Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part 1 Character-Building Essentials
1 How to Build a Character: Character Composition, Demystified 4
2 Tell Me a Story: Narrative Voice and Authorial Intrusion 18
3 Tell It Like It Is: Exposition and Point of View 34
4 Do You Feel Me?: Surface and Subset Character Emotions 48
5 Character, Know Thyself: The Essentials of Character Awareness 61
6 Tighten Tension: Tricks for Tens ion-Building in Each Point of View 73
Part 2 Character Cues and Point of View
7 Behind The I: First-Person Point of View 87
8 Closer and Closer: Third-Person Intimate Point of View 99
9 It's a Party: Omniscient Point of View 112
10 All About You: Second-Person Point of View 126
11 The Unreliable Narrator: The Perks and Perils of the Shifty Point of View 138
Part 3 Stretch Your Skills
12 Plot and Point of View: The Keys to Character Transformation 152
13 Multiple Points of View: Considerations for Co-Protagonists 168
14 Shattering Point of View: Moving Beyond Traditional Forms 180
15 Literary Devices: In Lieu of Point of View 194
16 Try It on for Size: How to Pick the Right Point of View 207
17 Practicing Point of View: More Exercises to Master Character Viewpoints 213
Afterword 224
Index 226
Answer Key 231