The Kommandant's Mistress
Page 40
The following excerpt, from the first chapter of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, is a description of the protagonist, D'Artagnan, written in Unlimited point of view, which is always in the grammatical third person.
A young man... a Don Quixote of eighteen... clothed in a woolen doublet, the blue color of which had faded into a nameless shade between lees of wine and a heavenly azure; face long and brown, high cheek-bones... the eye open and intelligent; the nose hooked, but finely chiseled. Too big for a youth, too small for a grown man, an experienced eye might have taken him for a farmer's son upon a journey, had it not been for the long sword...
Later in that chapter, when D'Artagnan meets a stranger who insults him, Dumas — still using Unlimited point of view — changes focus but maintains the same point of view.
Nevertheless, D'Artagnan was desirous of examining the appearance of this impertinent personage who was laughing at him. He fixed his haughty eye upon the stranger, and perceived a man of from forty to forty-five years of age, with black and piercing eyes, a pale complexion, a strongly-marked nose, and a black and well-shaped mustache. He was dressed in a doublet and hose of a violet color...
Though the author has shifted his focus in order to describe different characters, he has not shifted how he has written about them, so he has not changed point of view.
Different Points of View
An author can change his focus, describing different characters, without changing his point of view. He can change perspective, giving different versions of the same story, without changing point of view. It is only when an author changes from First (I, we) to Second (you), First to Unlimited (he, she, it, they), etc., that he is changing point of view.
Henry Fielding does this in his masterpiece, Tom Jones, moving frequently from Unlimited, in which the bulk of the novel is written, to First, in which he calls attention to himself as the author, to Second, in which he directly addresses his audience.
Here is an excerpt from the opening paragraph from Book One, Chapter Two, written in Unlimited point of view.
In that part of the western division of this kingdom which is commonly called Somersetshire, there lately lived and perhaps lives still, a gentleman whose name was Allworthy... .From [Nature] he derived an agreeable person, a sound constitution, a sane understanding, and a benevolent heart; by [Fortune], he was decreed to the inheritance of one of the largest estates in the county.
At the end of that chapter, Fielding switches from Unlimited to First and Second, as he will continue to do throughout the novel.
Reader, I think proper, before we proceed any farther together, to acquaint thee that I intend to digress, through this whole history, as often as I see occasion, of which I am myself a better judge than any pitiful critic whatever; and here I must desire all those critics to mind their own business, and not to intermeddle with affairs or works which no ways concern them...
Point of View, Focus, and Perspective
Point of view, then, is how the book is written, not who or what it is about. When the author describes different characters or settings but does not change how he is writing about them, then he is changing focus but maintaining the same point of view.
You can change the direction the camera is pointing — focus — or you can change from black-and-white to color film — perspective — but to change point of view you would have to change the camera from a video camera to an 8mm camera.
Changing point of view changes the author's experience of the novel as well as the readers'.
When the author gives us different versions of the same events, perhaps all written in First Person point of view, for example, then he is giving us different perspectives, but he is not changing point of view.
Only if the author writes one section of the novel in First Person, with a narrator using "I" or "we" to tell the story, and another in Unlimited, using "he," "she," "it," or "they" to tell the story and moving freely both inside and outside all the characters' heads, (or writing any sections of the novel in any combination of multiple points of view), is the author actually changing literary point of view.
Clarity about the difference between literary point of view, common usage of the term "point of view," focus, and perspective will make your task easier when you write your short stories, novellas, or novels.
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Ten Myths about
Point of View
Critics (and some writers) love to make up rules about writing in general and about point of view in particular, perhaps because it is a challenging area to master and even the best authors sometimes make mistakes in point of view.
But many of these "rules" have attained an almost mythic status; they are passed out at writers' conferences as if the rules were carved in stone and handed down at Mt. Sinai.
Inexperienced writers are often told that if they don't follow the mythical rules about point of view, they'll never get published, the equivalent of telling an aspiring author that he will be spending the rest of his life in hell.
But I've learned that most of these rules are just myths, and that you can always find reputable, well-written books which successfully break the traditional conventions concerning point of view.
Let's examine some of these myths.
Myth #1: Commercial fiction (also called formula or genre fiction, such as mysteries, romances, science fiction, etc.) is always written in Unlimited point of view.
This is simply not true. An exploration of the classic books of commercial fiction reveals as many books written in First person or Multiple points of view as in Unlimited point of view.
Myth #2: Literary fiction is always written in First Person point of view.
I'm not sure how this myth got started, unless the person who said it meant to say that contemporary literary fiction is always written in First person point of view, but even that's not true. Although there is a great deal of contemporary literary fiction written in First person, there is also a great deal written in Unlimited, Inner Limited, and Outer Limited points of view.
