A slight delay (For extra content)

Monday's blog post will obviously not be posted on Monday, since it's Tuesday for me already. I got about halfway through it and realized that I need to add another mini blog post to it, so I'm going to need an extra day for the extra information.

(Basically, I needed to talk about objective vs. subjective and limited vs. omniscient narration, and I realized that a lot of my audience might have no idea what those are. If you don't, rest assured you will tomorrow evening.)

Thanks for your patience!

Comments

[Cold in Gardez]

Narrative theory is actually one of my nerdish delights. I might have to put together a response blog.

[Sind]

Why do you sort them into "objective vs. subjective" and "limited vs. omniscient"? "objective vs. subjective vs. omniscient" should be enough. 'subjective' and 'limited' are the same thing anyways.
(btw, a great example of an objective narration fic here on fimfiction is Tea Time With Alicorn by GlimmerGlaze, just fyi).

Will you be talking about other narrative traits too? such as tenses, bias, etc?

2459236
It's one of mine too. Too bad I'm still inexperienced at writing =P

[bookplayer]

2459422

"objective vs. subjective vs. omniscient" should be enough.

Except that omniscient can be either subjective or objective, so you aren't choosing between those three. And, conversely, subjective can be either limited or omniscient.

Will you be talking about other narrative traits too? such as tenses, bias, etc?

I wish I was, but there was actually something else I wanted to talk about, and I realized I needed a brief rundown of basic narrative mode to catch people up, just so I could explain that I wasn't talking about that.

So, this isn't really a comprehensive post on narrative mode, though I would love to make one someday.

[Sind]

2459614
How can you possibly have objective omniscience?
"omniscience" in itself implies that you know everything(i.e, have access to everyone's perspectives, thoughts and feelings), where as "objective" implies that you have a limited knowledge(specifically, you don't have access to people's thoughts and feelings)

For what it's worth, Wikipedia is agreeing with me(as well as some other sites(first result on google for "objective vs subjective narrative"))

Perhaps you are thinking of perspective?
I.E., tiling it into "First person vs Second person vs Third person perspective" and "Objective vs Subjective vs Omniscient narration" (although stuff like "first person omniscient" is basically unheard of =P)

And too bad about the lack of the other stuff. Would have been fun
Oh well, still looking forward to the post =P

(I have been considering writing a comprehensive guide to narration for fimfiction use, but... the task just seems so daunting ._.)(and besides, I don't know much use it would be of anyways)

[bookplayer]

2459739

How can you possibly have objective omniscience?
"omniscience" in itself implies that you know everything(i.e, have access to everyone's perspectives, thoughts and feelings), where as "objective" implies that you have a limited knowledge(specifically, you don't have access to people's thoughts and feelings)

Objective omniscience would be able to shift focus between multiple characters and the world in general, without delving into any of their thoughts or feelings of specific characters. Think of it like the camera eye view, but on a universal network and with an encyclopedia attached. Kind of the google maps of writing. I have no idea why you would tell a story this way, (I don't know why you'd tell an objective story in general,) but it's certainly possible.

[Sind]

2459787
I think I understand what you mean, even if I still disagree with the existence of objective omniscience(given the way you described it, I'd lump both types of 'objective' narratives together, as there's nothing that states that an objective narrator has to be stationary. And besides, your definition of "Objective Omniscience" describes a narrator that isn't omniscient, merely omnipresent)

As for the use of objective narrative: Admittedly, it was much more popular in the old days(either due to lack of knowledge, or just not valuing thoughts and feelings), as well as in non-fiction(news very much tend to be written from an objective perspective).
Nowadays, it certainly isn't as common, but it can still be pretty nice. In essence, it's taking the "show don't tell" idea and cranking it up to eleven, which allows you to paint really detailed pictures of the events... for better or for worse ;)
Again, I recommend Tea Time With Alicorn as an example of objective narration done well.