What do narrative voice and point of view mean?
Narrative voice is another name for the person telling the story. Someone needs to let the reader know that John tripped over his cat as he darted out the door, that the dark clouds were roiling like eddies in the sky, that Sarah’s heart pounded in her chest when her handsome neighbor smiled at her, or that the policeman drew his gun. It isn’t so much what is said . . . as how. This sets the tone. The two spoken words, “come here,” could depict completely different meanings, depending on who speaks them and how. A stern father commanding his miscreant son to step forward has a completely different tone than a young man asking his sweetheart to “come here” so he can show her an engagement ring and ask her to marry him. Point of view goes hand in glove with narrative voice. If you’ve listened to different people sing a national anthem at sporting events, you’ll hear the same words, but each singer has a unique style and tempo. As a writer, you’re trying to achieve your own unique style w
