Tuesday Tiny Writing Tip #34 – Choosing POV

There are a lot of things to be asked about POV (Point Of View) and one of the most often posed questions is “When do I switch the POV?”.

If you are wondering about that, then, obviously, you’ve decided to have two or more POV-s in your book. So, how to choose between them?

First off, who is in the chapter?

If you don’t want the story told by an all-knowing narrator, then the person who talks should be at the scene, unless they are retelling something they heard about.

Second, how much do you want the reader to know and whose thoughts and feelings are more important to the scene?

If you are writing a chapter with two characters – Tom and Sam – arguing and want to keep the thoughts of Tom hidden from Sam and the readers, then write the chapter from Sam’s POV and let the readers get into his head. That way, we’ll only get a hint of what Tom is experiencing by what Sam observes.

Also, take into consideration that the readers are more likely to sympathize with the narrator so telling the story from the POV of the character who goes through the strongest emotions in the chapter will help transfer the same emotions onto your readers.