SASFest Writer’s Craft—TREBOR HEALEY

POINT OF VIEW

How do you decide which point of view is the correct one to carry your story? Finding the right POV can take a story to a higher level when explored and rendered in the proper voice. In this session, we’ll ask: what are the benefits of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd POV, both limited and omniscient? How do they differ? Is the emotionality of 1st person more important than its unreliability? Is the omniscience of the 3rd person problematic for sketching out the interiority of characters and their conflicts? Each story has a different answer to these very pertinent questions, and it behooves a writer to reflect on them. We’ll do some exercises and likely have some breakthroughs by exploring our stories through different views. Trebor Healey teaches creative writing for UCLA and has authored several award-winning novels, a recent novella and numerous short story collections.