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Saturday, September 09, 2006
POV: Point Of View in writing fiction
I'm not sure why Point of View (POV) is so hard. Part of the problem may be because we make assumptions about what we know about other people, and we let our characters do the same. Unfortunately when they do it it's not believable.
For example, if my story is about Randall, is being told from his point of view, he won't know what Thelma is thinking. He won't know what Thelma is feeling, unless of course Thelma TELLS him these things. He can make assumptions, but he can't KNOW.
Of course one way around that is to tell the story from an omniscient third person POV. That is really just as hard. It's sort of like playing God, and there's a reason why there's only one of those-- it's a tough job.
I've been reading Janet Burroway's book, "Writing Fiction" and looked online, here are some decent articles about Point of View, but the bottom line is, you have to just jump in and write:
POINT OF VIEW By: Sue Rich
Whose Point of View? by Lee Masterson
Several articles on POV are posted here, but I recommend you just write it. It is in the writing the actual putting words to page, that you will find the right POV for your story. And of course with the help of a read and critque group, you can be sure to be consistent.
For example, if my story is about Randall, is being told from his point of view, he won't know what Thelma is thinking. He won't know what Thelma is feeling, unless of course Thelma TELLS him these things. He can make assumptions, but he can't KNOW.
Of course one way around that is to tell the story from an omniscient third person POV. That is really just as hard. It's sort of like playing God, and there's a reason why there's only one of those-- it's a tough job.
I've been reading Janet Burroway's book, "Writing Fiction" and looked online, here are some decent articles about Point of View, but the bottom line is, you have to just jump in and write:
POINT OF VIEW By: Sue Rich
Whose Point of View? by Lee Masterson
Several articles on POV are posted here, but I recommend you just write it. It is in the writing the actual putting words to page, that you will find the right POV for your story. And of course with the help of a read and critque group, you can be sure to be consistent.
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