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How to Write Narrative Point of View in Fiction

Writing fiction is usually a labor of love because it can take a tremendous amount of time to produce a finished product. Failure to understand narrative point of view is perhaps the most common reason for story rejection besides failure to follow the writer's guidelines provided by the publisher. The latter, rejection from failure to follow the writer's guidelines, you can fix by paying close attention to what the editors of a certain publication or publishing company are looking for in story content and format. But the former, narrative point of view, requires visual examples in support of thorough but brief explanations.

Things You'll Need

  • Computer (with a word-processing program)
  • Published novel (third-person narrative)
  • Post-it notes (or index cards or small notebook)
  • Pencil (or pen)
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Instructions

  1. Third-Person Narrative Point of View

    • 1
      Characters are like actors: The writer's words give them meaning and purpose.

      Carefully read the first chapter or scene of the novel or short story you have selected, and note on index cards or in a notebook how many characters are mentioned and what you know about each character from the brief reading.

    • 2
      Narration is almost like one person in a group describing the others.

      Determine through whose eyes the narration is being told. Mark this section with a Post-it note, and label it with the character's name.

    • 3
      In many of Shakespeare's plays, the narrator is a type of character.

      Jump ahead in the story and see if you can determine where the narration is being told through the eyes of another character. Make a note of which character has adopted the narration in the new scene or chapter. Mark this section with a Post-it note, and label it with the character's name.

    • 4

      Open a new document in a word-processing program on your computer, and imagine you are sitting in a circle with six other people. Imagine that the people are all different in details such as, gender, race, religion and general appearance.

    • 5

      Write the scene on the open document in the word-processing program and save it as "Group Narrative Point of View Exercise."

    • 6

      Imagine that you are inside of the head of each character, and have that character describe in 10 words or less something about two of the other characters. Include what they see as the character's strengths and weaknesses. Keep the descriptions in the third person.

    • 7

      Repeat Step 6 of for each of the six characters, and try to think as the character might think based on his or her background or religious upbringing.

    • 8

      Read the character comments back to yourself, and try to see how when the characters described the same people (which is bound to happen) their perceptions change.

    • 9

      Write a paragraph scene of your own where a person is describing another person on opposite ends of a park, and then write another paragraph scene where the other person is describing the previous person. (Use the exercise in Steps 6 and 7 as a template.) They can be complete strangers, old friends, enemies or lovers. Keep the narration (the descriptions of the characters about each other) in the third person as if someone is speaking for them.

    • 10

      Read your two paragraphs (scenes) back to yourself and make a note of point-of-view shift from one character to the next.

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