Multiple POV Disorder

In my previous post, I spoke about the difficulty in choosing the tense in your manuscript. Are you writing in First Person Present Tense or do you prefer Third Person Past Tense? 

At the end of the day, I choose First Person Past Tense for my current project. I gave myself a little fist pump when I made that decision - ONE DOWN!

So I wrote a few chapters in FP-PT for my main protagonist. Things were going well. My critique group seemed to enjoy it. But then I thought, to make this project more robust, I wanted to include FP-PT not only for my main protagonist but also one other main character and the antagonist. Should be easy right? Well, not so much. 

The following aren't a list of items that should be done just because you plan to write from multiple POVs, but these things become even more important if you decide to move in that direction. The reason mainly is that each character has to be as robust as your protagonist. So think about:

1) Why are you writing in different POVs?

2) What does it add to the story?

3) Does the character's POV move the story along?

4) What does the character want?

5) Is the character only there to support to main protagonist's storyline? (Answer: they should not.)

The fifth item on the list is an important one. When moving the story along through the eyes of another character, that character needs to have their own motivations and driving force. They can't be a wood pillar simply to add colour to the main character's story. If so, then these chapters will lack conflict and tension and there will be no need for you to have written from another POV in the first place. 

So how many POVs do you have in your manuscript? 

Kiss and Tell, Not Show and Tell

It is almost mistletoe season, so pucker up.  Kisses are wonderful, powerful even, and are especially important in YA literature.  But how to write those all important kissing scenes?  Here's a few sites that just might help your characters to lock lips.

www.pyschologytoday.com/blog/one-true-thing/201508/seven-tips-kissing(like)-you-mean-it
www.pscyhologytoday.com/blog/world-connections/201405/what's-in-a-kiss.
www.psychologytoday.com/blog.hide-and-seek/201503/why-do-we-kiss.
www.malindalo.com/2012/04/writing-about-kissing.

Warning this last site is a bit steamy!!!

www.epicreads.com/blog/11-unforgetable-YA-kissy-scenes.



A short summary:

1. Be somewhat descriptive & include the five senses
2. Show not tell (give us the character's POV)
3. Give us the meaning behind the kiss (POV can help with this)
4, Most of all - Have fun!

Happy Writing!!!

Common Critiques

Last week, a fellow writer in my writers workshop told me that they always paid a little extra attention to my critiques in class.  That comment meant a lot to me.  It meant that I was not only going through the exercise of "critiquing", I was providing value.

Having reviewed and provided notes on scripts and manuscripts, here are a few issues that seem to pop up often and with a few tweaks, they can be resolved quickly.

1) Who's POV is it?

Sometimes we forget who's POV we're writing from.  We'll be deep into our protagonist's head and all of a sudden a scene pops up from a secondary character's POV.  You may have several characters who's POV's you're writing from and that's ok. The key is to ask yourself who's scene does this belong to and does switching POVs take your readers out of the action. 

2) Too much exposition

We want our readers to get to know our characters and we may feel it's important to tell stories about their past, family or history.  But instead of increasing the emotional connection between our readers and the protagonist, we may actually be distancing them.  Providing too much backstory can actually be a disservice.  It changes the mood and pacing of the scene and takes us out of what's going on at that moment.  If information about the past is to be revealed, it has to be grounded in the present.

3) Dialogue Tags

He said, she said, they asked, he mumbled, she griped.  These are all dialogue tags and having too many of them can be a distraction for the reader.  A great exercise is to print off a few pages of your manuscript and circle all the tags.  If you're seeing a lot of circles per page, then perhaps it's time to eliminate some of them.  One possibility is to replace the tag with an action by the speaker.  For example, "This tastes delicious!" Gary took another bite of the apple. 

Are there any common criticisms that you've seen in your critique groups?  Feel free to share here!

Is first person really the right choice for your novel?

It's the second week of October already--and you writers out there know what that means.

Okay, yeah, it does mean Halloween is coming. But it also means THIS is coming:

I'm not planning to officially participate in NaNo this year, because I already have about 90% of a first draft written. But what I am going to do is take the opportunity to give myself a kick in the revision pants. What better time than when thousands of other writers around the world are slaving away over their laptops, too?

The first big edit I'm making in this draft is to change the point of view from first person to third person limited. The change will mean hours and hours of painstaking work, but I really think it's the right choice for this story.

Which brings up a good question: how do you know which one is right for your story?

I know I tend to link to him a lot, but as usual, former agent Nathan Bransford has an insightful look at this topic on his blog. His perspective on where the narrative tension comes from in both POVs makes a lot of sense.

My last manuscript was in first person, so it seemed natural to jump right into the head of the main character in this one, too. But in that last manuscript, the feelings, reactions, and worldview of the viewpoint character were a major part of the story. 

This new one is a cross between an adventure story and a coming-of-age story, so it fits this description from this first vs. third person blog post of a good candidate for a third-person limited point of view: "Third-person limited offers a nice balance between a plot-driven story and a character-driven story. It is often a good choice when the outer events of your plot are closely tied to the protagonist's inner growth."

What do you think? Do you prefer the complete immersion in the character's head that first person perspective brings, or do you like a little distance?