POV

Types of Point of View
(Note: the picture has very little to do with the post. I just needed a picture. Posts need pictures. Right? And when I was searching for a match to "point of view", I found this one. And now I totally need one of these for Darcy.


Objective Point of View
The writer tells what happens without stating more than can be inferred from the story's action and dialogue. The narrator never discloses anything about what the characters think or feel, remaining a detached observer.

Third Person Point of View
Here the narrator does not participate in the action of the story as one of the characters. We learn about the characters through this outside voice.

First Person Point of View
In the first person point of view, the narrator does participate in the action of the story. When reading stories in the first person, we need to realize that what the narrator is recounting might not be the objective truth. We should question the trustworthiness of the accounting.

Omniscient and Limited Omniscient Points of View
A narrator who knows everything about all the characters is all knowing, or omniscient. A narrator whose knowledge is limited to one character, either major or minor, has a limited omniscient point of view.

I've been doing some reading and listening about writing, thanks to my crazy resolution to write that book this year. As the calendar pages flip, the chances of that actually happening are getting smaller and smaller. I think that's OK because I am making some progress: writing groups, entering a contest, thinking about taking workshops...baby steps. And I was reading about point of view last night.

It's funny how the definition works. First Person....might not be the objective truth. Have you ever run into that? It's usually illustrated to me by someone else who points out that my view on something is askew. Maybe it's the way I see myself. That happens to me quite often. Really, all the time my view of myself is wrong. And the way I view the world always comes through my filter, a filter built over a lifetime through an imperfect narration of events.

And then third person...what other people see when they look at you and your life. And that's just never accurate. It's never right because all that observation comes through another filter, built from life, and also because we hide what's inside. The pieces that are too painful, too embarrassing, too scary to show, we cover up.

And then the omniscient narrator...wouldn't it be something to read the book that God wrote about your life? The narrator who knows all, knows your motivations, your hurts, your desires. Maybe. Maybe not. I think I might be one of those who can't handle the truth, but seeing myself from that point of view would be something.

And then to think that such a narrator, the one actually writing and telling my story, might like me anyway, love me with my flaws enough to reach for me...that really would be something.

Psalm 139
A David Psalm
1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead and you're there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can't take it all in!