A Change of Perspective
by Saladin Akara on April 14, 2009
in General Writing, Group Writing Projects, Roleplaying
This is a part of my Writing From A Different Focus group-write project. Here, I went for a roleplay post style of writing, but while also shifting the focus away from what would be ‘my’ character. Taking on the role and perspective of a minor, or even unseen, character, I am pushing my boundaries by writing in first person and also be taking the perspective of a by-stander rather than that of the character who is doing the actions pertinent to plot.
I’d heard tell of late about a man who had the ability to perform such trickery as hadn’t ever been seen in these parts. Magic, they were calling it. I was far too old to believe in such fantasy tales though; I was still at times amazed by how gullible the young were.
Well, despite being in the local tavern for a cold ale after a hard day’s work, I still couldn’t escape the rumours of this foreign fellow. Telling my peers to stop being so foolish, a solitary corner was certainly favourable.
Try as I might, however, no matter how hard I thought about it, something was certainly different about the man who entered the tavern some time after my solitary solace from foolish chatter and whimsical ideas. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
Maybe it was the black clothes. No one wore such colours in these parts; unless at a funeral of some sort, of course. Perhaps his eyes were what caught my attention: A crsytalline azure that, had I knew no better, would have appeared to glow slightly. Certainly, the fellow walked in as though he owned the place; such arrogance I’d not witnessed before. Even the local Lord carried himself with a little more humility and he was well known as a pompous, arrogant fatman.
My eyes and focus were drawn entirely to this stranger and as he walked, no, sauntered, to the bar, I made the assumption I’d had one too many ales as he seemed, for only the moment he spoke to the barkeep, to glow a deep blue. I had to shake my head, trying to kick off the effects of the evening nectar.
He walked upstairs with no change of manner and disappearing from my view, I disregarded the strange man and returned to my relaxation. I did notice, however, a few bangs and scrapes in the upper levels of the building. My attention was once again drawn to the stairs as a loud rumble revealed a tumbling dwarf. He’d obviously been thrown down, the poor little bloke.
Normally, I had no liking for dwarves: They generally were uncouth and with accents deep enough that I never understood them. With a face covered in blood though, I wondered at why someone would want to cause damage to one of the small folk. Then I saw him again.
The man with the azure eyes stalked down the stairs, a piercing stare aimed for the stumbling miner beneath him. I gasped as a grip was had on the beard and the arrogant one dragged his mark from the tavern. I tried to shrink further into my corner, not wanting to get involved with such things.
The knocking over of chairs and drinks caused quite the ruckus, and rightly so. No one moved to prevent the young man continuing his cruelty though. He was dangerous looking, and his eyes were threatening - nobody wanted trouble on a Wednesday evening.
As the two left the tavern, the silence that had been case over the common room was lifted as rumours began to spread once more. I sighed and took another gulp of my ale.
Whew! That was a challenge and half! Despite being a pretty short scene, taking it from someone’s viewpoint who has no idea about who the character was (my primary roleplay character, by the way: Saladin Akara), what had brought him to that tavern, or what was going to happen afterwards was hard in itself. I’m so used to taking the role of the character being the focus of someone’s attention.
To add to that, I was writing in First Person, which I so very rarely do. All in all, for so short a piece, it took me a whole longer to write than I would perhaps assume it should do.
So, what did I learn? I think one of the important things I learnt was how perspective can entirely change the feel of a scene. Here, for example , my character would have been interacting with the dwarf for reasons far from malicious: He is quite the ‘goody two shoes.’ However, from a stranger’s viewpoint, Saladin is seen as a cruel, rude and violent person, though entirely mysterious to the point of distraction.
This was interesting as I have to ask myself, “What do my readers see from this scene? What I intend when writing from Saladin’s viewpoint, or what the old guy saw?”
An interesting thought, certainly.