I recently read the novel, ROOM by Emma Donoghue.
This book kept me reading. I haven't done much fiction reading over the past few years; instead I've concentrated on reading books and magazines with parenting themes. I've also enjoyed reading poetry and books/articles on poetic devices. But due to lack of time, lack of sleep, lack of energy' I just delayed my favourite pastime: reading fiction
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ROOM hit me on a very emotional level and I made the mistake of reading the final chapter in a cafe... It had been a gift to myself, time and a comfortable seat by a window, pumpkin spice coffee satisfying my yen for something different.
I should have known better. The author HAD me. I mean she turned me inside out and upside down. I was openly weeping as I read her final paragraphs. A stranger gave me a kind look, perhaps a fellow reader who understood the power of the written word. And words ARE very powerful... some can change minds, even change attitudes, a few have changed lives
The book is written in the point of view of a five year old boy, held prisoner, who has never seen the outside world. The author managed to maintain THIS VOICE throughout the entire novel... brilliantly.
As both a fiction writer and poet, I have written from children's, men's and women's points of view and I know what it is to maintain voice.
Some may have read/remember my Segments of Orange (still to be finished. Ruben, I promise. And I don't make promises lightly) in which I used a man's point of view. Readers seemed to enjoy this perspective and male readers let me know I'd kept the male perspective, that my protagonist sounded authentic.
Fiction writers do this all the time. Stephen King can easily slip between men's and women's points of view and what makes him such a popular author is that his characterizations are so realistic and riveting.Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone is another example of a great novel that is centered on character development.
Many of my poems are first-hand accounts, but I also like to step into shoes and can write in third person. Some of my poetry is a fictionalized version of real life scenarios or an adapted view of historical fact.
So... lol... if you have read this far...
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Have you read any good books lately? What moved you about the story?
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When you write poetry is it ever fictional and do you write from a variety of points of view?
3. Feel free to share... whatever... but keep it courteous. Merci!