The purpose of entertainment literature is, as its name suggests, to entertain the reader and to create a fun atmosphere (even if you need good music to go with it!).
Those who experience the emotions in the story are the characters. But the reader identifies with them in order to feel and live all that happens to them.
Therefore, when writing, the closer we get the reader to the character’s experience, the more emotions we will provide for him.
For this reason, the best point of view to tell a story is that of the character to which the main events happen.
This means that a scene, a story, or a novel will be told from the point of view of that character, which means, as if we were inside his body and his mind. We will only tell what this character knows, feels, thinks, and the way he sees himself, the others, and the world. In this way, the reader will be placed inside him and will closely experience his experiences.
In the past, the point of view of the omniscient or all-knowing narrator was commonly used. That is to say, the story was told as if the narrator knew all that happens everywhere, at all times, and in the minds of all the characters. Let’s look at an example of this type of narrator so that we can contrast it later with the point of view of a single character.
Example of omniscient narrator:
Jorge was sorry the situation came to that, he got the gun up and pointed it to Zacarías in his chest.
– No more games –Jorge said firmly-. Where are the jewels?
Zacarías was quiet. He knew the hiding place, but he would not say a word. Jorge wouldn’t dare shoot him.
Hiding behind masks, at the bottom of the alley, two mugger members of Los Nachos were watching and listening attentively, waiting for Zacarías to reveal the information to kill them both.
In this raw example, the narrator knows what Jorge and Zacharías are thinking. He also knows there are two more people hidden in the alley. As you can see, this narrator knows everything that happens.
If we were to narrate this same fragment only from the point of view of one of the characters, we would first need to choose one of them. What character to choose will depend on each story. It is very likely that we will choose to tell the story from the point of view of the main character.
In the case provided, let’s see what would happen to the fragment if we narrated it from Jorge’s point of view:
Jorge was sorry the situation came to that, he got the gun up and pointed it to Zacarías in his chest.
– No more games –Jorge said firmly-. Where are the jewels?
Zacarías was quiet.
Jorge scrutinized Zacarías’s face searching for any sign that would reveal whether he knew something. But his face was not altered.
A metallic noise was heard from the bottom of the alley. Jorge’s chest shrank. He turned his head to that direction. He only saw bins untidily piled. There was probably some rat running through the trash.
As you can see, in this case the narrator only knows what Jorge senses, feels, and thinks. He does not know what Zacarías thinks or what is on the back of the alley. This brings us closer to Jorge’s personal experience, to his emotions and his uncertainty.
Now, in novels or not so short stories, there are many scenes in which the protagonist is not the same as the one of the novel, but the most important character for that segment of the story, which can even be the antagonist (“the bad guy”), or some other secondary character. In these stories, each scene will be narrated from the point of view of the most important character or the one chosen to give a particular impression.
So, if we want to change point of views when narrating our story, the best thing is to change scenes or chapters, so that the reader is not confused. The change of scene can be pointed even with a space or some symbol, for better clarity (for example: ***).
In our example, let’s assume the scene ends and Jorge does not shoot Zacarías. Now, we want to know what happens with this last character. We leave a space and we begin the next section.
Zacarías breathed relieved. Despite the fact that he felt Jorge would not shoot him, you can never know where ambition would take him. He walked towards the alley, on the lookout for any strange movements and looking back to check whether Jorge was following him. The quicker he got rid of the jewels, the better.
Let’s look at another example where a phrase is changed so that the story is told from the character’s point of view.
Andrés was reading in his armchair. Someone threw a piano on the street and the impact of it hitting the floor caused a thundering sound.
If we tell this from Andrés’ point of view, who is focused on his reading, he does not need to know that someone threw an object, nor that the object was a piano. This phrase would have to become something like this:
Andrés was reading in his armchair. A thunder shook the building and hurt his eardrums. His heart was still. What had happened? He stood up alarmed, gave a shacking step and came to the window. A shuttered piano was all over the sidewalk and some pieces of it had even landed on the middle of the street.
Andrés hears the impact first, and he then finds out what caused it. At the end of the phrase Andrés does not know yet how the piano fell: if someone threw it, if it fell while some persons were taking it up to some building or if there was some other cause.
To better appreciate this technique, it is convenient to analyze how entertainment literary authors use it. Most follow the previously explained conventions. If you want to do something different, such as vary multiple times the point of view during one scene, it is convenient to make sure that the reader will not be confused.
Presenting the point of view
One thing is the point of view of the narrative, and another is the pronoun used to present it.
In case of the omniscient narrator, the third person is used, as was shown in the first example of this article. It is not possible to use the first person, because the omniscient narrator is, by definition, not placed in the point of view of a single character.
On the contrary, if we narrate the story from the point of view of one of the characters, it is possible to choose among the first, the second, or the third persons, even though the second person is rarely used.
Let’s see what happens to our example when narrating it from Jorge’s perspective, but on the first person (it was previously done with the third person).
I was sorry the situation came to that, I took up the gun and pointed Zacharías at his chest.
– No more games –I said firmly-. Where are the jewels?
Zacarías was quiet.
I scrutinized his face searching for any sign that would tell me whether he knew something. But his face was not altered.
A metallic noise was heard from the bottom of the alley. My chest shrank. I turned my head to that direction. I only saw bins untidily piled. There was probably some rat running through the trash.
It is possible to narrate a complete novel from the point of view of a single character using the first person. Several authors have done this, for example Raymond Chandler in The Big Sleep and other novels.
On the other hand, it is clear that it would be confusing to write in the same story the point of view of two different characters using the first person. We would not know who the narrator refers to at each moment or it would be much harder to clarify it.
However, it is possible to write the perspective of one character, the protagonist, in the first person, and that of the others in third person, altering scenes (This is done by James Patterson, among others).
Some writers consider the narration that uses the first person to be more intimate, as it brings the reader closer to the character. Others say there is no real difference. In either case, both ways have their appeal and it is worth it to try them or just let either one of them come up when writing.
No matter the criteria chosen, the important thing is to maintain the clarity and to differentiate the points of view clearly so that the reader can access the character’s experiences with no difficulty.
How to handle suspense
How does this relate to suspense?
The omniscient narrator point of view has an advantage and a disadvantage when it comes to suspense.
On the one hand, it has the advantage to allow us to announce a peril the character is not aware of, thus generating suspense.
On the other hand, it has the disadvantage of not allowing us to fully experience that state of mind, as we are not living it from inside of the “skin” of the character.
When narrating from the character’s perspective, it is possible that he does not know of an imminent peril (in our example, the guys at the back of the alley). Therefore, what would need to be done to create suspense is, for example, narrate a previous scene from the point of view of the “scoundrels” where they are shown planning what they are about to do.
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