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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

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Diving Deep into POV

June 14, 2018 by CHRISTINA DELAY - Resident Writing Coach

Last time I was here, we spoke about how to Dive Deep With Emotion. One of the key takeaways was the necessity of vulnerability to write authentic emotion.

What’s cool about authentic emotion is that it is also a key ingredient of writing deep POV. Deep POV is simply a “through the eyes” point of view. It can be written in 3rd or 1st, but the point is that there is no separation between the reader and the character.

Easy, right?

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ahem.

What your character has experienced and how they have processed those experiences is just as integral to writing deep POV as is writing authentic emotion.

The Sum of our Experiences

Our experiences and background color our view of the world, and your character’s background will do the same to her world outlook. Deviate from your character’s experiences, and your readers will perk up—and not in a good way.

One of the reasons I am so thankful for Cruising Writers is because of the opportunities to travel, broaden my experiences, and widen the lens in which I see the world. Travel is also a great way to add firsthand knowledge to your character’s world and backstory.

What your character has experienced and how they have processed those experiences is integral to writing deep POV.

Do you know the key parts of your character’s backstory that have made them who they are today? If your character has a specific hobby—like skydiving or scuba-diving —do you bring that into the story in their language and what they notice about the world?

A skydiver is going to pay more attention to the weather than your typical character. He’ll know how to determine which way the upper winds are blowing, about how fast the ground wind is, and know within an instant if it’s a good skydiving or swooping day.

Meanwhile, a scuba-diver will probably only pay attention to the sky as it relates to stormy seas or calm seas.

Emotional Responses

Emotional responses are key to writing authentic characters that connect with readers. Margie Lawson, our December Immersion Writing Cruise instructor, has some amazing courses on writing real emotion—she’ll be teaching this in depth on the cruise!

But what’s critical about writing an emotional response that connects is staying true to your character in that response.

For example, on one of my recent edits of my WIP, I stumbled across this line:

“My heart starts back up, speeding fast, too fast, cocaine-fast.”

Only problem is, this character had never used cocaine. So how would she know that?? Additionally, why would she even think that if she had no history of drug use?? It made no sense to my character or the story. If it made me stumble, you can be sure a reader would go cross-eyed trying to figure that one out. So I changed it.

“My heart starts back up, speeding fast, too fast, explosion-fast.”

And this works. Because she has just realized that there’s a bomb on board, that she brought it, and that she has no recollection of doing so.

Do your emotional responses stay true to your character and story? It’s easy to come up with descriptions for how our characters feel, but to write authentically, we must make sure those descriptions are aligned with our characters’ backstory, beliefs, and current point in the story.

Character Lists

I picked up on this gem from the fabulous Jaye Wells. If you’ve never read her Sabina Kane or Prospero’s War series, I highly recommend them.

Character lists are exactly what they sound like. They are lists for your characters. You can use a themed-word list, a senses list, a noun list, etc. that are all unique to your character.

I’ll stick with the skydiver character, since I’m married to one and at one point was licensed myself. A skydiver would have a themed-word list with words like altitude, rig, DZ, blue skies, velocity, fun jumps, hop and pop, tracking, low-altitude, and also an extensive knowledge of the different type of jump planes. Their senses list might have things like the smell of jet fuel, the reek of the Caravan before opening the airplane door in the summer, the buzz of manifest, the weight of their gear on their back, the feel of weightlessness when they first jump out of the plane. Their noun list would include specific types of planes, skydiving gear, weather terms, and skydiver vocabulary.

These lists can take some time to build and, if you’re a pantser, may be best to create as you go and refer back to during edits. But building lists like these are a great tool to make sure you stay true to character.

Diving into Deep POV

Deep POV is a wonderful way to create a close relationship between your character and your reader. Staying true to your character’s backstory, interests, beliefs, hobbies, and experiences go a long way to pulling off deep POV successfully.

How many of you like to write in deep POV?
How many of you haven’t tried it yet?
What are some tips you may have to write authentic, deep POV?

CHRISTINA DELAY - Resident Writing Coach

Christina is the hostess of Cruising Writers and an award-winning psychological suspense author. She also writes award-winning supernatural suspense under the name Kris Faryn.

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Filed Under: Point of View, Writing Craft

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Victoria Marie Lees says

    June 16, 2018 at 10:03 am

    Great info here, Christina. It’s concrete and makes sense. Thanks so much for sharing it. Wow! A writers’ cruise. Wouldn’t that be nice. All best to you!

  2. Harmony Kent says

    June 15, 2018 at 5:59 am

    Thanks for a lovely post! I’ve linked to this in my Week in Review post today 🙂 http://harmonykent.co.uk/my-week-in-review-and-writing-links-2/

    • Christina Delay says

      June 16, 2018 at 11:46 am

      Thanks so much, Harmony!

  3. Jarm says

    June 14, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    I’ve never considered writing deep POV, Christina. Thanks for fleshing it out for us!

    • Christina Delay says

      June 16, 2018 at 11:48 am

      You’re welcome! Have fun!

  4. Diane Virginia Cunio says

    June 14, 2018 at 1:17 pm

    This is great! I like how you relate POV to the character’s occupation or life experiences.

    • Christina Delay says

      June 14, 2018 at 6:02 pm

      Glad it connected with you!

  5. Christina Delay says

    June 14, 2018 at 11:43 am

    Thank you so much for having me on again, Becca and Angela!

  6. BECCA PUGLISI says

    June 14, 2018 at 10:33 am

    I am so excited about that themed word lists for characters. What a fabulous way to get more familiar with each character and their perspective. Love it!

    • Christina Delay says

      June 14, 2018 at 11:44 am

      It’s a great tool!

Trackbacks

  1. Top Picks Thursday! For Writers & Readers 06-21-2018 | The Author Chronicles says:
    June 21, 2018 at 1:01 pm

    […] Scott McCormick looks at the delights and dangers of first person narrative, Christina Delay dives into deep POV, and Becca Puglisi talks about determining a character’s emotional […]

  2. My week in review and writing links | Welcome to Harmony Kent Online says:
    June 16, 2018 at 6:02 am

    […] Diving Deep into POV from Writers Helping Writers […]

  3. Author Inspiration and This Week’s Writing Links | Staci Troilo says:
    June 15, 2018 at 1:05 am

    […] Deep POV | Writers Helping Writers  […]

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