I've been blogging about techniques to make any piece of writing more literary. One critical strategy to begin with is choosing your perspectival character. Once, there was no perspectival character. Narratives stood aloof from their writing and displayed everyone equally, venturing into various minds. This kind of third person omniscient was commonly accepted as the way to go. Now, it really doesn't fly with readers and can get fairly confusing. I watched the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and where to Find Them, and it didn't work for me. I'm not the only one it didn't work for, and much of that could be that the narrative doesn't pick a perspectival character. We follow several storylines with several characters, and none of them seem to be THE main character. It gets confusing and frustrating. Some movies and books can pull it off, but it's usually best to choose a protagonist or two main characters, someone(s) the reader can see as their avatar in the world of the story.
If you already have your main character, it's a matter of choosing how to tell the story, in first-person or third-person. First-person gives an immediacy, an emergency, and a passion that can be a bit lacking with third-person limited. You, the reader, ARE this person doing these amazing things. For a popular example, read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. We see the world through Percy's eyes, with all the intensity that entails. You're feeling the rush of the air, smelling the breath of the monster on your face. On the other hand, writing in this perspective can feel somewhat limiting. What if you want to show someone else's perspective? What if you want to show this scene through the warrior's view and the next through the monster's? There more flexibility in third person, and it can still feel urgent, immediate, and intense. Just refer to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series for a very popular example. It's really a matter of taste. Try both. Which works for you in this story?
However, if you don't know who your perspectival character is--or which one to use FOR THIS SCENE if you decide to use third-person and switch back and forth--look at what is happening or will happen in the scene or story. For whom is there the most emotional impact? Is it more intensely emotional to be a sick child being held by her mother, to be the mother holding her child knowing she can do nothing, or to be the woman's husband, watching them both suffer? Possibly someone else? Who has the most to lose? Whether to use first- or third-person is a decision best made before you start because it can be really sticky and complicated switching later. However, which character should tell which scenes is a decision to make as you go alone and that can be switched at any time. Play with it. Don't feel locked in until it's published.
No comments:
Post a Comment