5 Narrative Voice, Point of View, and Dialogue Free Online FlashCards

What does point of view determine?

Point of view is the vantage point from which a story is narrated, including the narrator’s position and the information the narration can provide.

What can a first-person narrator know directly?

A first-person narrator is a character who reports what they experience, observe, remember, or learn; they cannot directly know another character’s private thoughts.

What limits the information in third-person limited?

Third-person limited generally restricts access to one character’s perceptions and thoughts at a time.

How do omniscient and objective narration differ?

Omniscient narration can move among characters’ thoughts or reveal information no single character knows; objective narration reports observable actions and speech without entering minds.

How can close, limited POV build suspense?

A close, limited perspective can build suspense by withholding information the viewpoint character does not know.

What makes a narrator unreliable?

An unreliable narrator gives an account that may be biased, mistaken, or incomplete, so readers compare the account with what the story shows.

What shapes narrative voice?

Narrative voice is the distinctive manner of telling, shaped by diction, sentence rhythm, imagery, tone, and the narrator’s habits of noticing and judging.

How does a character’s voice differ from narrative voice?

Narrative voice belongs to the telling; a character’s voice is how that character thinks and speaks, shaped by personality, experience, relationships, and circumstances.

How can third-person prose reflect a viewpoint character?

In third-person narration, prose can reflect the viewpoint character’s vocabulary or judgments while remaining in third person; it should not imply knowledge outside that character’s perspective.

What is subtext in dialogue?

Subtext is a meaning, feeling, or intention that characters imply without stating directly.

What can effective dialogue do in a story?

Effective dialogue can reveal priorities, expose tension, convey necessary information, change a relationship, or prompt an action.

What helps keep dialogue speakers clear?

In standard prose fiction, begin a new paragraph when the speaker changes. Keep punctuation consistent and make the speaker clear through a tag or nearby action.