Writing A Book: Character Point Of View Edit

If you’re writing a book that uses the Point Of View (POV) of multiple characters, there’s a lot to keep track of.

Each character is their own puzzle piece to fit into the overall story, and will all play their parts in creating a worthy read, so it’s critical to get the little details right.

One way to do that is by narrowing in on each character with a POV edit.

Writing A Book: Character Point Of View Edit

The best way to concentrate on one POV at a time is to select a character and then go through each of their chapters/scenes, one after the other.

Yes, that likely means you’ll be editing non-linearly. It’s baffling, I know, but this will let you focus on a specific character, and help highlight their journey without your brain getting caught up on other characters and the story of the book. Here’s how to do it!

1) Get Prepared

Gather a pen, paper, multiple highlighters, or use your favorite digital notes program. Assign a unique highlight color to each of your characters, and create this list:

Character name.Chapter and scene.Chapter/scene total.

Example:

Carla (green highlighter)

Chapter 3 – Scene 2
Chapter 16 – Scene 1
Chapter 24 – Scene 3
Chapter 31

Total POV chapters/scenes – 4

Once you’ve listed every character, their chapters/scenes, totaled them, and picked their highlight color, start at their first chapter/scene (in the example above, it would be Chapter 3 – Scene 2).

As for the totaling of the scenes, I do this so I can start at the characters who have the least amount. This breaks down the overwhelming task of editing an entire book into smaller bites. And by the time you get to the characters with the most scenes, you’ll be so deep in the editing groove that the process will be perfected!

When you’ve completed an edit for the first scene, highlight it in your chosen color to mark it as done, and move to the next. When all of the character’s chapters/scenes are highlighted, you’ve completed your character POV edit for them.

For some ideas on what to focus on in a character POV edit, check out step 2!

2) Get EditingVoice Consistency

While the style of writing across your book should be consistent, the “voice” of each character should also be distinct.

You want your readers to tell whose POV they’re in just by reading the first few sentences. If your character’s voice is strong, they’ll be able to do that.

To ensure that’s happening, use the advantage of this POV check walking you through every scene, one after the other, to ensure your character’s voice is consistent. If it’s not, edit until every scene for said character is in their voice.

Knowledge

Throughout a book, it’s likely that there are some characters that know certain things, while others don’t.

As the writer—you know everything. And it’s when you’re that all-powerful-knowing-person that you forget the lineage of the abandoned baby isn’t supposed to be known by the MC’s best friend.

They may allude to it in a sentence that you’ve read so many times already, the slip-up slides right past.

Or there was a version of the story three drafts back where they knew, but you changed it last-minute, and as you edit the book from start to finish for the millionth time, the info that is correct in your writer-brain but no longer correct for the character, gets overlooked.

Once again, the slip-up slides past, but when you’re doing a specific character POV edit, the chance to pick up those errors increases.

As you’re going through each POV, check what the specific character is and isn’t supposed to know, and make sure their knowledge (or lack of) is clear on the page.

Repeated Info/Emotions

As writers, we know new ideas pop up as we’re writing, even if you’re the strictest of planners, and especially if you’re a pantser or a planster.

Suddenly, your character having a skill like rock climbing hits you like lightning, so you mention it. You then mention it again five chapters later, and then again before they’re about to use that convenient skill in the finale to save the love of their life.

When drafting, info and emotions pop up, time and time again. As the writer, especially one who’s been drafting the story over a long period, you don’t notice all of this repeated info/emotions. They’re even easier to miss when the POVs are spread out across the book.

When you’re concentrating on just one POV at a time, however, it’s easier to notice that in four out of six scenes, your MC has mentioned that they know how to rock climb.

Use your POV checks to weed out the repeated stuff, and reduce it to the right amount of mentions, at the right time in the story.

The same goes for reminiscing, flashbacks, references, and memories. If you’re touching on these things too much, the POV edit is your chance to identify, refine, and eliminate.

Internal Thoughts/Deep POV

If you’re using Deep POV when writing your characters, a POV edit is the perfect time to make sure you’ve nailed it.

If you aren’t aware already, Deep POV is writing directly from the perspective of the character. Everything this character sees, feels, and thinks is on the page for the reader to experience. It’s a great way to really get inside the character, make them relatable, and form a bond with readers.

When drafting, we often want to move the scene along, so we’ll get down the dialogue, the action, and the staging, but we may not refine our Deep POV elements as thoroughly.

That is where your specific POV edits will come in handy once again. Use them to check that the scene reads as if coming from the POV character directly. Ask yourself as you edit, What are they seeing and feeling? Are there enough internal thoughts? And adjust accordingly.

You’ve done the hard work of creating unique characters. Imprint them on the page with every detail. Get the Deep POV, voice consistency, knowledge, and repeated info and emotions right, and you’ll ensure your characters are well-rounded and one of the best things about your book.

— K.M. Allan

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