Monday, January 31, 2011

What's on the Page?


Chugging along on the WIP. Now that I have the characters clear, the GMC clear, the plot formulated in my head, and I've found the right starting place...I need to make sure I keep the character's POV's(points of view) in their POV and work at making them as distinct as the character. The heroine can't think like a male and the hero can't think like a heroine.

This book is easier to make them distinct as long as I remain focused on each one as I write from their POV. The advantage to this book is she is a Nez Perce spirit, therefor she sees things through the Nez Perce culture and thinks and speaks differently than the cavalry officer. He has military thinking and while having an educated level of speaking he has a bit of the brash and brazen military life mixed in.

Remembering these differences as I not only write in their POV's seeing the world around them and the people, it also helps when writing dialog and showing their emotions. She as a spirit has not had the ability to feel emotions until now. She wonders about them and fights them. While the hero is suffering from shell shock. And he feels too much.

These are the things I need to remember as I put each characters experiences on the page.

If you're a writer do you have problems staying in a character's POV? A reader, which kind of POV do you like? First person (When the story is told from one character's POV. I saw the bird), Third person(When you have the story told from one or more character's POV) or Omniscient(God like all seeing no one POV)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Paty,
Great questions and I appreciate your POV on the issue of POV. LOL. As an old fashioned reader, I prefer third person and in romance I don't have a problem with head hopping between the H&H for chapters. Great post.
Joy Held
Writer Wellness, A Writer's Path to Health and Creativity
Who Dares Wins Publishing

Paty Jager said...

Hi Joy,
Thank you for your comments.

Stacy McKitrick said...

I prefer third person and that's how I write. And surprisingly, I don't seem to have a problem with POV at all (in fact, that's usually what I'll spot when I'm critiquing someone else's work). But I'm not fond of head-hopping. Sometimes I have to re-read to figure out whose head I'm in (or where the switch occured).

Paty Jager said...

Stacy, I agree with the head-hopping. If not done well or too much you have to reread to figure out whose thoughts you just read.

Congrats on having conquered the POV.