English Narration

Narration

The narrators story telling from a certain point of view and perspective.

Narrators

The people who tell or narrate the stories.

Authors

The people who write the stories but aren’t usually the narrators.

Point of View:

The position of the narrator in relation to the story and the perspective that the narrator describes to the reader.

Position

Where the narrator is compared to the plot. It can be inside the action as a character or outside as a narrative voice.

Perspective

Whose story the narrator tells to the readers. It refers to a characters interpretation of the world and the story.

First Person POV

When the narrator tells their own story from inside the plot, as part of the action. They are a character in the story.

Alternating First Person POV

When First Person POV is delivered from multiple characters’ perspectives each from inside the story.

POV Shot:

A shot that shows the view of a character in a specific scene. It is made up of a set up shot and then the POV shot.

Kuleshov Effect

A thing in film that involves putting two images next to each other and the viewer creates meanings from it.

Juxtaposition

The term for two images placed side by side as used in the Kuleshov Effect.

Hitchcock’s Reaction Shot:

A shot of film that is made up of a POV shot but is followed by a reaction shot that shows what a person is thinking.

Pure Cinema

When filmmakers use film techniques like editing to tell a story visually or with sound rather than relying on dialogue.

Epistolary Narrative:

A story told through a series of letters such as emails or texts that usually use 1st person POV.

Frame Narrative

When a single story or a set of stories exists with an a larger story.

Embedded Story

A single story used in frame narrative.

Nested Stories

The term for a set of stories that are part of a frame narrative.

Parts of a POV/Reaction Shot

1. Set Up Shot: Close up of the subject/person

2. POV Shot: Reveals objects of subjects attention from eyeline.

3. Reaction Shot: Subjects reacting showing their feelings and conclusions.

Third Person POV

The narrator tells someone else’s story from outside the plot acting as an informant or a witness.

Third Person Limited POV

When 3rd person narrators focus solely on the experiences of one character in the story or the scene.

Free Indirect Style

A type of third person narration where the narrator uses no tag or quotes. They do not paraphrase what the character said only changes it to third person pronouns.

Direct Speech

When a character speaks to the readers directly with their exact words along with a tag and quotation marks.

Indirect Speech

A type of third person narration where the author paraphrases and tags what the character said. However, there are no quotation marks.

Psychic Distance

The emotional space or distance between the character and the reader.

Third Person Omniscient POV

When authors give their 3rd person narrators the power to see or know the action, thoughts, and feelings of multiple characters in the same scene, chapter, or paragraph.

Third Person Objective POV

When the narrator takes a largely objective or neutral, point of view from outside the story, without sharing any characters feelings or thoughts.

Second Person POV

When the narrator tells your story from outside the plot. The narrator speaks directly to the reader, often using the words “you” or “your.”

Breaking the Fourth Wall

When the narrator breaks the imaginary barrier that separates readers from the story.

Second Person References

When authors use a 1st or 3rd person point of view but switch to make a brief 2nd person reference.

Metafiction/Going Meta

When the author breaks the fourth wall by talking about fiction in fiction. Going meta is the act of doing this.

Perspective Characters

The character/s whose experiences, thoughts, and feelings the narrator explains to the reader.

Mirrors

The familiar perspective characters that authors sometimes create that the readers can relate to and identify with.

Windows

The unfamiliar perspective characters that authors sometimes create so readers can experience a new way of seeing the world through fiction.

3rd Person Narrators vs Perspective Characters

A third person narrator isn’t a physical being or person but rather a “narrative voice” that speaks on behalf of the perspective character/s. The perspective characters are the people the narrators represent but are not the narrators themselves.

Unreliable Narrators

A character that readers can’t trust to provide a valid, trustworthy version of the story. This can be due to their backstory, age, position, or profession.

The Rashomon Effect

An effect that proves our memories of events are not always reliable and that our versions of reality are subjective, or personal, and therefore not always reliable, either.