If you had been told, "this may be the most ‘meta’ Did You Know" yet, you would be primed for how to view the image, and what to expect. In many instances, that can be useful since such primers guide and direct you toward the intended outcome.

Then again, there are times when not knowing the purpose can be exciting, even exhilarating. After all, why does it seem so wrong to read the last page of a mystery first?

There are many philosophers who argue that perspective is everything. As a writer, how you develop that perspective is determined not only by your choices (plot, characters, setting, theme, dialogue, voice, style, genre, medium, etc), but also by your own personal worldview. Simply, whether they realize it or not, embrace or it or rebel against it, writers write what they know and believe.

However, it’s important to remember that, as we expand our worldview and our perspectives broaden, our writing tools grow along with them.

Show, Don’t Tell

Remember show and tell? Is it fair to say that it’s likely that the telling part made up a lot more of the presentation than the the showing aspect? And yet, wasn’t it the showing that was the most interesting part? Throughout this activity you will learn about and then experiment with, three important writing techniques which will enhance your personal writing.

Well, in writing it’s exactly the same. One of the most important tools that a writer can develop is the ability to show the reader rather than tell her or him what’s occurring. Of course, this is easier said than done (which is exactly the point)! Famed author, Ernest Hemingway, coined the term ‘Iceberg Theory’ to describe his style of showing rather than telling. Here are his ideas in his own words:

In essence, showing rather than telling involves selecting, using, and occasionally combining a variety of tools to craft a more engaging, involving narrative. Throughout this activity, you will learn more about crafting characters and picking proper points-of-view.

However, not every author agrees that showing should always be used at the expense of telling. Consider the following opinion:

Crafting Characters

Throughout this course, you will craft a variety of characters. Before beginning, it’s important to review some key concepts and strategies to ensure that you are creating the right character for your narrative.

Whether your character is human, an animal, or a robot, the plot of your story centres on your character and how events affect him, her or even, it. Your character's actions and words will define and drive your narrative. Thus, when you create your fiction, you need to develop believable characters that can carry your plot and engage your reader.

In fiction, there are certain common character types. You are probably familiar with all of them, either from the stories that you've read, or the films and TV you have watched. In this interactive activity, you will have a chance to learn about different character types. If you're working on a tablet, click here to open the following interactive in its own window instead of using the embedded version below.

Picking a Point-of-View

What follows is a short review of the typical points-of-view available to you as a writer.

First Person Point-of-view

The first person point-of-view uses pronouns (I, me, my, we, us, our) to tell the story. It can be further subdivided into two types:

• the narrator as a major character who tells the story; often this story is chiefly about the narrator; or
• the narrator as a minor character who tells the story that focuses on someone else; the narrator is still a character in the story.

Second Person Point-of-view

In second person point-of-view the story is told using "you," the second person pronoun.

Third Person Point-of-view

This point-of-view tells the story from the vantage point of the third person pronoun - he, she, it or they. There are two main kinds:

• limited or objective third person point-of-view; or
• omniscient third person point-of-view.

Breaking the Fourth Wall

The commentary above is an example of breaking the fourth wall; that is, even though you know that this course was written by someone (in this case, a team of educators), we never address you directly. In stories, this occurs when a character acknowledges their fictionality, by either indirectly or directly addressing the audience. It can be a stylistic technique to engage the audience, though it is not without its share of critics. One of my favourite movies that breaks the fourth wall is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. What movies can you name use this perspective? And now, back to your regularly scheduled course...

The narrator is incapable of seeing things as they really are; it is left for the reader to see beyond the narrator to the truth. The unreliable narrator can be either first, second, or third person in nature.

Here are some famous examples, all of which are well worth reading:

• the narrator of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange;
• the narrator of Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon;
• Margaret Atwood's main character in Alias Grace; and
• Mordecai Richler's main character in Barney's Version.