I’m a firm believer that understanding point of view (POV) can cure most common writing problems. It’s such a versatile tool that does more than just help us pick which pronoun to use. It allows us to put ourselves in someone else’s head, empathize with them, see the world through their eyes even if that world is very different from our own. It’s what lets us be storytellers and not just someone who plops details on a page in a logical order.
Here are five common trouble spots and how POV can help fix them.
Telling, Not Showing
This is the biggie, and a problem every writer has likely faced at some point. One reason why is that when we tell, we’re explaining what is going on from our author perspective. We describe what we see as if we’re watching a play, because often we see our stories unfold in our heads like one. But try applying a solid POV to this problem. Look out through the eyes of your character and think about what they see and most importantly, how they feel about it. Forget what you as the author knows. What do they see? How does that fit into their life and their problem at that moment? Because when someone is running for their lives, they don’t bother to notice what the drapes look like. A solid POV can help keep you from telling what’s there and focused on what matters.
Backstory
If we’re telling someone else’s story, we tend to slip in extra information because the listener doesn’t know the person we’re talking about. But when we’re telling our own story, we usually only tell the details that are relevant to what we’re saying, because we already know the other stuff and know the person we’re talking to does as well. POV and backstory work in the same way. If you’re looking at a newly created room or character, you’re going to want to explain everything to catch the reader up. But think about that character as if you were her. Would you really think about your past out of the blue? Or bring up painful topics you’re trying hard to avoid? Unless something happened to trigger that memory, you’re more likely to go about your day doing what you do. If you stay inside the POV’s head, you’ll be able to see life as they do and know what’s relevant to that scene.
Weak Goals or Motivations
POV is all about motivations, because it’s how a character sees and feels about the world. Understanding how they feel or where they’re at emotionally in a scene will determine how they respond to the situation. Someone who’s terrified will react very differently from someone who is angry. They’re motivated by different things. They’re after different goals. So if a character is just acting out plot, get inside their head and think about what you’d do if you were them and why.
Low Stakes
Just like POV can help with goals, it can also help you understand what that character has at stake. It forces you to become that person, if only for a little while, and lets you ask why they’re risking their lives or family, or whatever it is that fits the plot. A lot of what we ask our characters to do, no sane person would comply with. They’d run for the nearest exit. So why is this person willing to act? What about them is making them choose this path? If you can’t find a reason for them to care, then you know where to start looking to raise those stakes. Find something about them that they do care about. To do that, get in their heads.
Voice
Voice is one of those things that’s hard to explain, but we know it when we hear it. For me, voice comes from the judgment of the character, and to get that judgment, you need a strong POV. Who that character is determines what they sound like. If all you’re doing is relating facts about a scene or story, it can sound flat, even empty. But if the scene is described how the character sees it and feels about it, it comes to life. There’s a soul behind the words. A personality. A point of view coloring every word.
I’ve found that point of view has its fingers in pretty much every aspect of writing. We can do all the characterization and study sheets and interviews we want, but until we put ourselves in that character’s head and show the world through their eyes, very little of that work can really shine.
Stories are about people. And point of view lets us be those people.
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A long-time fantasy reader, Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy THE HEALING WARS, she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her books include THE SHIFTER, and BLUE FIRE from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. She lives in Georgia with her husband, three cats and one very nervous freshwater eel.
You can find Janice at her blog: The Other Side of the Story
Blue Fire Blurb
Part fugitive, part hero, fifteen-year-old Nya is barely staying ahead of the Duke of Baseer’s trackers. Wanted for a crime she didn’t mean to commit, she risks capture to protect every Taker she can find, determined to prevent the Duke from using them in his fiendish experiments. But resolve isn’t enough to protect any of them, and Nya soon realizes that the only way to keep them all out of the Duke’s clutches is to flee Geveg. Unfortunately, the Duke’s best tracker has other ideas.
Nya finds herself trapped in the last place she ever wanted to be, forced to trust the last people she ever thought she could. More is at stake than just the people of Geveg, and the closer she gets to uncovering the Duke’s plan, the more she discovers how critical she is to his victory. To save Geveg, she just might have to save Baseer—if she doesn’t destroy it first.
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Wow, this post made me think! I need to understand my POV more AND be be in those moments not just observe.
Really useful post. All newbies need to read this. It’s amazing how many people try to write whole novels without understanding POV. You’re so right that when we’re beginners, we write as if we’re watching a movie. We’re so used to passively watching in our culture. Thanks for this Janice and Elizabeth!
