A story can be told from several different viewpoints. When the main character narrates his own experiences and observations, the author is using “first person limited” point of view.
This viewpoint is autobiographical in nature. It’s “limited” because the narrator only can tell what he perceives, not what other characters see, hear or think.
Consider this example from Ann Aguirre’s novel “Grimpsace”:
My AI asks, “Lights on, Sirantha Jax?”
Such a polite Unit spy. The fragging thing reports everything I do, every time I roll over, probably every time I take a piss.”
We only know the world from the narrator’s perspective. We have no idea what the AI is “thinking” about the narrator, the humans its serves or of its duties.
There are several advantages to using first person limited:
n Immediacy - Since the story is told as the main character makes observations, the reader in turn observes the story’s world as the same moment that the character does. This helps keep a strong flow of dramatic tension.
n Identification- This point of view typically makes identifying with the character easier for readers. They have a greater feeling of intimacy with him.
n Distinctive voice - Often a unique narrative voice is possible, which can make story more interesting to reader. In “Grimspace,” for example, the reader gains a strong sense of Jax’s anger at being incarcerated when she directly tells the tale. If told from a more objective viewpoint, however, some of the anger would be lost, and Jax would be a far less distinct - and hence interesting – character: “Lights on, Sirantha Jax?” her AI asked. Jax cursed at the AI in her mind, thought about how reported everything she did, every time she rolled over, probably every time she took a piss.”
n Control - The author arguably can better control flow of narrative when it is first person limited. Because only one character’s perspective is told, the pace of what happens to that character primarily affects the story’s flow.
n Conversational - This viewpoint often sounds more conversational in tone. This allows for use of slang, jargon offbeat expressions, as in the novel and movie “A Clockwork Orange”.
n Awareness - This perspective sometimes is used because it allows for characters who are naïve, evil or mistaken to reveal their flaws even though they haven’t grown or changed during the story. Because the author can control the narrative flow, he can point out, via the narrator’s errors in observation, that a character fault exists. Readers picking up on this error find themselves contemplating if they themselves possess this fault.
Depending on the story you’re telling, first-person limited can be ill-suited. A few disadvantages of using this point of view include:
n The unreliability of the narrator can be problematic - Since the narrator could be lying or distorting events, the reader may not identify with or understand that character.
n Any action not directly involving the narrator can’t be told - This can be limiting for an author. Who may need to show how other characters react to an event with more depth or objectivity than the narrator’s perception of those characters can offer.
n Threats to the main character can seem less dramatic - The reader knows in advance that the narrator will survive, and a dead narrator can’t tell a story, after all.
n The main character typically can’t describe himself - When the narrator does, he runs the risk of sounding obnoxious, or the passage can sound forced.
You Do It
Write a 250-word scene told only from...
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Arguably the most important “character” in your story isn’t its hero but the narrator – the person who tells the tale.
The narrator can be the story’s hero, as in Hannu Rajaniemi’s "Deux ex Homine":
As gods go, I wasn’t one of the holier-than-thou, dying for your sins variety. I was a full-blown transhumanist deity with a liquid metal body, an external brain, clouds of self-replicating utility fog to do my bidding and a recursively self-improving AI slaved to my volition. I could do anything I wanted. I wasn’t Jesus , I was Superman: an evil Bizarro Superman.
On occasion, the narrator is another character in the story, who observes what occurs to the hero, as in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, in which Watson tells how Holmes solves the mystery:
[Holmes] was a man of habits... and I had become one of them... a comrade... upon whose nerve he could place some reliance... a whetstone for his mind. I stimulated him... If I irritated him by a certain methodical slowness in my mentality, that irritation served only to make his own flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly. Such was my humble role in our alliance.
Often the narrator isn’t even a character in the story but the author’s persona, as in Stephen Baxter’s “Lakes of Light”:
The door of Bicansa’s car opened. A creature climbed our cautiously. In a bright orange pressure suit, its body was low-slung, supported by four limbs as thick as tree trunks. Even through the suit Pala could make out immense bones at hips and shoulders, and massive joints along the spine. It lifted its head and looked into the car. Through a thick visor Pala could make out a face – thick-jawed, flattened, but a human face nonetheless. The creature nodded once. Then it turned and, moving heavily, carefully, made its way toward the colony and its lake of light.
Who you select as the story’s narrator is vital. The narrator holds a unique position among readers, possessing an air of authority. Because of this, the narrator shapes the reader’s attitudes. Choose the wrong narrator, and you risk the reader interpreting events in a way you don’t intend.
Another note of caution: be careful of not imposing yourself too much if the narrator is your persona. If you directly insert too many of your views rather than let the characters’ action demonstrate your view, the story will be weakened.
You Do It
Write a 100-word scene in which the hero must rescue the Earth from alien invasion. Narrate the story from the hero’s point of view. Now rewrite the piece so it’s told either from the point of view of another character in the story who observes the hero or from the author’s perspective. Which of the two pieces is better? Why? How does selection of the narrator influence the piece’s effectiveness?
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
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