Literary Elements
As most of you know, I’m very involved with the Florida Writers Assoc. I lead a writing group that critiques the work of members. After months of critiquing, I found it was time to go back to the basics. We have new writers in the group and a brush up wouldn’t hurt the veterans either.
The first element I chose to talk about was Point of View. Who is telling the story? One of the common mistakes of a new writer is switching points of view without any kind of break or reason to do so.
The different Points of View in literature are:
1. First Person. —The narrator is a character in the story who can reveal only personal thoughts and feelings. The character can relay what he or she sees or things told to him by other characters. He can’t tell us the thoughts of other characters.
2. Third Person Objective— The narrator is an outsider who can report only what he or she sees and hears. This narrator can tell us what is happening, but not the thoughts of the characters.
3. Third Person Limited— The narrator is an outsider who sees into the mind of one of the characters.
4. Omniscient—The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of more than one of the characters.
While I find that most new writers try to write in the first person, it is difficult for them not to fill their paragraphs with “I”s. As a result, they end up telling a story instead of bringing the reader into the action by showing it.
JW Thompson
http://www.myspace.com/jwthompson1
http://www.freewebs.com/jwthmpsn/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/J-W-Thompson/136105451065
