Check in: March 26, 2013 - Tuesday

[barbayat]

Sorry for the late post, got distracted with writing and other things ...

So how was your Tuesday?

Did you write? edit?

Or was it the opposite?

cooking/cleaning? kids/pets/partners? school/university?

Tuesday's Discussion Topic : POV - All knowing

I thought we could talk about the all knowing narrator. Do you use this POV at all? If not is it because you don't like it or because you struggle with it? Can you think of great fanfics or novels that have used this POV?

Comments

[lea_hazel]

I'm considering doing an omniscient unreliable for an original story. I haven't done almost anything but limited third in ages, although now I have a WIP fic with a first person perspective almost throughout, so she gets to drop in little chocolate sprinkles like, "but of course that was not to be."

I've gotten excellent feedback on the lead to wrapping up a kmeme fill, so I'm pleased although I didn't write. The holiday is always so busy.

[the_rck]

I did quite a bit of writing yesterday.

I don't think I've ever used third person omniscient. I tend toward third person limited with occasional forays into first person. I'm not sure I could pull off third person omniscient without a lot of practice.

[lilly_c]

More editing yesterday and today, and I finally have the bones of a small scene that has recently taunted me. I'm going re-read the new scene then edit it.

[rebecca2525]

I love omniscient POV when you have a strong sense of a narrator/storyteller telling the reader a story. It can be great fun if it fits what you're doing, and it's something you don't see often. It's also the only POV that allows you to add a bit of oudside commentary on the characters' actions, or a blunt forshadowing ("little did he know..." etc).

I have done it once myself, and I'm happy with the result. I was adapting the plot of a stage play, where I felt omniscient POV was the only way to keep the feeling that the audience is watching the plot unfold from the outside. I went for the storyteller since I find it the easiest way to do a proper omniscient POV (instead of accidentally heading into messed-up, shifting limited third person POV), and I was lucky an excellent narrator presented themselves once I thought about it. On the downside, I was fearing the whole time the narrator would turn out to be too annoing, or steal the main characters' spotlight.