The view from the author

[John Dean]

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

Most authors 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.

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 if my detective thinks someone is innocent and the reader knows the opposite.

However, many of the entries into the monthly Global Short Story Competition tell the story from one character’s viewpoint and there is a very strong argument that such an approach is the best one for short stories, that you simply do not have the space to develop different viewpoints.

But is that necessarily the case? As a novelist I use several viewpoints but can it work for short stories when space is so tight? I think so. I often use the example of an aspiring writer which whom I once worked. He told a story of 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 of our entries go for first person, still telling their stories in the past tense. 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.

Then there are stories that make use of either first person or third person but tell their tales in the current tense. Don’t be put off by the fact that this is footballers’ favourite technique, along with plenty of cliches - ‘Billy slings the ball over to me and I leaps like a salmon and nods it, wallop, into the old onion bag” - this also can be very effective, giving the reader the strong impression that events are happening here and now.

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 is no right, no wrong. If it works as a technique for you, use it.

John Dean