POINT OF VIEW

POINT OF VIEW: WHOSE HEAD AM I 'IN' ...AND WHY DO I CARE?
By Gabriella Anderson

In everyday language, point of view means opinion, how we see something; we writers use the term to mean essentially the same thing. Point of view, hereafter known as POV, is who sees a scene. It is the character or person that will relate his or her opinion or view of the action to the reader. Actually I find the term, point of view, inaccurate, because it is far more than just seeing. Your use of POV lets the reader get into the character’s head and helps the reader identify with your hero or heroine. The story unfolds in the senses of your protagonists—what the hero and heroine sees, smells, tastes, feels and hears.

There are three basic points of view in fiction--first person, omniscient, and third person. For the purposes of this article I will focus on third person, since most romances are written in third person, specifically the POV of your hero and heroine. If you as the author feel the need to glimpse into the mind of your villain or important secondary character, do it sparingly. Focus on the hero and heroine; such is the nature of romance.

By focusing on the hero and heroine, the reader comes to care for the character, because the reader’s emotions are entwined with the characters. This has also been called Deep POV ( a lovely term). The reader lives vicariously through the character because they have felt and seen and heard and smelled and tasted the same things as your hero and heroine. The reader has invested their emotions in the story and so cannot distance herself from the written word and has in a sense become part of the book.

The danger in using just the two POVs is switching from one character’s thoughts to another. The temptation is great to write a scene in which you tell exactly what each character is thinking. This switching from one POV , and I would add too often, to the other is called head-hopping. After a while a reader can get whiplash from watching the scene fly from head to head. It’s up to you to decide whether you will adhere to the guidelines of the purists, who say one POV per scene, or whether you will let the story dictate. Ultimately you should use whichever works best for you and your story.

For example: I have a very difficult hero in one of my books. He’s arrogant, stiff, really hard to like. On occasion I have to head hop in order to make the reader realize there is hope for this man, that his actions don’t stem from any innate cruelty, but rather from the baggage he carries. Having given you a basic definition, here are some do’s and don’ts:

Do realize that if you are in one character’s viewpoint, he or she cannot know what the others are feeling. If the POV character is talking to someone who is nervous, you have to show it. She can’t know he was nervous. She could however see that he fidgeted, sweat dripped down his forehead, etc. She could also come out and ask him, “Are you nervous?”

Don’t have the heroine describe herself. In other words, she wouldn’t describe herself as tanned, thin, curvy, and gorgeous, unless she is extremely vain. She could however complain that her pants don’t fit her: the waist sags, but the hips are snug. She could wonder if she got too much sun when she sees the stark tan lines.

Do remember to show, not tell. It’s fine to write: She felt nervous. But wouldn’t it be better to write: Her heart pounded, her blood coursed through her veins as if it rode a roller coaster, she had trouble breathing, and her hand trembled as she lifted her coffee cup?

Don’t show after the character couldn’t see. I’m not so rigid about this. I personally like it when an author says things like: She didn’t see the evil gaze that followed her around the room. But on the other hand, you don’t want to write, He saw the fist coming, and couldn’t duck in time. He felt the pain, then nothing but blackness. The glass he held in his hand fell to the floor and shattered. How the heck would he know the glass shattered. If you want to continue to describe what happens, it has to be in another character’s POV, i.e., She watched the glass tumble from his hand and shatter on the ground.

Don’t get into the head of every minor character. Who cares if the maid who appears in one scene thinks the heroine is a wonderful human being. If it’s to build the heroine’s character, you’re much better off showing her being kind to the help, or putting it in dialog. If you change POV, make sure you establish whose head you’re in right away. There’s nothing more confusing to find you’ve switched POVs after you’ve read the paragraph and thought the whole time the other character was doing the viewing. Another tool is the white space. Nothing establishes a change more clearly than two blank lines before the story continues.

Ask yourself which character has the most to gain or lose in the scene. Then get into that person’s head. If a scene isn’t working, get into the other character’s head. It might change the tone and work and you might find the scene is stronger.

After getting back a contest entry where the judge told me I couldn’t switch POVs in a chapter, I found myself so worried about POV, my writing was stifled. Then I realized that strict and conservative use of POV didn’t work for me. So my last advice to you on POV is to write your story first. You can always go back to revise POV problems in the second or even third draft. Remember: POV is a tool to get the reader to care for your characters. Use it to your advantage.