Point of View: Easy Examples of How to Frame Every Short Story

Flash Fiction is a 500 words or less short story. These flash fictions were developed through assigned random characters.

[Ghost-First Person Limited]

What happens in front of me isn’t something I have ever imagine you would do, Mom. The way you desperately trying to call me with your phone while walking around the living room worriedly is somewhat laughable, maybe a bit pitiful. I would’ve laughed at her face, but now… I don’t know. Not that it matters anyway because I’m not supposed to be here, or at least my physical body is. It’s been three hours ago since it lay lifelessly on the ground, still wearing the school uniform. Those sneaky bastards manage to get a jump on me. Never thought they would try to avenge their boss’ loss with weapons. The steel pipes were definitely the most painful, especially when they hit my balls with them.

The sound of someone vomiting alerts me. I see Mom holding her stomach, a puddle of bile beneath her. The sight is really pathetic, and I almost feel sorry for her until angry rants coming out of her mouth, complaining about my disappearance. In an instant, my unsure feelings are gone, replaced by fury. You bitch. Is that all you think about me, a housemaid taking all of your drunk nonsense? You know what, I shouldn’t be surprised that her alcoholic ass only cares about herself.

Now, I’m glad that you threw me out of the house, Mom. Even better, I’m on the other side of the living.

Feeling sick of her, I leave her and ou-no, her house for good.

 

[Mother-Third Person Limited]

It’s already dark outside and inside this house. In the rare sober episode of her, she wonders why that cheeky brat hasn’t turned the light on yet. That would only mean one thing: he hasn’t home. Fumbling, she drags herself towards the switch across the sofa. A moment after the living room is alight, she glances into the ticking clock. It’s already 10. Strange. She furiously dials that brat’s number, but he never picks up. She throws up again on the floor. Now, what has he done outside again? He should’ve been home already, wiping her puddles of hangover traces all over the house. Making the usual supper for her. Doing the piles of laundry. She thinks irately while prancing around the room. She throws up again. Muttering, or perhaps shouting, grumpily while dialing. And vomiting again until nothing’s left in her stomach. As the hurricane in her stomach halts to an end, she was left with a pang of emptiness both in her heart and her stomach. That subsides her anger. It’s understandable if he doesn’t want to come home anymore, she thought. Not after what she vaguely remembers saying this morning. Heck, she doesn’t even remember the cause of their bickering this morning because she was so drunk after her ton shots of booze the other night. She’s never been a perfect mother, not even a good one. Yet somehow, now, she really wishes that her son would come back home so that she could hug him.

She dials her son’s number again and, perhaps, that's what she’ll do for the rest of the night.

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Compared to other classes I have taken, maybe this class is one that I truly enjoy because every assignment done feels so rewarding. These two passages were made collaboratively by me and a classmate, Kristo, as an exercise on point of view. We were given random papers filled with random characters, then we need to construct a scene based on the characters we have got. It was amazing how different point of view gives off different voice to the character and the total narrative.

Think of the point of view as the camera that captures the scenes.

How wide would you like the angle to capture the scenes?

What will be the main focus of your lens?

The first-person limited point of view from the ghost that Kristo used only lets the reader know what happens in the scene through what the ghost can observe. As it is voiced using I, the readers should be able to feel his anger and disappointment.

The third-person limited point of view that I used in the second passage follows only the mother, but it lets the readers know what the mother is thinking. Her guilt and her awakened mother sense. Combined together, we get almost the full picture of the story from both sides.