I experimented with the omniscient point of view in both a long short story (20ish pages) and a short short story (3 pages). I'm proud of myself for stepping into this unknown and scary territory. After all, the omniscient POV means you (the author) have to make many more decisions than you would if the story were told from one person's point of view. Which characters' heads do we get into in the story as a whole? What about in each particular scene? What would you gain from hearing the thoughts of each character? What would you lose? Is it OK to be in a character's head in one scene, but then not another? (If anyone would like to comment on this issue/these questions, please do!)
I usually try to take some time off between submissions, but unfortunately this week will be devoted to more work, though not for my MFA. I will:
* Revise The Rest of June, a story I'm submitting for my Harvard MLA thesis.
* Revise the prologue for the medical memoir I worked on for my IS last semester.
* I also want to try to take some photos, especially of my garden and knitting projects and post them.
3 comments:
I can't wait to read your post about the feelings you're having about being close to done (although, we've still got a way to go, here!). I'm excited about finishing but also sad that January will be the last full residency. I think the residencies have, for me, been the most magical part of the program (that and the MIS support). I told RB that I'm staying over until the 13th so maybe we can attend the graduation or do something -- but make sure to keep the Sat night open.
Oh good! I'll plan to post about that next week. I too have loved the twice-yearly reunions and learning. We'll def have to keep that up ourselves via conferences and retreats after we graduate! And yea! I'll def keep Sat night open!
I should have read this earlier, bug. I also was wondering how to choose which POV I used in what scene, how much, etc, so I started out with all kinds of extra thoughts floating around, then took out most of the random passersby. I loved having more choices, though. We'll see what AJ thought! I also am feeling sad about only one more residency (and scared I won't know how to fix my stories without guidance). I'll just have to count on you all.
Post a Comment