[Tom Wood]

I had a reading with our local writer's group and got quite a bit of complaint about the present tense and POV. I understand the complaint, it's different. What it does is create a 'narrator' who isn't in the story, but who is telling the reader what is happening in real time. A novel with a similar approach is Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, at least at the beginning. However, he frequently jumps into first person with each of the characters.

Because of the story setup I do have a way to create a character who is in the story and can see all the events, but should I have to? Otherwise, it's me, the author, commenting on the story as it happens. If it were a movie, it would be like having the voiceover like in American Beauty.

The present tense third person tends to make it read like a movie that is unfolding. Had complaints about that too, but that was my intent. I was told that I'm not being true to the form of the novel, by novelists. The book will only ever be on mobile devices, so I'm wondering if it can step away from the form. I might even add some easter eggs too which plants it firmly in a new format. The genre is cyberpunk.

Anyway, interested in thoughts!

Thanks,

Tom

Edit: Changed title from 'omniscient' to 'objective' since that is what I'm really doing. Curiously, it's also been called 'Third Person Cinematic'.