Last time we looked at third person narration, both the omniscient and limited points of view. We left off with a catalog of third person limited approaches detailed by author Orson Scott Card in his book Characters and Viewpoint: How to invent, construct, and animate vivid, credible characters and choose the best eyes through which to view the events of your short story or novel:

• Light penetration. We see what the narrator sees and get inside his mind, but we don't experience the action through his eyes.
• Deep penetration. We see what the narrator sees and experience the action through his eyes.
• Cinematic. We see what the narrator sees and never see inside his head or anyone else's.

The differences among these types of third person limited have to do with how far inside the characters' minds we go, how long we stay there, and through whose eyes we experience the action.

Card says that with deep penetration, we don't see things as they really happen but as the viewpoint character thinks they happen. That's because we never leave the character's mind. There's no need for tags like "he thought." As Card says, "The viewpoint character's attitude colors everything that happens." In this sense, deep penetration is like first person narration except that we're not seeing the story through the character's memory; we're experiencing it at the same time he does. If this is confusing to you, the examples that follow should help explain what I mean.

Light penetration allows us to see what the character is thinking, but only when the narrator tells us. We dip in and out of characters' minds rather than staying inside them throughout the story. That means we see things as the narrator does, not through the eyes of the viewpoint character.

Cinematic narration, Card tells us, never takes us inside anyone's head. The characters' motivations and thoughts are revealed through body language, pauses, and dialogue. He feels, and I agree, that using this point of view throughout a written work results in melodrama because we never get to know the characters.

Wow! This stuff is new to me. English major or no, I had never thought about these fine levels of point of view until I read Card.

So what would these points of view look like on the page?

Deep penetration

>From Clive Barker's Books of Blood 1-3:

Barberio felt fine, despite the bullet. Sure, there was a catch in his chest if he breathed too hard, and the wound in his thigh wasn't too pretty to look at, but he'd been holed up before and come up smiling. At least he was free: that was the main thing. Nobody, he swore, nobody would ever lock him up again, he'd kill himself rather than be taken into custody.

>From Val McDermid's The Last Temptation:

He trailed behind her as she turned into the street where she was staying and watched as she went back into the apartment block. Well, that had been a proper waste of a morning.

Deep penetration, as you can see, is intense. We're inside the character's mind in the present! In the Barker passage, almost every word comes from Barberio's brain. In the McDermid excerpt, we hear, "Well, that had been a proper waste of a morning."

Here's the way these passages might look if written with light penetration. I've emphasized the differences from the authors' versions:

Barberio felt fine, despite the bullet. He felt a catch in his chest if he breathed too hard, and he was wounded, but he wasn't worried. He'd been holed up before and come up smiling. More than anything, he was relieved to be free. Nobody, he swore, nobody would ever lock him up again. He promised to kill himself rather than be taken into custody.

He trailed behind her as she turned into the street where she was staying and watched as she went back into the apartment block. Well, that had been a proper waste of a morning, he thought.

Light penetration

>From Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky:

"What a stupid thing I've done," he thought to himself, "they have Sonia and I want it myself." But reflecting that it would be impossible to take it back now and that in any case he would not have taken it, he dismissed it with a wave of his hand and went back to his lodging.

When I went looking for examples of light penetration, I was once again surprised to discover how rare they seem to be. You see the difference: Dostoyevsky's disembodied narrator is telling us what Raskolnikov is thinking; we don't get inside the character's head directly. We're privy to his thoughts, but we don't experience them. Light penetration removes us somewhat from the characters because everything is filtered through the narrator before it gets to us.

Here's how the passage might look if written with deep penetration. Notice how I've removed the "he thought" and turned "reflecting that" into inner dialogue:

What a stupid thing I've done. They have Sonia and I want it myself. But it's impossible to take it back now, and in any case I wouldn't. He dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand and went back to his lodging.

