What Does Good Omniscient POV look like?

[Naruzeldamaster]

Nobody else was writing the books I wanted to read.

Same, some of the stuff I would want to read would be a lot 'worse' than the stories I would personally write.
At least for a couple of planned stories, most writers would take the 'content' in a different direction than I personally would.
So I'm writing them lol

 

[JBCrowson]

Malik, thank you for your passion and for taking the time to share it with us. MUCH appreciated.

 

[pmmg]

Malik is a site treasure.

Bob Cranston went into the fish market. He thought nothing would hit the spot better than a blue spotted mackerel. And since this was his first date with Mindy, he could think of nothing better than to bring home the best one he could find and cook it up for them, and their budding romantic encounter.

Mindy, on the other hand, hated the smell of fish, and while she did not wish to complain, she could not imagine spending the evening cooking up so ugly and scaly a creature. She wanted the evening to end right there. And as Bob took a sharp left turn and walked right into the entrance of the fish market, she had a strong inclination not to follow him, but instead to sneak off, and never return his calls.

Unaware of Mindy's disgust, Bob smiled widely and looked at the bins full of ice and large eyed, big mouthed fish cadavers with all the confidence of one sure he would make an impression. That Mindy had a scowl on her face went by unnoticed, and he quickly was drawn to a large wet floppy one...


Is it good, I dont know, but that is kind of the perspective. The head hopping occurs, but its part of the narration.

 

[Malik]

Excerpt from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, without equal the greatest sci-fi portal fantasy series ever written. I've italicized the POV shifts and added the character names in parentheses. Watch the ball and the cups. Ready?

Ford stared at Arthur, who began to think that perhaps he did want to go to the Horse and Groom after all. (Arthur’s POV)

“But what about my house . . . ?” he asked plaintively.

Ford looked across to Mr. Prosser, and suddenly a wicked thought struck him. (Ford’s POV)

“He wants to knock your house down?”

“Yes, he wants to build . . .”

“And he can’t because you’re lying in front of his bulldozer?”

“Yes, and . . .”

“I’m sure we can come to some arrangement,” said Ford. “Excuse me!” he shouted.

Mr. Prosser (who was arguing with a spokesman for the bulldozer drivers about whether or not Arthur Dent constituted a mental health hazard, and how much they should get paid if he did) looked around. He was surprised and slightly alarmed to see that Arthur had company. (Prosser’s POV)

“Yes? Hello?” he called. “Has Mr. Dent come to his senses yet?”

“Can we for the moment,” called Ford, “assume that he hasn’t?”

“Well?” sighed Mr. Prosser.

“And can we also assume,” said Ford, “that he’s going to be staying here all day?”

“So?”

“So all your men are going to be standing around all day doing nothing?”

“Could be, could be. . .”

“Well, if you’re resigned to doing that anyway, you don’t actually need him to lie here all the time do you?”

“What?”

“You don’t,” said Ford patiently, “actually need him here.”

Mr. Prosser thought about this. (Narrator’s POV; Prosser’s head, though.)

“Well, no, not as such . . .” he said, “not exactly need . . .”

Prosser was worried. He thought that one of them wasn’t making a lot of sense. (Prosser’s POV)

Ford said, “So if you would just like to take it as read that he’s actually here, then he and I could slip off down to the pub for half an hour. How does that sound?”

Mr. Prosser thought it sounded perfectly potty. (Prosser’s POV)

“That sounds perfectly reasonable . . .” he said in a reassuring tone of voice, wondering who he was trying to reassure. (Prosser’s POV)

“And if you want to pop off for a quick one yourself later on,” said Ford, “we can always cover for you in return.”

“Thank you very much,” said Mr. Prosser, who no longer knew how to play this at all, “thank you very much, yes, that’s very kind . . ” He frowned, then smiled, then tried to do both at once, failed, grasped hold of his fur hat and rolled it fitfully round the top of his head. He could only assume that he had just won. (We are now firmly in Prosser’s head, because this is where the really funny stuff is happening.)

“So,” continued Ford Prefect, “if you would just like to come over here and lie down . . .”

