The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley
One thing I struggle with every single book I write is point of view. Getting close enough and not pulling away. Showing my story through not only my character's eyes by his or her heart as well. The way to do that is through writing deep third person or first person point of view. But my words keep pulling me away, my brain keeps trying to make me into a "storyteller" instead of a novelist. It's a constant fight.
Alicia Rasley to the rescue! She has written the most comprehensive book on point of view I've ever seen and it does me a world of good to go through it every single time I begin editing a book.
Rasley's not a new book. The copy currently sitting on my desk in front of me was published in 2008. It's also thickened with lots of little post-it tags marking all the most important items I need to remember.
She breaks up the book into three parts — "the basics": what is point of view and how can you use it to your story's advantage; "building your story" in which she details the different points of view with loads of fabulous examples so that you really understand them; and "the master class" where she discusses the depth of point of view and perception and goes into more detail for the experienced writer.
Beyond just the definitions of the different points of view and how to write them, Rasley goes into wonderful detail about the effect of differing points of view. Why choose to write a story in first person, rather than third? Why show the story from one character's point of view rather than another? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using multiple points of view and when should you change and why should you change?
Each character has an agenda, Rasley points out. Each character brings to the story their own life's experiences, their own values. What one person sees and relates might be completely different from what another experiences from the same event. Rasley makes me stop and think about this and so much more. The power of point of view pervades an entire work, determines how will be read, how it will be seen and whether or not a reader will connect.
It is this connection that I strive for in everything I write and so thinking deeply about point of view is vital to my writing. With this book, Rasley sets the right questions into my head and gives me the room to step back from my work and really think about how I can achieve that deep connection that makes a good story and great book.
