Multiple POVs—should you use them or should you not? That’s a question with huge implications for your story. It will influence everything from structure to pacing to character arcs. Most importantly, it will have a huge influence on your readers’ experience of the story—for better or worse. More genre books than not use multiple POVs to […]
October 21, 2024 by 27 Comments PodcastLearn About the Different Types of POV (+Head-Hopping)
Today we’re going to be talking about a topic all writers have questions about at one point or another—and that is POV. POV stands for “point of view.” It is the perspective through which you tell your story’s narrative. Specifically, we’re going to talk about which “person” you might want to use when choosing your […]
June 15, 2020 by 37 Comments Point of ViewDoes Your Story Really Need That Extra POV Character?
Sooner or later, most authors find the constraints of POV frustrating. It can be difficult to observe the strictures of a tight POV while still showing readers all of a scene’s necessary information. Seemingly, one of the easiest ways around this problem is to simply add a new POV from a character who is able […]
March 16, 2020 by 62 Comments Point of View5 Questions About How to Balance Multiple POVs in Your Story
The opportunities and pitfalls offered by multiple POVs are both the joy and the bane of the writer’s life. On the one hand, using multiple points of view to tell a story seems like it makes the job so much easier. No limits—woohoo! But on the other hand, once you start trying to juggle multiple […]
May 7, 2018 by 59 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes, Pt. 64: POV Problems
POV. Writers can’t live without it. It influences every aspect of story, right down to word choice. But in all frankness, sometimes POV can be a little hard for us to live with as well. The vastness and the complexity of the topic makes it all too easy for authors to accidentally stumble into POV problems. […]
June 30, 2017 by 33 Comments Point of View6 Questions to Help You Choose the Right POV
Stories are defined by their narrators. Narrating characters implicitly tell us whose story this is. More than that, they determine which facets of plot and theme will be emphasized. How do they do this? By also determining which elements will be eliminated or sidelined. In short, figuring out how to choose the right POV for your […]
April 17, 2016 by 123 Comments Point of ViewEverything You Need to Know About Writing a 3rd-Person POV
Chances are good you’re using a third-person POV (or Point of View) in your story right now. If not, then you likely used it in the past or will give it a try in the future. It’s a nearly universal writing technique and the most popular of all the POV choices. But are you using […]
November 30, 2015 by 52 Comments Point of ViewHow to Choose the Right POV (What I Learned Writing Storming)
Your novel is going to be the product of a series of important decisions. One of the most important of those decisions is one many authors take for granted: the point of view (POV) from which the story will be told. Let me implore you right now: Don’t take POV for granted! The slapdash POV […]
July 10, 2015 by 35 Comments Point of View9 Ways to Use Point of View to Strengthen Your Story’s Characters
One of the author’s primary tools to create great characters is point of view (POV). The character or characters through whom the reader experiences your narrative will become the people they know best, and, if those characters are compelling, the friends they carry with them after the story is done. As writers, we must consider […]
June 21, 2015 by 93 Comments Point of ViewWhat Every Writer Ought to Know About the Omniscient POV
Writers don’t only have to decide which character’s point of view the story will be told in, they also have to figure out whether to then share that character’s narrative in first-person, third-person, second-person, or (*cue ominous rumbling*) omniscient POV. The point of view (or POV) in which you tell your story’s narrative is arguably the single […]
