#resources for writers
- Are you guys interested in podcasts about writing/books
- Would you guys be interested if I tried it out?
I made a tiny sample recently as an experiment and I liked the way it turned out, so let me know if you’re interested in longer episodes.
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Depict, Don’t Report
The old adage of “show, don’t tell” is most applicable to third person narration, because it is here that writers most often make the mistake of reporting events in an especially monotonous fashion rather than illustrating them. Utilizing a variety of sentence structure, intentional vocabulary, and engaging pace/tone is the key to pulling your reader into the story rather than simply dictating a series of events. Third person point of view can make it difficult for a reader to connect intimately with the story, as the more objective voice or subtlety of the narrator’s bias can translate in a less personal manner than first person. It’s imperative to receive feedback on how well your use of alternative methods is drawing the reader into the story throughout.
Including Backstory & Context
Backstory is more convenient with third person POV, because you’re not limited to the knowledge of a single character. (Of course, this is assuming that you’re writing in third person omniscient, rather than limited. There will be a follow-up article all about limited POV in the near future, but for the purpose of this article, this focuses on omniscience.) You can utilize information, memories, and backstory of your entire cast or world, and furthermore give your reader insights into the characters’ actions or world building that they would not have in first person. Take advantage of this allowance to create a rich narrative with clear connections between characters, plot points, and information.
Developing Secondary Characters
The ability to further develop secondary characters is a major advantage of utilizing third person narration, because you are not so limited in the scope of information being revealed to the reader. You can shift the focus of the narrative to situations that solely involve characters other than your protagonist, and this offers the unique perspectives of characters outside or on the periphery of the main conflict. You can develop subplots more efficiently, offer the reader information your protagonist isn’t aware of to create suspense, and enrich your world outside of their limited perspective. This makes third person an optimal point of view to utilize when telling a particularly complex story or one that is set in a quite complicated world.
Distinctive Voice
When one is writing in the third person, it can be easy to fall into the habit of filling the pages with paragraphs of unnecessary description in order to achieve goals of length or in emulation of a particular writing style. This is often also the result of maintaining a needlessly objective narration. It is reasonable to write in the third person with a particular slant or bias. It gives the narrator their own voice, and makes the writing more engaging. Not just in the way of an unreliable narrator, where the bias in narration distorts or exaggerates the essence of the plot. You as the writer or narrator should have a voice that is just as distinctive as any character would have, although it’s generally agreed that a third person narration should be more subtle than a first person narration.
Practice & Adjustment
Third person point of view can be difficult to get accustomed to. It is a more impersonal style of writing. When writing about intimate or meaningful messages/events/characters, it can feel more natural to adhere to a first person perspective, even if third person better serves the story overall. It’s important that you actively practice if you’re unfamiliar with writing an entire story in third person. Getting used to approaching certain events or depicting certain emotions from a third person perspective is immeasurably helpful to the process of creating an engaging story. It can also help to practice thinking about events from that perspective if you’re prone to switching perspectives reflexively when you’re trying to articulate emotion or tone, which is a struggle I see often with new attempts at this POV.
Common Struggles
~ When dealing with multiple characters that have they/them pronouns, what’s a good way to keep the reader from getting mixed up? I assume that you would want to try and rely on a different sentence structure that allows you to clarify whom you’re referring to with context clues, rather than pronouns. It may seem less clear or accessible, but it’s very possible to write in a way where each sentence doesn’t start with “he said, she said, they said”. It’s also important that you master the way in which you write about each individual character. This will help your reader to correctly anticipate who you’re writing about and when.
~ When writing third person POV, how do you write multiple people’s emotions and perspectives at the same time? Focus on how they express their emotions rather than communicating exactly what they’re feeling and why. If the reader needs to comprehend the ins and outs of their thought process, perhaps third person isn’t suitable for the story.
~ And if lots of people with the same pronouns are in the same scene, what are useful ways to distinguish between the characters without using their names all the time? Clarify who you are referring to whenever “the camera moves”. When the focus shifts in space rather than subject, you must signal to the reader that this has happened. The use of dialogue tags is not an efficient way to do this, and many writers will often make the mistake of leaning too heavily on them. Instead, give your characters “stage business”, or an activity that they’re engaging with while dialogue is happening, and when they become the center of attention, refer back to the activity in a subtle way. Move the camera. Although, it is important to note that you rarely need so much dialogue in a scene to communicate information to the reader that you would get lost in the crowd of involved characters. Consider what you could better share through description and action, rather than dialogue.
~ How do you make sure you don’t use too many pronouns in a paragraph to refer to a certain character? Consider whether your descriptive style is too procedural. Natural writing flows without an abundance of clarifying pronouns, and if you start every sentence in a paragraph with “she did this, she saw that, she noticed, she heard, she felt” your writing will fall flat. Experiment with sentence structure, descriptive style, and perspective in your writing. At a certain point, your reader should be in a groove where they can keep up with who you’re referring to, even through context clues having to do with a large cast in the same scene.
~ How do I maintain momentum and clarity when writing in third person limited POV? For those who may not know, third person limitation is the narration of a single character’s perspective (at a time, if the story focuses on multiple characters). This point of view can be tricky because the limitation requires you to differentiate what each character knows and when they become aware of things that may already be known by other point of view characters.
