Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Writing differently when following different character POVs - mainly age difference. (3rd Person)

Mark Baker's response more-or-less says it all. Let me rephrase some of it: A book always has just one POV, namely that of the author, who is not necessarily a character. Then, the author may pret...

posted 7y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:20:05Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27542
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:20:05Z (about 5 years ago)
Mark Baker's response more-or-less says it all. Let me rephrase some of it:

A book always has just one POV, namely that of the author, who is not necessarily a character. Then, the author may _pretend_ to have to POV of a character. But there is no rule saying that the author must pretend. The choice is yours.

My own sentiment is that if we are reading the character's mind, then use language suited to the character. But if the text is merely an external observation, then use neutral language. Thus:

Carly saw her mother, and said, "Hi, mom." (Neutral description, since it can been seen externally.)

Carly thought her mom looked kinda grody today. (In Carly's thoughts, so not neutral.)

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-04-14T15:36:53Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 2