Part 3: Writing to Improve Series - The point behind point of view
Exercise 5 from Chapter 4 of Writing Fiction Step by Step by Josip Novakovich
This was an interesting exercise in Point of View or ( POV ). This is my "longest" short-story to date. I included it, as I did with the previous exercise, on an entirely seperate page because of it's length.
The exercise is based on exercise 5 from chapter 4 of the book. The main topic behind the chapter is in working with a Point of View (first person point of view, second person point of view, third person point of view, omniscience, etc). Mr. Novakovich goes into some nice detail with his descriptions on these different writing perspectives. He also provides some clear guidelines when it comes to using each one. For instance, first person and third person limited suffice for short stories, while omniscience usually works best for longer ones. I've never really learned any distinctions between when it is better to use one point of view over the other, so this is something new to me.
Go to the next post and follow the links for more information on point of view.
The point of view exercise specified to write about a incident that a friend (real of fictional) experienced. He wants you to do it in the omniscience point of view instead of limited (as in exercise 4). I chose to do this using a fictional "friend" as I can't think of anything super interesting otherwise. The main idea here is to really dig deep into your character's head and describe their thoughts and actions while they are happening.
Of the chapters i've read so far, this one seems to have been the most help to me. I've had little experience with writing in different point of views and it cleared a good deal of information up for me.
I decided to title my exercise: "Deal With It" Why? I have no idea, it's just something that popped into my head. Anyway, i'm going to do like I did earlier and include the first chapter so you know what to expect..
By the way, I also mentioned earlier that I tried to tie this story into into my last one. I think I did fairly well here, but it's possible I may have missed a connection where there was supposed to be one. I've got to take a break and a breather so maybe i'll catch it when I review it later.
Also want to warn you that it is slightly graphic and has a few "choice words" included in it. Hope you don't mind!
"Deal With It" - Exercise 5 Chapter 4
Karen Borden’s day wasn’t going too well so far and she could not, for the life of her, figure out how to fix it. It wasn’t like it was the end of the world, she thought. Besides, in her 32 years of life, she had never, ever, come across anything that she was unable to deal with. Some of those times were bad, some weren’t. It was all a matter of how you decided to look at it.
Hello:
I went through a similiar course, but did it via mail.
Mine focused on Children's writing and helped me tremendously. Stick with it, it is worth the pain.
I know you have no idea who I am, but I would like to invite you to join a new blog I have started that is geared toward people like us. It is intended to be a writer's community where we all can post writing and the others can comments, make suggestions, learn from, etc.
We are just starting out, but I bleieve it can turn into a valuable resource and h elp all of us improve our writing skills.
Give it a thought, and you can visit the blog at:
http://mistwriters.blogspot.com/
If you click on "View my complete profile", then on "Email", you can send me a note. (Include your email address) and I will send you an official invite email.
Of course, it is up to you whether or not you want to come join us, but we would be happy to have you.
Happy writing.
Dave
Posted by: cheezweezil | October 16, 2005 at 03:50 PM