Picking the right viewpoint in fiction

[John Dean]

Writers must make a major decision before they start writing: which viewpoint do they use?

Most authors go for the conventional third person approach. It is my natural instinct, too. I like it because it means I am standing above the action in the role of nebulous narrator.  I can look down and draw attention to events happening in various places, creating tension and variety.

It works beautifully for novels: it can be very effective, for example, if my detectives are unaware of events unfolding around them. I used it in The Secrets Man when DCI John Blizzard did not realise how much danger he was in from a gangland boss but the reader did.

In my teaching of writers, I often use the example of an aspiring writer which whom I once worked who did not take full advantage of the flexibility offered by third person.

He wrote a scene about a fishing vessel in wartime. It was moored in a bay when round the corner came a U-Boat. There followed a scene of drama as the attack was told from the crew’s viewpoint. Very nicely written it was, too.

But how much better, I contended, if the scene had been written rather like a film, flicking from viewpoint to viewpoint: a scene with the crew mooring up, a scene with U-boat appearing on the horizon, out of their view but seen to us as readers, then flicking between the scenes, contrasting the crew’s happy banter with the U-Boat crew’s  deadly intent, until they came together for the climax of the story?

Other writers do not use third person at all, instead preferring first person. Telling stories that way does give a certain intimacy to the writing, and encourages a more personal way of storytelling in many ways. Trouble is, unless you provide other first persons you are rather restricted to what ‘I’ experiences, something that third person provides.

And which one is right? Anyone who has been reading my blogs, or talked to an author, or attended a creative writing class, will know that there are few absolutes in writing – it’s a case of what works.

You can buy The Secrets Man at https://www.amazon.co.uk/SECRETS-MAN-gripping-murder-mystery-ebook/...