I have officially received my first requested essay topic: point of view.  Great choice, L.T.!  You’ve heard me say that conflict is story.  Well, if I were to be a bit more particular I’d expand this to conflict communicated through POV is story.  I’m pretty sure I mentioned this at last week’s workshop, but story is not plot, but the way a particular POV character or narrator responds to the events of the plot.  I’ll outline this fully, as well as address perspective and tense issues and the strengths and weaknesses of each.  I may even touch on narrators, effective multi-POV usage, and why omniscient POV is the bane of story (almost always).  Give me a few days and I’ll have the essay posted (I’ll shoot for Saturday, but we’ll see).

As long as I’m doing this, I’ll welcome specific questions people may have about POV, if there are any.  If such come, I’ll be sure to address them directly in the essay.

*****

I apologize for the brief post today, but something came up that’s just more important.  His name is Upul, he is a nursing student from Sri Lanka, and some emergency has resulted in the loss of his Student Visa.  Upul was a student of mine the past two semesters at Salt Lake Community College (where I tutor students in one on one sessions), where he demonstrated an admirable work ethic and natural talent for figurative language and expressive detail in his writing.  And no, he isn’t a Tamil Tiger.  He was a pastry chef (award winning while in the United Arab Emirates); he wants to be a nurse here in the US, where, by the way, his girlfriend of several years still lives.  Maybe it’s just me, but because he is a very nice man willing to earn his way while he’s here (who didn’t marry his girlfriend for the right to “siphon off the system” when he very well could have), I have no problem with this.  In fact, I believe we would be a bit better off as a nation with Upul being here among us.  For some reason, Uncle Sam disagrees.

Today, Upul called me from Sri Lanka and told me his Student Visa had been revoked and he needed to reapply.  I am thus going to write him a letter of recommendation that, hopefully, will help him earn his way back into this country, which had become his home before we, for some reason, decided to kick him out.  There may be a very good, reasonable explanation for this.  There had better be a very good, reasonable explanation for this.  Either way, you may perceive that I am mad.

Very mad.

Very, very mad.    

To keep that from coloring the letter of recommendation, I’ve vented it here.  Sorry for the furious torrent.