Novel Beginnings: Deciding on Viewpoint

One of the most important things you must decide when beginning your novel or short story is deciding which character or characters you are going to view the story through.  I call it deciding on which pair or pairs of eyes you want to see the story with.  There are basically three types of viewpoints (it can get more complex) in fiction writing:  the omniscient viewpoint, single character viewpoint, and dual or multicharacter viewpoint. 

With the omniscient viewpoint, the author writes from the perspective of the removed observer.  This viewpoint allows the author to get into all the characters’ heads at once.  This viewpoint is the least engaging and should be used sparingly.  I will write more about viewpoint in future blogs.  For now here is an example of the omniscient viewpoint from Gary Colvin’s novel, The Last Fisherman: 

The Whalehead trolling drag lay only thirty yards outside the shoreline.  It allowed Jim and Sammy to view an intriguing rocky beach and dense forest all day long.  A family of Bald Eagles on the island also added their daily activities to the enjoyment of the two fishermen.  One moment the big birds sat majestically on a perch, and the next moment they soared gracefully through the air with extended talons to catch fish.

While the observation of nature in action brought pleasure to the fishermen, the trolling drag also produced good catches of salmon.  When Laurs appeared on the scene the first week in August, the crew on the Miss Laura knew they had chosen the right spot.

In this passage we find that we are viewing the story through the eyes of a distant narrator who seems to know what is going on inside the heads of both characters and tells us.  We know that both fishermen enjoyed the Bald Eagles and that they knew that they had chosen the right spot. 

 

On the other hand, single character viewpoint simply means that you are viewing the story through the eyes of one particular character, usually the protagonist.  Here is an example from the novel Try Darkness by James Scott Bell:

I stopped off at the Ultimate Sip.  Pick McNitt made me what he called a Darwinian. “If you can survive this, you’re one of the fittest.”

It was like all the espresso beans in Los Angeles in a single cup.

“Wow,” I said.

“Exactly,” McNitt said.  His big moon face was beaming under his snowy beard. “You think it’ll sell?”

“Oh yeah,” What’re you going to charge?”

“Five bucks.”

“A little high, isn’t it?”

“All the writers will buy it. I’ll tell ‘em they can be the next Balzac.”

“Balzac?”

“You know Balzac. Guy drank about forty cups of black coffee a day. Had his servants wake him up at midnight, got to his writing table, and wrote until exhausted. Then he’d start with coffee and keep going.  Wrote a hundred books that way. Before the age of fifty-one.”

“What happened when he turned fifty-one?”

“Died”

“How?”

“Caffeine poisoning.”

“Ah.”  I took one more sip and started to feel like I could jump over the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Notice that Bell never lets us know what McNitt is thinking or observing, only what he says.  We are not allowed into McNitt’s mind because he is not the viewpoint character, Ty the protagonist is.  It is through Ty’s eyes that we see McNitt’s moon face and snowy beard and know how Ty feels after his last sip of coffee.

Deciding upon whose eyes you want your reader to see your story through should be done before you begin writing to save you a few headaches.  Of course, there is always room for a change of mind throughout the process.

   

In my next blog, I will discuss handling multiple viewpoints within the same story.