Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies

Chapter 8

Choosing and Using Different Points of View

In This Chapter

Understanding the importance of viewpoints

Trying out different voices and points of view

Handling multiple viewpoints in a single work

You may think that an event is an event is an event. If, say, a car crashes into a tree, that’s about it … isn’t it? Well, of course not! Anyone who’s ever read witness accounts of accidents knows that people can see the same event in hugely different ways. To one witness the car is white, to another black. One remembers a maniac with the ‘pedal to the metal’ screeching on the wrong side of the road, whereas another recalls the driver pootling along at a steady 20 miles per hour. Plus, of course, the driver denies being on the phone and insists that the ‘tree shouldn’t have been there’!

In this chapter I explore the different points of view you can use in your fiction, and the advantages and disadvantages of each technique. In addition, I lead you through the often tricky process of employing a mix of voices and multiple viewpoints in a single work.

‘From Where I’m Standing’: The Importance of Taking a View

Some writers have difficulty choosing and, particularly, maintaining ...