Monday, November 22, 2010

A Guide to Author Jargon for the Reader - 72

View restricting (now called camcording)

writing in first person present tense to severely restrict the point of view so that the reader can only see what the narrator sees, experiencing it as it happens. A difficult mode to sustain for both reader and writer. However, it has been done (witness Stephanie Myers' hot Vampire series . . . what's it called?) Some authors employ it as a disruptive change (in the Dark Tower series it is used, and King also writes most of The Talisman in this mode). Its most effective use is for short stretches of intense action or suspense, otherwise it exhausts the reader, or it goes limp (shades of The Blair Witch Project).

Edward C. Patterson

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