Becoming Your Point-of-View Character
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy)
Point of view frustrates a lot of writers–new and old alike. Today I’m over at Writers in the Storm sharing one of my best tricks for how to avoid point-of-view errors. I’ll give you the secret here: You have to become your viewpoint character.
For an explanation of what the means and tips on how to do it, please join me at Writers in the Storm for “Becoming Your Point-of-View Character.
Sneak Peek: I’m blog traveling the next couple of weeks with guest posts on other sites, but I’ll also soon be starting a new series here about handling time and transitions in our writing. I’m really excited about this because I see a lot of writers I work with stumble over how to manage the passage of time. It’s a crucial element for pacing our fiction and writing scenes that work hard in our plot. If you have a specific question that you think would tie in to this topic, please send it to me through my contact page.
Interested in more ways to improve your writing? Point of View in Fiction is now available! (You might also want to check out Internal Dialogue
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Image Credit: Hannah Gleghorn/freeimages.com
Nov 06, 2015 @ 14:02:02
Hi Marcy,
Thriller author Alexander McNabb expressed this point of view about POV (sorry, I couldn’t resist) in a recent interview on my blog. It’s a good trick. But I wonder how many authors feel a wee bit schizoid when they have multiple POVs in a novel? I do. Of course, that’s nothing like writing in first person. I’ve done that for a few female protagonists even. That can become a challenge too. 🙂
Yours in reading and writing,
Steve
Nov 06, 2015 @ 14:33:23
I think many of us feel a bit like we’re split when writing multiple POVs. My biggest personal struggle is when I’m writing a character who thinks in a way I never would and does things I wouldn’t do. (I mean negative thoughts and actions.) I find I almost feel guilty for putting those on the page even though it’s right for the character.
I’ll have to go take a look at the post on your site 🙂