A memorable moment in the original Star Wars trilogy occurs when Luke Skywalker confronts the force ghost of Obi Wan Kenobi over claiming Darth Vader killed his father instead of telling him that the Sith Lord was his father. Obi Wan defends his deception by claiming what he said was true from “a certain point of view.” From Obi Wan's perspective, Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker because Anakin allowed the dark side to conquer his true identity.
This illustrates how point of view influences a story. The revelation about Darth Vader's true identity is shocking because the story is told through Luke's eyes. If Obi Wan were our point-of-view character, however, it changes the perspective on Darth Vader because of his past relationship with Anakin and history training him as a Jedi.
I've learned an uncomfortable truth as an author concerning point of view. An alarming number of readers and authors do not understand how point of view is supposed to function within the framework of a story.
Some readers become baffled when specific information is withheld as the story unfolds. They complain if certain secondary and ancillary information is only touched on through hints and allusions.
Point of view influences what a story reveals
An early negative review of my novel Under a Fallen Sun illustrates this tendency.
The reviewer, an indie sci-fi author, complains how the outside world seems clueless to events unfolding in Travis, Texas as the story progresses. He claims scant attention is paid to the disruption in services and the supply chain as evidence for this argument. He makes this assumption because the story's main characters don't focus on these issues.
(As an aside, don't leave negative reviews on another author's work when you're also an author. It makes you appear petty and jealous.)
This reviewer's argument does not account for how point-of-view functions within a story. Sometimes information is withheld – or is only present in hints and allusions within the narrative – because a main character either doesn’t know that information or doesn’t regard it with the same importance as a secondary character does.
Under a Fallen Sun is told from a limited third person point-of-view, which functions under similar parameters to a first-person point-of-view. Stories told from either point-of-view are restricted to revealing what the point-of-view character knows. When events are happening outside their immediate frame of reference, they are usually not aware of that information until later (if they learn of it at all).
One reason supply chain issues and service disruption aren't touched on explicitly in my novel is my narrative is mostly limited to four college students trapped inside Travis. Their thoughts are focused on survival, escape, and stopping an alien invasion. Pondering ancillary issues isn't a major priority.
But the notion that the outside world is clueless to unusual things going on in the small Texas town is quite incorrect. The story is laced with hints that the US government and US military are fully aware something is deeply wrong in Travis.
Early in the story, one of the college students notes reports of people disappearing around that part of West Texas at an alarming rate. The four college students later encounter an auto graveyard where aliens stash disabled vehicles of captured humans. Later, in a pivotal scene, the main protagonists witness aliens execute two captive US soldiers. Finally, the penultimate chapter of Under a Fallen Sun concludes with fleeing survivors encountering an approaching military convoy heading toward Travis.
All these moments reveal another story happening outside the events tied directly to the four college students themselves. Key information related to this secondary story remains off-screen. Why? The simple answer is readers follow what unfolds through the point-of-view of Paige and her friends. This means many tangentially related events are not explicitly chronicled for the reader because these events occur without knowledge or direct involvement of the main characters.
Characters drive what a reader sees
Stories are told through the eyes of the characters. A reader only knows what a character knows.
Information dumps laced with irrelevant ancillary details do a major disservice to a story. These are moments when the author wrestles a story away from the characters and hogs the spotlight. The author essentially demands the reader focus on their oh-so-brilliant creative world-building at the expense of characters allegedly driving the story — ultimately drowning the narrative in unnecessary tangents.
One hallmark of unnecessary information dumps is a main character thinking about or discussing plot and/or character details like they are addressing an invisible reader instead of interacting with another character in the scene. A perfect example of this approach is the sci-fi cliche of having one character explain how specific technology works to a colleague who would possess a similar level of knowledge and expertise in a real-life situation. Another example is the cliche of making a point-of-view character silently ponder over large chunks of history related to their fictional world (everything from politics to religion) while undertaking a journey that ostensibly will connect to this information to the main plot later.
Details fleshing out a fictional world should only be threaded into the narrative at relevant moments in a realistic manner. Backstory information should only be introduced through natural realistic interactions between a point-of-view character and other characters during moments where such information becomes relevant to plot development or character development within the story.
World-building is most effective when firmly welded to a character’s point-of-view. When a reader experiences a fictional world through a character's eyes, they become immersed in a world that feels more real and their journey from the first page to the final page is deeply rewarding. Readers also forge a more natural connection with the characters inhabiting that world.
A Certain Point of View
This was a good analysis, John. One of my least favorite points of view is multi-third-person omniscience. I know it's popular with readers, but I'm one of those who really enjoys a deep dive into a single character's psyche and vantage point without knowledge of extenuating circumstances outside their experiences. I think it makes for a stronger story.
Yeah, because if I were trying to survive an alien invasion, service disruptions and supply chain issues would *definitely* be my main concerns. Some people.
Sometimes I feel like I need to explain certain details because I just *know* someone, somewhere is going to want to know about that detail. I've had to ask myself if my protagonist would know about X thing, and if not, is it important enough that they'd go out of their way *to* learn about it? A lot of times it's no.