Whose telling your current WIP?
Every writer has an opinion on point of view (POV). There are those I call the purist, those who believe we can only use one pov per story, at the opposite end is the writer who includes everyone’s pov. I feel pov needs to be determined by the writer and story.
Personally, I will never write in the first person. I don’t write like that. Also, I will generally have at least two pov’s – the heroine and hero – depending on the genre up to three – the bad guy in my suspense. I like to use the heroine and hero pov’s but that doesn’t mean every writer does.
What is important – determine your pov at the beginning of your book and then stick with it! No matter what. I just finished a book which introduced a new pov in the last twenty pages. It actually pulled from the tension, in my opinion, instead of adding to it. I relate to this desire. In Treasure Hunt, I really wanted to use the ‘bad’ guy’s pov for the big fight scene. But since we hadn’t visited his head before, I had to stick with what I had. Sometimes, it requires a lot more effort to stay true to your selected pov but you’ll end up with a stronger scene.
The key to pov…..make it deep. How do you do that?
Dev elope a unique voice for each POV. No two people sound, think, or act alike. Your pov should be as individual as the character it represents. For instance, guys don’t look at things the same way as women. Your hero probably would not notice things in a room your heroine would. If he walks into a room and notices the color of the curtains, how many pillows are on the couch, and the little trinkets set around you need to give him a reason. He’s a cop, etc. Still even then his internal voice would be different than a woman’s. For example, the curtains would be off white not eggshell. Developing voice is key regardless of the number of pov’s or how often you switch.
One way to establish a voice is to set the mood of your character. Take a scene and rewrite it three ways – as if everything about the scene infuriates your character, then as if it is breaking your characters’ heart, and then as if he/she is scared. Do this for all your pov characters. Find out how they will act differently from one other. You should be able to read each scene from each character and instantly tell who it is without an introduction. For example in the heartbreaking scene, the heroine may walk in crying where the hero walks in cursing. This example is very cliché so another thing to work on is how they portray these typical situations in a unique way.
Next add dept to your POV. Here is an exercise to use especially for those pivotal scenes. Take the scene from your current WIP that you want to kick up and tell the same scene from someone else’s POV. By seeing the same scene from someone else’s eyes you can see how your character looks – acts. Even if your scene has your character alone, for this exercise rewrite from the POV of the proverbial fly on the wall. This will really make you concentrate on the characters action because the fly does not have mind reading ability so your characters action’s needs to portray the mood. Take the observation and weave them into the scene.
You alone know how many or how few pov’s you need in your story. But remember the more pov’s or the fewer pov’s doesn’t make a great book – the depth and voice of the pov’s does.
Recommended reading:
Mastering Point of View by Sherri Szeman. This book shows you how to use pov to reveal or obscure your character’s movtivation and how to handle multiple povs by developing unique voices.
