Wow, that’s… not deep: POV

thanks to thesparechangekitchen for use of the photo

Point of view has always fascinated me. I’ve read and reread Alicia Rasley’s The Power of Point of View as well as Orson Scott Card’s Characters & Point of View, and still every time I open either book I learn something new.

The other day I was skimming through my blog feeds and came across a great interview Margie Lawson did with Alicia Rasley. Once again, Alicia reminded me of something I’d heard and read before but am still trying to be sure I incorporate into my writing – the level of point of view.

Not all of a novel (or short story) is going to written at the same depth of point of view. It depends on what’s happening and how important it is that I get deep into the character’s mind and/or emotions. In her book, Alicia talks about there being six levels of depth (from most superficial to deepest): camera-eye or objective, action, perception, thought, emotion, and deep immersion.

Camera-eye or objective point of view is as far away from the POV character as we can get. We are like a fly on the wall. This is useful if we don’t want our reader to get emotionally involved in either the characters or the action. It can also be used effectively, as Alicia points out, when the character is going through something so painful that the only way to deal with it is to turn off all of emotions and deal with what is happening clinically, as if it didn’t matter at all (as I heard a nurse explain once, she dealt with her own child’s choking by turning off the “Mommy”, assisting the child to expel the food from his throat as if he were any choking victim, and then, only after the danger had passed, collapsing in a shaking heap, “Mommy” once more).

Intense action scenes, naturally, need to be written in the action depth of point of view. We are in the character’s mind, but only experiencing the action of the situation and the physical response the character is experiencing in response. There is no time for deep thought when one’s life is at stake. First the character has to get herself out of danger, then she can think about her loved ones and how they might react if she were to die (or whatever it was that she might think about). It is purely a physical point of view, no conscience thought.

Moving deeper, perception allows us to see through our characters eyes and experience the setting. We see only what that particular character would notice, and it is very specific to the character, otherwise it wouldn’t be authentic. When I walk into a room, I don’t notice if there’s a television, but I sure will notice if there are books. The color scheme doesn’t mean a lot to me, but if a sofa looks comfy I’ll be happy to take a seat. My husband, however, will notice the tv and the color scheme, these things are important to him, it’s just the way he is (he likes to watch tv and he’s artistic). Everyone brings their own personality into what they notice, your characters will too.

Next week, I’ll continue this with the hardest to write, most deep aspects of point of view and how I tackle these in my own writing.