“What?” said Mr. Prosser.

“Ah, I’m sorry,” said Ford, “perhaps I hadn’t made myself fully clear. Somebody’s got to lie in front of the bulldozers, haven’t they? Or there won’t be anything to stop them driving into Mr. Dent’s house, will there?”

“What?” said Mr. Prosser again.

“It’s very simple,” said Ford, “my client, Mr. Dent, says that he will stop lying here in the mud on the sole condition that you come and take over from him.”

“What are you talking about?” said Arthur, but Ford nudged him with his shoe to be quiet.(Narrator’s POV, but only Arthur could know that Ford nudged him, so . . . Arthurs POV?)

“You want me,” said Prosser, spelling out this new thought to himself, (back to Prosser’s POV) “to come and lie there . . .”

“Yes.”

“In front of the bulldozer?”

“Yes.”

“Instead of Mr. Dent.”

“Yes.”

“In the mud.”

“In, as you say, the mud.”

 

[Malik]

CONTINUED:


As soon as Mr. Prosser realized that he was substantially the loser after all, it was as if a weight lifted itself off his shoulders: this was more like the world as he knew it. He sighed.

“In return for which you will take Mr. Dent with you down to the pub?”

“That’s it,” said Ford, “that’s it exactly.”

Mr. Prosser took a few nervous steps forward and stopped.

“Promise?” he said.

“Promise,” said Ford. He turned to Arthur.

“Come on,” he said to him, “get up and let the man lie down.”

Arthur stood up, feeling as if he was in a dream. (Back to Arthur’s POV)

Ford beckoned to Prosser, who sadly, awkwardly, sat down in the mud. He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. The mud folded itself round his bottom and his arms and oozed into his shoes. (Aaaaand, back to Prosser’s POV.)

Ford looked at him severely.

“And no sneaky knocking Mr. Dent’s house down while he’s away, all right?” he said.

“The mere thought,” growled Mr. Prosser, “hadn’t even begun to speculate,” he continued, settling himself back, “about the merest possibility of crossing my mind.”

He saw the bulldozer drivers’ union representative approaching and let his head sink back and closed his eyes. He was trying to marshal his arguments for proving that he did not now constitute a mental health hazard himself. He was far from certain about this—his mind seemed to be full of noise, horses, smoke and the stench of blood. This always happened when he felt miserable or put upon, and he had never been able to explain it to himself. (Prosser’s POV) In a high dimension of which we know nothing, the mighty Khan bellowed with rage, but Mr. Prosser only trembled slightly and whimpered. (Narrator’s POV) He began to feel little pricks of water behind his eyelids. Bureaucratic cock-ups, angry men lying in mud, indecipherable strangers handing out inexplicable humiliation and an unidentified army of horsemen laughing at him in his head—what a day. (BAM! Back to Prosser again, all in the SAME DAMNED PARAGRAPH.)

Ford Prefect knew that it didn’t matter a pair of dingo’s kidneys whether Arthur’s house got knocked down or not now. (BOOM, back to Ford!)

Arthur remained very worried. (Aaaaand, back to Arthur, via Narrator)

“But can we trust him?” he said.

“Myself I’d trust him to the end of the Earth,” said Ford.

“Oh yes,” said Arthur, “and how far’s that?”

“About twelve minutes away,” said Ford, “come on, I need a drink.”

 

[Malik]

The omniscient narrator knows the entire story; they know what everyone is thinking and doing and feeling. (There's also an unreliable narrator, who may not know key pieces of information. An author might use an unreliable narrator to let you come to "your own" conclusions about the theme and point of the book ("your own" is in quotes because what you'll end up concluding is more often than not exactly what the author wanted you to conclude, but they wanted you to feel really smart).

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I'll have to show you guys an excerpt of what I'm writing like (Maybe the whole chapter if I can) and maybe you can help me figure out which POV it is.
It might be omniscient but as there are several types I'm not sure how to pick one and refine it. The style is kinda the same for all of my stories, though I have different levels of staying in a character's POV in each.

 

[Karlin]

One wonders if Adams thought about this conciously.