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Eight Points of View: Second Person
Throughout this series, I’ve described the relationship the writer has with the story — the roles he assumes to write it. The reader’s relationship to the story has been irrelevant. That’s not the case with our final two points of view: second person and second person observer-narrator. You can even say these points of view…
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Second Person Observer-Narrator: Garrett Morton
You, Dora, and the professor reach the center of the warehouse and enter the strangest room you have ever seen. In the dim light, you can make out hundreds of skulls lining the walls. They must have belonged to Vasco’s previous victims. You knew that Vasco was a monster, and now you have proof.
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Second Person: Niles Vasco
You’re rubbing alcohol onto the blade of your dagger — the ritual demands a clean blade — when you notice a change on the monitor hanging above your desk. The security cameras catch three people entering the warehouse. One is Professor Ellar. You watch them weave their way across each camera’s view. Should you stop…
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Eight Points of View: Objective Third
In part 1 of this series, I explained that a story’s teller can be a character inside the story or some external entity. Nowhere is the latter situation clearer than in the case of objective third. This point of view is also known as “objective narrator”, and Ursula K. Le Guin uses the term “detached…
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Objective Third
Professor Ellar, Garrett, and Dora entered the room at the center of the warehouse. It was dimmer and warmer than the rooms they had wandered through. Human skulls stare back at them, stacked one on top of the other along three walls. The far wall was covered with a thick, red curtain. A large pentagram…
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Eight Points of View: Omniscient Third
So far, I’ve been talking about points of view where the author’s persona is close to a single character in the story. When the author’s persona is close to multiple characters and combines their experiences into a single narrative, then the point of view becomes omniscient third. It’s sometimes called “omniscient author” or “authorial narration.”…
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Omniscient Third
Professor Ellar, Garrett, and Dora reached the center of the warehouse. As their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they found themselves in one of the most confusing places they’d ever seen.
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Eight Points of View: The Observer-Narrator
If you remember my first post in this series, there are two factors that define point of view. 1. Where the story is being told from (inside or outside it) 2. How close to the plot that position is
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Third Person Observer-Narrator: Garrett Morton
Garrett, the professor, and Dora reached the center of the warehouse. Garrett’s eyes were immediately drawn to the skulls stacked up against the walls. At last, he had found proof that Vasco was a murderer and a monster.
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First Person Observer-Narrator: Garrett Morton
We reached the center of the warehouse, and there we saw the strangest room I’d ever seen. It was dim but I could make out skulls — hundreds of them — lining the walls.