How I Write - Point of View

Hello!

So today, I'm going to start on a suggestion by one of my awesome reviewers...EverEverAfter...

One of my favourite things about reading is experiencing the story from someone else's perspective. It is also one of the reasons I love to write, because when I get to write it...I get to - in a way - experience what my characters are going through. What am I talking about?

Point of View...that's right! I usually decide this before I start to write. Anyway, PoV is a huge deal whether its first person, or as I prefer, third person. You'll find that a consistent PoV can make or break a story. Settling on a PoV can be hard though. For me, I find it easier to express surroundings and emotions using third person. In high school, a lot of the novels I read would be written this way and personally it's quite comfortable for me. Also, I think I've been put off by first person because of Twilight -and I find that at times, it can sound a bit...childish? It's just not for me, I suppose. Sticking to a POV can also be a problem. Another problem can be from which character's PoV will you be writing the story? By this point, you should have an idea who the main characters are, and who are the supporting characters.

If you look up definitions for these PoV's here is what you'll basically find:

Third Person Point of View
Here the narrator does not participate in the action of the story as one of the characters, but lets us know exactly how the characters feel. We learn about the characters through this outside voice.

First Person Point of View
In the first person point of view, the narrator does participate in the action of the story. When reading stories in the first person, we need to realize that what the narrator is recounting might not be the objective truth. We should question the trustworthiness of the accounting. (http://www.learner.org/interactives/literature/read/pov2.html)


It can be further broken down to third person subjective or third person limited and so on. I write using third person limited.

As you can see, the difference in both PoVs is the information given to the reader. I find that in third person, you can pick up more on what's going on in a certain situation...while in first person the character may or may not leave something out. For me, the main reason I love third person so much is because I can show what emotions are felt by all my characters rather than just one.

For example, in ATWCB, I chose one character's PoV but wrote it as third person. I was just starting out, and I was very inexperienced so I needed it to be simple. I chose the lead character, Fallon, and did my best to stick through seeing things from her eyes and what was going on around her. Admittedly, it was hard sticking to just her for the entire story, especially when I really wanted to have Daniel's perspective. I had to be really careful that I didn't start writing from his side and I would read and re-read chapters before posting them in order to make sure. One thing that helped was because I am such an avid reader, I had a general idea of how authors stick to a PoV. Reading always comes in handy!

In SWFF, I kept with third person PoV, because I found it quite comfortable. I had written from first person (The One) but I didn't really find it appealing. In SWFF, I really wanted to do a boy and girl because I had never written from a male perspective and environment, so Natalia and Dallas were the obvious choices, since the story was mainly about their interaction with one another. I really like that with third person, you get to write about a different environment when you switch characters. The same event can be looked at in two separate ways.

In all honesty, IOT was the hardest to decide. Again, it was third person limited, but that wasn't the hard part...the hard part was picking which characters to write with because I wanted to write using all of them. I knew I wanted Matthew and Mia, but in the beginning there were certain scenes that I could visualize from Oliver, Nathaniel, Leon, and Lina's point of view. The problem was, if I went with six PoVs the story would be a bit choppy, and lets be honest, I would be giving myself and you all a whiplash switching through them. Because I only liked certain scenes with those PoVs it just wouldn't work. That is why I stuck with Matthew and Mia's, not only were they the main characters, but I could also convey the other characters better using them. Hence, leading back to my main point. POV should always be...CONSISTENT!

At first it can seem really daunting trying to stick with a PoV, believe me, I know. I usually try to get into my character's frame of mind but I also have to remember that I'm not writing just about them, but also about their environment. When it comes to switching over, I take a breath and basically 'switch heads' - I'm not crazy...I just love to write. If you're doing two characters...it is harder. I think what helps me is visualizing the scenes. I'm a day dreamer, which benefits me at times - meaning I totally forget to pay attention to studying. I like being able to play the scene in my head, just to see how it flows.

Anyway, I hope this helps you all. Next post will be the real thing...starting to write! Yes...actual writing!!!

Much Love, 
Andene xx