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Omniscient Viewpoint Problem

SchumiSchumi
edited January 2006 in - Writing Problems

Comments

  • SchumiSchumi
    The omniscient viewpoint is confusing me a bit. I now want to tell the novel I am writing under the one viewpoint, so it would be from my main character Samantha in 3rd person format. But because of this, I'm not sure how to write any scenes without her in them.

    I'd like there to be points in my novel where Samantha is not featured (maybe give the character a rest for a few pages). But when this time comes, I'm not entirely sure how far I can go. For example, I may have a scene involving another of my main characters, but considering that it would be from a omniscient viewpoint, surely I can only go as far as describing his actions, and not his thoughts.

    Any advice would be great. Thanks.
  • sooz48sooz48
    I'm not sure I can help you Schumi and I may be wrong on this, but I would have thought if your main character, whose viewpoint you are writing from, is not present then she wouldn't know what the other characters are doing. Does the person whose viewpoint you are writing from not have to be present all the time? I would be interested to read other replies on this.
  • SchumiSchumi
    That is pretty much what I thought. I would have found it awkward, under a single viewpoint, to write a scene which did not include my main character. But having said that, if you include from time to time a viewpoint of another character, is doing it only once or twice acceptable? I know of the other viewpoint I would use. It's just I don't want to confuse the story with to many of them.
  • SchumiSchumi
    I've been thinking a bit more about it, and maybe when my main character is not in certain scenes, I could switch the viewpoint to the antagonist. He is the one who subjects her to the assault she endures. It would give the reader the opportunity to look into his mind, and see what motivates him to act like he does.

    This would solve the problem of having to write scenes without her presence in an omniscient viewpoint.
  • DEEDEE
    Two ideas that I have tried - to my own satisfaction, at least.

    Snooping. I had a character going through another character's room and reading his diary and his secret papers.

    Being told, overhearing etc. The other character tells the main character all about it, or tells a third party with the main character overhearing.

    Snooping allows you to interject the main character's opinions and reactions and being told/overhearing allows you not to.

    If you're going to try out even a sample of all our ideas, you'll get a good set of rejected snippets. I'd recommend you keep them in an 'outtakes' file. And could you tell us what you think of your outtakes, please?
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