whut cha talkin' bout?

ZHAO LUSI as Ah Yin in

Guzhuang Appreciation Month: favorite aesthetics

Most of us know that there are three major viewpoints from which stories are told:

First Person – “I tell my own story with the pronoun ‘I’ because I’m just so damn awesome.”

Second Person – “You are a character in this story, and you can’t do anything about it.  If it makes you uncomfortable, tough shit.”

Third Person – “He muttered himself and pulled the blankets over his head, wishing this asshole would stop narrating his life.”

Those are the three viewpoints, and that’s all there is to it.  Just pick your favorite, and you’re ready to go.  Right?

Well.  Not exactly.  

You see, my fellow scribblers, there are actually multiple sub categories of each viewpoint – beyond even the “Third Person Omniscient” or “Third Person Subjective.”

To be specific:

First Person:

First Person Informant

First Person Reminiscent

Unreliable

Second Person:

Reader as Character

I Substitute

Third Person:

Objective 

Limited 

Multiple Selective Omniscience 

Omniscient

This might seem overwhelming, but fear not!  Each perspective is fairly easy to break down, and ultimately, apply to your own work and understanding of literature.  This post will elucidate each.

So let’s take charge of our narratives and delve in, like the active protagonists we are.