Mar
Point of View
For my last day here at RI (sniff, sniff!), I thought it might be helpful to discuss point of view. Point of view is one of the most valuable tools you have as a writer. Of course, everyone has their own take on this, and it can be a controversial subject, so I can only give you my opinion. I have no qualms about changing POV within a scene, but I do so under two provisos–1) I rarely make more than one switch per scene, and 2) I make sure the switch is VERY obvious so there’s no confusion in the reader’s mind as to whose head we’re in. An effective way to do this is to start a new paragraph and sentence with the new POV character’s name and have them “feel” something. For example–Marvin’s stomach knotted and he stared at Muriel in shock, unable to believe what he was hearing. Avoid common mistakes like a character describing their own eye color in their POV. I never think of myself staring at someone with my brown eyes. (hey, because if I did, I’d make my eyes a fabulous blue/green!)
Make sure you’re writing the scene from the right character’s POV. A general rule of thumb is to write a scene from the viewpoint of the character who has the most at stake, or the most to gain or lose in any particular situation. If you’ve written a scene and it hasn’t imparted the information or advanced the story as you’d hoped, chances are you’re writing it from the wrong character’s POV.
Make sure you make full use of POV. Put the reader right inside the character’s head. Let us BE that character for the course of the scene and EXPERIENCE and FEEL all he does. To illustrate what I mean, here’s an example from my short story, Mine at Midnight from the book Stroke of Midnight. Here, the h/h have just kissed for the first time. The scene was written from the hero’s POV. The hero finds the heroine (Merrie) painfully attractive, but he wants to keep his distance because they’re such complete opposites. He’s just told her that their kiss, while great, wasn’t a really good idea and they probably shouldn’t do it again.
Merrie nodded, slowly at first, then more vigorously. “You’re right, of course.” Then her familiar smile flashed. “Besides, it’s not as if that kiss could go anywhere. Let’s face it, personality-wise, we’re like oil and water.”
“Exactly,” he agreed, wondering why he didn’t feel quite as relieved as he should. “Like night and day.”
“Like wet and dry,” she said. “So we’ll just forget it. Go on, business as usual. Blame the last few minutes of insanity on that common holiday malady, Mistletoe Madness.”
It took him several seconds to answer because he was still trying to figure out which one of them was “wet” and which one was “dry”–a difficult task because nothing about their kiss could be labeled “dry”, and when he thought about wet–hell, his train of thought completely jumped the track.
Note also the use of action/reaction. I tend to pretty much split my POV time equally between the hero and heroine. I like to know what both of them are thinking and feeling. So, throw out all your POV questions, comments, problems, useful tricks–I look forward to reading them!
In closing, I’d like to thank all of you for having me at RI this week–it’s been great fun and I wish you all the best with your writing! It’s been an honor to be your guest.
JacquieD…I’m not an author but I do enjoy hearing about the ins and outs of writing a book. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with all of us.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:10 amJacquie, you have given me much to ponder. I’m pretty anal and always checking to make sure I don’t switch POV in my story in the wrong spot. Since I’ve been studying it more, I also notice right away if the POV changes in the book I’m reading as well.
Thanks so much for taking the time to blog here this week and for all of your words of wisdom. Thanks also for answering all of our many questions. I can’t wait to meet you this July @ RWA!
March 24th, 2006 at 2:31 pmAndrea
Oh man, I’m so busted on this one. This above all has been the number one catch from my CP’s. I love to head-hop. I like reading it that way and I like writing it. I’m a very nosey person and I want to know what everyone’s thinking that very moment.
I can’t help it but I do suppose I can limit myself to the amount of head-hops lol.
Thank you for being here this week Jacquie, I’ve enjoyed it so much. *cracks the whip* now get busy on that latest contract…you have books to write.
I’ll see you next Friday…I’m still giggling with joy over going.
March 24th, 2006 at 3:11 pmAfter reading this I’m thinking I might have to put some more thought into my POV. I tend to just do it automatically (switching) without really paying much attention to it. I don’t do it a lot, more between scenes or sometimes even chapters.
