Modern novels often go for a deep POV, bringing the reader directly into the protagonist’s thoughts and portraying the novel’s settings, characters, and events through their biased lens. However, sometimes you might want to keep the reader at a distance. In a recent post, C.S. Lakin says distance can be powerful when used strategically.
“For some writers, the idea of showing a scene completely devoid of emotion, reaction, internalizing, and opining may seem counterintuitive—or downright counterproductive,” Lakin says. “Isn’t the whole point to tell a story up close and personal?”
The answer is yes, but sometimes distance can create a profound effect, because it forces the reader to assess the characters’ intentions. Lakin cites Cormac McCarthy as a master of this technique, using a filmmaker’s long POV shot to tell his story. “McCarthy just shows the bare bones of action with commentary, thereby inviting the reader to supply her own,” Lakin says. While the prose might appear to be boring at first, McCarthy’s style presents era, locale, and character. “For, the things we do reveal much about who we are,” Lakin explains.
Few writers can pull that off, but there may be scenes where it works for you. “Maybe you are writing a mystery and you want to show a sequence of events happening but don’t want to clue the reader in on the importance of what is being seen,” Lakin suggests. “Or, for that matter, perhaps not even whose point of view the camera is seeing from.”
