Sunday Gather Writing Essential June 24, 2012: Anonymous Narration, Single Character POV (SunWE)

Dear Gathernauts:

This is Prose Point of View Week.  This week’s POV is the most common POV there is.  You’ve probably used it without knowing what it is.  We’re talking about Anonymous Narrator, Single Character Point of View.

Wha??  Okay, here are the parameters:

• The narrator is anonymous.  We don’t know who the narrator is, and the narrator is not involved in the story.
  
  
  • The easiest way to think about this is the way you’ve probably thought about it already:  the narrator is the author.  The narrator knows what’s going on in the mind of the character because she invented him. And for our purposes, that’s just fine.
    
    
• The narrator is privy to the thoughts, confidences, feelings, motives, and history of one character only, presumably the main character.  This is what is meant by single character point of view.
  
  
• For example, the narrator—and thus, the reader—knows the thoughts, feelings, etc. of Walter Mitty.  Of Mrs. Mitty, on the other hand, all the reader knows is what Walter himself observes or already knows.

This narrative approach being so commonplace, we’ve got some really delightful examples from favorite authors (oh, and me *blush*).  Give yourself a treat and click on a few of these:

The Kid Nobody Could Handle by Kurt Vonnegut

The Catbird Seat by James Thurber (requires subscription to the New Yorker or a small fee.)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber

No Kaddish for Weinstein by Woody Allen (requires subscription to the New Yorker or a small fee.)

Mr. Durant by Dorothy Parker

The Golden Books by DW

The Prompt:

Prose: Write a story using the point of view of Anonymous Narrator, Single Character Point of View.  Or share something you’ve already written.  If you’ve written any short fiction at all, chances are, you have something in that point of view.

Poetry:  See last week’s prompt on The Sound of Language and respond to that.  If you’re working on something, please do keep working on it and get it in this week or whenever you can.  Previous work is just fine, too.  I’m sure there are lots of wonderful examples lurking on your hard drives.

• Put SunWE in the title and tags.
• Indicate in some way which devices/techniques/figures I should be paying attention to.
• Deadlines are open.  This prompt does not turn into a pumpkin a week from today.  If you’re piece isn’t done by next Sunday, get it in when you can.  This is supposed to be fun.
• I will comment on every submission and include a link to it in the next column.
• If you would like a little more academic critique--but still very friendly and positive--include the word "rigorous" in your post (e.g. "rigorous critique wanted").

Here are responses to previous prompts.  Let me know if I missed yours.  I hope you can take a few minutes and read some of the other submissions.

Devotedly,

Doug

The Sound of Language

Whisper Me by Priya P.

"Tall As Night" by Sheila Deeth

© 2012 Douglas J. Westberg. All Rights Reserved.  Please share this on Gather.com, and elsewhere on the web by means of a link back to this page, but please do not copy.   Doug's latest book is The Depressed Guy's Book of Wisdom from Chipmunka Publishing.

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