Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Revision - Point of View #MFRWAuthor #BWLAuthor #Revision #Point of View

Revising the Point of View can be tricky depending on which of the many POVs you've chosen. A quick look at what they are.

First Person - just one person's view of the story
Second Person - seldom used - more tell than show
Third person - Can just be one character of a multitude of characters giving their POVs
Omniscent - This is an observer who sees and knows everything.

When using First Person - this is the easiest and when revising you can only show what the POV or I character sees, hears, thinks and all the senses. When revising look for slips from what is the character's observations.

Second person - Since I've never used it, I have no idea how anyone would revise or even use this POV

Third person - with a single character's POV the same goes for revision as in first person.
Multiple characters with POVs needs some looking at. When you are in Joe's head, what he sees, thinks etc are only what needs to be there. When you switch to Mary's POV, the same thing occurs. There can be subtle switches from the person into another and you need to check to make sure youhaven't slipped in something belonging to another character. The easiest way to do this is to use one character per scene. Having too many POVs in a scene without definite switches can make the reader feel like they're head-hopping and confuse them. You need to refine here.

Omnescent - This is often used in sweeping passages of exposition or in descriptions to set up a scene.

So when you're reading to revise your story, make sure youhave the chosen POV in mind and make sure you've stuck to one.


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