POINT OF VIEW

By: Sue Rich

In the beginning of my writing career, Point of View (POV) was one of the hardest aspects for me to learn.  Even now, after all these years, I still falter occasionally.  Every author does.  That’s one of the reason we need critique groups or partners to check over our work before it’s submitted to an editor.

It’s easier to understand POV if you know what it is 

POV is what is going on inside a single character’s head--actually your head--during a particular scene or portion of a scene.  You are in one character’s POV at a time.  You become that character. Therefore, you can only draw from the thoughts you would think about your own situation, fear, anger, happiness, appearance,  love interest, home, work, and so forth. 

Your character can only smell, hear, touch, taste, see, or feel what you would.  Your thoughts and actions are going to be exactly what you would think, do, and say while in the characters current situation.

We are not mind readers

While in one character’s POV, you can’t tell what another character is thinking.  You can see the expressions and body language that gives hints.  You can ‘guess’ what the other is thinking--right or wrong.  But you can’t know what they’re thinking.  For example:

He was embarrassed.

Unless you’re inside this guy’s head, you aren’t going to know that for sure.  But your character can see signs and draw their own conclusion.

She saw his neck turn red as his glance darted away.  She winced.  Damn.  She hadn't meant to embarrass him.

What we’ve done here is visibly establish the fact that he was embarrassed, and we drew a much better picture for the reader (she saw his neck turn red as his gaze darted away).  We’ve also given some insight into our POV character (she hadn’t meant to embarrass him).

Descriptions in POV

We are all anxious to describe our characters so the reader will know what they look like.  But there is a right way and a wrong way to accomplish this.  Here is an example:

She lifted her small hand and brushed a lock of unruly golden blonde hair behind her ear.
Think about that for a minute.  How many times have you said that to yourself? “I lifted my small hand a brushed a lock of my unruly golden blonde hair behind my ear.”  My guess is you haven’t. 
That sentence would have been fine if another character (one who was watching the girl) thought it.  But not when you’re inside the blonde’s head.  The truth is, if I had been in this character’s head, I would have worded it something like this:

A strand of hair blew across her mouth, and she shoved it back behind her ear.  She was going to have to do something with this mess.  Maybe she should cut it.  Whoever said ‘blondes have more fun’ hadn’t seen her tangled mop.

We’ve accomplished several things with that paragraph.  We know her hair is long (it blew across her mouth).  We know it’s blonde (whoever said blondes have more fun).  We know it’s unruly (hadn’t seen her tangled mop).  And we now know she’s not happy with it (maybe she should cut it).  As a woman, I can identify with that.  None of us are totally satisfied with our appearance.  We can always find faults—especially with unmanageable hair.

Anyway, we’ve covered everything except the smallness of her hand, and that can be saved for another time.  Maybe when a ring slips off her finger, and she complains to herself about having midget hands.  Or, better yet, when her love interest is looking at her and thinking about how tiny she is.

POV in an actions scene

Action scenes are usually written in quick, short sentences to speed up the pacing.  But when doing so, don’t make the mistake of dropping out of POV for expedience’s sake.  For instance:
She saw him coming toward her.  He was going to kill her!

She couldn’t possibly know his intentions unless he had a gun pointed at her, or he was standing over her with a raised knife.  But she can see the signs and draw her conclusion.

He came toward her, his stride quick, deliberate.  He didn’t take his eyes off her. A vein bulged in his temple.  His hand slipped into his coat pocket.  He looked evil. Deadly.  Run, Jenny, run!

Again, we’ve drawn a better picture for the reader, and we’ve kept within the bounds of POV. We’ve also given the reader a much more urgent sense of danger. 

A writer is often called an ‘artist’, and that’s what are.  We don’t use a standard canvas, but we literally draw pictures with words.  And if we stay in one person’s point of view at a time, the image is much more vivid.

Courtesy of www.fiction-writing-tips.com