Plunging the Depths of Deep POV –– Part I
from Flickr
What IS “Deep POV?” Its seems that’s all publishers want to see these days. In the next series of blog posts, we’ll look at it, how to write in it, and how to polish your POV to make your manuscript extraordinary. #amwriting #DeepPOV
Intro to POV
POV stands for Point-Of-View, or viewpoint character. When writing in third person, the scene or chapter is written from one perspective. Most fiction is written from either first person or third person POV. First person is obvious. “I” is the main character, whoever they are. Third person is “he” or “she.” I’m not going to get into a discussion of one vs. another, because our focus here is third person, limited viewpoint, or Deep POV.
In a nutshell, deep POV is more than just a character’s perspective, we’re in their head. Click to Tweet We’re like a mind-reader, who can know the thoughts, and also the feelings of the person from whose eyes we are seeing the story. Click to Tweet
from Flickr
How do we Get Started?
Deep POV is from one, and only one, viewpoint character. We become them. Think of yourself as an actor studying more than the lines of your part. You have to know that character so well, that you know how they think, what they think, why they think what they think, and what their feelings, thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs are. If you know your character inside out, you can write in deep POV.
History of Deep POV
“Deep POV was originally called “close or intimate limited third-person point of view, and it first appeared and started gaining popularity between 1975 and 1995.” From Deep Point of View by Marcy Kennedy. I was glad to know this, because I’d just begun to hear the term thrown around in only the last few years, very few years.
The reason, Kennedy says, for the rise in popularity of this form of writing, is “the connection deep POV creates between the reader and the viewpoint character. It makes the story interactive in a way that more distant approaches to point of view can’t. It allows the reader to live vicariously through our viewpoint characters.”
What about you? Do you write deep POV? What do you think about it? Leave a comment and let me know. #am writing #DeepPOV
Donna L.H. Smith 