You
may wonder why I’ve saved my point-of-view post for the end of the month. In my
work as an editor I see a lot of writers who I feel are using the wrong
point-of-view. They could be using third person when first person would really
serve their story better. They might be using first person but the narrative is
so head-hoppy they really need to get out of their main character’s skull. They
might be writing present tense because they think that’s trendy when in fact
present tense doesn’t make a lot of sense for what they’re writing.
I
know from personal experience that it’s a lot easier to start with the right
POV than it is to go back and edit the hell out of it later. There’s a whole
new level of line editing required to switch tenses.
So
today we’re going to contemplate which point-of-view is best for your story—how
do you know whose head to be in or whether you should be in anyone’s head at
all? And how deep into that person’s psyche do you want to get? How can you
take the POV you’ve chosen deeper?
You
might consider an exercise of writing a scene from two different POVs and
seeing which feels more natural. Or you could just skim the following links:
TODAY’S LINKS:
No comments:
Post a Comment