Breaking point of view

[VinsenMDV]

Whenever I write a story, I always picture it in my head as something you'd see on a movie screen. Often in movies you'll see a scene that switches to a throwaway character (like a random person about to get killed, or characters setting something up, etc.). My question is can that kind of style be translated into writing without confusing readers? For example, the main characters don't see a spaceship landing, but I write a short scene detailing the ship's landing and what comes out of the ship (not being told through a particular viewpoint). Would that classify as 3rd-person omniscient POV?

[FennelGiraffe]

Picturing the story "as something you'd see on a movie screen" often leads to distant and uninvolved writing. Visual media have strengths the written word lacks. However, the reverse is also true. Try putting yourself inside the story and picturing it the way you live real life, as something you actually experience firsthand.

To answer your specific question, I'd say the POV you're describing is objective. Objective (also called camera-eye) and omniscient are related. Basically, if you show the narrator's attitude about what is happening and/or get inside various characters' heads, it's omniscient. If you are limited to externally observable information, it's objective.

Yes, it's possible to switch between 3rd limited (or even 1st) and objective or omniscient POV. Whether that's the best choice for your story, and whether you can pull it off effectively... shrug. The only way to find out is to write it and see.

[VinsenMDV]

Thanks for your thoughts!

I usually write my characters as 3rd-person limited and try to only write things that they could reasonably know (which is tricky sometimes since I have such intimate knowledge of the universe they exist in). I don't usually do many "throwaway character" scenes, but on occasion I feel it's necessary to move the story forward without having to invent some bizarre setup to put the event in one of the primary characters' eyes.

[Andrew Jameson]

There's no reason you can't present a scene in a 3rd person limited POV, using a "throwaway character" as the POV character.

[tehuti88]

I see my stories as "movies" in my head as I write them, too--and I'm ANYTHING but distanced from them. It's perfectly fine to switch POVs in this manner as long as you find a way to do it consistently and clearly--not jumping from POV to POV in one scene, for example.

I tend to alternate between multiple third person (switching POV between scenes, usually) and what you describe, just observations of the uninvolved narrator--describing something that's happening, not through any particular POV. It seems to work fine for me. I'd prefer that over adding in a throwaway character just so they can show something from their POV and then never show up again. Thing is, this works better if using the uninvolved (objective, someone else said?) POV is something you do more than once throughout the story, not just at this point, so that suddenly using this POV isn't so jarring.

[ragefaith]

I think it depends a lot on your audience, and what is the best manner of telling the story in a way that they appreciate and understand. :)

[maestrowork]

Would that classify as 3rd-person omniscient POV?

It is omniscient if you go inside the person's head or tell from their perspective.

In movies, your rarely see things from only one person's perspective or go inside their heads (apart from voice overs).

In literature, that's called 3rd person objective (or camera) point of view.

As soon as you dip inside any characters' minds, you're doing omniscient.

[RJK]

If it were me, I'd handle a scene not in my central characters' viewpoint, by switching to another character's POV. Even if it is a "Throwaway" character.
John Sandford created an exciting scene where he introduce a housewife, shopping in a mall. She is being watched by a serial killer. The POV switches to her internal thoughts as she shops, She is thinking about what to get for her son, and that she needs to hurry to get home in time to fix supper. etc.
All the time the reader is reading about this newly introduced character, he knows the killer is watching her from outside. The tension builds and builds all the time we are in her head.
I won't spoil the story, but we don't see this character after this chapter.