Third Person

I’ve been thinking over the last few days about the first section on my new novelette.

The section in particular involves two cousins descending into Hong Kong Island on a cart – a Hong Kong laid waste by a zombie holocaust*  and I started to think how I would describe all this to the reader in locational terms which the characters may not know, but which might be useful for the reader to get more of an impression.

And then this led me to contemplating just how a narrative told in a third person perspective from one character can presume to offer information not within the character’s remit, in effect turning the narrative into an omniscient third person perspective. Would this bother the reader? I don’t know, but it bothers me as a writer. I’ve always been a fan of intimate stories, and the second I start to introduce that omniscience I find it removes the reader from the character – for me it’s like how can you share an experience with a character when you know more about that experience?

I’ve written in first person for most of my writing life, and I think it is from this that my reticence to push the fourth wall comes from. In this case I will introduce this description in the form of (subtle, always subtle) exposition.

In short – I shall give Boone a map.

 

* really – is there any two better words combined in the English language? I think not.