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Thank you Raimey!

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Have you ever read a book and wondered if a supporting character should really be the one telling the story and not the one chosen for the book?

Secondly, I wonder how we writers should decide on a character and are we ever blind to one voice because this character resonates better to our own preference versus the success of a better storyteller closer to the mystery in the plot?

I’m not sure. What I do know is a great exercise I’m been using these past couple of days to really flush out the theme of my own book in a 5th or 6th draft. It’s helping me question my own choice.

In a post by the beginningwriter.com, the author states POV is “who’s eyes we see the action through, who’s head we’re inside of, and who’s feelings we experience as that character feels them.”

The author goes on to say, “This is why  it’s so important to choose the right POV character for your story. It will “determine what you tell, how you tell it and, often, even what the action means.”

As I’m working with 90 Days to Your Novel with my revisions, I have been experimenting with the following writing exercises:

1. I’ve chosen three characters from my story and I first wrote a quick scene illustrating a powerful emotion in spine tingling situations all on the same day of pivotal event which shakes up a sleepy seaside town and launches a mystery of why the captain did what he did and how he managed to disappear. This exercise taught me several things about the story. I learned what different clues each character noticed, the dejavu experiences in some and the separate unique reactions, body language cues and emotions spiraling out from this scene and character. I almost fell in love with another character’s version of the mystery and am now scratching my head. Can I drop it into the book somehow with the same impact? Again, I’m not sure but what else do I have to lose?

2. Then I took these three characters and I dropped them in the same scene per the exercise in Domet’s book on POV and character. One character experienced a life changing or mood altering paradigm. One character envied the change. Then the third character, make them natural to the situation.

3. Lastly, reflect on the differences. Write out a paragraph for each scene you review and ask these lovely questions from Domet:

• Which perspective did you find the most natural?

• Which perspective offers the most interesting vantage point?

• If you started your novel today, which character would you pick to narrate the story?

Good luck with your writing. Next time I’ll let you know what I decided about my POV.

Final thought:

“You must look within for value, but must look beyond for perspective.”

~ Denis Waitley