It’s
never too late to finally get it.
I
finally got it.
I
managed to snag a bundle on Amazon for less than a buck. A bunch of awesome
authors, great stories, the whole works. Opened to a multi-pubbed,
award-winning author I had always wanted to read. I got to page three. I went
back; must have missed something. Reread, got to page two and a half. Went back
again. What?
Back
and forth, in and out of POVs. Yessiree, head hopping like a rabbit on
steroids.
My
apologies Sally Stuart for the tough critique you gave me fifteen or so years
ago. You were spot on. And I was horribly wrong.
Admitting
my foolishness, let’s just say that I never really got why omniscient doesn’t
work as well as controlled POVs. I really didn’t. I grew up on authors who
wrote that way. Now, mind you, I taught the company line. I’ve given numerous
classes on POV, deep POV, deep—deep POV and so on and so forth. I tell my
authors to be sure their POVs are easily understood. Even though I still was
not convinced all of it was necessary.
And
yet, here I was on page three, so confused that I had to reread the opening
pages three more times to try and connect with someone. I hope you know, I haven’t picked up the story since. It
was too much work to try and figure out who was thinking, feeling, expressing
themselves.
Sooooo…there
you have it. Lesson taught. Lesson learned.
I
finally got it. How about you?
5 comments:
I've also stopped reading a few books because of the frantic changes in POV. It's funny how this can slip into one's story, even if one believes they're a POV "purist." And I speak from my own experience.
I'm glad you're speaking out on this topic!
And here's a good post on POV that will help folks with the basics.
http://wordsharpeners.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/4-ways-to-sharpen-your-scenes-pov/
I have been reading all I can on POV since by default, I write in omniscient. It has really been a struggle for me. In fact, it took me a month to understand how to quit doing it. I'd read numerous blogs and finally, the way one writer put it with examples, it finally clicked.
So for those of you out there who are frustrated with it, keep reading on it until it clicks. Now I am beginning to recognize when I start doing it. That's progress.
Thank you for this post!
Great post. I recently read a book from my childhood, Green Grass of Wyoming, by Mary O'Hara. Omniscient POV. The reader even knows what the horses are thinking, but that's why I loved it as a kid. This time around it startled me at first, but O'Hara is so good at it that I just flowed along with the story. It was a perfect example to me of how things have changed.
There are authors who did it so well you don't even realize, but most with that gift are writers from long ago who all wrote that way. I see new writers try it and they are all over the page.
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