How to Tackle the Most Complex Writing Task: Point of View By Sarah O'Neill Coatesville Supreme Editing

 Guide to Writing for College Applicants and Resume Building

Sarah O’Neill Chester County Supreme Editing

Establishing a point-of-view is perhaps the most difficult element of writing to tackle. When I took a creative writing course at a church in Radnor run by a published poet, we would share our original works with a semi-circle of other writing enthusiasts who were just as eager. One aspect that I had a tough time with was point-of-view. The feedback I would receive would go something like this:

Is your narrator a general speaker who is observing the scene or is she part of the action herself? Why do you give the narrator personal thoughts and observations when they are not part of the actual plot?

Thinking deeply about how to adjust my point-of-view to pull off the perspectives I had intended, I had to know much more about point-of-view and how to be successful with this tool. Up until then, I had no idea that I struggled so much with it in my writing. I could identify the first, second, and third person limited in other works any day of the week, but just couldn’t pull it off in my own pieces.

This article will examine point-of-view and help would-be college applicants and other writers who are adding to their resumes and portfolios to have a clearer understanding of this most essential element of writing. Later, you should consider submitting creative works to Scholastic and other contests for formal recognition.

Give Me Some Perspective

Understanding Narrator

As a new writer, ask yourself:

What is a narrator? What are their jobs? Why are they telling the story? Do they have a motive? When in time are they telling the story? What is the current life situation of the narrator?

Activity: Choose a classic fairytale (Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood) and rewrite the story from the antagonist’s point of view.

For example, how would one of the evil stepsisters tell the story of Cinderella if they had the chance?

As you begin a narrative, you get to decide how your story will be told — how much the narrator will know

What to Consider:

Does your narrator know everything? Does the reader know more than the narrator (dramatic irony)? Do they get their details first-hand or through gossip? Do we have access to thoughts or just dialogue?

There is always a narrator, even if the narrative appears to be objective.

Types of Point of View

First Person

The most popular with new writers.

Direct: The personis involved in the narrative

Detached: The person is telling you what happened.

Example of Detached:

Pros of First Person

●Can be easier for new writers — you’re writing in your own voice

●Can be more emotional — you develop empathy for the narrator

●Can be more conversational

●One can play with an unreliable narrator — what info do they have access to?

Cons of First Person

One perspective can lead to limitations for the narrator, such as:

●Geographic

●Temporal (Time)

●Physical

●Intellectual

●Experiential

●Moral/Spiritual

Second Person YOU Voice

“You” makes the reader a character

“You” stops the text and refers directly to the reader

“You” is a specific character within the text

“You” is actually the first person

Third Person

●Most complex point of view style

●Narrator is a disembodied storyteller who never directly appears in the text as a character

●They see things from the outside on a spectrum of access levels

Objective

●Flies on the wall

●They can only report what they see and hear

●If they can tell what a character is thinking or feeling, they’re not truely direct

Limited

One step up from the direct observer — they focus on one character and know their thoughts and feelings

Omniscient

All knowing

Read Literary Works

Annotate for point of view and other choices we’ve learned.

Do you trust our narrator?

Be able to defend your position with examples from the text.

Writing Practice Ideas

Change your perspective.

Changing the point of view can dramatically affect material. No, not just the pronouns — what is observed, interpreted, and shared as truth.

1.Pick an incident that happened to you in the past month or so — something that has stuck in your mind, although for what reason you’re not quite sure.

2.Tell about the event in three different ways: first person, second person, and third person omniscient.

Thank you for reading!

Sarah O’Neill Chester County Supreme Editing