Myth #3: You can't write from a man's perspective if you're a woman (or vice versa), even if you're using First person point of view.
There is a long history of male authors who are unable to create realistic female characters, Shakespeare and Hemingway among them, as well as an equally long list of female authors whose male characters are not considered realistic, no matter what point of view their books are written in.
Although there are some authors who are unable to write in a gender that is not their own, there are many fine examples of male authors writing in First Person as a female character, such as Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, and of female authors writing in First Person as a male character, as Joyce Carol Oates does in Zombie.
The gender of the author does not matter as much as the author's willingness to enter into the thoughts, feelings, desires, and motivations of his character, and the author's ability to separate himself from the character he is creating.
Myth #4: You can't switch point of view in a novel: you must pick one point of view and stay with it throughout.
There is a difference between switching point of view and lapsing from your chosen point of view. Lapsing means you've erroneously slipped out of the point of view you've chosen, and that's simply a writing mistake.
But not switching point of view? Of course you can. How often? That depends on the work itself and on your skill as a writer.
Myth #5: Each time you describe a different character, you are changing point of view.
This is not true unless you also go from First person to Unlimited (or vice versa), or from any point of view to another. Simply changing the focus of your writing does not change your point of view.
Myth #6: First person point of view is easier to write than the others.
At first glance, this might seem to be true. But if you're really faithful to the character's perspective, as opposed to your own, writing in First person, becau
se it is always a limited point of view, can be extremely difficult and demanding.
The challenges of First person increase exponentially if you're using unreliable narrators. In fact, I would venture to say that First Person is one of the more challenging points of view.
Myth #7: It's easy to write in Outer Limited point of view because you're pretending you're a camera, so you just write down everything you see.
Outer Limited is, without a doubt, the most difficult point of view to write in. Even if you pretend you're a camera, or a fly-on-the-wall, as Ernest Hemingway described this point of view, it's much more demanding than it seems.
As a camera or a fly-on-the-wall, you must remain absolutely objective, nonjudgmental, and non-human. Your emotions as the author must not be revealed in this point of view. Whether or not you like or approve of your characters and their actions must not be revealed. After all, you are a camera or a fly.
As a human writer, however, every single word you choose is subjective and can reveal your emotions and judgment on the scenes you are writing. That's what causes the problems and the difficulties in this point of view. Outer Limited is the most difficult point of view to use successfully, and it's the one authors most often lapse in.
Myth #8: Even if you're writing fiction, you can only write about aspects of your own life from your own perspective. Otherwise, you're "trespassing" into other people's lives and experiences.
If this were true, then most of the world's fiction — literary and commercial — would be eliminated. How many bald, midget, alternate-world doctors (Insomnia) do you think Stephen King has met? How many serial killers has Patricia Cornwell (Postmortem) encountered in her bedroom? And if you only write your own life, then you're writing memoir or autobiography, not fiction.
Fiction writers have a moral obligation to tell good stories and to write from perspectives other than their own. How would fiction writers ever master First person point of view if they only wrote about themselves? If they only write about their own lives from their own perspective, wouldn't they be writing the same book over and over?
And if they were only writing from their own personal and limited perspective, then they'd certainly have a difficult time mastering any of the other points of view.
Myth #9: There are really no limitations to First person point of view; you can shift to something called "objective narration" and then into Unlimited point of view as long as you do it in stages.
Of course, there are no limitations to any point of view if you don't care if you're doing it authentically. The limitations to First person point of view are the same limitations any human being has: each of us only knows what's in his own head and heart; everything else is viewed externally.
If you're authentically writing in First person point of view, then you cannot tell what other characters' thoughts or feelings are (unless they're spoken aloud) because that's Unlimited point of view — no matter how "subtly" or in how many "stages" you do it.
If you want to tell everything about every character, you should use Unlimited point of view. If you want to write in First person, then you need to accept the fact that it has real limitations.
Myth #10: Famous writers like James Joyce (in Ulysses) often change point of view, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. If they can do it, so can other writers.
It's true that James Joyce shifts point of view in Ulysses often, and in the middle of sentences. It's also true that it's confusing and that not many people read Joyce's Ulysses.
So if you want to take a chance on having an extremely limited (and possibly confused) audience, then shift point of view as often as you want with no purpose whatsoever. If there's a logical and artistic reason for shifting point of view, and you don't want to lose your readers, you can read about successfully using multiple points of view in the same novel.
