Point of View

Whose head is it anyway?

Imagine you are reading a book, and you think you are following the principal character on an adventure. Yay! What fun! But, in the middle of a scene, you see the action through another character’s eyes. Smell what another character smells. Hear what another character hears. That is head-hopping, and that’s not so fun for the reader. Confusion reigns. Reader struggles. Throws book. Critical reviews all ’round.

Boo to rotten reviews. Let’s fix this problem before that happens to you.

Climb inside your main character’s head and body. Take it for a test run, see the scenery. Feel their feels.  Think their thoughts.

Now, write the scene from behind the character’s eyes. If they can’t see something, then don’t describe it until they see it. If they can’t smell something, let the scent waft on without mentioning it.

The wonderful thing about tight POV is that everything the character experiences gets filtered through their perspective. That perspective – built from past events, religious views, fears, passions, area of expertise, culture, etc – not only flavours the story, but builds a 3-dimensional character.

See, that wasn’t hard.

D. A. Kelly