With Writing Show host, Paula Berinstein

Purchase the entire transcript for your Kindle here

Welcome to The Writing Show, where writing is always the story. I’m Paula B.

We’ve had a lot of requests for a show on point of view, so I’ve been researching the topic, and despite the fact that I majored in literature in college, I’ve been surprised by almost everything I’ve discovered! I’d like to share with you what I’ve found so far.

I’ll talk about the major types of narration; look at how to select a narrator and viewpoint characters; and discuss the implications of changing point of view within a story—all with examples. At the end of the show, you should be able to recognize the various points of view when you see them and select just the right narrator and viewpoint characters in your own writing.

Every story is told from the perspective or point of view of a narrator. You may never know who that narrator is, but someone is telling the story. Every narrator has a different voice, meaning not only a different way of speaking, but different ways of observing, commenting, and letting the reader know what’s going on in the story.

The narrator is there to:

• Propel the story forward
• Set a pace for the story by revealing thoughts, events, and actions at critical times
• Create and reveal character
• Create suspense
• Control the reader's distance from characters and events.

One thing that can be confusing is that a narrator may or may not be the same person as a viewpoint character. The narrator tells the story. The viewpoint character is the one through whose eyes we see events. Both have a point of view. The term “point of view” can refer both to the type of narration and to the perspective of the viewpoint character, depending on the context. The vocabulary is, in my opinion, less important than recognizing narrators and viewpoint characters when you see them and understanding how to use them.

...Transcript continues at the Amazon Kindle Store.

Purchase the entire transcript for your Kindle here: