A Matter of Perspective

It seems that my last entry has sparked some discussion amongst us writer types. Matt Keefe has written an interesting piece on the use of omniscient versus limited narrative on his site, and this got me to thinking about the narrative form used in most modern novels too. Graham McNeill is threatening to view his thoughts too, so keep nagging him until he does so.

On a simple level, I think that the predomination of limited viewpoint prose, particularly in tie-in fiction, is not because it’s the easiest to write or read, but because it places a strong focus on the characters of a piece, as opposed to the setting or plot. Through this style of writing the reader finds the characters and their (hopeful) development more accessible. With a limited viewpoint approach such characters are forced to take centre stage and our reader can become exceptionally involved with them. By its nature, though, a limited perspective can also hinder the reader’s understanding of the story or setting.

From forays onto the Black Library forums one often sees new readers asking the membership for suggestions on what to read first in order to gain a broader view of the Warhammer world or the Warhammer 40,000 galaxy. Often the replies will simply trot out the list of the most popular series from the range – Gaunt’s Ghosts, the Eishenhorn trilogy, Gotrek and Felix, and so forth. Such recommendations also usually come with the health warning that these novels only deal with a somewhat narrow aspect of the particular universe. It is the nature of the limited narrative to provide only a small window onto the world, as long pieces of exposition or ‘info-dumps’ are regarded as clumsy and interrupting to the flow of the writing.

Occasionally some wiser forum-goer will recommend the rulebooks or supplements produced by Games Workshop. This is entirely sensible if a reader is looking for a broader approach to the setting. Large portions of these books contain information written in what is often termed ‘word of god’ text – that is to say they are not from an in-universe voice. Often this term leads some to believe that what is presented is absolute and incontrovertible, but this needn’t be the case. In this regard perhaps the viewpoint should be considered omnipresent, in all places at once, rather than all-knowing. With the word of god or omniscient approach it is perfectly possible to write myth and assumption, opinion and interpretation without ever needing to clarify whether any of these are an absolute truth. By doing so, the writer can ‘paint with a broader brush’ than with the limited narrative, creating context for the actions of the characters in a way not available to the limited viewpoint. Drama and tension can be created through this external view, revealing actions that threaten our characters without their knowledge, without reverting to the creation of a new character simply to relay that information.

For example, if an assassin is creeping up on your hero there are two approaches to take. The first, limited viewpoint, is to tell events from the perspective of the assassin as he gets closer and closer, draws his blackened blade and gets ready to strike. This certainly creates tension but also draws attention away from the intended victim and places it on the assassin. The presence of the assassin character interrupts the reader’s connection. The second, omniscient, allows the writer to describe the peril of the hero without ever moving the reader’s eye from the main character. In this style, one can describe the same events whilst keeping attention divided equally been assassin and victim. In this manner one can keep the piece free of foreground characters whose existence is owed purely to the need to portray events outside the knowledge of the main protagonists.

The downside of the omnipresent approach is that it can be used for the wrong reasons. It is all well and good using the eye-in-the-sky to paint this amazing picture of a world or universe, but it should be used to contribute to the reader’s understanding of the characters or narrative. Too often one reads fantasy works, in particular, that exist purely to show off the creation of the author (usually sub-par in originality and flavour) rather than to tell a story. Much of the first swords and sorcery writing and early science fiction was serialized in magazines and as short stories, meaning that the worlds and mythos created were done as a mosaic or patchwork, lending them a relevance to the characters often missed by the modern doorstep trilogy that sees princesses falling in love with dragons. If the world the writer has created is rich and interesting enough, this should not be expressed purely through description, but by the characters interaction with it and its affect on them, just as the real world affects and is affected by all of us.

On an entirely different note, thanks for the comments so far, and the mouse-trapping advice. I shall let you know how I get on.

To Leonid – I’m afraid that I no longer have access to the documents on which that list was based so I can’t provide the answer. The fact that there is such a contradiction I feel is entirely appropriate for the 41^st millennium and perhaps, as I’ve mentioned above, both are true. Conflicting dogmas are the stuff that could trigger all kinds of cool narratives!

Rewrite some wrongs

Since this is supposed to be an authorial weblog rather than just some random chit-chat (though there will be plenty more of that, I’m sure) I guess that I should spare a quick word for what I’m up to at the moment.

In short, bits and pieces. After a very productive meeting with my editor at the Black Library, Lindsey, I’ve got a few projects lining up for the coming months. My priority at the moment is the upcoming rewrite on Malekith, which is due for release at the start of next year. As you can see from the link, there’s some splendid cover artwork.

Malekith has proven to be a real challenge, in the best possible way. I’ve already gone through two major rewrites and it’s a real lesson in ‘think before you write’. Although the broad events of the novel will be known to those familiar with the Warhammer background, finding the right way to portray them required some extensive reworking. The events in Malekith cover hundreds of years, and there’s so much cool stuff in the Sundering as a whole that I’ve had to complete change the way the trilogy is going to work just so that I can get the best bits in. Even then, there’ll be stories not told in full that I might get back to in the future.

