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.

Novel Beginnings: Deciding on Viewpoint Part 2

In my last blog I discussed the issue of deciding on the type of viewpoint you want for your novel or short story. I mentioned three types of viewpoints but illustrated only two: the single character viewpoint and the omniscient viewpoint.  Both as you recall were very different from one another. 

With single character viewpoint you are looking at the story through the eyes of one singular character.  This viewpoint allows the reader to see the entire story through the eyes of one person or individual. 

  

But, omniscient viewpoint gives us the perspective of the distant all-knowing observer, someone who sees all and knows all.  With this viewpoint we can see what all the characters in the scene are thinking and feeling. I also mentioned that this viewpoint is the least engaging of all the viewpoints.

The last viewpoint I mentioned but did not expound upon was the multiple character viewpoint.  This viewpoint is used quite often in contemporary fiction writing.  It requires a different viewpoint character for each scene.  Each scene is seen from the viewpoint of one character. But unlike the single character viewpoint in which you have one viewpoint character throughout the entire story, the multiple character viewpoint has many viewpoint characters who take turns letting us see the story through their eyes.  I have chosen two scenes taken from Breathless by Dean Koontz to illustrate.  Here is the first:

Henry followed her through the house and onto the front porch.

Descending the steps, she said, “So you’ve never ridden?”

“Only things that have wheels,” he said.

“There’s nothing like saddling up and riding to the high meadows on a crisp day. The world’s never more right than it is then.”

Crossing the yard toward the barn, he said, “You make it sound appealing. Maybe I should learn.”

“You couldn’t find a better riding instructor than Jim.”

“Successful farmer, poet, horseman. Jim is a hard act to follow, even for an identical twin.”

He spoke only to have something to say, to keep her distracted. Nothing in his words revealed his intentions, but something in his tone or some unintended inflection given one word or another must have struck her as wrong.

Half a dozen steps short of the barn, Nora halted, turned, and frowned at him.  Whatever she heard in his voice must have been even more evident in his face, because her eyes widened with the recognition of his nature.

In this passage, we see the situation through Henry’s eyes.  We watch Nora, but we never know what she is thinking exactly.  Like Henry, we can only deduce from her actions what it going on in her mind.  However, because he is the viewpoint character, we know that he is trying to keep her distracted by attempting to make conversation.  We know this because we are inside his head.

This next scene involves a different set of characters and therefore a different viewpoint character:

Merlin leaped to his feet so suddenly that he knocked his head against the underside of the table.  The wolfhound was at no risk of concussion. The table would collapse long before the dog did.

When Merlin padded out of the kitchen, into the hallway that led to the living room, Grady put down his fork, let his book fall shut, and sat listening for a bark. After half a minute, having heard neither a bark nor the thudding paws of the returning son of Ireland, he opened the book again.

As Grady picked up his fork, Merlin thumped along the hall to the kitchen doorway, where he stood in a posture of alarm.  Easily read, his expression said, We’ve got a situation, Dad.  What do I have to do—learn Morse code and beat out a message with my tail?

“All right, okay,” Grady said, rising from the dinette chair.

The dog hurried toward the front of the house once more. Grady found him in the open vestibule, off the living room, his back to the front door, facing the stairs to the second floor, ears pricked.

So here we are experiencing the story through Grady.  We observe his dog, and we know what he is thinking about his dog’s behavior. Same story, different viewpoint character.

I will write more on the subject of viewpoint in future blogs.  But for now, I hope this helps you get started on planning your story’s beginning.

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.