All language subtitles for Masterclass N. K. Jemisin Teaches Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing - 08.Immersing Your Reader Choosing A Pov

[MUSIC PLAYING]

N. K. JEMISIN: Create a story
that engages your reader as

if they are part
of that world or we

create a story that reminds
the reader that they are just

observing the world
through a window.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Let's visualize
immersion as a pyramid.

Let's think about
the fact that when

you're creating a secondary
world, when you're creating

a world that your reader has
got to learn to get into,

you have to decide
how you want to convey

this amount of
information to them.

You can just give them a giant
info dump at the very beginning

of the book that was very
traditional in science

fiction for many years.

If you read a lot of
older science fiction,

you'll see that it starts with
a prologue where they just

drop a whole bunch of
information on you.

That's a form of
immersion, but it's not--

you know, it's not
really in style anymore.

But you've got some choices.

You can create a story that
engages your reader as if they

are part of the world
or you can create

a story that reminds the reader
that they are just a reader

observing the world
through a window.

And I think of the latter as
lower immersion and the former,

where you're immersed
in that world

as if you're a part of
it, as high immersion.

And then there's also
a kind of in-between

of moderate immersion.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Low immersion stories can
be third person omniscient,

which was very popular,
again, for a while.

Third person omniscient
is he walked to the store

and he was thinking about
a bunch of different things

as he did so.

You know the character's
thoughts and actions.

The narrator is telling
you everything that's

going on with this person.

And they're telling it to you
as if they are telling a story.

And it reminds you that
you are the reader sitting

at one removed from the book.

A good example of low immersion
third person omniscient

is The Gormenghast
novels by Mervyn Peake,

very elaborate sort of
almost Gothic fantasy set

in an ancient old castle
among a group of people

that have enacted various
rituals for centuries.

And the story follows a young
man who is born into this world

and has to kind of learn
how to figure it out.

But it's told by the narrator.

You hear the narrator explaining
a lot of what this character is

going through.

With the moderate immersion
stories, in a lot of cases,

that's going to be third
person but more limited.

You're not going to know what's
going on in the character's

head unless you're specifically
in that character's narration.

And while that character is
talking to other characters

around them, you
won't know what's

going on in those
other characters' heads

because the person who's
the viewpoint character

doesn't know what's
in their head.

You can know what they see.

That character
can interpret what

other people's facial
expressions might mean,

but they might be wrong.

And so you are, at that
point, kind of limited to only

what that one viewpoint
character at a time

is able to tell you.

A typical example of
a third person limited

or moderate immersion would
be the second book of My Dream

Blood series, The Shadowed Sun.

The bulk of the story is
told through the perspective

of a young woman
named Hanani, who

is encountering a lot of
really new experiences

throughout the story.

It's very limited.

We see only her chapters
from her point of view.

And she's interpreting
other characters' actions

through her viewpoint.

You do occasionally get
chapters from other characters'

point of view.

And you can compare
how she's interpreting

that character versus
how the character thinks

about themselves.

I mean, that tells you a little
bit about both characters

in that case, but that's a good
example of moderate immersion.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In a high immersion
story, you're

going through that
story, you're going

through that character's life,
as if you are that character.

That's often in first person.

Sometimes you see it in
extremely tight third person.

Second person is a way to get
deep into the character's mind,

intentions, motivations
and so forth.

It's not omniscient.

You're not being
told what's going on.

You're literally experiencing
it as the character is doing so.

You're feeling what
the character feels.

You're tasting what they taste.

In some cases, the
character is going to,

if they're going through a
new experience, for example,

the character's going to
pause and kind of explain

what's going on to themselves.

And then the reader is
able to learn it as well.

But in a lot of cases, it's
all just there from context.

The character
picks up an object,

interacts with that object.

The object might be something
that you've never seen or heard

from before.

But because the character
knows what it is,

then you're able to
learn what it is as well.

So the Hunger Games
trilogy, for example,

which is pretty tightly
in Katniss's perspective

in a lot of cases, where she's
explaining her world to you

because her world doesn't
make a lot of sense to her.

So she's constantly kind of
trying to make sense of it.

And so her attempts to
sort of try and understand

why she's got to go
through all these things

as she's going through them
as you're experiencing them

with her, feeling
what she feels,

smelling what she smells,
these are the ways

that you're learning
about her world.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The easiest ways to
lose a reader when

you are trying to
immerse them is really

kind of giving them
a story that is

incompatible with the kind of
immersion that you've chosen.

If you've created
a story that exists

in a complete secondary
world, nothing vaguely

resembling earth, no
familiarity at all.

And you've chosen to do, oh
say, a third person very tight

limited where your character,
who is a part of this world

and doesn't need to
explain it to themselves,

is just going about
his or her or their day

and has no reason to
pause and tell the reader

or help the reader contextually
understand what's going on,

then you're going
to lose that reader.

Because they're going to
struggle to understand what

this world is.

If you've created a world with--

or if you've decided to write
a story with high immersion

storytelling method,
but it's a world that's

incredibly familiar to people,
where you don't have to explain

everything that's
going on, you're

going to lose some
people there too.

An example is with my
novel The City We Became,

which is set in
modern day New York.

There's some otherworldly
stuff happening in it,

but it's set in a place
that a lot of people

are extremely familiar with.

But because there
are a lot of people

who aren't familiar
with New York,

I did actually have to
describe New York as I

was going through the story.

I did actually have to explain
the subway, which to any New

Yorker is just like a thing.

But what it meant was that I
chose a viewpoint character who

I didn't stick with
throughout the story,

but he was kind of one of my
main viewpoint characters,

who was new to New York.

And I had a reason to explain
things like how to hail a cab.

He needed a reason to
kind of contemplate

all of these little
simplicities of New York.

And I still feel like I
suspect I lost some readers.

I probably did lose
some readers with that

because people who were
extremely familiar with New

York were impatient with
all of the explaining that

had to be done for this
one character who was not

familiar with the city.

But I was doing that
explaining for all

of the readers who weren't who
weren't familiar with the city

either.

I hate the show don't tell.

The idea of show don't tell is
great for beginning writers.

All of these rules that
you hear about that

are the rules of
good writing are

excellent for beginning writers
because beginning writers

need to know where
their parameters are.

They need to know
how far they can go.

And they tend to overdo it until
they get a better sense of what

is realistic or what
is normal or what

is their own style,
what works for them.

And then once they've
got that, then they

can kind of start to discard
some of those basic rules.

And when you are
doing world-building,

when you are talking about
a setting that isn't earth,

sometimes you do just
have to explain things.

Sometimes you do
just have to tell.

And it's unavoidable
if you're trying

to help your reader get through
that major learning curve.

You can communicate
quite a bit by context,

but sometimes you
just got to come out

and say what you mean to say.