Narrative perspective determines everything the reader can access. A first-person narrator filters all information through a single consciousness, meaning the reader sees only what the narrator sees and believes only what the narrator reports.
A third-person narrator can vary the distance between the reader and the characters, moving from close psychological interiority to detached observation.
Characterisation is achieved through dialogue (what characters say and how they say it), action (what they do), description (how the narrator presents them), and interiority (what they think and feel).
The gap between what a character says and what they think is often where the most interesting meaning lives.
Language and Style
Sentence structure in fiction is a meaning-making device. Long, complex sentences can create a sense of flowing thought or overwhelming detail. Short, blunt sentences create tension, finality, or emotional restraint.
Fragments suggest disruption or intensity.
The rhythm of sentences across a paragraph creates pace: a passage that alternates between long and short sentences builds and releases tension in a pattern the reader feels even before they analyse it.
Example
"She watched him cross the room, his back rigid, his hands in his pockets, and she understood then that the conversation was over, that it had been over before it began, that the apology she had practised in the car would remain, forever, undelivered." The accumulation of subordinate clauses ("that... that... that...") mirrors the character's realisation unfolding in real time.
The final word, "undelivered," carries the emotional weight of the entire sentence, and its position at the end creates a sense of permanent incompletion.
Active recall
Name three devices discussed in this article.
Explain the effect of one device on the reader or audience.
How should a device be linked to the writer's wider purpose?
