Writer’s Tip #15: Make Descriptions in Character’s POV
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
Today’s tip: Stay in the POV of your character.
When you write a description, do it through the eyes of your POV character. Notice what s/he would notice. Describe the car/street/building/etc. as s/he would see it, and only with what s/he would know. If s/he doesn’t know about the engine, leave it out no matter how fascinating the spark plugs are. If you must get that detail in, s/he can run into someone who chats about it. Now, s/he has that knowledge to share, or use.
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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and four ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com , Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: characters, writers resources, writers tips, writing Tagged: characters, descriptions, point of view, pov, writers resources, writers tips, writing
