Viewpoint: Key to Fiction Writing

by Francis L. Fugate

This book presents an unusually effective approach to the craft of fiction writing. Focusing on the techniques of viewpoint -- "the bridge between the heart and mind of the reader" -- it guides the aspiring short story writer and novelist, as well as the experienced author, through the whole creative process of writing good fiction, and answers in detail the important question, "What viewpoint should I use?" "The writer's great trade secret," says Mr. Fugate, "is that he knows how to turn a character inside out, how to make him so real to the reader that the reader knows and understands this paper person better than he knows and understands himself. This is viewpoint."

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this book is a straightforward discussion of POV and its different types. However, that's not enough to fill a book, so the book's second half is a discussion of other topics in fiction writing which Fulgate tries, usually awkwardly, to tie together somehow with POV. Some of these topics will be familiar from other fiction writing texts. They include showing vs telling, how to create reader sympathy and buy-in to your character, something very close to Dwight Swain's famous motivation-reaction unit (although Fulgate never credits Swain), and handling flashbacks and transitions. Unfortunately, the book's very last words encourage the use of the present participle to make prose "flowing," advice that few others would agree with.

The book does not include anything about plot or other large-scale fiction structure.

This is all better than it sounds. With the exception of Fulgate's final bit of bad advice, most of his ideas seem solid. Fulgate's advice on how to create reader sympathy for a character and how to handle a transition I found especially interesting.

[Cypress Butane · Rating 4 out of 5]

We went through about two-thirds of this book in my writers' group and I found it interesting and insightful. I choose this book specifically because it was a little 'dated' and it used some terminology and had a certain perspective on 'viewpoint' that cut at a different angle and took a broader approach to character - through viewpoint - that I found helpful. Especially as an author who writes sci-fi laden with a lot of ideas and philosophy and as someone steeped in metafictions, I found this a great course in a topic I have struggled with.