In his craft book, Alone with All That Could Happen, David Jauss discusses some of the most frequently taught elements of fiction writing craft with a fresh perspective that examines them more deeply and, in some cases, contradicts the conventional wisdom. His first topic is point of view (POV).
P
erhaps the most critical choice that an author must make is to determine what point of view will the story be told. The choice the author makes will affect just about everything else the author does and may even influence how the author envisions the story being told. From a reader’s perspective, point of view determines how the reader will perceive the story and, ultimately, how they experience it. One of the general rules of thumb when writing a piece of fiction is to choose a point of view and stick to it. In Writing Fiction, Janet Burroway cautions:
Indeed, no writing rule is so frequently broken to such original and inventive effect as consistency of point of view, as several stories in this volume attest. Yet the general rule of consistency holds, and a writer who shows his amateurism in the failure to stick to a single point of view. Once established, point of view constitutes a contract between author and reader, at it will be difficult to break the contract gracefully. (292)
As with most general rules about writing, the general rule is: before one breaks a rule, one must first know and understand the rule. Furthermore, if an author is going to break this rule, it must be justified by some legitimate literary and storytelling purpose (and be successfully executed). Every time the point of view changes in a story, the reader must reorient him or herself, and the fictive dream is disrupted.
Short story “Last September” published in The Loch Raven Review:https://thelochravenreview.net/fred-bubbers/
