Writing Tutorial

Part 1, perspective, POV, and tense.

Hello all, and welcome to Keldor Feign's writing tutorial, part one.  Now, first off, many of you may be wondering “Who is this guy, and why does he think he can write about creative writing.”  Good question, and the answer is: I have a bachelor's degree in English, with a creative writing emphasis.  While this does NOT make me an expert, I feel it does give me enough credibility to put down a few guidelines that may just help you to be a better writer.  If you don't like what I have to say, then you can leave.  Go on, I won't hold it against you.

Now, second question many of you may ask is “Who dares tell me how to write?  I am my own creative being and I will write however I gosh-darn well please.”  Well, to answer that, yes, you can write however you want.  However, if you want others to like, or be able to follow, your stories you might want to keep some things in mind while writing.

Okay, so, there are a lot of places we could start with a “First Tutorial.”  We could start with story composition, style, pacing, character development . . . yadda yadda yadda.  However, I think the most important thing to realize isn't even part of story composition.  Instead, it is a basic premise of writing that many people still fail to fully grasp.  It is also, in my opinion, the one thing that cripples most writers, and automatically tips readers off that a story is “bad.”  It is, quite simply, the perspective, POV, and tenses.

Okay, so, many people are wondering by now what perspective means in a story.  Perspective is another word for first, second, or third person writing.  For those of you still lost, here is a brief rundown.

First person is when you write using “I.”  It is writing as if everything the main character is experiencing, the writer is experiencing.  For example.

[I groggily walk down the corridor, stumbling along, searching in vain for my morning coffee.]

Notice, the “I” and “my” in the sentence.  The reader is reading the narration of the main character.  Now, there are some problems and bonuses to writing in first person.  First off, you can ONLY write about what the main character sees, does, and thinks.  If your main character, Bob, is stuck in a room blindfolded, you cannot talk about stuff that is happening somewhere else (unless Bob possesses ESP or something . . .).  

But hold on, there are a few pros to working with first person as well.  First person lets you completely explore one character in a depth that no other perspective offers.  So, while Bob is stuck in that room, he can narrate about how cold, dark, or scared he is.  Also, and most importantly, in first person, if someone makes a mistake, or a dumb move because it is 'part of their character,' the audience is more likely to accept it.  Because we know everything going on inside the character's head.

Second person, is, quite simply, writing to the reader.  This is a very underused style, because if the reader doesn't follow along with what is written, there is an immediate “disconnect” and the reader is easily pulled from the work.  The best example is the 'choose your own adventure books' that most of us read as kids.  Here is an example.

[You groggily wake from your dream, wishing for just a few more minutes of sleep.  But you have stuff to do today, and you know that procrastination will only make it worse.]

Now, see?  For some people, that above sentence will suck them in, make them say “Yeah, that's totally me!”  Others will say “Screw what I have to do today, I'd want more sleep.”  For the latter people, they are now disconnected from the story and less likely to enjoy it.  However, if done properly, writing in the second person can be VERY convincing, if only for some people.

Now, strangely enough, there are two versions of third person.  Third person, omniscient (meaning knowing all), and third person, limited omniscient.  For those of you about to point out how absurd 'limited omniscient' sounds, well, I am not joking, that is what writers call it.

Omniscient third person is, simply, the writer knows everything.  The Lord of the Rings was written in this style.  Here's an example:

[Billy and Jane walked down the street, Billy slightly in front.  Occasionally he would check back to make sure she was still behind him.]

Omniscient writing has upsides and downsides.  The upside being that the writer can shift to any person, any time, and talk about anything.  The biggest downside is that, because you are not focusing on one character, immersion is more difficult and character development is harder.  In other words, it is harder to get inside a character's 'head.'

Limited omniscient is, basically, first person limitations but using third person language.  Another way to put is is: there is a dude that is writing down everything that is happening to one guy, his thoughts, feelings, everything he senses, EVERYTHING.  This is the most common form of writing that I see.  Here is an example, using the above example but in limited omniscient.

[Billy casually strolled down the street, enjoying the spring breeze.  Despite the fact that he could hear Jane's footsteps behind him at all times, he occasionally turned his head back to make sure she was doing okay.]

See the difference?  Same setting, same scene, but we can see a lot more of Billy's life, and a lot less of Jane's.

Okay, so now you know the main perspectives, what do you do with them?  Well, anything you want, but make sure to keep the same perspective throughout the whole story, or people will get confused very quickly.  Don't trust me?  Try to make sense of the following paragraph:

[You gingerly reach for the valve of the helium tank.  I find it alluring, engaging, almost magnetic in my attraction to it.  Janet gently reached for the hose and placed it in her mouth.  Janet found this exciting, enticing, as many people had before.  Then you gently turn the valve and feel the cold rush of helium enter your body, perforate your body, filling me up.]

So, did you understand that?  Took a lot of work didn't it?  You had to stop thinking about the story, try to figure out what was going on, and then continue reading, didn't you?  Took you out of the story, didn't it?

The last two bits of info are far easier and simpler to explain.

POV, Point of View.

Quite simply, when writing about someone, continue writing about them.  This isn't a problem for Full omniscient third person, but for every other type of writing, the reader is behind one AND PRECICELY ONE person.  So switching who is telling the story is bad.  If you must switch who is telling the story, give the reader some indication.  The best is a bunch of lines, or an asterisks, and then immediately follow up by making it obvious you are talking about someone else.  Here is an example of how to do it properly.

[Jane looked around the hardware story, she was searching, hoping in vain to find that which she sought, the coveted metric alen wrench set.  She dared not ask a store clerk for help, she somehow feared that he would confirm that the store was out of stock . . . or worse yet, that they didn't stock it at all!

Billy watched in half amusement, half confusion as the strange woman traversed up and down the same isles, looking for something that was clearly not there.  He had called out a few times to her, but she had hastened away at every“excuse me ma'am” he had offered.]

Part 3, Tense.

Just like POV, very simple and straightforward lesson.  Don't change tenses.  For those of you who don't know, tense is “when something is happening.”  Most stories are written in the immediate past tense.  For example:

[Frank heard the gunshot, and immediately turned his head toward the noise.]

Heard, turned, these things happened in the past, however shortly in the past they were.  This is the past tense.  If you are writing a story in the past tense, then everything you write must be in the past.  If you don't follow through, then (just like POV and perspective) you will loose your readers.

The primary other way to write is in the present tense.  Same sentence, as above, in present tense would be:

[Frank hears a gunshot, and immediately turns his head toward the noise.]

It may not seem like a lot of a difference, but trust me, not keeping the same tense throughout a story causes major confusion and leads to reader disconnect.

Anyway, there you go, the first of Keldor Feign's writing tutorials.  I hope to write a few more for all those inspiring writers out there, and I hope my efforts help some of you.  Until next time!