1. G-EN270 INTRO TO FICTION
The Elements of Fiction
Point of View
Bruce Clary, McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas

2. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
Point of view is the one indispensable
element of fiction.

3. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
Point of view is perhaps the single
most important artistic decision that a
a writer makes.

4. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
Point of view is the most complex
element of fiction.

5. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
Five questions for assessing point of view
• Who speaks?
• To whom?
• In what form?
• At what distance from the action?
• With what limitations?

6. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
Who speaks? :: A narrative voice
• Third person
• Editorial omniscient
• Limited omniscient
• Objective

7. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
Who speaks? :: A character
• First person
• Major (or central) character
• Minor (or peripheral) character

8. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
To whom?
• The reader
• Another character or characters
• Some other vague or shadowy auditor(s)
• The self

9. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
In what form?
• Written story
• Spoken story/monologue
• Report
• Confession
• Interior monologue
• Journal or diary
• Stream of consciousness

10. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
At what distance?
• Authorial distance or psychic distance
• Spatial and temporal distance
• Irony
• Verbal irony
• Dramatic irony
• Cosmic irony

11. G-EN270 INTRO TO ICTION
AR340 WEB-BASEDFDESIGN
With what limitations?
• Reliable narrator
• Full authority (omniscient)
• Objective, astute, honest
• Unreliable narrator
• Lacks full knowledge of situation
• Biased, blindly subjective
• Intentionally misleading
• Mentally/psychologically unstable