Plot, settings, characters. These are the building blocks of your story. But what\u2019s the glue that holds them all together and breathes life into the story?<\/p>\n
The answer is voice. And\u00a0the quickest path to a strong voice is writing a tight point of view (POV).<\/p>\n
The two most common POVs are first person and limited third person.<\/p>\n
If first-person POV is like\u00a0a protagonist who\u2019s holding the camera and filming the world as he sees it, limited\u00a0third-person POV is like following the protagonist around\u00a0and filming the world over his or her shoulder.<\/p>\n
Both create the same effect of putting the reader behind the protagonist\u2019s eyes, privy to the way the protagonist views the world, perhaps even privy to his or her thoughts.<\/p>\n
The first-person\u00a0POV is slightly more intimate, and works best when a major part\u00a0of the plot takes place within the protagonist\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n
The limited third-person POV can achieve the same results, and it gives you a few more pronouns and nouns to work with. It\u2019s the most common POV in literature, my personal favorite, and the one I\u2019d recommend for most stories.<\/p>\n
In both these POVs, your narrative \u201ccamera\u201d is trailing a single protagonist at any given moment.<\/p>\n
Here are three\u00a0ways POV affects your writing:<\/p>\n
Everything you write\u00a0should be filtered through your POV character\u2019s eyes. That means you can\u2019t describe\u00a0what\u2019s happening behind their back unless they turn around to watch it. You can\u2019t describe\u00a0things they cannot see, like their own expression or eye color. If your POV character is blind, you\u00a0can only use\u00a0hearing, smell, and touch to describe their world.<\/p>\n
There are various ways to describe a\u00a0location, a person, or an object.\u00a0If you and I were given a salt shaker\u00a0to describe, we\u2019d probably\u00a0wind\u00a0up with two different narratives.<\/p>\n
Is there a\u00a0right<\/em>\u00a0way to describe things?<\/p>\n When you write a tight POV, there is. It\u2019s the way your protagonist would view that location, person, or object. What would your\u00a0character notice first?\u00a0What would be his or her emotional connection to it?\u00a0You have to\u00a0crawl into your character\u2019s brain and deliver your description from there.<\/p>\n Would a monk and a housewife describe\u00a0a living room in the same way?<\/p>\n The monk might note\u00a0the room\u2019s aura and atmosphere, and might marvel or scoff at its luxuries.<\/p>\n For the\u00a0housewife, such \u201cluxuries\u201d might be\u00a0everyday items. She might\u00a0notice if the curtains match the sofa and if the room is\u00a0easy to clean. (Stereotypical, I know, but it illustrates\u00a0the point. Bear with me.)<\/p>\n Match the language you use to your character\u2019s vocabulary and thought patterns.\u00a0If your POV character is a child, don\u2019t use bombastic words and complex sentences. If you\u2019re writing a soldier, utilize\u00a0his or her military jargon and frame of reference. A poet would\u00a0use one set of words; a gangster, another.<\/p>\n This is true not only for dialog, but for every word you write.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Keep this in mind when you choose your metaphors, your similes, and the plain words you use to describe things.\u00a0No battle-hardened warrior would use the words \u201cfuchsia stilettos\u201d to describe shoes\u2013even if that\u2019s precisely what they are\u2013unless you have a very good reason for your warrior to notice those details and think in those terms.<\/p>\n A tight POV creates a character\u2019s unique voice.<\/p>\n When you wonder\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0to write\u2013try to think what your POV character would notice around him or her.<\/p>\n When you wonder\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0to write it\u2013try to think how your POV would describe something.<\/p>\n Live behind your POV character\u2019s eyes, filter\u00a0everything<\/em>\u00a0you write through their mind, and use their words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[13,14],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/refiction.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}3. How Your POV Character Speaks<\/h2>\n
Recap<\/h2>\n