How close to your story’s characters, setting and events do you want your readers to feel?

A story told from a great distance with an omniscient point of view (POV) gives readers perspective and context. Using the strata of third-person POV—or moving even closer with a first-person narrator—dials up the intensity of the reader experience.

All points on the continuum of narrative distance are valid choices for different story goals. In this workshop, you’ll discover how to ask the questions that will help you choose a baseline narrative distance, and then how to skillfully zoom in and pull away in key moments for specific effects.

About the Instructor: Janet Fretter

Janet Fretter is a writer, editor, and story geek. She writes fiction and narrative non-fiction, and is a 2013 graduate of SFU’s Writer’s Studio (TWS). Janet served as managing editor for emerge, the annual anthology produced by students of TWS, from 2014 to 2017. She is past co-host of the TWS Reading Series and an enthusiastic supporter of the local literary scene. Janet is a member of Editors Canada and offers freelance editorial services for emerging and established writers.