Dialogue – Joseph Carrabis, Author Blog

An Experiment in Writing – Part 26: World-Building via 1stP POV

A technique I love for involving the reader/listener AND providing necessary story information ASAP is world-building via 1stP POV.

I won’t get into how the term world-building is a glom for all sorts of other things writers need to know in order to write well, things like atmosphere, character, dialogue, storytelling, style, tone, conflict, description, exposition, …

No wonder they glom it all together into “world-building!”

I mean, it’s a lot easier to do one thing poorly than develop the skills so you can use some while developing others and constantly adding to your repertoire/took kit, right?

Harrumph!.

As mentioned in experiments 5, 14, 25, and in other experiments, 1stP POV is immediate and intimate. The narrator is talking directly to the reader/listener. Someone talking directly to you and being vulnerable (whenever anyone shares their take on something – be it the weather, politics, food, people, … – they are being vulnerable. Being vulnerable, by the way, is how confidence players do their thing) is a quick way to build rapport, and rapport equals readers’ increase interest in the story.

Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money.

An Experiment in Writing – Part 25: Accidental POV Shifts

I’m critiquing one of Liz Tuckwell‘s alternate history pieces.

First thing, Liz is a gifted author (I enjoy her work) and a regular member of RoundTable 360° (a monthly meeting of creatives from all disciplines where we discuss challenges all creatives face and support each other).

Anyway, while critiquing Liz’s piece, I ran into something interesting, something craft-issueish, and because I’m anal-retentive about writing craft, it stopped me.

The interesting thing was a shift in POVs (viewpoints):

Tully found it hard to enjoy the food when he was tasting it for poison. Each mouthful of honeyed pork or spiced dove might be his last. That also applied to the excellent Jyptian wine he had to try. How he hated Tremulous for suggesting Tully could be his food taster.

Tully found it hard to enjoy the food when he was tasting it for poison. is a good line in 3rdPLO (third person, limited omniscient) POV
Each mouthful of honeyed pork or spiced dove might be his last. is also a good line but is it in 3rdPLO or 1stP POV (and possibly even Deep POV)?
One of the great things about speculative fiction writing (and which definitely separates it from other genres) is 1stP POV is a limited viewpoint by definition in other genres, not so in speculative fiction. The latter allows a the full range from the character only knowing about themselves (but not being honest with themselves hence not being honest with the reader – the unreliable witness character) to having god-like abilities and knowing what’s going on everywhere everywhen. Each has its benefits and detriments.
That also applied to the excellent Jyptian wine he had to try. How he hated Tremulous for suggesting Tully could be his food taster. are both in 3rdP Omniscient.
Going from 3rdPLO to 1stPDeep is fine because that’s how people think, but!!! the abrupt pullback can cause confusion. Usually the steps we take down a well (or into a character’s psyche) must equal the steps we take up a well (or a character’s psyche). We can run in either or both directions, and usually the steps have to be equal.

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Liz Tuckwell’s website.

Deep POV

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Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money.

An Experiment in Writing – Part 21: More on Exposition via Dialogue – Holmeses&Watsons

One of the great things you can do with exposition via dialogue is Holmes&Watson.

Holmes&Watson techniques go back to Plato and occur between two characters (which means it can occur between a character and themselves (Adam Baldwin talking to the mirror while shaving in The Hunt for Red October is an example)), a human and a non-human, two non-humans, … Many times this technique is used in classroom settings when the professor/teacher/lecturer explains to students/participants.

What’s required aside from two characters is that one character be a subject-matter expert or SME, meaning they have extremely deep knowledge of a given field (and often several). The other character has normal/average understanding of things, and some of that understanding is usually flawed.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are probably the best known examples of this technique. Holmes explains to Watson how he came up with – to him – obvious conclusions to mystifying situations. This technique – as indicated above – is ancient. Look through any type of murder mystery be it in print, digital, online, a TV show, a movie, and you’ll find one person explaining to the other. It appears in many other genres, too. Whenever the author wants to make sure the reader understands something. The basis for this is using a character to let the reader know how they should react to something happening in the story.

What most people fail to realize is the best Watsons are reader/audience substitutes. They take the place of the reader so the author can explain what’s going on in the story and thus keep the reader up to speed with the plot, et cetera.

Enjoy!

Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money.

An Experiment in Writing – Part 17: Author Voice, Character Voice (Part 3)

This is the third experiment in the Author Voice, Character Voice arc. I mentioned in Part 1.

My goal in this arc is to demonstrate the different voices at an author’s disposal. Part 1 focused on Character Voice. Part 2 focused on Author as Character, something often used when the character has no language and only experience, which causes the author write through the character’s POV but without internal or external dialogue, and when the character’s observations, awareness, and explanations are somehow limited (age, language, non-human, …).

This time out we consider how to craft the story when the Author is the character. The author writes directly through the character’s POV in 1stP, increasing intimacy and immediacy between character and reader.

Let me know how good a job I’m doing. Feel free to ask me to elaborate. Currently I recognize this is one of those things I know and never had to explain to myself.

Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money.

An Experiment in Writing – Part 13: Exposition via Dialogue

Exposition – an ugly lump of glucky words authors plop into their work with the intention of getting information to the reader.

Usually because they’re either lazy or don’t know any better.

Especially if it’s glucky.

Wow. Talk about having an opinion.

There’s not much I can suggest to the lazy author, both this experiment and the next offer some ways to for non-lazies to get information to the author in a way which keeps the reader engaged and the story moving forward.

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Man and Boy; Tennessee, 1932

Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Get copies of Empty Sky and follow along.

For that matter, pick up several dozen copies of all my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, and I need the money.

All Experiments