Plunging the Depths of Deep POV –– Part II
from Flickr
Deep POV, or Deep Penetration Point of View is the new standard in fiction writing. Why? It is the most intimate, closest writing style, where the reader experiences the story as if they were inside of the character. Click to Tweet #amwriting #DeepPOV
What Defines Deep POV?
There are basically five aspects that help define whether or not writing is deep POV.
- Limited knowledge––sharing only from that character’s viewpoint, of what they can see, hear, smell, taste, touch.
- Inside-out perspective––We become the viewpoint character. We climb inside their mind and mind. Is this spooky or what?
- Interior life––Includes the characters’ motivations, internal dialogue (their thoughts), visceral and instinctual body reactions.
- Interpretations––because we’re experiencing the story through the viewpoint character, we get an interpretation, rather than unbiased reporting of facts and events.
- Immediacy––Not a matter of tense, we experience the story in “real time.” We watch them happen as they occur.
from “Nikki Heat” Castle
Getting into Character
When an actor prepares to play a part, they do a lot of the same preparation that writers go through in order to create a character. In the script, some indications and basic information about the character is given, such as gender, approximate age, maybe a relationship to another character, marital status, etc. But the actor relies on the dialogue and stage actions, plus the director’s interpretation of how they want the character portrayed, in order to create the part. Also, many an actor will create character backstory, (sound familiar?), plus if the occupation is important and the actor has no frame of reference, they’ll seek out to vicariously experience what the character is about.
Think “Castle.” His writing has gone stale. He’s killed off his detective, so he needs new inspiration, so he creates Nikki Heat, and uses Kate Beckett as the model. Did you see the episode called “Nikki Heat,” where the actress playing Nikki shadowed Beckett? The script seemed lame, but that actress was into her character, and actually helped talk a gunman out of shooting them all, by using the lines from the movie she was making.
From her POV, she was Nikki Heat. She lived her character and even though she was exasperating to watch, you can’t say she wasn’t in character.
That’s what we want to do with deep POV.
Deep POV is all about letting the character experience the story, not just read a newspaper account. Click to Tweet What about you? What do you think about deep POV? Leave a comment and let me know. #amwriting #DeepPOV
Donna L.H. Smith 