What do you think?
Rate this book
Point of View: Why Narrative Perspective Can Make or Break Your Story
Finding the right point of view is one of the most important—and least understood—challenges writers face.
Point of view extends far beyond the choice of first, second, or third person. POV determines all that a reader knows about the world inside a story. Is the murder told from the criminal’s, the detective’s, or the victim’s vantage point? An awful lot rides on that decision.
In short, a story’s point of view guides the characters, message, and events that matter.
In Point of Why Narrative Perspective Can Make or Break Your Story, Story Grid Publishing Editor-in-Chief Leslie Watts provides examples from dozens of masterworks to help writers understand telling and showing points of view and narrative devices. Does a telling narrator live inside or outside the story? Is the focus of a showing POV external or internal? Every choice has an impact.
Watts offers a revolutionary approach to point of view, demonstrating how deep study of narrative perspective can empower and uplift storytellers themselves. When writers truly master point of view they can share the messages they want to share and bring their stories to life.
Point of view extends far beyond the choice of first, second, or third person. POV determines all that a reader knows about the world inside a story. Is the murder told from the criminal’s, the detective’s, or the victim’s vantage point? An awful lot rides on that decision.
In short, a story’s point of view guides the characters, message, and events that matter.
In Point of Why Narrative Perspective Can Make or Break Your Story, Story Grid Publishing Editor-in-Chief Leslie Watts provides examples from dozens of masterworks to help writers understand telling and showing points of view and narrative devices. Does a telling narrator live inside or outside the story? Is the focus of a showing POV external or internal? Every choice has an impact.
Watts offers a revolutionary approach to point of view, demonstrating how deep study of narrative perspective can empower and uplift storytellers themselves. When writers truly master point of view they can share the messages they want to share and bring their stories to life.
66 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 9, 2020
4 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 1, 2022
Get all the Story Grid Beats. Read all the Story Grid Beats.
If you want to level up your craft as a writer, this is the way to go.
Also, these then become a great source of reference when you are stuck with your writing (or doing your weekly Story Grid Guild worksheet).
I'd recommend bookmarking the pages that have concepts, or tools that you'd likely revisit to make it easier to consult these books.
Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 5/5
Mindset: 5/5
Some of My Highlights:
"If the global genre is that a story is about, then point of view is how we convey that story."
"In fact, the vantage point should inform our decision to write in first-, second-, or third-person point of view. Not the other way around."
"In these stories someone or something stands between the writer and the reader to tell the story."
"A peripheral narrator who is not the protagonist is a useful option when the protagonist isn't the best character to tell their story because of their vantage point."
"A narrator as witness also works when the writer wants to conceal the protagonist's thoughts."
"Stories with multi-person narratives tend to be complex with several subplots and smaller story threads."
If you want to level up your craft as a writer, this is the way to go.
Also, these then become a great source of reference when you are stuck with your writing (or doing your weekly Story Grid Guild worksheet).
I'd recommend bookmarking the pages that have concepts, or tools that you'd likely revisit to make it easier to consult these books.
Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 5/5
Mindset: 5/5
Some of My Highlights:
"If the global genre is that a story is about, then point of view is how we convey that story."
"In fact, the vantage point should inform our decision to write in first-, second-, or third-person point of view. Not the other way around."
"In these stories someone or something stands between the writer and the reader to tell the story."
"A peripheral narrator who is not the protagonist is a useful option when the protagonist isn't the best character to tell their story because of their vantage point."
"A narrator as witness also works when the writer wants to conceal the protagonist's thoughts."
"Stories with multi-person narratives tend to be complex with several subplots and smaller story threads."
February 6, 2022
fundamental to good stories
Before I studied this method, I had no idea how important point of view is. Now, while I still struggle some, I am much more comfortable.
Before I studied this method, I had no idea how important point of view is. Now, while I still struggle some, I am much more comfortable.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews