Turning a Scene Around for a Different View

A story changes depending on who’s doing the telling. Try a different version of a scene in your short story or novel to learn about your characters.

A story changes depending on who’s doing the telling. Imagine, for example, that two middle-aged brothers are having a loud argument at a family reunion in a park. What is the truth from each brother’s perspective? What if we see the same scene from their mother’s point of view? Or we see it from one of their kid’s points of view? How about from the perspective of a stranger walking their dog? They’ve got their own problems, right? And here are these two guys yelling at each other in public. What if it’s an omniscient narrator swooping in and out of everyone’s heads? The reader’s understanding of what’s happening can change significantly depending on whose eyes we’re seeing it through. It’s important to consider this when deciding what point of view is best for your short story or novel, but it also provides a useful tool for those moments when you feel stuck or when a scene just isn’t working.

For this exercise, you’ll take a scene that you’ve been struggling with and write it from a different character’s point of view. The idea is not to change it permanently, unless it surprises you by turning out to be a better perspective for the scene—which can happen. The idea is to get at the scene from a different angle so you can see what it might be missing.

If a narrative is written in first-person or a third-person limited, then the reader only has access to the point of view a character knows and experiences. Because of this, the details that catch the character’s attention—that is, what makes it onto the page—gives the reader information about who that character is and what they value. No two characters will describe a room in the same way or notice the same things in it. As you’re shifting the point of view in your scene, ask yourself what details this other character notices. How does the original point-of-view character look through this second character’s eyes? How are they holding their body? What are they saying and how is that in harmony or in conflict with the nonverbal cues they’re sending? How does the thrust of the scene and the setting change depending on whose eyes we’re seeing it through?

Compare the two different versions of your scene. What did you learn about the characters—what they’re saying and what they’re concealing—and how might that unlock the scene, regardless of who ends up doing the telling in the final draft?

*

If you enjoyed this prompt, apply now to Cari’s 12-week advanced novel workshop! Class begins in September.