The Craft of Writing | What a Story, in Written Form, is by Randall ‘Jay’ Andrews
So, you’ve probably heard me talk about POV, and why POV is important, but I’d like to breakdown what happens for the reader, and what the readers thinking is when they follow a story.
First, let’s go back and discuss what a story, in written form, is.
We write a story about a situation, event, incident, and the resulting consequences and outcomes. We set this into fiction by attaching it to a character and we let THEM be the vehicle by which the story is told.
That takes me to the issue at hand, jumping POV. As a reader, we invest in the POV. We are tethered to the POV so we want to know what he/she feels, what he/she thinks, and what happens to him/her in the story.
However, writers don’t always understand that. They think, “Hmmm, my character can’t be in this scene, so I’m going to fabricate a POV from an insignificant character for the sake of pushing my story along.
That’s acceptable if you plan to tell their story as well, because the minute you jump to another character, we the reader WANT, NEED, INSIST upon knowledge of that character that can make us CARE about them.
Using a POV just to explain something because your POV isn’t there is not good writing. Can you get away with it? Yes, but not in the critical sense. Critics will chew you up, I WILL CHEW YOU UP. I don’t need to know what Sally’s boyfriend thinks if he isn’t Sally, and Sally is the one whose story is being told.
When you write, ALWAYS BE ON THE SHOULDER OF YOUR POV and observe the story from that angle. If Sally’s boyfriend leaves the room, he’s not in the story. Sally turned and her boyfriend had stepped out of the room. “John? Where are you?”
A muffled shout came from the basement, “Down here, come here and see this.”
The darkness of the stairwell didn’t appeal to her. She’d rather wait in the light. “Do I have to?”
“His voice echoed through the opening, Yes.”
That is from HER POV, and it is her mood we set in narrative.
Now, you can have multiple POVs, but remember, they are stories unto themselves, and you shouldn’t share POVs in the same scene.
In Six Days in Dirtwater, I have two POVs, two protagonists, and two stories to tell, all of which gravitate around the same incident. I go one chapter with Danny, and the next with Lyle, and they parallel each other as the story moves along. In the end, you know BOTH their stories, and they are both important in their own ways, however, I’m only in the head of one protagonist per chapter.
Again, if you are using one character to show something because your main character can’t be in the scene, REWRITE IT. Don’t do that.
Write On!
