: To what extent do I have to explain certain reasons or choices to my audience? In my story, there is a spot where there is a major shift in perspective as one point of view is supposed

@Karen856

Posted in: #Audience #CreativeWriting #Perspective

In my story, there is a spot where there is a major shift in perspective as one point of view is supposed to be from someone writing in the first person to another point of view in the third person. Is it better if I explain why the person writing wrote it like a story even though its a diary or is it okay to assume that the audience would understand why? Should I subtly give an explanation, make it obvious, or not give one at all?

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@BetL639

@BetL639

You can write the story any way you like, but you run the risk of breaking your reader's attention to your tale, by suddenly making changes to your method of telling. Instead about thinking about the welfare of your characters and the progress of your plot, they might start thinking, "Why the change in POV?".

To minimize that distraction in this case, why not have your third party narrator announce that the following comes from the filed report of the young detective; before reading the report (in first person) to the reader.

This unifies the whole book under a single point of view, while still allowing you to control information and insight by using first person for the first part.

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