My short story writing course (3)
My short story writing course at the City Lit has now been running for eight weeks, although I have only been able to attend on five occasions.
In recent weeks, we’ve been looking at the issue of the point of view (POV) of the narrator. Basically there are two choices.
One option is the first person singular – that is, the use of ‘I’. There is a variant of this called the unreliable narrator where the narrator does not tell the full truth for some reason. The use of the first person is very popular in contemporary fiction but has a number of serious limitations, such as the narrow knowledge base of the narrator. It is an approach that I have only used once – in my story “The Hostage”.
The other option is the third person singular – that is, the use of ‘he’ or ‘she’. This is my usual style as in, for instance, my story “A Moment In Time”. A variant on this option is where one uses more than one viewpoint. This is the style I’ve adopted in my latest short story where we see things through the eyes of two young characters – the story is called “The Away Day”. A further variant on this option is what is called the third-person omniscient where the narrator knows things that the characters themselves do not know. I’ve never used this style so far.
The important point for a fiction writer is, having chosen the point of view, to be consistent in narrating the story from that point of view.