Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Writing ABC - Who Tells The Story #MFRWauthor #amwriting


Though part of telling the story, who tells the story is important. When choosing a viewpoint, there can be one character, two characters or a multitude of characters.

Lately there have been a number of stories told in first person. This works for many writers. There are some downfalls. The first is keeping the story with the I character and not having them read minds of the characters they interact with. Another is the constant use of I which begins to stand out and can be annoying. A third is allowing the I character to go off on tangents that take away from the story. There may be others but these are the ones that jump out the most to me. Just remember to keep the I character in the character you've established.

We come to third person point of view. This is the most often used one. Choosing to tell the story through the eyes of one character has the same problems as the I point of view. Opting for telling the story from two POVs, hero and heroine, is often used in romances and can be very effective. Using more than one character is also used. I think I've done a story that has I believe eight points of view. Important things to remember is to stay in the character chosen for a scene and not bounce from character to character making the reader's head toss like a person watching a tennis match. Also remembering to keep the characters in character is important. What they show the world is filtered through their senses.

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