http://www.conjunctions.com/print/article/lydia-davis-c24
Lydia Davis,
“What She Knew”
“People did not know what she knew, that she was not really a young woman but a man, often a fat man, but more often, probably, an old man. The fact that she was an old man made it hard for her to be a young woman. It was hard for her to talk to a young man, for instance, though the young man was clearly interested in her. She had to ask herself, Why is this young man flirting with this old man?”
“What She Knew”
“People did not know what she knew, that she was not really a young woman but a man, often a fat man, but more often, probably, an old man. The fact that she was an old man made it hard for her to be a young woman. It was hard for her to talk to a young man, for instance, though the young man was clearly interested in her. She had to ask herself, Why is this young man flirting with this old man?”
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Third Person Perspective
Control and power: the 3rd person narrator can control and manipulate his/her characters at will, shaping the story
Control and power: the 3rd person narrator can control and manipulate his/her characters at will, shaping the story
- Access: can access the mind and feelings of a character, even the feelings that the character will not admit to herself
- Insight: can offer wisdom and truth to the situation, showing us why people act the way they do, even if they don’t know it themselves
- Analysis: can reflect on the larger meaning of a situation, or draw parallels between two different situations that the characters can’t see
- Beauty: can describe, build worlds, paint pictures, show action clearly
Downsides of Third Person
Overanalysis: the temptation is to over-explain, over-analyze, telling the reader too much about what something means, what a character is feeling, or why we should care - Neutrality: the default mode of narration is 3rd person, and it can feel empty and devoid of personality — why is this narrator telling us this story?
- Manipulation: the power the 3rd person narrator has to leave or join a scene can feel manipulative and artificial
Types of Third Person
Dramatic objective - no access - 3rd person omniscient - all access
- 3rd person limited - limited access (to one person)
- 3rd person roving limited - limited access to one person at a time
How much distance do you want to have between the narrator and the character? - How much access do you want to have to your character’s mind?
- How much insight do you want into your character and the world s/he inhabits?
- How filtered do you want your narration to be through the character’s eyes?
- What format are you choosing to tell the story within?
Revealing Character
The more distant your narrator is from your characters, the more you must use showing to reveal the character’s inner self - Use details, props, actions, and direct dialogue to reveal the character
- Dramatic irony: when the reader knows what the character doesn’t
Showing not Telling Exercises
- He was a cowardly person.
- She was nervous about giving the class presentation.
- She ate lunch with her mother. She didn’t like her mother very much.
- She thought the guy sitting across from her on the bus was very attractive and she wished he would ask her out.
- The boss was hated by his employees.
- The little boy didn’t want his parents to leave on their night out.
- She really only went to the mall with the girls from her school because she wanted to impress them, but they were always mean to her.
Consider the image. Using eyes. Or other means.
What happened either right before or right after the moment of the image? What is the person thinking about?
1. Write paragraph or so in first person. What is the character thinking & feeling?
2. Describe the event with a traditionally insightful narrator (i.e. with access to their feelings.)
3. Now describe the same event entirely in the dramatic objective (i.e. without access to the feelings of the character. Show not tell?
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