POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Point of View

By Nandy Ekle

Point of view. The eyes your reader sees the story happen through. I always think of it, like, a video game back in the 90s. Watching my kids play these games and the giant camera sits on the head of the character the player is following. So everything that happens is through that character.

So you have your main character and that can be your point of view (POV). It can be first person through their mouth, or it can be third person, through their brain. And you can have each chapter be a different character’s point of view. Or you can have what’s called omniscient point of view, where the reader is privy to all thoughts of all characters.

And these days there’s a new term called deep point of view. This method is only in the main character’s point of view and voice. There are rules that go with this POV, and I’m not sure I even know them all. I haven’t put a lot of research into it. 

My opinion is this point of view is very tricky to accomplish. I’ve read several books using this method and, frankly, I get tired of it in a hurry. However, I’ve read a couple of books where this was used in such a way that the story was actually so engrossing that I couldn’t put the book down. The book You, by Caroline Kepnes is a perfect example of how to use this POV effectively. The story is definitely a psychological thriller. And the building of the plot is so subtle that when I realized what was happening, my breath was knocked completely out of my body. 

So, study the different types of POV and decide which one works best for your story. Then play it for all it’s worth.