Writing Great Fiction

(vip2019) #1
o The traditional omniscient third person is often more remote
from its characters and capable of making sweeping judgments
about society, whereas modern novels written in the more
intimate close third person generally shy away from that.

o Still, the close third person allows the author occasionally to
pull back the camera and either comment directly on the action
as the author or show us something the point-of-view character
can’t or doesn’t know. Free indirect discourse is the default
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but it maintains a certain distance from the action of the narrative. In
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plays only a minor part in the story or isn’t present in the story at all.
Two good examples are Ishmael in 0RE\'LFN and Nick Carraway in
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characters in the story. For example, Huck Finn is both the narrator and
the main character of Mark Twain’s 7KH$GYHQWXUHV RI +XFNOHEHUU\
Finn. We see and hear everything in the book through Huck’s eyes,
and we know only what Huck witnesses or hears about. In more recent
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z This curve of sky representing different points of view is a continuum,
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just described. In addition, many books mix and match points of view.


The Narrator’s Audience
z One question related to point of view is this: Is the narration addressed
to an unknown reader in the real world, or is it addressed to some person
or group of people who exist in the world of the story?


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in literature: Brontë’s -DQH(\UH, Twain’s 7KH$GYHQWXUHVRI+XFNOHEHUU\

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