Tuesday 12 November 2013

Which viewpoint?

Two stories entered into the November Global Short Story Competition started me thinking about viewpoints again because one was told from the third person narrator, the other from first person.

Most authors do tend to go for the conventional third person approach in the past tense. It is my natural instinct, too. I like it because it means I am standing above the action in the role of nebulous narrator.

However, many of the entries into the monthly Global Short Story Competition tell the story from one character’s, first person, viewpoint and there is a very strong argument that such an approach is the best one for short stories.

Telling stories that way does give a certain intimacy to the writing, and encourages a more personal way of storytelling in many ways, particularly if you do not have many words to develop characters. From the very first words, you have created a strong voice.

Trouble is, unless you provide other first persons you are rather restricted to what ‘I’ experiences, which can restrict the way you tell your story.

And which one is right? Well, given the highly subjective nature of writing, whichever works!

You can enter the competition at www.inscribemedia.co,uk

John Dean


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