Point of View: This is probably one of the more challenging things a lot of us struggle with as we write.
For anyone who isn't sure what POV means, it's basically showing the story through the characters' eyes. So if I write a story from Clark's POV, I relate the events as if I were Clark, only showing what he sees or knows. For example, if Clark sees Lois shuffle through a stack of papers as she looks for the post-it note on which she jotted an important phone number, I could have something like this:
"Lose something, Lois?"
"No. I just like rifling through papers for the heck of it. Yes, I lost something -- Bobby Bigmouth's phone number."
He had to grin. Lois was at her most beautiful when she was angry.
We see this scene as Clark sees it.
Switching POV within a scene is considered a bad idea by most editors, in part because it gets confusing for the reader. Now let's rewrite that bit, but shift POV within the scene.
"Lose something, Lois?"
"No. I just like rifling through papers for the heck of it. Yes, I lost something -- Bobby Bigmouth's phone number." God, Clark was annoying at times. He just couldn't refrain from teasing her any time she was feeling frustrated.
He had to grin. Lois was at her most beautiful when she was angry.
Hopefully, you can see that the scene has lost some clarity by adding in Lois's perception of the conversation.
Now, how to know when to shift POV and how to do it. I'm no expert, but basically, from what I've read, you shouldn't shift POV unless you end the scene and begin a new one. To do that, just end the scene, insert a line space, and begin the new scene from the POV of the character whose POV you want to use. The book suggests establishing the POV in the first paragraph of the scene in order to orient the reader. You decide to shift POV when you want to show the story from a different character's perspective.
Point of view can help develop the characters as you show what's going on in their minds. It can also help you with your plot. If you write from the POV of a character who has no idea what's going on, it's going to create a different experience for the reader than if you write from the POV of a character who does know what's happening.
The book asks some questions to check yourself on POV:
*Which point of view are you using and why? How much intimacy do you want to create between your readers and your characters? Which point of view will make it easiest for you to unfold your story?
*If you're writing in the first person, how reader-friendly is your viewpoint character? Is it someone you would want to spend three or four hundred pages with?
*If you're writing from the third person, take a look at each scene. Whose head are you in? Do you stay in that head for the length of the scene?
*How soon do you establish the point of view? Where in the scene is the first line that tells your readers unambiguously whose head they are in?
*Are you writing your scenes in your characters' voices, describing their surroundings in terms they would use? Do you want to write in your characters' voices, or do you want something more neutral, more distinct, more unobtrusive?
Schoolmarm
