IT'S YOUR CRAFT

LOSE YOUR POINT OF VIEW?

Writing Notes

CHAPTER 4 Point of View Among novelists there seems to be a continual confusion over point of view. Even veteran writers sometimes get in a fog about it. Writing teachers constantly catch their students in the dreaded “point of view violation”’ or “head hopping” as it is sometimes known. Readers, however, don’t seem to mind. There aren’t a flood of e-mails streaming into publishing houses or author websites asking for money back because of a POV lapse.

Bell, James Scott (2012-12-10). Revision and Self Editing for Publication (p. 63). Writer's Digest Books. Kindle Edition.

OMNISCIENT The omniscient POV is the least intimate because you, the author, take up the burden of telling the story.

Bell, James Scott (2012-12-10). Revision and Self Editing for Publication (p. 64). Writer's Digest Books. Kindle Edition.

Third-person POV is a good choice for most current fiction. The biggest problem writers seem to face with third person is keeping that POV consistent throughout a scene. It’s easy to lapse and suddenly have the POV switch to a different character or to a perspective the character can’t see. In the limited variety of third person, you stay with one character throughout. You never take on another character’s POV. Done well, this can be nearly as intimate as first person. James N. Frey, in How to Write a Damn Good Novel II, has an opinion on this. “Don’t believe the pseudo-rules about what you can do in first vs. third person,” Frey writes. “Virtually anything you can do in first person you can do in third and vice versa.” If you allow other characters to have a third-person POV (unlimited) you obviously spend less time in the head of a single character. You spread the intimacy around.

Bell, James Scott (2012-12-10). Revision and Self Editing for Publication (p. 68). Writer's Digest Books. Kindle Edition.