Beast Post: Omniscient

Omni

Or: Taming a God

 

Warning: this is another Beast Post.

So after reading Taming a Beast with 24 Heads, you've decided to write in Omni.

"I know, I know, everyone says not to use it. But I think it's perfect for my story."

Rilly? Is your story an epic fantasy? Or historical fiction? Or space opera?

"Yeah. Totally. All of the above."

Ah, so you've got like, a cast of thousands?

"Totes. And everyone's got a different thang going on. S'why I need omni. I need to be all-knowing and all-powerful. Mwahahahaha –"

Sure, but you know you might be sacrificing that thing people call intimacy for this power, right?

"Worth it."

And it can be cray-cray confusing for both you and your readers if you're not in the groove.

"I got this."

Then why the f*ck are you here?

"…. I'm scared of headhopping."

I am too, Skippy. I am too…

Let's put our serious pants on now. And our business socks too while we're at it.

Today we're going to tame the Omni god. First, we'll pin down a working definition to make sure we're all on the same page. Second, we'll revisit head hopping in relation to Omni. Lastly, we'll do some samples.

This is what the idea of writing in Omni POV can seem like. Author as Omniscient god, with his mind-reading tentacles in all the characters' meat heads all the time.

But there's the rub. Say you have an epic story that's so shiny and all the characters are so super spesh, wouldn't it be the bestest to write down everything that happened? The reader should know every special thing every special character thought, right? That's what Omni can do, right?

Err…. Yes and no. 

The answer is in the name itself: Omniscient Point of View.

Omniscient means all-knowing in a story, not all-telling of everything that happened while the story was going on. Also, Omniscient means all-knowing, NOT all-powerful. That would be Omnipotent. Sometimes I think people see "Omniscient" and get so awestruck, the rest of the name for this narrative mode gets forgotten. 

Here it is: 3^rd Person Omniscient Point of View. 

What does this mean? Try thinking of it this way. The Omniscient Narrator as a foreign news correspondent in your world's story. He's a reporter. The story unfolds from his Point of View. He doesn't have the "godly" power of "dipping into" your characters' heads. He doesn't need to. Dude knows everything already. He exists in the story to report events as they unfold. 

Let's poke at that dead horse. Point of View is the locus from which the story is experienced and reported, aka viewpoint, aka narrative mode. So you're already familiar with 1^st Person POV ("I am going to tell a story as it happens to me.") and 3^rd Person POV Limited ("He/She is going to tell a story as it happens to him/her."). 

3^rd Person Omni (aka Omni POV or just Omni) can look like "Let me tell you a story in which I don't actually participate in." Think of it like this: an all-knowing entity, pretending to be a Star Trek Captain who adheres strictly to the Prime Directive. No interference whatsoever. Right now, let's say it's Starfleet Captain Morgan Freeman, and he must report what happened in his very unique, very distinctive voice. 

That's the heart of it. 3^rd POV Limited and 1^st POV Limited are both participants in the story, play roles in the story, have stakes on the outcome of the story. 3^rd POV Omni is not a participant, but exerts a presence in the way the story is told.

 

Sometimes, the presence is palpable and distinctive. It can hit you in the first line: something along the lines of "Come, gentle reader. Bend your ear to this tale I present." Or a few pages in: "If you're of a tender soul and sensitive to such titillating taboo topics, pray avert your gaze from the next scene for in it yadda yadda."

Sometimes, though, the narrator isn't as obnoxious. In fact, sometimes the narrator is transparent, and the text seems like 3^rd Lim. You might go pages into a book, unsure, since the story starts off following one of the protags through some worldbuilding stuff. 3^rd POV Lim and 3^rd POV Omni share that 3^rd POV prefix and thus share the same pronoun bank. Characters will be referred to as He/She/It. 

Let's move on to Omni and headhopping by taking a look at your epic historical fantasy on anthropomorphic space-travelling racehorses. 

Who are some of the main characters?

"There's Wa'frio'ffill'kroebedo, the main dude, and Heo'gell'baran, the love interest, and –"

WTF. Let's call your main protag Waterbed and his love interest Honeybear. Say you're writing 3^rd POV Lim from Waterbed's POV in chapter 1. If, within the same paragraph a few pages in, you suddenly switch to describing Honeybear's feelings, that would be headhopping. In 3^rd POV Limited, the POV is LIMITED by the POV character's meat head. Hopping out of Waterbed's meat head to get into Honeybear's meat head is therefore headhopping. 

If you wrote in 3^rd POV Omni, the narrator is all-knowing. The Narrator already knows what everyone's feeling and junk. To the Narrator, the meat heads are transparent, thus, no need to get into or out of them. Frex, why would I bother trying to get into your meat head if I already know exactly what you're thinking/feeling in the past/present/future. Seriously. Why would I bother? I would simply say what you're thinking and feeling so the story makes sense. 

Logically then, it follows that we can use the term "headhopping" to refer to a switching from one limited POV to another (aka, hopping out of a meat head). But in Omni, that meat and bone limitation doesn't exist, therefore the term "headhopping" has no application. Me saying "You're headhopping!" while reading your Omni POV would be like me saying "You can't lane change, fool!" if we're traveling through space, in which there are no lanes. 

