Craft Chat Writing omniscient?

[RK Wallis]

Head hopping and don't understand how that affects the reader?

Watch this:

 

[Sedayne]

Omniscient is difficult to get right, but when it works, it's a good read. Dickens is the classic example, but my favourite author is John Irving, and he writes omniscient so well. He has a new novel coming out this week.

It's a shame writers are being discouraged from omniscient POV. Provided we don't mistake it for what it isn't, shouldn't we try it at least as a writing exercise? (That said, I haven't written anything in omniscient POV yet myself.)

Is it that nobody wants to read it, or is it just too difficult for most writers to master?

 

[LJ Beck]

Really interesting, thanks for posting @RK Wallis . It did clear up a few things for me. Like the difference between omniscient and rotating close 3rd.

I’ve not read many omniscient books, but never been a big fan of the ones I’ve read. Dune is the classic Sci-Fi example. And as much as that story was amazing, I never connected to any of the characters because of the omniscient pov. But after watching this video, I wonder if it was also that I never got a personality from the omniscient pov. It was almost a clinical telling of the story. And Alyssa says that O-pov should have a personality of its own. Which is interesting.

I wonder if it was once popular as getting up close and personal, showing emotion and messiness wasn’t something that was readily done in the past. Stiff upper lip and all that. But these days, where everyone’s inner workings and emotions are on display for everyone to see, it seems like that’s what’s wanted in our stories too.

I do think it would be interesting to write a story from a very emotional and messy omniscient pov, like really lean into it. But for me, that pov character would need something to do with the story. Do you know of a story that is written like that? Maybe I’ll try it in a short story… just for fun!

 

[LJ Beck]

Is it that nobody wants to read it, or is it just too difficult for most writers to master?

I suspect both??

 

[RK Wallis]

Omniscient is difficult to get right, but when it works, it's a good read. Dickens is the classic example, but my favourite author is John Irving, and he writes omniscient so well. He has a new novel coming out this week.

It's a shame writers are being discouraged from omniscient POV. Provided we don't mistake it for what it isn't, shouldn't we try it at least as a writing exercise? (That said, I haven't written anything in omniscient POV yet myself.)

Is it that nobody wants to read it, or is it just too difficult for most writers to master?

It'd be difficult. The start of The Book Thief is a classic example where you really feel the narrator that AM mentions. The narrator is Death.

difference between omniscient and rotating close 3rd.

I'd never heard of rotating third until this and I've done a deep dive for a few years of omniscient.

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

George Eliot was very good at omniscient. She would use it as a tool for political or social comparisons. But she wrote way back when women had to use male pseudonyms to publish anything.

 

[LJ Beck]

I'd never heard of rotating third until this and I've done a deep dive for a few years of omniscient.

Do you think it's a real thing? Like a known industry thing? I'd never heard of it either, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. haha!

 

[RK Wallis]

Do you think it's a real thing? Like a known industry thing? I'd never heard of it either, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. haha!

I just heard her explain it on another video. It's like how GRR Martin goes every chapter to a new protag and just keeps rotating through them. Didn't know that had a name!