Changing the point of view
Point of View
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First person
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Third person
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Mixed POV
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Changing the POV
Although choice of viewpoint should be one of the first decisions
a writer makes, it isn't one that is carved in stone. Looking
over the completed first draft of "Well of Sighs," I
noticed that the point of view was extremely tight with Gabrielle,
even using language in a way that sounded like a bardly account
of her adventures:
Gabrielle awoke on a straw pallet, with streaks of strong
morning light filtering through half-closed window shutters and
the comforting sound of Xena's slumber-steady breathing beside
her. A few hours before dawn the warlord had won the room and
a small purse of dinars in a knife-throwing contest. Gabrielle
vaguely remembered being urged up a flight of wooden steps to
the second-floor of the tavern to claim their prize...and
then remembered some of the shouted obscenities from the crowd
as they watched the two women leave together. The words had meant
little to the bard in a sleep-fogged state, but now she recognized
them as crude and vulgar predictions of what Xena would to do
to her when they reached their quarters. Yet nothing like that
had happened. The two of them had fallen into the single bed,
and then almost instantly into unconsciousness.
I wondered what would happen if I used a first person narration
instead of third. Curious, I played with a few test passages,
and this was the result:
I awoke on a straw pallet, with streaks of strong morning
light filtering through half-closed window shutters and the comforting
sound of Xena's slumber-steady breathing beside me. A few hours
before dawn she had won the room and a small purse of dinars
in a knife-throwing contest. I vaguely remembered her urging
me up a flight of wooden steps to the second-floor of the tavern
to claim our prize...and then remembered some of the shouted
obscenities from the crowd as they watched us leave together.
The words had meant little to me in my sleep-fogged state, but
now I recognized them as crude and vulgar predictions of what
Xena would to do to me when we reached our quarters. Yet nothing
like that had happened. The two of us had fallen into the single
bed, and then almost instantly into unconsciousness.
I really liked the emotional impact that resulted from the
change of perspective, so I recast the entire story in first person.
To my surprise, I didn't need to rewrite anything beyond the pronouns
— my third person viewpoint had never covered any action outside
of Gabrielle's perceptions. This was a good indication that first
person was a better choice; there had been no advantage to using
the more distant third person perspective.
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