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Publication Acknowledgments
Portions of Mastering Point of View: Using POV & Fiction Elements To Create Conflict, Develop Characters, Revise Your Work, & Improve Your Craft; Revised, Updated, & Expanded; 12th Anniversary Edition have appeared previously (sometimes in altered form or under different titles, as articles or reprints, and under the name "Sherri" Szeman) in the following publications:
Periodicals
• "Urgency: Good Writing Needs It," Writer's Yearbook: Complete Guide to Writing & Selling Your Work: Novel Writer (Writer's Digest Press, 2003)
• "Urgency: Good Writing Needs It," The Writer (Jan 1996)
• "No Demons, No Saints: Creating Realistic Characters," The Writer (November 1996)
Books
• "Urgency: Good Writing Needs It," The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Writer's Digest Press, 2002)
• "Urgency: Good Writing Needs It," Mastering Point of View (Story Press, 2001)
• "No Demons, No Saints: Creating Realistic Characters," Mastering Point of View (Story Press, 2001)
• "Who's Afraid of Point of View?" Mastering Point of View (Story Press, 2001)
• "Ten Myths about Point of View," Mastering Point of View (Story Press, 2001)
• Mastering Point of View: How to Control Point of View to Create Conflict, Depth, & Suspense (Story Press, 4 printings, 2001)
• "Urgency: Good Writing Needs It," The Writer's Handbook 1997
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Mastering Point of View:
Using POV & Fiction Elements
To Create Conflict, Develop Characters,
Revise Your Work, & Improve Your Craft
Revised, Updated, & Expanded;
12th Anniversary Edition
(non-fiction/creative writing)
Buy
Mastering Point of View:
Using POV & Fiction Elements
To Create Conflict, Develop Characters,
Revise Your Work, & Improve Your Craft
Revised, Updated, & Expanded;
12th Anniversary Edition
(non-fiction/creative writing)
See
Mastering Point of View:
Using POV & Fiction Elements
To Create Conflict, Develop Characters,
Revise Your Work, & Improve Your Craft
Revised, Updated, & Expanded;
12th Anniversary Edition
(non-fiction/creative writing)
on Amazon.com
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The Szeman Sampler
with extended excerpts from
Novels
The Kommandant's Mistress
No Feet in Heaven
Only with the Heart
Short Stories
Naked, with Glasses
Poetry
Love in the Time of Dinosaurs
Where Lightning Strikes: Poems of the Holocaust
Non-Fiction/Creative Writing
Mastering Point of View
Available August 2013
(see cover, next page)
Author BIO, Photo,
Amazon Page, Web-site,
Twitter, Blog, & Contact Information
About Alexandria
Alexandria Constantinova Szeman
Critically acclaimed & award-winning author, Alexandria Constantinova Szeman (formerly writing as "Sherri" Szeman because her 1st editor told her that her name "wouldn't fit on the book cover," & wanted an "easy" first name to go with her "hard" last name) began as a poet before she started writing novels, short fiction, and creative writing books.
Szeman has Ph.D.'s in Creative Writing and in English & Comparative World Literatures. Her dissertation, Survivor: One Who Survives (University of Cincinnati, 1986) was a collection of original poetry, all of which was accepted or published by university & literary journals before her dissertation defense. While in graduate school, her poetry was awarded numerous prizes, including The Elliston Poetry Prize (several times) & The Isabel and Mary Neff Creative Writing Fellowship.
Her first novel, The Kommandant's Mistress, on the Ho
locaust from multiple points of view and perspectives, was chosen as one of The New York Times Book Review's "Top 100 Books of the Year, 1993. It was also awarded the University of Rochester's prestigious Kafka Prize "for the best book of prose fiction by an American woman" (1994), and Central State University's (OH) Talmadge McKinney Research Award (1993).
Originally published by HarperCollins (1993) & HarperPerennial (1994), the novel has been sold to publishers in 10 foreign countries and translated into French, Spanish, Russian, Lithuanian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, among others. It was republished by Arcade (2000) & was optioned for film (though funded, it was never made).
Her second novel, Only with the Heart, on the devastating effects of Alzheimer's on a family, is on the recommended reading lists of Alzheimer's Associations nationwide. Originally published by Arcade (2000), the Revised & Expanded, 12th Anniversary Edition contains new scenes with updated medical treatment/medications for Alzheimer's, as well as Discussion Questions for book groups, teachers, students, nurses, & other health professionals.
Her third novel, No Feet in Heaven, about two brothers and their female cousin who decide to attain fame by hunting down a notorious serial killer themselves, won praise from several NY editors before it was accepted by a New York Trade House; unfortunately, that House was purchased by a larger NY Trade House: the editor was then laid off, and the book "rejected."