I’m working on a short story that I plan to send to Odyssey as part of my pre-workshop homework. The basic premise of the story is a man who has power, but as a consequence, his sensations, physical and emotional, are dulled. He must decide whether the power is worth the cost.
I’ve also been listening to the Odyssey podcasts. One of those was a discussion of PoV and psychic distance and one of the PoV/distances discussed is 3rd person camera. This is where the story is narrated in third person without entering into the heads of any characters – the reader can only see what the camera sees.
That got me to thinking… I decided I would try to use 3rd person camera to convey the numbness that my main character feels, and then, at the end of the story, when the character chooses to feel the world again, I would slip into traditional limited 3rd person to convey that intimacy.
3rd person camera view. Try it! It has become a great exercise in showing vs. telling. If you don’t work at it, 3rd person camera can become very stiff – essentially a documentary. To overcome that, you have to ask yourself – how can I convey the character’s thoughts and emotions without going inside their head? What actions can they take that will show what they are feeling and thinking
I’ve had to work extremely hard and at a more micro level than I am used to (every word, every sentence has to contribute) but the result has been satisfying so far.
Like I said, it’s a great exercise. Take some limited 3rd person that you’ve done and rewrite the scene in 3rd person camera. Are you conveying the same information and emotion that you were before? Try it, it’s certainly helped me.