POV – Point of View. Three little letters that have to be the bane of every new writer’s journey. Oh if we only were writers 40 or more years ago—now that would have been a completely different story. In the ‘good ol’ days’ we could write from everyone’s point of view at anytime. Now—it is a big ‘No-no.’
Readers want you to pick a character and crawl in their skin, their thoughts, their motives, and their goals. You are allowed to change your POV character—but not without appropriate warning to the reader. Make a new chapter or denote a divide in a chapter to make sure they know of the switch.
So how do you do it? How do you keep in one POV consistently? My good writer friend, Loretta Sinclair, http://www.sinclairinkspot.com/the-impossibilities-blog describes it this way: if I am a character in your story and a fly lands on the back of my head—I can’t know it. Anything that happens in another place, at another time when the character was not present, or out of the character’s view—they can’t know until someone tells them about it. “She didn’t know he was in the room until he spoke.” If she didn’t know it—than you can’t write it. “She jumped off the couch with a yelp when he said, ‘Hello.’”
Your character can’t know what another character is thinking or feeling. “I know she was thinking how stupid I had been.” Nope you don’t—not unless you write fantasy and your character is telepathic. It’s called head hopping and it’s not considered good writing. Now your character can: see another roll their eyes, smirk; hear them sigh or chuckle; turn away with a dismissive flip of hand—all in the POV of your character, but they can’t know what another is thinking.
Here is another stickler. Your character can’t describe what their face or hair looks like without being in front of a mirror. “My face turned ten shades of red.” Nope! Now your character can sweat, feel the heat rise in their cheeks, feel the pounding of their heart. All these are correct POV.
Once you get POV mastered—and be patient, it won’t happen over night—then the next step is to work on deep POV. More on that next time.
Paths of a Writer
--Michelle
Readers want you to pick a character and crawl in their skin, their thoughts, their motives, and their goals. You are allowed to change your POV character—but not without appropriate warning to the reader. Make a new chapter or denote a divide in a chapter to make sure they know of the switch.
So how do you do it? How do you keep in one POV consistently? My good writer friend, Loretta Sinclair, http://www.sinclairinkspot.com/the-impossibilities-blog describes it this way: if I am a character in your story and a fly lands on the back of my head—I can’t know it. Anything that happens in another place, at another time when the character was not present, or out of the character’s view—they can’t know until someone tells them about it. “She didn’t know he was in the room until he spoke.” If she didn’t know it—than you can’t write it. “She jumped off the couch with a yelp when he said, ‘Hello.’”
Your character can’t know what another character is thinking or feeling. “I know she was thinking how stupid I had been.” Nope you don’t—not unless you write fantasy and your character is telepathic. It’s called head hopping and it’s not considered good writing. Now your character can: see another roll their eyes, smirk; hear them sigh or chuckle; turn away with a dismissive flip of hand—all in the POV of your character, but they can’t know what another is thinking.
Here is another stickler. Your character can’t describe what their face or hair looks like without being in front of a mirror. “My face turned ten shades of red.” Nope! Now your character can sweat, feel the heat rise in their cheeks, feel the pounding of their heart. All these are correct POV.
Once you get POV mastered—and be patient, it won’t happen over night—then the next step is to work on deep POV. More on that next time.
Paths of a Writer
--Michelle
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