Have You Nailed Point of View?
Posted by: Publisher in Tips and Tricks, Editors Desk, Writer NewsA lot of fiction writers are rejected for simple things. I’ll be posting here little tidbits to help you improve your chances of receiving an acceptance letter.
If you want to improve your writing you really, really need to nail this skill:
Keep a scene to one point of view, view the action through one set of eyes.
The point of view are the “eyes” that are viewing the scene. You put yourself into that character’s skin and see and think and feel thing through their experience. If you have a scene with John and Mary you need to choose one of them to tell the story of that particular scene. If you choose Mary, she can’t know what John is thinking or feeling unless John directly tells and/or shows her.
That doesn’t mean John is a wooden tool. Nor does it mean he can’t react and have his own experience. It means you need to keep them separated. The following is a bad example of point of view control. Notice in the second paragraph that the point of view changes from John to Mary. You really want to avoid this.
BAD Example:
John thought to himself that he couldn’t let Mary get away with such an outright lie again. He’d show her who was boss.She just knew what he was thinking. Well two could play that game and Mary was an expert. She’d put John in his place.
Did you see how we flopped from experiencing the world through John’s eyes and how we moved to be in Mary’s point of view? This is frequently referred to as “head hopping”.
Following is a Better Example:
“You’re pretty good at propagating mistruth, Mary,” John said as calmly as he was able. Mary knew how to push his buttons but he wasn’t going to let her win this time.”Maybe, but I’m tellng the truth. You think I’m nothing but a liar, but the bottom of the gulch has a decaying body in it, scouts honor.”She crossed her arms over her ample bosom. Her body language indicated seriousness, but was she? She’d embarassed him enough times in the past. Was this just another opportunity to be played the fool?
In the BETTER example everything is revealed through John’s senses. Mary is indicating plenty for John to interprete by her verbal and physical response, but we aren’t in her skin. If you’ve ever read the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, by John Gray, one of the things you should learn is that body language, tone of voice and external factors, if they are not interpreted correctly led to the miscommunication of the sexes.
If it is really important to get into Mary’s skin and change the point of view in the scene, it is often indicated by a break of some sort. Perhaps the publisher uses the # sign, or * or even just skips lines. These indicators, though, are enough to let the reader know we are no longer in the former point of view. Caution! You don’t want to do this too much.
That is how you control point of view. Do this and you will be light years ahead in your writing.
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June 27th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I loved the input on how to improve the tinkering I call writing. Some day, maybe … well, some day.
July 25th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I have to admit that sometimes point of view is a problem with me. I’m working at solving it.
July 25th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Good article.
Wayne
July 27th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Seriously, point of view is one of the trickiest of lessons to master. A good practice is to write in 1st person, as if you are the one experiencing the scene and you allow yourself to only write what you see, hear, taste, touch and smell. All internalization, all interpretation can only be done by you and not on behalf of another character UNLESS you are assessing physical clues and cues other characters give. For instance, if your main character sees someone pacing, looking at their watch every few seconds, glancing up and down the street, it is possible your main character may interprete the other character’s actions as being impatient or nervouse or other emotions based on the set-up you have laid for the scene. But at no time can you get inside that other character’s head.
July 30th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Point of view is no problem for my first person Thanet Blake. My other writing which isn’t in first person is a problem for me. Your article has been a big help. Thank you.