Carmen’s 2024 Workshop – Points of View & Perspectives

Point of View (or POV) refers to who is telling the story. Is it a first, second or third person view? Or multiple views?

Perspective refers to a narrator’s outlook on the characters and events in the story, or their view of life. The narrator’s perspective determines how the story is to be told.

Examples of One Event Seen Differently by Two People – Dual Perspective

Fiction Examples

There, There by Tommy Orange

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Nonfiction Examples

From Creative Writing edited by Linda Anderson – Versions of a Life

• ‘As the first mushroom floated off into the blue, it changed its shape into a flower-like form – its giant petal curving downward, creamy-white outside, rose-coloured inside. It still retained that shape when we gazed at it from a distance of about two hundred miles.’

• ‘My brother and sisters didn’t get to the shelter in time, so they were burnt and crying. Half an hour later my mother appeared. She was covered with blood. She had been making lunch at home when the bomb was dropped. My younger sisters died the next day. My mother – she also died the next day. And then my older brother died.’

Both quotes describe the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, 9^th August 1945.

• The first account was written by William Laurence, who viewed the events through arc-welder’s glasses in an ‘observer’ plane. It was published three days after the event in The New York Times and, as an eyewitness account, was syndicated worldwide.
• The second account came from Fujio Tsujimoto, who had been in the playground of his primary school at the time. The quote was gathered through an interview some ten years later.

How powerful this is as a tool for writers. You can apply it to crime, suspense, history, comedy, romance and especially crossover genres.

Research one subject, but write the story from two opposing perspectives to get the most out of it.

Write two POVs in one story around a shared known subject. This way you may find the unexpected in familiar situations.

How does it create tension? Emotional attachment? Explore the opportunities for danger and deceit.

Watch two different stories with similar details unfold and compare their endings.

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The Workshop

Exercise 1

Spend fifteen minutes writing about something everyone has experienced. Here are some examples:

1. A presentation of a prize to a team of workers.
2. Two people read the same book and have conflicting opinions.
3. Two teachers see the same pupil very differently.

Exercise 2

Spend fifteen minutes coming up with different perspectives and POVs for the following:

1. A baby naming ceremony.
2. Neighbours recalling the last time they saw a missing person.
3. A descendant looking at a war record versus the person whose record is being examined.

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Carmen Walton – August 2024

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“Perspective: Lecture hall” by Taqirumi is licensed under CC BY 2.0.