice, though not in the same way as a man.
In essence, I misinterpreted how someone might look at the same image as me. The outcome, buy a book that does something similar to what I want to accomplish. I would copy the two instances of the part of the story to illustrate… wait, that’s actually a VERY good idea…
These examples come from a couple different drafts of an introductory story for Cassandra West:
“Cassandra looked at herself in the mirror. She expected to see a short, thin, dark haired girl. Instead, she saw a woman, slightly taller than herself, wearing canvas pants and a cotton top with strings tying it together from just below what looked like considerable breasts showing off her cleavage at the top. The woman had a pair of holsters hanging over each hip complete with .45 Colt Peacemakers in the holsters with dozens of additional rounds on the outside of the belt. Her feet were covered in leather moccasins that came up to her mid-calf over the top of the canvas pants; leather cords wrapped around her ankles and ties at the top keeping the moccasins in place. This woman had bright, sun-bleached, blonde hair.
Cassandra looked at the woman in the mirror. She reached toward the glass without touching. “I want to be her.”“
That was the instance that brought several less than enthusiastic comments. This is what caused me to buy The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. The next draft looks like:
“Angling herself into the room so she was standing in front of the mirror, she looked at her reflection. Instead of seeing a short, thin, dark haired girl wearing an off-white nightgown with some embroidery on it, she saw a woman, slightly taller than herself, wearing canvas pants and a cotton top with strings lacing it together from mid-belly to three or four inches below her neck. The woman in the mirror was clearly older, more of an age with her mother, except more round at the hips, a thinner waste, more defined torso, and less matronly. The woman wore a pair of holsters hanging over each hip complete with too large .45 Colt Peacemakers and dozens of additional rounds in loops on the outside of the belt. Her feet were covered in leather moccasins that were laced up with leather cords around ankles and calves and tied at the top at mid-calf over her canvas pants. The most distinct difference between the woman in the mirror and Cassandra’s mother was the sun-bleached blonde hair.
Cassandra looked at the woman in the mirror. She reached toward the glass without touching. “I want to be her.”“
I think the second one reflects a better representation of what a young might do if faced with a woman who is meant to be attractive, but not described the same way as the first one. The outcome, between these two, is, quite literally, that you describe shape (girl) rather than feature (boy).
Anyway, the book covers the life of Charlotte Doyle, a young girl traveling across the Atlantic on a ship owned by her father’s company. As the ship sets sail, things begin to happen from her seeing faces where she shouldn’t to individuals of the crew informing her of a possible mutiny. The outcome, Charlotte Doyle is tried and convicted of murder, though how you get to that point is entirely amazing as the author doesn’t give a lot away until it happens.
I took a couple of weeks to read the book, as I was, and am, in the middle of school work and reading other things, as well as writing on Alicia Grey and Cassandra West, and as a result, would spend several joyous minutes flipping through pages and sitting on the edge of whatever chair I was using hoping that Charlotte would survive and knowing that she (first person POV) was narrating the story as an adult looking back, but losing myself enough in the telling of the story that I would think, “This girl is about to die.”
Ultimately, the book was purchased as an example of what I needed to be doing and ended up being an example of an exceptionally well written book by someone who is very talented at what he does. I would suggest, to anyone looking for a good, simple, easy read that will keep you hooked, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and I can see myself insisting that any daughters I have, someday, read this book.
With that said, I did not agree with how the story ended, but I couldn’t think of a way to end the story that wouldn’t radically change the book from what it is to something else entirely.
Macro, Medium, and Micro
Posted by smokingpen in Description, On Writing, POV on November 6, 2007
Some time ago I would look at a writing project and think, “In order to start this I have to write about the big picture, show the macro view of the world and then start zooming in.” I don’t know what that meant. During the transition from a young writer to a (slightly) more experienced writer (complete with boring professional credits to my name and (gah!!!) poetry) I’ve changed the view of what it means to sit down and write a story.
Macro
Macro is a term that means large. You wanted that lesson, I am sure. However, when you take a macro view of your story you pull way, way out and write a very broad story with a lot of information. There are a couple of ways to do this:
- Third-person Omniscient
- Third-person limited
In the Omniscient viewpoint you, as narrator, have a godlike ability to see everything. It’s a cool power, but one that is, actually, very hard to write successfully. Be published and successful and then go into the realm of experimenting with this one… either that, or write it and see what happens. You could be good at it.
Third-person limited, though is what a lot of stories are told in. You are told a lot of things, but you are not actually in the mind of the characters. You are more of that little bird sitting there watching events unfold and only privy to the thoughts when they are important, rather than when something is happening.
I would have to say that Third-person Limited is probably pretty close to the Medium viewpoint rather than being in the macro. But, I add this caveat, only when it is limited to one person. Many writer sit between Medium and Macro by leaping from one character to another.