What might actually be happening in Omniscient POV when that criticism of "you're head hopping" pops up is this: the transitions between the narrator reporting different character's thoughts are too abrupt. 

Frex: Waterbed felt shy. Honeybear was horny. Waterbed needed time to – Honeybear suddenly felt hot in the room. Waterbed tried to leave. Honeybear tackled him. Etc.  It's like listening to a little kid tell you about attending his first birthday party. "There was a clown. And the clown did this. And boy was mom mad. But Dad thought it was so funny. The clown magicked the cat. And boy did Dad think that was so funny. But Mom, she started yelling. And dad was all…" 

Quick fix for this? Slow down, Skippy. Seriously. Slow down the switches. I'm not saying you need oodles of sentences describing Waterbed and Honeybear looking at each other. And for the love of glob, don't resort to using phrases like "Waterbed touched his mustache" or "Waterbed tossed his hair" to show you're switching from reporting Honeybear's thoughts and feelings to Waterbed. Within each scene, try spending the most time reporting the feelings and thoughts of the character who has the most at stake. (Think Frodo when he's all, ZOMG, Gandalf, idk if I can leave the shire! Did we spend equal time in Sam's head? Or even Gandalf's, though G-man had the juiciest gossip? No, it was Frodo. And switches from reporting on what Frodo thought and felt to what Gandalf thought and felt were marked by line breaks.)

What does all this mean for you? Well, dear writer, let me use some clumsy arrows to show you.

Limited POV: Waterbed experiences the story. -> Writer writes the story as if in Waterbed's meat head. -> Reader reads Waterbed's POV.

Omni POV: Waterbed experiences the story. -> Omni Narrator (Morgan Freeman) watches and chooses to report what's happening to Waterbed. -> Writer writes down Morgan Freeman's Starfleet report. ->Reader reads Morgan Freeman's POV reporting on what happened with Waterbed. 

Here's a picture of a puppy to break up this Wall o' Text:

"Whatever writing issues you're going through right now, it can't be worse than this. Trust me. you don't even want to know."

 

 

Let's put what I've shown about Omni to use.

Awfully generic example of 3^rd POV Limited:

Bob fidgeted in his seat as the barmaid set a glass of ice water in front of Wendy. Great Gods, would the infernal woman find fault with this too?

"Is that tap water?" Wendy asked, squinting at the glass as if vile creatures lurked between the ice cubes.

"Yes, ma'am," said the barmaid.

"I only drink bottled water," Wendy snapped.

"Of course ma'am." The glass was whisked away, replaced by a bottle of Merlin's Tears and a chocolate satin pie as big as a cyclops eye.

"You going to eat all that?" Bob asked.

Wendy, pie-filled spoon halfway towards her mouth, gave him a glance that could slice diamonds.

"Are you saying I'm fat?" she said.

"N-no. It's just… that's so much…"

She stared down at her plate, free hand gesturing under the table. The silence between them stretched and Bob, giving up hope he'd be able to say anything to set it right, tried to turn back time. It didn't work.

Now let's try turning it into 3^rd Omni: Write the scene from the narrator's POV. I'll use a strong annoying modern narrator.

Bob was totes jerking around like a raver on the sweet end of a rush while the barmaid gave Wendy a glass of ice water. He was straight up skurred Wendy was going to cuss out the waitress right there, right in front of e'eryone.

"Is that tap water?" Wendy said, looking at the glass like it was full of knock-off Brandymountain Mead.

"Yes, ma'am," said the barmaid.

"I only drink bottled water," Wendy snapped. Seriously, though, Wendy totes regretted it. The barmaid looked like she was gonna spit in whatever she brought out next.  But Wendy was so hungry, she didn't care. Seriously. She would've eaten her own LadyJane pumps, her Proda purse, and the satin bags they came in.

Girl was all cray-cray about the water because last time she had tap water at a pub, ohemgee, she got some kind of amoeba or something. And now that she got prego, no way she was gonna take En Eee chances. Full stop.

Anyway, barmaid brought out a bottle of Merlin's Tears and a chocolate satin pie with mounds of whipped cream – real cream, Wendy could totes tell it was real because of how shiny it was – and even a cherry. She wanted to be all up in that pie, but she was all like, Rilly? What would Bob think if he saw you all up in that pie?

So anyways guys, listen. Listen! If Bob knew Wendy was prego, or what she was gonna say after what he said would totes blow up Universe #624, he prolly woulda been more smooth-like or something because Oh. Em. Gee…

"You going to eat all that?" Bob asked.

Wendy, who was getting all up in that pie, stared at him like he was last year's BestBrand luggage collection – the one with the dark red stripes that didn't match a single thing she owned.

"Are you saying I'm fat?" she said.

"N-no. It's just… that's so much…"

Girl stared and stared at her plate, and she did something under the table, like literally, under the table. It was so quiet, Bob could hear his own piss freezing in his peepee. He was so skurred he wouldn't get laid after dinner that he tried to turn back time. It didn't work.

