I’ve adopted an unusual point of view for The Mural Gazer. It looks like third person omniscient, but it’s not. At times it might be considered first person omniscient, but it’s not that either – rather, it’s a variation on the two. I’m interested in how this voice resonates with readers. See if you can identify the novel’s point of view then, if you think you’ve got it, read on…
The voice of The Mural Gazer is Buddy’s throughout. It sounds like third person omniscient, because he’s attempting to disguise himself by writing in the third person, but – if I am successful – the tone will be a bit more intimate than straight-up 3P. I wanted to be able to capture the feelings of angst, verging sometimes on incipient madness, that sway his perceptions and descriptions of the scenes and action.
Occasionally, though, he slips deliberately into the first person. Although he’s never identified, much of the italicized text is Buddy recounting his own thoughts at the instant he experienced events in the story. Take the following clip from Leave taking (Chapter 1, Episode 1) for example, which describes his near-panic as he decides to leave Leanna because he feels their relationship has become toxic:
Then a sudden terror gripped him. The stomach is tough as India rubber. It can withstand the assaults of chewing microbes. But what about the heart? Before he could feel that rasp of mandibles, tearing at his beating flesh, Buddy spat the infected concoction of toothpaste and siliva down the sink.
It begins: Then a sudden terror gripped him… That’s Buddy speaking in third person, including himself in the narrative – the ‘him’ he’s writing about is actually himself. Then comes a switch in POV to first person in the next three italicized sentences: The stomach is tough as India rubber. It can withstand the assaults of chewing microbes. But what about the heart?… That’s Buddy in person, breaking into the narrative. Then the voice switches back to third person omniscient, but it’s still Buddy recounting Buddy’s thoughts, as if they’re being shared as an out-of-body experience: Before he could feel that rasp of mandibles, tearing at his beating flesh, Buddy spat the infected concoction of toothpaste and siliva down the sink.
Most readers might not be conscious of this structure, but I hope they sense unconsciously a secret narrator, who is a person rather than a disembodied voice.