Point of View: What’s the Best Choice?
A story idea could be presented to readers countless different ways. How can we choose the best perspective for telling the tale?
Is Deep POV Always the Best Choice?
It’s time for another post as a Resident Writing Coach over at Writers Helping Writers, where we’re digging into point of view and whether a deeper POV is always better.
What Do Readers Want from a Story’s POV?
Our story is—in many respects—what our story’s POV tells readers it is. So what do we want readers to get out of our story and chosen POV?
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Is Our Story’s Point of View Really What We Think It Is?
Third-person POV ranges from the most distant to the deepest perspectives, so how can we tell where our story falls on the POV spectrum to avoid problems?
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Writing Craft: How Point-of-View Affects Dialogue
We often want to share both characters’ reactions during dialogue. How can we do so without causing point-of-view, head-hopping, or attribution issues?
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What’s the Right Way to Include Multiple POVs? — Guest: Kassandra Lamb
Some stories benefit from multiple points of view, but only if we follow a few do’s and don’ts. Here’s how to write multiple POVs right.
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6 Ways to Show Emotions for Non-POV Characters — Guest: Becca Puglisi
Writers need readers to grasp emotional information from non-POV characters, which can be a struggle. Becca Puglisi, co-author of the Emotion Thesaurus shares 6 techniques to avoid the problem.
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Why Is Head Hopping Considered Lazy Writing?
Several writing craft issues tend to be hallmarks of what’s called “lazy writing.” The practice of head hopping is usually considered lazy writing, but we might not understand why it earns that label. Let’s learn more and see how we can avoid head hopping and the “lazy writing” trap.
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Story Structure: What’s the Purpose…for Readers?
Ever wonder how many writing “rules” have a reason beyond “because I said so”? Story structure exists not just because it makes our story stronger, but also because the story beats help communicate with readers–and understanding how can help us write and revise our story.
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Internal Dialogue: The Secret Sauce to Fixing Problems? — Guest: Marcy Kennedy
Internal dialogue is rarely discussed but can be the key to a great story. The skillful use of internal dialogue reveals a story’s emotions, characterizations, motivations, and overall arc. Internal dialogue provides context for everything our characters experience, which helps our readers know what the story means to our characters.
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