Wow. That… is a Hot Mess. The narrator stole the spotlight, I think, and obscured what was really going on in the story. Kept the reader at a distance. Now let's finesse the sample a bit by making the narrator more transparent for the most part. In effect, we can visualize this as addressing the narrator of our own work "Dude. Calm down. What really happened?" (IRL, I talk to my characters a LOT.)

Bob fidgeted in his seat as the barmaid set a glass of ice water in front of Wendy. He was worried Wendy, who hadn't smiled once during dinner, would find something else to complain about. [1]

"Is that tap water?" Wendy asked, squinting at the glass as if vile creatures lurked between the ice cubes. [2]

"Yes, ma'am," said the barmaid.

"I only drink bottled water," Wendy snapped. [3] Immediately, she regretted it; the poor barmaid looked ready to spit in whatever she brought Wendy next. Not that Wendy cared; she was famished. She'd eat the food, spit and all. Perhaps even the plate if no one was looking.

This was because last time she had tap water at a pub, she'd gotten violently ill from some waterborne microbe. And now that she was pregnant, she couldn't take any chances. Except just a second ago, she'd decided she'd eat the barmaid's spit! Goodness, she could almost feel the pregnancy hormones shaving points off her Intelligence Rank.

The ice water was whisked away, replaced by a bottle of Merlin's Tears and a chocolate satin pie with mounds of whipped cream – real cream, she could tell from the gloss – and even a cherry. She could barely hold herself back from burying her face in it, thinking what would Bob say if he saw her rooting about like a pig? [4]

Now, if Bob had known about her being in pig, or that her response to his next question would lead to the eventual destruction of Universe #624, he might have phrased said question more delicately. Alas…[5]

"You going to eat all that?" Bob asked.

Wendy, pie-filled spoon halfway towards her mouth, gave him a glance that could slice diamonds.

"Are you saying I'm fat?" she said.

"N-no. It's just… that's so much…"

She stared down at her plate, free hand gesturing under the table. [6]The silence between them stretched and Bob, giving up hope he'd be able to say anything to set it right, tried to turn back time. It didn't work.

[1] Narrator is spending some time describing Bob, dribbling info in about the scene in relation to Bob.

[2] Oh hey, guys. Wendy said something. Oh, and Wendy's doing something. Let me describe that now.

[3] She's kind of more interesting than Bob atm. Let's describe her for a bit.

[4] She's doing something by trying not to do something. Intriguing. Action. Find the reaction. She's worried about Bob's reaction. Let's focus on Bob.

[5] Narrator using a pun to transition to Bob because he wants to clue us in on the significance this moment will have further in time.

[6] Oh you sneaky narrator. Why don't you just tell us what she did under the table? Is it because you're describing what Bob's seeing, and not what's really going on? Interesting…

Now apply what we've gone over here to your own WIP. Do you have:

1.      A narrator who doesn't participate in the actual story.

2.      A narrator who presents the scenes by focusing attention on significant details, or mention only information that's relevant to understanding that specific scene? (A technique I find helpful on revision is to pause at a questionable scene and ask myself "What would Starship Captain Morgan Freeman do?")

3.      A narrator that blends well with the story? Do you have too many moments where the narrator takes center stage and draws attention to itself. Not a bad thing, but it can be obnoxious. Could be funny too. You never know until someone else reads your junk.

Speaking of reading, y'all may be interested to know that Omni is not a dead god. For modern examples of how current published writers (you know, your future BFFs) are using it, check out Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys. It's already a great story in skeleton form, but Gaiman uses Omni to weave in folk tales and legends stuff some readers might not be familiar with, giving the story an incredibly rich depth. Had he used 3^rd Lim on the main protag, Charles probably would have had to go to some library place and there might have been several "he happened upon a book of tales something" going on. Slower pace, definitely. And would've diffused a lot of comic tension if we only knew things as Charles discovered them rather than anticipating his reaction when he found stuff out. 

Another book y'all might want to take a look at is The Known World by Edward P. Jones. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2004, btw, and that's good enough proof for me that the Omni god is still very much alive for this generation. Jones's book is also a solid example that Omni is not just for fantasy or sci-fi epics.

Hopefully, Omni doesn't seem so mysterious now that we've gutted it and poked around its insides a bit. Until next week!

Happy Halloween,

J

P.S. I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo. I encourage everyone to give it a go. If you've just finished your WIP, now would be a good time to set it aside and let it develop. Later, when you revisit it, you won't be so word-blind and it might be easier to see inconsistencies, plot holes, grammatical errors, etc.  

Or, you can send your WIP to your beta readers. Focusing on a new project will help you digest any comments they send back, rather than set you lathering at the bit. 

 

Setting your WIP can also give you time to reset your brain. Experiment. Frex, I usually write Narrative Nonfiction and 3^rd Lim fantasy epics that span millenia. For Nano, I'll be experimenting with a 1^st Lim character study that only spans one month.

Hope to see you there!

J