point-of-view

by Tobi Doyle

Sheila and I are hosting a writing retreat in a couple of weeks and I’ve been reading through the submitted works. The point of the writing retreat is to learn how to improve, and although I earned the nickname “Dreamcrusher” for being blunt, I honestly believe in pointing out the biggest error in a story to help an author improve. Notice I don’t say 3 biggest errors, although I may mention those, I often pick one that if that one thing was fixed would make the story sooooo much better. The stories I read all had a great premise for a story. Some really drew me into the world, while others need some tweaking. When trying to spot the difference, because the prose was good in all of them, I decided that the biggest thing that could be improved by some of our writers was the point-of-view of the story. Which is weird, right? We typically focus on the characters and the plot, but the point-of-view absolutely matters.

I’ve compiled a list of a few great articles to discuss the one thing that would improve most everyone’s writing. Some of our writers already get this, and they do it incredibly well. But if you’re starting out and you can’t figure out why your not hitting the audience the right way, or why you’re using amazing metaphors and don’t have a single cliché but your story still feels like it’s just okay, then there are two possible issues:

1. Character
2. Character

I’m that helpful in real life too 😉   

1. First, what I mean is that your character drives the story. They must have a reason, a really good reason, to get involved. There needs to be a conflict that makes sense. And if they don’t achieve their goal, they suffer some kind of death, whether it’s financial, job, love, life, etc. Your villain needs that, too. You have to raise the stakes for the character throughout the story. (Hint for my plotters – 25% when they make the first choice, then around the midpoint, and then during the climax scene around 75%.) The stakes have to be some kind of life threatening stakes that they can’t back down from. THEN your story has legs. If your reader doesn’t care about your character, they’ll stop reading and won’t buy your next book. If you find yourself throwing in a tornado for the midpoint and your character is NOT a meteorogist then you’ve contrived a conflict and that’s bad. (And yes, I’ve done that and learned from my mistake and am telling you so you don’t do it.) Tie the conflict into the character’s baggage – and we’ve got free resources at AskIGW.com regarding emotional wounds/baggage. Readers will forgive a lot of bad writing if they are emotionally attached to the characters and some will stop reading if you’ve created stakes that aren’t related to the baggage or having your character do something stupid so you can create a conflict. (I’m still scarred by the woman under police protection who went out on the balcony to read her bible. In writing circles, that’s called too-stupid-to-live.) Again, check out our writer resources for this information at AskIGW.com
2. Second, revealing the story through the character draws a reader in. You do that by choosing a point-of-view. Unless you’re writing a technical or educational paper, I don’t recommend second. This article is written in 2nd point-of-view (POV). That leaves us with first-person POV, and third person POV. Omniscient falls into 3rd POV. I love reading 3rd close POV (also called Deep POV or 3rd Tight POV) and there’s a fabulous article explaining the different types of POV below. But, I’m letting you know ahead of time, while I’m not the only one who prefers a tight or close POV, it’s your story. However, I think some writers don’t realize all of the filter words they are using that are distancing the reader from the story and characters. It’s also “telling” the story instead of “showing” the story. Sheila and I don’t have resources about this yet, so I’m suggesting you read the articles below from Janice Hardy’s website blog.Janice.Hardy.com that really helped me when I first started writing. Warning: every article has more articles linked to them and I haven’t read a bad one yet, but it’s an extensive rabbit hole!

Before we begin, let’s define filter words. 

They include sensory verbs such as: saw, look, see, hear, heard, listen, taste, smell, felt, feel. But also relate to thought processes so they also include verbs such as: realized, knew, remembered, decided, noted.

They put distance between the character and the reader. Below is a good article about it.

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/07/youll-have-to-go-through-me-eliminating.html

What are the different points of view to tell your story?

Another great article by Janice Hardy that spells out the different points-of-view. I’m a huge fan of close third past (which Janice Hardy calls tight limited third) when reading, but first is often great, especially when writing a mystery because the reader only knows that the sleuth knows and is trying to solve the crime before the sleuth.

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2010/09/through-my-eyes-or-your-eyes-or.html

Tobi loves Deep (Close aka Tight) POV but it’s not the only POV out there.

I love to be in the heads of the characters, knowing what they are thinking especially when it’s contradicting their actions and words. I often recommend that the writer gets a closer POV. However, some readers prefer distance. Here’s a great article about POV. Write the story you want to write and in the POV you prefer. The caveat is to take into consideration what POV other books in your genre are written in because going against that may upset your readers. I’m specifically thinking of 1st person and YA being very common right now. As always, read your genre 😉

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2014/07/deep-pov-is-not-only-pov.html#more

Having a strong POV strengthens your work.

This article discusses POV from the standpoint of tell versus show. It has great examples and I highly recommend it! The examples provided should help you find those issues in your own work where you are distancing the reader from your characters and the story. 

My favorite quote from the article: “POV is all about motivations, because it shows how a character sees and feels about the world. Understanding where they’re at emotionally in a scene will determine how they act in the situation.”

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2021/03/4-ways-strong-point-of-view-strengthens.html#more

There is SO much to learn about writing, but strengthening these two areas will make a huge different in your work. Want to chat with us about your work-on-progress?  Book a 15 minute consultation with us! Want to schedule a retreat for your writing group or friends? PLEASE contact us at AskIGW.com@gmail.com