The best advice I can give when attempting this is to be very diligent in keeping your characters’ stories and inner monologues straight. Keep track of who knows what, when they found (or will find) out, and refer to this timeline regularly as your story progresses. It’s also worth your time to strategize with your key pieces of information. If your reader has already learned this information through another character’s perspective, then reviewing this through the eyes of another must be illuminating in a different way, or the process of the other characters’ discoveries of what we already know must add to the suspense/emotional build/payoff. Pieces of information are the fireworks of your story, and you need to release or repeat them with great care for the greater show.
Other Resources
- Pros & Cons of Different Points of View
- Resources For Describing Characters
- Resources For Describing Emotion
- How To Fit Character Development Into Your Story
- Giving Characters Distinct Voices in Dialogue
- Conveying Emotions
- Tips on Introducing Characters
- Introducing Secondary Characters
- Tips on Character Consistency
- Resources For Plot Development
- Guide To Plot Development
- Tackling Subplots
- Character Driven vs. Plot Driven Stories
- Finding Your Own Writing Style
- How To Engage The Reader
- Tips on Introducing Backstory
- Describing Setting
- Resources For Worldbuilding
- Resources For Describing Physical Things
- Tips on Introducing Political Backstory
- Improving Your General Writing Skills|Part II
- How To Develop A Distinct Voice In Your Writing
- Tips On Dialogue
- Using Vocabulary
- Balancing Detail & Development
- Showing Vs Telling
- Writing In Third Person POV
- Improving Flow In Writing
- What To Cut Out of Your Story
- How To Perfect The Tone
- Tips on Balancing Development
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50Travel Prompts
A/N: I’m missing being able to go places, so here are some travel themed dialogue prompts to live vicariously through.
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1. “Excuse me, sir/ma’am! You can’t go back there without a ticket!”
2. “You need to hurry if you want to stop him/her from leaving. The flight takes off in 30 minutes.”
3. “Excuse me, I’m the middle seat.”
4. “I have been very patient with your road trip soundtrack, but this?!? This is where I have to draw the line.”
5. “I told you we should have stopped at that last gas station.”
6. “Here, take my hand. Take off is the scariest part.”
7. “So that’s it. You just hopped a bus and left me? It was that easy for you?!”
8. “Any interest in joining the mile high club?”
9. “Move, I need to stretch my legs.”
10. “I can’t believe you’re breaking up with me on an airplane!”
11. “Oh my god, I drooled all over your shoulder! I’m so sorry!”
12. “I’m not missing this flight because of you. I asked you if you had your passport like 8 times!”
13. “You won an all expense paid trip where?!”
14. “Hey, I’m going home for my nana’s birthday and my whole family wants to meet you. You can totally say no, I know this is a lot.”
15. “Hey! Stop that pickpocket!”
16. “Why are you taking a train cross country? Won’t that take days?”
17. “I am in hell. I’m never taking a greyhound bus again.”
18.“What are you doing here?” “I know you’re mad at me, but I just took three buses, a train, and then hitched a ride on the back of a truck full of chickens to get here because I needed to see you.”
19.“Jesus, how many ambiens did you take?!” “I just wanted to sleep through the flight so I wouldn’t be scared.”
20.“Is today the day we finally make it to the cruise ship gym?” “No.”
21. “….I don’t know why I let you talk me into this. We should have just done the cruise’s shore excursion.”
22. “…..I think I’m going to be seasick.”
23. “Should we stop at the world’s largest ball of twine?”
24. “Pull over. You’re falling asleep.”
25. “Sing with me! Pretend we’re on carpool karaoke!”
26. “You’re so beautiful, especially with the wind blowing through your hair and all.”
27. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you if the boat is rocking, don’t come knocking?”
28. “I met my soulmate on the subway this morning. But I didn’t get their name, or number, or speak to them at all actually.”
29. “Excuse me, is this seat taken?”
30. “I hate how much we’ve been fighting this trip. I feel like we should talk about it.”
31. “I really hope our baby doesn’t cry through the whole flight.”
32. “Hey, relax. We’re on vacation so stop being stressed out.”
33. “Thisis a local delicacy? You’re not messing with me, right?”
34. “It’s kind of surreal to be in the land of my ancestors.”
35.“Hey, how was your flight?” “Long, but worth it to have you in my arms right now.”
36. “Hey, calm down. It’s just a little turbulence.”
37.“Hey! Don’t lean on the ship railing like that! Are you trying to fall overboard?” “That depends. Would you jump in after me?”
38. “Uhhh, I feel like smoke coming out of the engine is a bad sign, right?”
39. “Let’s buy an RV.”
40. “Here, put this on. I’m not paying extra for an overweight bag.”
41. “I want us to meet here more than once a year.”
42. “Uhh….yeah….I was really hoping to not have my bag randomly searched. Not that I have a bomb or anything! God, I should not have just said bomb in an airport. It’s just……there’s a lot of…sex stuff in there.”
43. “I don’t want you to go home when your student visa expires….so let’s get married.”
44. “What a corny welcome home poster. I love it.”
45. “We only have enough for one ticket. Think they’ll let you sit in my lap?”
46. “Were you really going to leave without even saying goodbye?”
47. “Hey, no tears. I’m coming out to see you again in just 6 weeks.”
48. “I can’t believe the cruise confiscated my alcohol. I’m so mad.”
49. “I am absolutely notdoingtheTitanic thing with you.”
50. “….am I on the highway to hell?”
