Point of View

As a new writer point of view, or POV, has been one of the things that has baffled me so far. Actually, almost everything about writing has baffled me so far lol. I love the process of learning this craft and I know I will prevail as a good writer over time.

In this week’s Writing Workshop of Horror assignment, we learned about POV. This assignment was very helpful in filling in some blanks and helping me understand why I might choose to write from a specific POV.

I also learned that there is no best POV. I now think of the various POV’s as tools in my writer’s toolbox that I can select as needed to create my stories. In essence, I can pick the right tool for the job. Kind of like a woodworker might select the perfect chisel for his or her woodworking project.

Up until recently I did not know one POV from another. I mixed them in my writing. Looking back, I cringe at the thought as my writing was probably like fingernails on a chalkboard to the seasoned writer that might be reading what I wrote.

Then my first attempt at POV was the first person. This is where you write as if the character is telling the ready a story about their journey or adventure. I think this POV is one of the simpler ones to grasp and it serves its purpose. I find its weakness to be that it is very restrictive and as mentioned in the WWoH, it also “trims the suspense”.

After my first page submission to my mentor in the SHU program, we had a discussion that completely changed the way I look at POV. He mentioned that there was this cool POV called third person limited. For me, it was like a caveman seeing fire for the first time.

I am no expert in third person limited by any means, and I am not even an expert in first person. I do however like the power and latitude afforded me as the writer in the third person limited POV. I think having a more open view of the various characters while keeping my focus on the main character.

In my most recent page submission for April, I added a sub plot for the first time. I don’t quite know if it works yet, but the learning process is fun. In this sub plot, I have a second main character. Now I am managing the third person limited POV while balancing my focus between the two main characters. As long as I keep to only one internal narrative per chapter, I think I will be okay. And where there are chapters where both characters interact, I will have to pick.