JUNE MAY ,, 2020 2021
INTRO TO EDITING : WRITING TRENDS — STAYING IN THE RIGHT POV
By : Barbara Donlon Bradley
So now I ’ m going to move onto the trends I see . It ’ s amazing . If I edit two or three books b a c k - toback , I find these manuscripts seem to have the same errors . It ’ s almost like the authors all got together and said let ’ s try this and see what happens .
First , I want to explain that I ’ m not someone who is ridged in the rules and regulations of POV , but I will let you know when I see something that I know people will catch . Like head hopping . Now some can do it so smoothly you don ’ t realize it has happened , but most of
the time switching POV within a scene jerks you right out of the story . It might be easy to show what everyone is thinking , but if you do it too much it will drive your reader crazy . It also becomes a problem when you have a lot of characters in one scene .
I know . Nora Roberts does it why can ’ t I ?
Nora Roberts is one of those writers who does it so smoothly you don ’ t notice it . And she ’ s Nora Roberts .
I was editing a book recently where the author had about ten people in a scene and all of them had a point of view . I got dizzy trying to figure out who should be the main POV . Figuring out the POV is simple . Your main POV should either be the hero or heroine in a romance . The main character in a murder mystery which I would assume is the detective or police officer . Or the character who needs to give the reader the right information to move the plot along . If the POV character didn ’ t see it , hear it , think it , smell it , eat it or feel it then it shouldn ’ t be in the scene .
I like to use the rule of thumb that if it ’ s not important to the plot stick to the POV you started the scene in . If it is important then you need to figure out a way for your POV to learn the info so your reader can know what you want them to know or start a new scene to show the information you want to share through the POV who has the information .
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