Barbara V Evers

Courtesy of Morguefile.com In my last two posts, I explained the common point of view approaches considered acceptable in writing today.  You can explore that information here: Who's Telling the Story:  Exploring 3 Point of View Methods Who's Talking Now:  Using Multiple Points of View I have intentionally left one of the more difficult approaches, omniscient point of view, to last because most people struggle with how to effectively do this, myself included. Also, this approach is a bit dated and not often used in current works. This post by The Writer's Craft blog defines it: The Writer's Craft: Omniscient Point of View If you want to dig further into this concept in order to understand how and why you should use omniscient point of view, as well as understand the difference between the subjective and objective forms of this approach, then this post from Scribophile details it thoroughly. Scribophile:  Using Third Person Omniscient Do you h...

Courtesy of Morguefile.com Writing a story with multiple points of view uses third person point of view , but the reader participates in more than one character's experiences. When you write multiple points of view, there needs to be a scene break or chapter break before the narrative switches to another character.   Scene Breaks A scene break occurs within a chapter and a blank line indicates the break. In many cases, the setting changes at this point too. Chapter Breaks Many authors use chapter breaks to switch to a different point of view which means each chapter is told by a particular character.  Publishing has used this in many genres where the chapters switch between four different characters. Indicating a Changed Point of View When changing points of view--whether with a scene break or chapter break--it's best to use the character's name in the first sentence or two of the new point of view. In multiple points of view, each person thin...

Who is telling your story?  The answer to that question identifies the story's point of view. When I first started writing, I didn't know anything about point of view, so I tended to do something called "head hopping."  Head hopping occurs when you tell what different people are thinking within the same scene.  It can get very confusing for the reader because they don't know whose thoughts they are reading. Point of view lets the reader know who is narrating the story.  Some of the common forms used today are: First Person Third Person Third Person Deep   First Person First person is told from the "I" point of view.  It feels like the point of view person is talking to you. To pull off a successful first person point of view, you will want to find a way to avoid the overuse of "I" especially at the beginning of sentences. The following first person excerpt comes from Pieces , a short story of mine published in moonShine Rev...