Question of the Month
copyright 2002 by Alicia Rasley
Ask me anything.... about writing, that is. It's all I know.
Questions about omniscient POV, tricking yourself, and upping the conflict in the middle.
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uestion:
When would you use omniscient POV?
nswer:
Linda, I sometimes use a sort of omniscient in the beginning of a scene, only I think of it as a "pan shot"-- cinematically, that is-- a big overview perspective that narrows in on one viewpoint. This is helpful in showing where we are.
Something like "The wedding reception was going full-blast. The groom was dancing with his sixth bridesmaid; the bride was at the phone, shouting over the din to her attorney." I try to give some sense of setting and situation, then zero in: "The fifth usher, Tom Bradley, bemusedly viewed the scene and decided it was time he got married himself. Of course, he'd have to wait until Susie's attorney extricated her from this mistake with a quick
divorce or annulment."But I always have to remind myself to be careful not to leave the reader floating around outside of anyone's head for long. I just read a book where the whole first scene was sort of like in "videocam" viewpoint-- reporting what could be heard and some actions of the participants (but in a very unvisual way, now that I think about it-- just their actions, not where they were or how the actions -looked--- "Reardon turned to look" not "Reardon turned to look and his face paled.") I felt almost perilously adrift. I didn't know how to evaluate anything because I didn't know whose eyes I was looking through (Answer: no one's!) or how anyone was speaking-- angrily? sadly? I guess there was no emotion in the scene at all, no "interpretation". Just the dialogue and a few
actions. It was effective in a spooky way-- I felt very distanced, and
maybe that was the point.Anyway, the good thing about omniscient is that I can get more information in if I am careful. But I don't like to stay in it very long because I think the reader probably wants a viewpoint "home" once she knows where she is.
Alicia
What do you do if the conflict starts petering out half way through the story?
Amy
Amy, I try to up the motivation right there by increasing the risk. For example, if the heroine is too weary to continue battling the bad guy, this is a good time for him to try to kill again. Or if she's throwing in the towel on her failing business, have the
landlord call and crow about how he's glad she's going to break the lease, so he can rent the space to a Triple X theater.As long as it's connected to the main conflict, or is an extension of it, it'll work smoothly-- things do tend to get worse, after all!
I also look to see if I missed some steps. Like if the conflict is that the hero has amnesia and doesn't know who he is, I might go back and make sure that his journey to self-awareness has all the necessary steps-- recognition of "I don't know who I am", panic, the struggle to cope, the determination to find out the truth, roadblocks in the way, acceptance of the likelihood of always being "unknown", decision to build a new identity, embarking on new life, something coming back or reminding him of the old life, resistance to trying again and maybe finding out something he doesn't want to know-- maybe what he remembers suggests he was a pretty rotten fella back then-- realization that he has to confront himself, investigation, discovery, acceptance, and the bringing together of old and new lives.
Often if the conflict has petered out, it's because he's made the journey too easily-- skipping some of the steps.
Alicia
Hi. I can tell someone my character's story, but it's hard to write it myself. There's a block between my brain and my fingers.
Jody
Jody:
I know what you mean. But I also notice that most of us have no disconnect between our brain and our fingers when it comes to email. So... this is so DUMB, but it works for me.
I write an email to myself about the scene. No joke. Sometimes I even email an understanding friend and keep a copy.
I start out with something like, "This scene I want to write is about Jill asking Tony for a copy of the police employment test. What I want to do is have him think that she wants to be a cop, and he's trying to discourage her without actually coming out and saying that she's too old to join the force. And so I'm going to have him say, 'Uh, yeah, I guess if you really want it-- but have you thought this through? I mean, it's a big change. And there's going to be..."
And I'll just keep writing ABOUT what I want to write... not actually writing it, see? Only I sort of trick myself into writing it by things like "I want him to say something like" and "And then she's going to come back and say..." For some reason, doing it in the present tense really helps too.
Another way to do it is to take the scene and have the viewpoint character explain it to you. Like Tony might start:
"So she asked me for the employment test. I was kind of taken aback. Not that I'm sexist. We got plenty of women officers. But Jill? I mean, she's a... graduate student. And you just look at her and know when the other girls were climbing trees, she was writing poetry. Not like cop material, you know? But I didn't want to come out and say that. She'd been saying she was afraid of change, and needed to learn to take on challenges, and how could I say, uh, hon, this is NOT your kind of challenge? Not to mention you have to join the force by the age of 30. I'm not exactly sure how old she is, but say she turns out to be 27? She'd be real mad at me for saying that she might be too old, when too old is 3 years older than she is. And..."
It might be that all you need to do is change the pronoun from I to He. <G>
Anyway, that's the sort of trick I use to get myself to write! Try it. :)
Alicia
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