The second hurdle was in the titular character. I have lamented to friends in the past the occasional tendency of tie-in authors to develop their own characters to the detriment of the big story or characters whom they are supposed to be showcasing. This is perfectly understandable, because sometimes it is difficult to get as enthused about a character essentially created by someone else, especially when one is trying to put a unique perspective on events that may well already be well known to the reader. Despite previous rants and a keen awareness of this  phenomenon, I myself originally fell into this trap with Malekith.

It wasn’t ‘Malekith’ then, but rather ‘Flames of Treachery’. The events of the Sundering were told through the eyes of various Elves across the 23 years of the civil war. This was all well and good with two exceptions, and things came to a head in a discussion about the novel’s title. In the original plan and the parts of the first draft I had written, Malekith was not a central character at this stage of the story. However, Black Library were keen to call the book Malekith, as part of the Time of Legends series’ focus on influential characters from Warhammer history. Through the back and forth of the debate I had the sudden realisation that I was writing the wrong novel. Not just for BL, but for the readers.

The Time of Legends novels are all about these famous and infamous heroes and villains from Warhammer and opening a window into their lives in more detail than has been managed before. My story wasn’t like that at all and I realised had the potential of disappointing readers who were expecting something else. With the scales having fallen from my eyes, I set about planning the whole trilogy again, from scratch. Now three pivotal characters dominate the storyline, the trilogy is more thematic rather than chronological and hopefully the individual books will also hold together all the better for it. Still, there’s quite a lot of work to be done – the book hasn’t quite escaped its non-Malekith origins and needs retelling in parts from the Elven prince’s perspective. Remember the commandment: Thous Shalt Rewrite. Again.

On top of that I’m writing a short story, planning another short story (both about Space Marines, one way or the other), and fiddling around with some longer-term ideas for a trilogy dealing with the Eldar. That’s just the BL stuff, of course. There’s lots of other ideas floating around at the moment, I just need to find the time (and a hammer) so I can nail some of them down.

Currently Reading: The Mammoth Book of Short Science Fiction Novels; The Book Thief; Beowulf

Currently Watching: Dirty Sexy Money; The Kill Point (Lost has just finished and I’m waiting on the back-up from the US writer’s strike to pecolate back onto the schedules).

Currently Playing: Bioshock on Xbox360; Civilisation 4 on PC.

Mouse Update: Not seen him for the last week.

Here we go…

You know that feeling when somebody points a video camera at you and says ’say something funny’? Well, that’s kind of how I am feeling at the moment. I’ve jumped ship from full-time, comfortable, mortgage-paying security to become a freelance adventurer on the seas of authoriship and so, with the inevitability of the morning after a cheap curry, I have started this weblog. Where do you begin?

For a start, I’ll probably not get many cool points for insisting on using ‘weblog’ instead of ‘blog’, but I just can’t bring myself to use a word that brings to mind a problem that requires a plumber visiting your lavatory. ‘Blogroll’ as a header on the sidebar doesn’t help dispel this unsavoury image. So, weblog it will be henceforth.

Let’s start with the tale of my mouse. Well, he’s not my mouse, he’s a co-habitant of my house who first appeared when I moved in two years ago. I say ‘he’ for no particular reason, as my ability to accurately judge the sex of a swift-moving mouse at five paces (or up close for that matter) is nonexistent. I just think of him as a little fella, and for some reason I’m more comfortable with that. Anyway, he almost gave me a heart attack when he first scuttled under my living room door not long after I moved in, and made regular appearances for a week or so. I purchased a humane trap in an attempt to catch him and release him into the park just down the street but he clearly wasn’t tempted by my peanut butter bait – as suggested by the packaging, I might add, and not some weird choice on my part. Perhaps he prefers smooth to crunchy, or has a nut allergy, but for whatever reason he did not succumb to my cunning lure.

Without any intervention from myself, he then disappeared and I assumed one of two things had happened. Firstly, that he had simply found a way out of the house and was now running free with all of his mousy friends. Secondly, that he had expired somewhere out of sight and at some unknown point in the future I would be confronted with a slight pong from behind the washing machine and would be forced to dispose of his little rodent corpse. Neither mouse nor decaying whiff was forthcoming and so I happily believed the former had occured, much to my relief.

Two days ago, no three actually, I was sitting on my sofa in the evening when I was distracted by movement on the periphery of my vision. I didn’t see anything through the patterned glass of the door into the dark dining room and so thought it must have been a trick of my imagination. A few moments later, a little mousy head poked around the door and my ‘companion’ had returned. He’s been back each evening since, ducking quickly into the living room from both the dining room and the hallway, and so I feel another trip to the store to get another nice mouse trap is in order (I threw away the old one about a year ago during a clean out of the cupboard under my stairs). Peanut butter didn’t do the trick last time, so please feel free to post suggestions in the comments section on other mouse-friendly nibbles with which I might ensnare my interloper. If I can get the camera on my phone to work properly again then I might post a picture of him for your edification.

For that matter, please post comments about anything as there’s nothing more lonely in the world than a comment on a weblog waiting for company. Okay, perhaps the last biscuit in the barrel is equally forlorn. Also, please also check out the links in the sidebar, particularly the sites of my fellow authors. They have much nicer websites than me, with graphics and animations and whatnot, but I’ve always been a minimalist to some extent.