Medium
Medium viewpoint is really just that. You are not in the head of the protagonist or main character, but you are pretty much only following that individual. An example of this (I think) is Tim Pratt‘s latest novel Blood Engines, I will be reviewing this book. In it, you mostly follow Marla (his protagonist), but sometimes, maybe a half dozen, you leap into the head of B, a once nearly famous movie actor who has become a seer and doesn’t know it. The outcome is that you watch the events unfold through Marla, with limited access to her thoughts; but you also get to follow things through B’s perspective as well – though rarely. I can see why people asked, before the book was published (his first readers) whether or not B would be in future books.
Micro
Then there is the Micro viewpoint to things. This is when you sit in the head of the protagonist and you are not only privy to their thoughts, but every pertinent thought they have. I enjoy reading the Rachel Morgan series of books by Kim Harrison. Rachel Morgan is a witch, she is an independent runner tracking down fugitive magical creatures around Cincinnati, OH. The outcome is that you get every jot and tittle of her thoughts when it comes to people, her roommates and partners, and the crushes she has. It is an extremely well written series of books that sits, specifically, in the Micro level of description and detail.
Another good book, I am finding, for this is by AVI, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. You are limited to what Charlotte knows throughout the book and little or nothing more. When she discovers something, so do you. It is, actually, a rather amazing little read. Too bad it is taking me some time to actually work my way through the book.
Regardless of the way something is written, the objective to narrative is to begin and remain in the level of writing you are doing: Macro, Medium, or Micro, or some combination of these elements.
POV – Part Deux
Posted by smokingpen in On Writing, POV on October 16, 2007
POV is important to realize, in part, because you are dealing with specific elements of story telling.In this context, who the POV character, or characters, is brings into the question whether or not the narrative of the story is reliable, unreliable, or even semi-reliable.
The reliability of the narrator is determined, in part, through who the narrator chooses to follow. When a story is told in the first person, you can pretty much bet that the POV character is the one narrating the book. Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series of books are all told in the first person from Rachel Morgan’s point of view. Everything that happens in the book you hear about from Rachel Morgan. Her mind, her voice, her experiences, her thoughts. You get a pretty good idea of what Rachel Morgan is thinking about and doing throughout her adventures, what she thinks about different characters, and, as a reader, you get a pretty good sense of what comes next because you have a pretty intimate knowledge of how the narrator feels about the story being told.
Move away from the first person to the third person narrative and you get a different view of the story. You can move from one head to another, one POV to another, see inside the thoughts of one character or another.
The difference between narrative, though dependent on who you follow, is essential to understand the underlying meaning of the narrative and its focus. More specifically, what needs to be determined is whether or not you, as the reader, can trust the information you get from whatever form of narration you encounter. An unreliable narrative may be interesting, and to some extent all narrative is unreliable, but if you are being lied to, constantly, by the narrator then believing whether or not what is happening is real (within the context of the story) or not becomes increasingly difficult.
Determining the whether or not you can trust the narration of the story is tied to whose eyes you follow the story.
POV
Posted by smokingpen in Character Types, On Writing, POV on October 16, 2007
What is POV?
Well, simply put it is Point Of View. Which then leads to: What does this mean? (You might’ve added some colorful language. That’s okay.)
POV is the point from which a story is told. Specifically, it is the character you follow as a reader. In most stories this character will be the protagonist – who is, in Greek storytelling, often the hero. In modern storytelling, the POV character and protagonist can also be an anti-hero.
Basically, the POV is following specific characters through what they see and what they do. This is not dependent on first person or third person as you can focus on a character in either. The Harry Potter books, told in third person, where you don’t, necessarily, get to see inside of Harry’s head, are all told in third person and they all follow Harry. Not all of the time, the beginning of each book seems to sit in the head, and uses the POV of another character, but the bulks of the book follow Harry. Essentially, you cannot know anything that Harry does not know.
You, the reader, doesn’t get to follow Hermione or Ron, you only get to see the world through the eyes of the boy who lived.
This is true in a lot of books. Some authors will jump from one character to another, sharing what they see at different parts of the story. Often, this is done chapter to chapter or section to section. In Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, you start with his protagonist, Rand Al’Thor and, throughout the course of the books, leap from Rand to Matt to Perrin to Egwene to Elaine to Nynaeve to… the list goes on. Those are the primary ones, though. Essentially, you get to experience the world of The Wheel of Time through many different eyes.
Point of view is important as it tells you who the author is writing about and how you are meant to follow the story. If the character you are following (as a reader or writer) is left out of a lot of discussions and does not find himself (herself) in places where he can easily find out the information, than you’ve built conflict.
As a side note, the POV character does not have to be the protagonist. Often he/she is, but POV is not dependent upon protagonist, antagonist, etc., merely what the protagonist is doing within the story.