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Read By The Author

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The effect of point of view (POV) on audio narration:

The first person POV is a twisted state of mind:

  • You are the Narrator of the book and your main character is the Narrator in the book (but not when he's engaged in dialog. Then he's being a character in the book, not the narrator).
  • The listener may have difficulty knowing when the POV character is talking out loud and when he is narrating. Most first person narrations are told in the past tense, but dialogue is in the present tense. Keep a tighter rein on the narrator's past tense voice. Allow your dialogue voice to exhibit a broader spectrum of present tense emotions.
  • Be especially aware when the text jumps from words spoken to other characters to private thoughts. You don't want to give the impression that the first person narrator spoke something to another character in the book, when in fact he only thought it, but didn't say it out loud.

The third person POV may float in and out of the minds of the characters:

Whenever you are not 'in the mind' of a character, you are the storyteller, telling a story to one listener with all the skill you can muster. Focus on whatever is motivating the story at that point: it could be suspense, drama, horror, comedy.

If the POV enters the mind of character, the narration of events will be colored by the mind of that character. Any thoughts by that character have to sound like they are coming from the mind of that character. It may be openly stated:

Mary saw the smoke. The house is on fire! Where's Billy? (she thought).

Or it may be subtle, where a section of the book (or even the whole book) is narrated through a character's eyes.

The street was slick with oil after the rain. Mike showed up, he had the bat. Fat Ray, Larry-K, Donnie were coming out of Donnie's house. Mike shouted. "You got the ball?" Larry-K put up his hand. A shiny new Rawlings.
Then came that high pitched whistle. Johnny. About a block away.
Fat Ray didn't like Johnny at all. Johnny was the kind of kid you wanted to punch, but were afraid to. When Johnny told you to get up, because he wanted your seat, you got up. All except Crazy Fred. Crazy Fred just laughed when Johnny talked to him. Why did he let Crazy Fred get away with it?
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This page was last modified on August 30, 2008, at 06:02 PM