Great post! I also LOVE the cover of the book :)
Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Janice.
Janice – You’re absolutely right that thinking about POV can help with many other problems that can make a novel “clunky.” Really reflecting on what our characters are thinking and experiencing is a good way to think through the whole novel.
Janice, great post. Your series sounds intriguing and a Georgia author to boot (can’t beat that). Best of luck.
Elizabeth, thanks for the introduction to Janice.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
What a great post, Janice. I’m going to pass the link around to some other writers today. Thanks for hosting her, Elizabeth.
My very first writing lesson was on POV, which I’d never ‘noticed’ as a reader. But I write 3rd person deep POV which is almost the same as first, and I’m totally on board with getting into that character’s head and staying there, even during narrative and internal monologue. Good post.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Thanks everyone! Not every reader likes a really tight POV, but I feel even those with distant omniscient narrators still have *somebody* telling the story, and that will be evident in the POV. It’s such a great diagnostic tool. It’s really helped me over the years.
So much excellent advice here, I’m going to have to revisit several times. (Thank goodness for bookmarks!)
Many thanks to both of you.
Excellent advice! I never considered how the POV would help in those situations.
Great post. I’m a newbie and I’m reading, I’m reading!
I try to give each of my characters a past and a motivation. As far as main character, or story point of view, I once read (I think the book was called “How I write, by Janet Evanovich) that one should use first-person POV only if that is the best way they feel the story can be told. I’m grossly paraphrasing here, but it made me think.
Of course I wish I would’ve read this before I was 27K into a project and suffering because I could not figure why it kept wanting to fizzle.
Great explanation of POV! This is so helpful that I’m going to show it to my 6th grader, who asked me yesterday how to write a story with an unreliable narrator for her honors English class.
Mary: I have a whole slew of things bookmarked myself. One of my favorite technological advances.
Margot: When POV finally clicked for me it made a huge difference in my work. Really shoved it to the next level.
Mason: Thanks! Are you a fellow Georgia author? I’ve been here almost five years now and love it.
Carol: Thanks so much :)
Alex: Glad I could help. POV is like VISA – everywhere you want to be (grin)
J.L: That advice is true for any POV. I stayed away from first person for the longest time because it can be a difficult POV to do well (very easy to tell since everything is “I”). But Nya demanded first person and I found that’s the one that works best for me. You never know what will work until you try it. I hope it helps you with with WIP.
Helen: Has your 6th grader ever read “Liar” by Justine Larbalestier? It’s a YA with a very unreliable narrator. I haven’t read it yet, so I’m not sure if it’s age appropriate for 6th grade, but it might be worth looking into as an example.
Terry: You started off right! My life would have been so much easier if I’d learn POV first.
Thanks so much for coming by today, Janice! I love this post, and never really thought about how POV can help with these five problems. Great post!
Excellent post! It is so important to understand POV and make sure we write it correctly. I love Janice’s work by the way! I just picked up her first book and am really enjoying it!
Great post. I can’t wait to read BLUE FIRE to see how you handled not too much backstory at the start of your second novel. I’m struggling with that and am sure you handled it just right.
Elizabeth: Thanks for having me over. I’ve been a fan of your blog for a while now, so it’s fun to be here.
Heather: Thanks, and I’m glad you’re enjoying The Shifter.
Natalie: I hope I did, so let me know what you think. It always surprises me when my editor asks for more backstory since we’d cautioned against it so much. But like so much of writing, everything has it’s place.
Very good breakdown of POV problem areas. Being constantly aware of these aspects will also help writers avoid drifting out of that character’s POV and into another character’s head.
Those are good! Bookmarking now.
Posts on point of view are always welcome, especially for new writers who often struggle with the concept.
The Shifter and Blue Fire sound like good reads, Janice. And thanks to Elizabeth for helping add to my TBR list.
POV is very important in writing! I’ll have to check back to this post again–many times.
Helen: Good point. Shifting POV does lead to some of those common problems. If you don’t know you’re shifting, you wouldn’t even know to look for it.
L. Diane & The Golden Eagle: I love hearing that! Makes all the work writing these tour posts worth it.
Very useful advice.
With regard to backstory, I read a fine debut last week, but occasionally the writer let the detectives say things to each other they must both have known for ages – just because she felt the reader needed to know this. For some reason I always notice exactly this flaw.
Excellent advice and what I alwaya try to achieve in my writing.
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