Cinematic narration

It's difficult to find examples of cinematic narration in literature because it's such a weird technique. The best I can do is take small passages out of works that use other points of view throughout, but little bits of cinematic here and there, such as this passage from Trophy Hunt by C.J. Box:

Finally, Millie returned to Ike's office, wiping her hands with a wet towel. "Those old boxes are filthy," she said, glaring at Joe. "Did you find the file?" Ike asked, even though she wasn't carrying anything. She shook her head. "It must be in one of those boxes we've still got in storage. It hasn't been brought up to the filing room yet." Ike groaned, thanked her, and waited for the door to close.

This little bit, taken out of context, really does make us feel removed from the characters. We're told what the action and facial expressions are, but that's the only way we can tell what Ike and Millie are thinking and feeling. Millie "glares" at Joe, which means she doesn't appreciate his presence and/or intrusion into her life. Ike "groans" with displeasure when he discovers that the file he wants is unavailable; he waits until Millie is gone to speak to Joe ("waited for the door to close") because he doesn't want her to hear the conversation.

The reason Box has written scene from the cinematic point of view is that his story is told almost exclusively through Joe's eyes. Joe can't get inside Ike's and Millie's heads. He can only see what they do and hear what they say. In scenes where Joe isn't reacting to them or thinking about something, the reader does feel removed for a moment, which is exactly how Joe feels.

The good news about deep and light penetration and cinematic narration is that Card advises mixing and matching points of view within a story depending on the needs of the scene. That means you don't have to stick to just one. Phew!

More on point of view next time.

The next time you receive a rejection from a publisher or agent, remember that these famous writers were also sent packing by the powers that be:

John Grisham for A Time to Kill.

J.K. Rowling for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Richard Bach for Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

James Lee Burke for the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Lost Get Back Boogie.

Ursula K. Le Guin for The Left Hand of Darkness.

William Golding for Lord of the Flies.

James Patterson for The Thomas Berryman Number.

Sylvia Plath for The Bell Jar.

Irma Rombauer for Joy of Cooking.

Dr. Seuss, aka Theodore Geisel, for And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

Marcel Proust for Remembrance of Things Past ( Recherche du temps perdu).

The Sunday Times did a little test. They sent Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul's Booker Prize-winning novel In a Free State to 20 agents and publishers with the author's and main characters' names disguised. All of the agents and publishers rejected the book! The possible explanation: According to The Times, Nicholas Clee, former editor of the Bookseller, said that publishers were no longer keen to take risks on untried authors because they faced fiercer competition as the supermarkets forced down prices. He said: "Publishers tend to go for newcomers who have something sensational to offer, or established names. They're putting big promotional efforts behind just a few titles."

The Mid-Continent Public Library in Independence, Missouri maintains a database of films made since 1980 that are based on books. You can browse by movie title, book title, book author, and movie release year.

Did you know, for example, that "Apollo 13" was based on Jim Lovell's book Lost Moon? Or that "The Ninth Gate" with Johnny Depp was based on The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Or that "Die Hard" with Bruce Willis was based on Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp?

Upcoming shows:

Getting Published, with Mark Leslie, Episode 5. July 15, 2007.

Point of View in Fiction, with Writing Show Host Paula B. July 22, 2007.

On the drawing board: reaction to Jeff DeRego's interview on self- vs. traditional publishing; screenwriting; and R.N. Morris' The Gentle Axe.

Have a question or topic you'd like covered on the show or in the newsletter? Want to write for us or be a guest host? See mistakes in my writing? Let me know.

--Paula B.

Last month we asked:

In what film do oranges presage an impending death or close call?

The answer is the three "Godfather" movies.

According to Peter Cowie in Coppola: A Biography,

The Senator is framed for murder after playing with oranges at the Corleone house, and Johnny Ola brings an orange into Michael's office before the attempt on Michael's life. Fanucci eats an orange just before he is gunned down and Michael is eating an orange (it looks like an apple, but it is an orange) while plotting to kill Roth. Plus, Marlon Brando as Vito puts an orange peel in his mouth prior to his death.

This month's trivia question: Which famous author was sentenced to death and rescued from a firing squad at the last minute?

Answer next month.