I Said, You Said, She Said.

It’s the holiday season, that time of year when the world falls in love…

My ass it is.

It’s that time of year when I channel my inner Grinch.

It’s that time of year when there’s too much to do and I feel like the main character in “The Three Faces of Eve,” never knowing whether I’m gonna wake up Zen Colette, calmly confident that all the extra holiday shopping and decorating and cooking added to my regular to-do list will get done eventually, or whether I’m gonna wake up Warrior Colette, hyped up and determined to attack and conquer the to-do list that’s grown overnight and is eyeing me from its hiding spot under the dirty laundry that I will do tomorrow, I swear, or whether I’m gonna wake up Bat-Shit Crazy Colette, sweaty and panting and terrified to get out of bed because there’s no way that fucking, endless, monstrous to-do list is ever gonna get vanquished. Ever.

Which got me thinking that, rather than bitch about my holiday to-do list (which I have now stuffed under a pile of unpaid bills), I should take advantage of my different “perspectives” and put this season of my ever-changing personalities to good use.

Another Chance to Play with Point of View

In Let’s Try That Again, I talked about how a story changes depending on who tells it. The most important choices you will make when setting out to write a story is who your main character is and from which point of view (first, second, third person POV) that character will tell your story.

These choices are so essential that they deserve lots of practice. Hence this next exercise.

The Exercise

Before doing this exercise, I suggest first reading Let’s Try That Again for a refresher about choosing main characters and narrative perspective.

Unlike in Let’s Try That Again, in this exercise, you get to choose which characters will telling the story and from which narrative perspective they’ll tell them.

Like Let’s Try That Again, this exercise takes more time than my usual ones since it’s got multiple steps. Set aside about 45 minutes.

Write 3 passages (15 – 20 minutes per passage), each one containing the line, “‘Congratulations,’ she said and ran off crying.”

• Write the first passage from the point of view of the woman who runs off. Pick whatever narrative perspective you want – first, second, third (close or omniscient).
• Write the second passage from another character’s point of view. It could be the person that the woman is running from, a banker hurrying to work who passes the woman as she runs off sobbing, a thief looking for an easy mark who’s watching the exchange that makes the woman cry. Or someone else entirely. Again, pick whatever narrative perspective you want – first, second, third (close or omniscient).
• Write the third passage from yet another character’s point of view. Again, use whatever character you want and any narrative perspective you want.

Start your timer. Ready, set, write!

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