Writing Tips #3- Nuggets of Wisdom on Deep Point of View

When I asked my writer friends for writing tips, I had no idea what they would send. I received lots of general advice, but also a few tidbits that I categorized. Today's post compiles ones on deep point of view.

I was first introduced to this concept during Lorin Oberweger's  Free Expressions seminar. Lorin generously gave me permission to post this excellent handout, and in this blog I share some of my experiences at that workshop. Now I consciously look for how authors portray their protagonists' point of view. 

To me, deep point of view is about filtering my character's world through her unique lens. Getting inside her skin and psyche. Feeling her anguish, fears, conflicts, joys, and thrills. Being as "up close and personal" as possible. 

Even if that character happens to be a mouse.

Image found on imgfave.com

Here are some tips on how to accomplish this:

"Write from inside your character's head. You have to see what he sees and feel what he feels. If you want to fully pull a reader into your setting and story, this is vital. I write fiction, but I think this also applies to non-fiction, at least to some degree." Kathy Cannon Wiechman, author of Like a River.

"As the POV deepens, it becomes easier for the reader to completely immerse themselves in the story, in the character, and to forget that it is actually fiction. 

"But how to achieve that? One good starting point is by taking away the “telling” part of thinking and saying, of seeing and watching, and simply “showing" us that instead.

"Here are a few examples using passages from my middle-grade novel What Flowers Remember.

• When our tears ended, Mama unwrapped me and pushed herself up from the couch. “How about I get us some toast with honey.” 
• Mae reached back down into the bag. “That’s why we have gliiiitterrrr!” She sang the last word, stretching it out and draping it all over the room. 
• Mrs. Williams folded up a nearby magazine and swatted him on the arm. “Sometimes it’s as if you were raised in a barn.” 

"Not a single “said” or “thought” in any of those…and while you might easily see where they could be added, why? Would it make the passage better? I’d argue no. 

"I was mindful of trying to eliminate speech tags where I felt it worked, replacing them with body language or movement or some other action. All of which works to help readers not just understand what is happening, but to better visualize it." Shannon Wiersbitzky, author of The Summer of Hammers and Angels.

"Always consider the character’s needs, not the author's. What does the character see, feel, hear, think and how does she react. And to paraphrase both Donald Maass and Bruce Coville—although not sure they expected it to come together in quite this way—don’t take the obvious emotion first. Give readers the unexpected emotion--or the unexpected mix of emotional reactions--from the character, but don’t forget to let the reader know why the character is having that reaction. That doesn’t require a flashback, or even an explanation right then, but do make sure you give the reader what they need to know when they need to know it. Martina Boone, author of Compulsion.

"When writing point of view, imagine your main character is looking through a camera lens. The objective viewpoint would be seeing the world around him with a wide-angle or panoramic lens. The subjective viewpoint would be looking at things with a macro-lens, and taking lots of selfies." Christine Kohler, author of No Surrender Soldier, explains more about objective and subjective viewpoints in this article.

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Next week I'll be reviewing and giving away an ARC of Kathy Wiechman's debut novel, Like a River. After that will be two more posts in this "Writing Tips" series. The next is on story making and the last one is on revision. If you want to chime in on either topic, leave me a comment or send me an email at cbaldwin6@me.com. If I use your nugget, I'll add your name for  a drawing to receive this book:

Writing Tips #1: Nuggets of Wisdom from Writers to Writers

The on-line writing community is rich with resources; I have found many writers are willing to share their knowledge with each other. In the upcoming blogs I'm plan to pass along tips from my fellow writers. Do you have something you have learned as a writer which you would like others to know? Please leave me a comment and I'll consider adding it.

General Advice

I'm going to begin with this post and picture by my Facebook friend, Melodye Shore:

"You can't see the hummingbird hatchlings from this angle; it's not likely you saw her nest, either--at first glance, anyway. And so it is with writing. You have to explore an idea from all angles, examine it from multiple points of view before gaining a full understanding of what it is, exactly, that your story's really about."

If you look closely, you'll see a hummingbird nest in this fuchsia.

Jody Staton, an author and copy editor, posted a great tool on Kathy Temean's blog. Three Editor's Tools for Writers encourages you to compile chapter summaries, a character list, and a style sheet while you're writing your book. This will save you time and energy and help you create a publishable book. 

Joyce Hostetter, author of BLUE, COMFORT and HEALING WATER says, "Write no unnecessary words.  Actually, go ahead ahead and write them.  But when you recognize them, delete fearlessly!  And stack each word and sentence for the most powerful impact possible."

Emily Smith Pierce, author of Isabel and the Miracle Baby and SLOWPOKE, says, "Writing usually starts out as a solitary process, but to get better, you need to collaborate. Seek out readers and other writers who will give you honest (yet encouraging) feedback." 

Halli Gomez remembers this tidbit she heard from young adult science fiction writer Beth Revis at an SCBWI-Carolinas conference: "If you think you will only have one great idea for a book, don't worry. More will come and they will be even better."

Martina Boone, author of compulsion contributes, "My biggest tip for writers is to read widely, certainly within their chosen age group and genre but also in general. That’s so obvious, but it’s astonishing how many YA (young adult) writers don’t actually read YA, or enough YA, and that’s necessarily not just for marketing, but for knowing your audience and the competition."

At the end of this mini-series of blogs I'm going to giveaway Nancy Kress's book,  Beginnings, Middles & Ends. If you leave a comment on my blog with a tip and I use it, I'll enter your name in this giveaway.