Happy Sunday, y’all!
I hope your weekend went well and that you are gearing up for a productive week.
Today’s writing prompt is a little more of the same from yesterday. There we learned how to write from someone else’s point of view. Looking through their eyes to figure out a reaction we already knew they had.
Today, we will shift a little to the actual narrative point of view.
When you write, there are multiple ways you can tell your story. You can tell it from your point of view, as if you are there and are one of the main characters. You can also write it as if you are watching the events take place and are reporting back to the reader, or even as if the report was already give and the reader is going over it again.
The two most common point of views are 1st person and 3rd person
In 1st person you generally only tell the story from how the main character sees it.
We get little insight into what the other characters are thinking and can only witness their actions or hear their spoken words. The main character, though, gives us all the dimensions.
In 3rd person you have two options, standard or omniscient. In 3rd person standard, we don’t get a lot of insight to any of the characters. Instead, it is like watching a movie. We can see them, know what they are doing and hear what they say. We don’t get privy into their thoughts and when they leave the scene, they are not mentioned again.
With 3rd person omniscient, you get full control over every aspect of every character at all times. It is the most free and expressive type of writing. Here, you get the thoughts, concerns, emotions and spoken words of all characters. You know what they are doing around the corner and even when they aren’t in scene.
In today’s prompt we are going to explore the 2 major writing types. Let’s take a look.
March 14
Write a scene about 3 characters using 1st person narrative surrounding the main character of the scene. Then, rewrite your scene in 3rd person omniscient.
The old switch-a-roo! First you will write in first person. This will give you a decent scene. Make one of your characters the main character and use only his POV to write the scene.
Introduce the other two characters, add some dialogue and actions and make it a complete scene. Once you are done, you can edit it and rewrite it if you wish. Make it as good as you can.
When you are satisfied, enter the combination of (left, left, right, right, up, down, up, down, B, A, Select, Start) on your keyboard and enter god-mode.
Then, re-write the same scene in 3rd person omniscient. Now you should be able to look through all 3 characters eyes, and hear all thoughts, all emotions and see all actions.
When you have finished, compare the two. Which one do you like better? Why?
Post your favorite of the two in the comment section below and tell us why you like it better.