I know I saw at one point though I’d put one sentence of my other character’s POV in the middle of the other’s. I’ve not figured out how to fix that yet since I really want that reaction in there *lol* I guess I’ll have to see if I should change the POV completely from that point forward or not. It’s difficult to know sometimes.
Thanks a lot for all your advice this week, Jacquie. It’s been really helpful!
Emily
March 24th, 2006 at 4:34 pmYes, thank you Jacquie. You were wonderful!
March 24th, 2006 at 6:13 pmJacquie, thank so much for your time here with us. I learned a lot this week here and I look forward to your future books.
You’re always welcome to come back and blog with us! And of course you’re always welcome to leave comments too.
Hugs,
March 24th, 2006 at 7:29 pmIsabel
Dorothy: so glad you stopped by! Readers are my favorite people!!
Andrea: until I started writing, I never paid any attention to POV. The first time I saw “POV” written on my mss from a contest entry, I was wondering what or who the heck pov was! It took me a LONG time to get the hang of it, but finally, one day, the lightbulb went off. Now I really notice it, not only in my own writing but in my reading as well. Head hopping doesn’t normally bother me when I’m reading, but because it can be distracting (especially if it’s not done well), in my own writing, I try not to do it. Looking forward to seeing you at RWA!
Haven Rich: there’s no law that says you can’t head-hop. I prefer not to, but that doesn’t mean I’m right and you’re wrong. The thing that got me to stop doing it was an editor. I met her at a conference and she requested the first 3 chapters of my first manuscript. Several months later she sent it back to me, and I was stunned that she’d taken the time to CRITIQUE the ENTIRE THREE CHAPTERS! (believe me, this is NOT normal!). She gave me so many helpful hints and suggestions and comments, many of which revolved around my head-hopping and inconsistent use of POV. It was a real eye-opener for me and to this day I’m grateful to her for taking the time to critique those chapters so thoroughly.
Emmie: I think it’s fine to change POV during a scene, especially if it’s a rather long scene. When I do so, I just make sure the switch is very obvious. And lots of times you just do it by instinct because you KNOW it’s the right place for it happen. The fact that you do, that’s a GOOD thing! If I have a scene break, I normally change POV. Actually, that’s usually WHY I have a scene break–to change POV and/or move the action to another time/place. And once you start a new chapter, you can start off in whoever’s POV you want–either the person’s POV you were just in, or someone else’s. It depends entirely on the story. The best place to end a chapter is where you leave the reader thinking, “OMG, what’s going to happen next??!!” Whose POV you pick up the next chapter in depends on where you, the writer, want to take the story next. Regarding you sticking in one sentence of another person’s POV in the middle of someone else’s POV–you can fix the problem several ways. Since I don’t know the exact situation, I’ll make one up to give you an example. Let’s way we’re in the heroine’s POV and she’s just told the hero she’s pregnant. Instead of inserting a sentence in his POV to tell us how he feels, you can accomplish the same thing by 1) have the heroine ask him, “Tell me what you’re thinking.” (or tell me how you feel–words to that effect). This way we get his reaction through his dialogue. Or 2) through his physical reaction (ie dragging his hands down his face which suddenly looked very weary or he ran screaming from the room). 3) through the POV character’s dialogue, ie, “I can see that you’re shocked.” Or 4)through the POV character’s thoughts. ie–Uh oh. She could tell by the look of horror that flashed in his eyes that he didn’t think it was good news.
Maybe one of those suggestions will help solve your problem?
Lacey Kaye and Isabel: Thank you both! I had a wonderful time!
And thank you to all of you–this has been a great week for me! I’ll definitely pop back in here and I hope you’ll keep in touch. You can e-mail me through my website at http://www.JacquieD.com
March 24th, 2006 at 8:19 pmThank you again! xox Jacquie
Jacquie, thanks a lot. That’s great help!
Once again, thank you so much for being here this week. You’ve been a tremendous help and inspiration.
I think we all look forward to your next book(s)
March 25th, 2006 at 6:04 amEmily