Today I woke up singing “Substack, baby Substack” to the tune of the B52’s hit, Love Shack. Hence, this post!
But I’m not here to Weird Al the B-52 song. Nope. This post is about Point of View. Specifically, the more granular, nerdy narrative costs/benefits of POV. Stuff like: What does hybrid second person buy a narrative? What are some tricks you can use to bring the reader closer to a given character? Can you mix and match POV? When should you avoid giving a character a direct perspective?
Told ya it would be nerdy.
Also, as I am wont to do, I’m revamping my course material for this 10-day online class (it’s one I’ve taught for…six or seven years—but is endlessly fascinating to me, so I keep refreshing it). I like to bring in new examples and entertain adjacent craft issues. Also, the mix of students and their interests helps dictate the flow of the class, so there is some fluidity to the lectures.
Want an example? Here’s a little taste of an exercise/assignment offered in the class:
Try this: Give us a paragraph in 3rd person close POV. How close can you go while offering the reader something that they wouldn’t get in 1st person? It can be language or more dramatic detail—something that allows the reader to know something about the character that the character either doesn’t know, or doesn’t have language for or wouldn’t self-describe if the narration came from his/her/their own mouth. Put that hidden thing in italics. This is hard, I know, so here’s an example from the opening of ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS by Jami Attenberg:
He was an angry man, and he was an ugly man, and he was tall, and he was pacing. Not much space for it in the new home, just a few rooms lined up in a row, underneath a series of show-moving ceiling fans, an array of antique clocks ticking on one wall.
Want to play in my sandbox for more nerdy adventure? Class starts March 1st; grab your seat!