Help! Boring old author omniscient?

[Patricia D]

I'm fooling around with a short story about a woman who learns her lover killed his wife to marry her, worries that he will tire of her and shorten her life, so she kills him first. I wrote it in first person but realized that felt too close to the protagonist. I want distance and coldness, a more noir feeling, as if the reader has just kicked over a rock to reveal nasty creatures attacking each other. So I'm taking another shot at it, using an author omniscient. Is anyone else still using this POV?

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Go for it. I remember the story. You'll have both to compare. It's a classic POV for a reason. There's nothing the matter with it.

 

[Richard Wilkes]

How strange. I posted a reply to your note, Patricia, and it seems to have got lost in the ether.

I was saying that your story premise sounded very interesting and that I recalled reading 'This Sweet Sickness' by Patricia Highsmith last year. Highsmith is an author omniscient in that novel and yet it's what she doesn't say that makes her writing so special. Although everything is detailed, I was left pondering on the theme of the novel, jealousy, for some time - I still ponder.

The all-seeing author is a great POV (and I am experimenting with that myself at the moment). For my taste, as a reader, I like to be left with work to do, to be disturbed. I don't want too much explained. I have read other author omniscient (shall we invent a new acronym - AO?) works that I couldn't finish as the AO gets in the way, like a road block that you constantly have to get around in order to move on and I'm left wishing that the author would simply shut up!

It sounds like a Highsmith-esque type of plot - very promising. My feeling is - Go for it! And have some fun with it at the same time.

 

[Amber]

I'd read it. I don't think a lot of people do it well. A few times I've read things that are supposed to be omniscient. The most common mistake is not staying in omniscient or not having a strong enough voice ... well... in my opinion.

 

[AliG]

Go for it. I think it would be perfectly valid and in a short story neither clumsy or tiresome. You may find an interesting new story slant, apart from the POV, by doing it. Sounds like a great premise

 

[Patricia D]

I'd read it. I don't think a lot of people do it well. A few times I've read things that are supposed to be omniscient. The most common mistake is not staying in omniscient or not having a strong enough voice ... well... in my opinion.

Thank you - I will be wary of those pitfalls

 

[G L Sheridan]

I'm fooling around with a short story about a woman who learns her lover killed his wife to marry her, worries that he will tire of her and shorten her life, so she kills him first. I wrote it in first person but realized that felt too close to the protagonist. I want distance and coldness, a more noir feeling, as if the reader has just kicked over a rock to reveal nasty creatures attacking each other. So I'm taking another shot at it, using an author omniscient. Is anyone else still using this POV?

Hi Patricia D - I recently read 'Not Forgetting the Whale' by John Ironmonger, which I very much enjoyed, and that's more or less all from an omniscient view. It worked really well. So I'd say go for it.

 

[Magicman]

A short story from grandpa in the rocking chair on the porch or a teen sitting around a campfire in the woods is my vision of a good omniscient POV story. The task is challenging. Enjoy.

 

[NickP]

The thing to remember is that the narrator is effectively a character in itself, with a voice and a worldview (even if unstated) which will permeate the story - perhaps add irony too.

Whose voice is the narrator's?

 

[Amber]

Reading this thread, I'm struck by the possibility that some people don't know what omniscient POV means.

I was surprised to learn The Great Gatsby is considered omniscient. Maybe that could be argued. But the point I'm trying to get at is that there's a narrator even when the narrator doesn't appear in the story in any overt way. I think it's possible that omniscient without a strong POV results in confusion. Sometimes I think we forget that the narrator or the POV character is the one who directs the attention of the reader. Or rather, we forget the implications--it means they're the leader. Usually a good idea to have a strong leader if you want someone to go somewhere.