How to Write Point of View: making it clear to your reader Who is Doing What.

The rule about rules is that you have to know the rule before you can break the rule, but there is an exception and that is Point of View, POV.

The POV rule says that the section of the work you are writing must be written from the point of view of one person, but this is not always easy to spot when you’re the author. Try as I might, I dread the assessment of another writer who informs me that I have failed yet again. For instance, I start off an action scene from the perspective of my young and inexperienced hero and accidentally switch halfway through to include the brief perspective of a mentor who’s trying to encourage him.  Or, I begin to write an emotionally charged rant with which I get so involved that I accidentally include the reactions of the second protagonist from her POV not his. I didn’t intend to and, in fact, when I read it through I’m quite pleased with the effect, the drama, the tension, the climax, and all those things that get us involved with a book. Unfortunately, some well-meaning assessor then points out that the work would have an even better effect if I corrected the POV switch that I hadn’t even noticed.

And we all want our books to be better, right?

I have read self-published novels where the author has evidently found POV too difficult. Giving up early in the quest to find a solution, they have simply commenced each paragraph with a title bearing the name of the character through whose eyes the reader is watching the scene. I have even heard of authors changing the colour of the ink to designate different characters’ POVs. You won’t get away with that professionally.

Be kind to your reader. They have paid money for your book and need to know who’s doing what, who’s feeling what, who’s smelling what, hearing what and saying what. Your chapter may be divided into sections, and each section may have the POV of a different character. That’s fine, but you can’t say, ‘Tom felt awful about what he’d done and Helen felt awful about it, too.’  That’s two points of view, not one.

Here are some solutions that are always from Tom's POV:

‘Tom felt awful about what he’d done and, looking at Helen’s dropping jaw, he could see that she did, too.’

‘Tom felt awful about what he’d done. What could poor Helen be feeling? he wondered.’

‘Tom felt awful about what he’d done. He would message Helen the minute he got home and ask her how she felt.’

‘Tom felt awful about what he’d done and he could imagine that Helen felt awful, as well.’

 ‘“I feel awful about what I’ve done, Helen,” said Tom. “How do you feel?”’

Get the picture? If the answer does not immediately present itself to you, try distraction. Get up, walk the dog, make the bed, mow the lawn. You will have a light bulb moment, I guarantee it.

But what is so wrong with ‘Tom felt awful about what he’d done and Helen felt awful about it, too’? To find out, let’s continue the paragraph. ‘So many times Tom had tried to explain to Helen what he was trying to do, that he only wanted the best for her. Helen understood this, but she just couldn’t find the words to tell him. Tom had thought he’d have one more try, and now he’d blown it. Helen twisted her face. This was not what she'd wanted him to do. Tom watched her brave attempt to smile. Helen gave up. “I’m sorry, Tom,” she finally said and shook her head sadly.’

This is what is wrong with it: writing a page-turning novel is all about emotionally engaging your reader, about the build-up to your emotional climax. Is Helen going to slap Tom in the face or fall weeping into his arms? Or worse, is she going to fall for another guy on the rebound without realizing that Tom is actually the man of her dreams? You have to make your reader care, because if they don’t care, you’ve lost them. You’re trying to build up Tom’s regrets to some degree of romantic climax but because you’re changing your focus to how Helen feels every sentence, you’re snapping the thread of your reader’s emotional engagement.

Focus on Tom. Helen can walk away bawling her eyes out over her loss in the next section, then if you so desire you can re-engage your reader for a further enjoyable time just with her. Imagine the distress you would cause your reader if you accidentally changed your POV just when your loving couple are consummating their relationship, and you’ll understand what I mean. You’ve snapped the thread and ruined the scene.

However, there is one sure way to avoid POV problems, and that is to write the entire book in the first person ‘I’. It forces you to write everything from the one POV, yours. So all your griefs, your happiness, your highs, your lows are seen from your point of view. Too easy.