“So-called omniscience is almost impossible. As soon as someone tells a story about a character, narrative seems to want to bend itself around that character, wants to merge with that character, to take on his or her way of thinking and speaking.” (James Wood, How Fiction Works)
Writing Exercise: Two Minds in One Room
Techniques to Practice
Alternating Free Indirect Style – allowing the narrative to slip into the voice of one character, then another, without announcing the switch. Emotional Friction Through Voice – letting tone and rhythm reveal not just character, but contrast—what one notices and the other avoids. Voice-Filtered Space – using the same setting twice, filtered through two different emotional lenses.
Writing Prompt (500 words)
Two characters—former friends, ex-lovers, estranged siblings—enter the same room at the same time. Maybe it’s a childhood bedroom, a shared apartment after a funeral, a cabin they once fought in. Each wants something different from this space: closure, confirmation, control, erasure. Write a single scene where the narration bends toward one character’s consciousness, then subtly shifts into the other’s. No line breaks or labeling. Let the change come through word choice, pacing, and focus. Let them both be wrong, in their own way.
Avoid direct statements like “he felt angry” or “she remembered when…” Let the room and the narration become the memory, the desire, the wound.
Success Looks Like
– The scene reads like a tug-of-war between two emotional filters.
– Readers know whose mind we’re inside without being told.
– The shift between consciousnesses is fluid, driven by attention and tone.
– The same object might be seen in two totally different lights.
Success Doesn’t Look Like
– The characters sound the same in voice and focus.
– The switch feels jarring or mechanical.
– The narration stays too far outside to feel personal.
– The writing favors summary over sensation.
Workshopping Questions
– Where does the voice shift from one character to the other? Is it earned?
– Does the room feel like a shared space or contested territory?
– What words or metaphors feel uniquely tied to each character’s mind?
– What’s left unsaid—but felt?
Recommended Reading
Tessa Hadley, “Experience”
Hadley’s narration dances between characters, letting desire, shame, and memory shape the narrative tone. Watch how the story shifts around attention and emotional need without ever calling it a “POV shift.”
Leave a comment