Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 185

A Hot Time in the Old Town

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If I Had Two Heads I’d Have Two Points of View

Question: Point of view is pesky. What's the hardest aspect of POV you deal with in your storytelling with one or more POV?

by Paul D. Marks

I'm not too proud to admit that when I first started writing prose I didn't get Point of View. I had come from a screenwriting background where POV isn't generally a big issue. Basically in a screenplay your POV is the camera. You are the camera. You can shoot over someone's shoulder or be a fly on the wall. You can view everything from a 360 degree aerial...

Who dis?

QUESTION: Point of view is pesky. What's the hardest aspect of POV you deal with in your storytelling with one or more POV? By Catriona
Forgive the indulgence. They made this
for me at Malice, when I was toast-mastering.
When am I going to get to use it? It's like a tiara.
Truth is I'm going to have to stretch a point to answer this week's question, because I've never used more than one point of view in a single story. Not really. I've had one character briefly paraphrase another's words, in effe...

Through a glass...darkly by Cathy Ace

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POV Thoughts - RM Greenaway

What's the hardest aspect of POV you deal with in your storytelling with one or more POV?One aspect is how many is too many? This year I got the substantive edits back on my fourth novel, and the note said, "Not a lot of quibbles, but too many POVs." What?? I rebelled. I had written them in thinking some new viewpoints would make the story more interesting, and writing them out again would be a lot of work. So I sulked, and compromised, cutting out only two. But as my revision deadline loomed...

Who's Talking?

Q: What’s the hardest thing you deal with in your books related to storytelling with one or more points of view?
- from Susan

When I started the first book in my first series, it was third person point of view: “she said,” “she thought;” but I felt I was too far away from Dani O’Rourke to get inside her head and to know her as a person. So, I began again in the first person – I told the story from her perspective. It gave me a lot more room for expressing her emotions, but it meant I could only...

A Damp, Drizzly November in my Soul

What book published before 1900 left an indelible impression on you? 
From Jim


Moby Dick (Herman Melville, 1850) is not an easy novel to read. Or, rather, parts of it are difficult. The encyclopedic chapters that tell us more than we’d ever want to know about 19th century whaling, ships, navigation, rigging, monkey ropes, and try-works have perplexed, challenged, and bored countless students for generations. Ever wonder what the rendering of whale blubber smells like?
“(The try-works’&...

Turning the pages and raising the bar

What book published before 1900 left an indelible impression on you? What book published after 2000?
by Dietrich Kalteis
Some of the classics really came to life and left an impression when I was younger, and I remember certain scenes like I just read them. I’ve reread some of these books over the years, and most have stood the test of time and were as enjoyable the second time around. 
I read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when I was in my teens and loved this book. It was originally publishe...

Opening lines - a quiz

By R.J. Harlick
I'm afraid I got caught up in Victoria Day family gatherings and found myself out of time to do my blog, so I am treating you to one I posted a few years ago.
"Some authors think that the opening line of a book is what grabs a reader. Do you agree with this? What are some of your favorite opening lines?”
She inched closer to the edge of the cliff, unsure of what she would find. Fearing the worst, she peered over the ledge at the rocks below…and presto she had her opening line.&nb...

Indelible Villains

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