Changing the point of view

mema

As I mentioned before, I'm a novice writing my (first) novel. This is meant to be from my main character's viewpoint, so in the third person with limited point of view ('third first person'). But I got stuck. I'm just about to write a scene where my character is crying her heart out silently in the bathroom and I can't picture it any other way than written from 'the omniscent third'.
From what I understand one should generally stick to one viewpoint throughout the novel but sometimes it is possible to change the viewpoint. O.S. Card writes that one may change the limited for omniscent but not 'half way through' something. This scene is in the middle of a chapter but the heroine leaves the bedroom (in limited third) and goes to the bathroom, so I could argue that this is going to be a separate scene.
What do you think I should do? Try to write the scene in the 'limited third'? Or can I go for the 'omniscent third'? Any other options (re-writing the whole story from a different p.o.w. is out of question at the moment) welcomed.
I would be grateful for your advice.

Bill

it's ok to change from what I call third close up {inside the head of character] to omniscient for a scene. I think it is ok, anyway, and do this myself.
Trouble is it becomes a management problem. There is an advantage to switch to omniscient in that you can still refer to it later and reveal something convenient that she felt at that time [in the bathroom]. If that makes sense? It does to me.

louise

It's help if you gave us a bit of the scene to work on.

**Sally was aware that her crying may be heard outside on the landing, and tried to stifle it. Footsteps. Was that Jon? Had he heard her weeping?**

I can never write a book in one VP. I choose two (sometimes more) characters and have their VP as well. It's OK if you break it up into scenes, or chapters.

Bill

something else occurs to me. There is, of course, a third way. She may be seen by another character leaving the bathroom drying her eyes and it is obvious that she has been in there weeping. You have informed the reader without committing yourself to what or why your weeping character is thinking etc. Complication is that another characters knows something no other character does. This may or may not be useful, or inconvenient. This is where I get into agonies - who knows what and when etc. Hope I haven't complicated things for you ;-)

Jan

Then there is the means of using the mirror, on the bathroom wall, used as an inanimate witness to the scene.

"Lost in her turmoil it was the mirror that studied her emotional release. Reflecting hunched shoulders, taunting her creased and tear stained face as it mimicked her reddening complexion, hands tearing hair..........."

louise

That's good, Jan.

Jan

Thank you Louise. ;)

Dwight

My completed novel is totally in third person restricted, Mema (debut novel, now looking for an agent). I'd love to help, but I can't see your problem. It seems straightforward to me. To follow Louise's lead, Sally takes her angst with her into the bathroom, and she knows damn well how awful she feels, and why in all its detail, how it all comes bursting out and what is left unresolved within her tormented soul... or what sparks of hope she can rescue. You and the reader have been living inside Sally's head until now, so you both go with her into the privacy of her crisis. As in Hamlet's soliloquys.

But if you can describe your difficulty more for me, I'll do my best to make a helpful suggestion.

mema

Thanks for ideas, guys.

The para just before the scene:
'Kate slipped out of bed and went to the bathroom – the only place in the flat where she could feel safe enough to cry. She didn’t put the light on, just lit two candles and put them on the shelf under the mirror. Their gentle, warm glow brought to life only the centre of the room, leaving the cluttered rest hidden in the dark. As the lavender scent filled the room, she thought about pouring herself a hot bath but she remembered Iona’s fresh laundry hanging above. Kate sat on the corner of the bathtub out of the reach of cold water dripping from the laundry and then she let her tears flow.'

And now, I'd like to write that she was crying from frustration with her boy-friend, and over herself being trapped in her impossible dreams she couldn't let go; and that she cried with a towel against her mouth to muffle her sobs, holding herself and rocking, and cried until she was too tired to cry anymore so she went back to bed.
And this bit comes to my mind as from an omniscent narrator who speaks of Kate 'motherly', gently and with care.

Dwight

That's very nice, Mema. No need for an omniscient narrator, though. Kate knows everthing and we are with her in her experiences. If we are with Kate, in the same room, I don't see anything a narrator could tell us that Kate couldn't tell us herself, streaming through her mind, or simply 'happening'. She can want to be mothered and protected.

Amanda

Hi mema,

I feel like i am in there with her, being passive and observing.

kate reached across and dragged a towel from the shelf, the icy drips from above stinging her arms. She crushed the soft towel to her face and smelt his aftershave. The inconsolable sobs rose harder and harder, she stifled the sound with the towel and pressed it hard to her lips....

dorothyd

how can I add anything to that?

mema

thanks a lot, guys.
I'm going back to the scene.

ps. I hope they will give us back our 'thank you' button