Using Viewpoint Character to Show and Not Tell in Your Ficiton Writing

If you have ever taken a course on creative writing or read a book on the subject, you understand the importance of showing and not telling.  The showing verses telling aspect of fiction writing sets it apart from the way most of us were taught in school.  Reports and research papers both required facts without a lot of  the emotion or sensory perception afforded in fiction writing.  In fiction you must move from fact to feeling without telling your reader how or what to feel.  Doing this effectively requires that you allow your readers to experience your story world in the same way they would the real world—through their senses.  One of the best ways for your readers to experience your story world is through the senses of your viewpoint character.  One of the hazards of writing in the omniscient viewpoint is that it can limit the reader’s ability to fully experience the world within the story. 

 

In his article “Mastering Fiction’s First Rule,” Jack M. Bickham  breaks down the process of  showing, not telling, into four essential steps:

·         Selection of, and adherence to, a single character’s viewpoint

·         Imagining the crucial sense or thought impressions that character is experiencing at any given moment

·         Presenting those impressions as vividly and briefly as possible

·         Giving those impressions to readers in logical order

He says that when you stay solidly in a viewpoint character, you are less likely to lecture readers.  You are more likely to let the readers experience the story world as it is revealed through the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the viewpoint character.  What the readers experience is more real and more credible because they are learning and perceiving along with the viewpoint character. 

Stick with one viewpoint character per scene, and you will be more likely to show and not simply tell.