Mastering Omniscient Narration

Tips and tricks for getting a handle on your omniscient voice and understanding how to transition from one character's head to another. 
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Is omniscience out of style? 

No! 

You may have come across assertions that omniscient narration is an outdated mode, that it only belongs in novels preceding the 20th century. But that simply isn't true nowadays. Omniscience is actually experiencing somewhat of a resurgence

Authors like Sally Rooney, Fredrik Backman, and Celeste Ng have all used omniscient narration in popular, critically acclaimed work. It isn't just the domain of epic fantasy and stories trying to emulate Victorian fiction. 

People seem to misunderstand omniscience

What even is omniscient narration?

This is the other conundrum you may have encountered. If you look for a list of books written in omniscient narration, you'll find several books that are actually multiple viewpoint limited. Omniscience isn't just about narrating from multiple perspectives.

Nor is omniscience all about remaining distant from characters. I've come across that assertion many times, too. Omniscience can, in fact, go deep into characters' heads.

What we will cover

Omniscient vs. Limited

If we're to understand omniscient narration, we need to understand its closest relative: multiple limited narration. So we'll kick things off in this course by clarifying what a limited stance is and how omniscience differs

Head Hopping & Transitioning

One of the key defining traits of omniscient narration is the narrator's ability to get into the heads of multiple characters. When writers do that clumsily, it's often called "head hopping." We'll delve into how a writer can do it fluidly. 

Omniscient Voice

Probably the most important (and overlooked) defining trait of omniscience is the narrator's voice. For those tackling omniscience (not multiple limited), the omniscient voice is also the hardest thing to nail down. We'll propose several very practical tips and tricks to help you wrap your head around the omniscient voice

Varieties of Omniscience

Finally, we'll examine the spectrum between multiple limited and omniscience. Nowadays, there are several writers who straddle the line between the two stances. What might that look like? Join us and find out. 

Frequently asked questions

How is this course delivered?

There are 12 video lessons here. Lessons 2, 3, and 12 deal with limited vs. omniscient narration. Lessons 4 and 5 deal with transitioning. Lessons 6-10 deal with the omniscient voice. Lesson 11 discusses varieties of omniscience

You proceed on your own through the recorded lessons, but you can post questions or email the instructor. 

What course materials are provided?  

There's a downloadable handout in Lesson 1 that contains 27 exemplar excerpts and three exercises.

How long is the course?

The twelve short lessons total just over an hour of instruction. Each video is densely packed but relatively short. No single lesson is longer than 10 minutes. You may occasionally want to pause or replay a section of a lesson, but you'll get a lot of information in a short time. 

Course Lessons

Meet the instructor

TD Storm

TD Storm is an award-winning writer and teacher whose stories have appeared in a number of journals. His passion for storytelling and its inner workings inform his teaching, editing, and mentoring. He has worked with countless writers on personal essays, novels, short stories, and more. And he's been teaching since 1999.

Want to know more about TD Storm? Check out the About page for the school.

Want to know more about his approach toward writing and teaching writing? Look at this post on the "Core Tenets of Storm Writing School."

Patrick Jones - Course author

Finally figure out omniscience

(You can get this course for free with a maximalist writing craft club membership.)
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