Between the Hammer & the Anvil

San Francisco, CA.

It must sound odd, adding new scenes, new characters, re-writing many of the existing scenes – so close to finishing and releasing the manuscript.

But there is an explanation.

At the beginning of this year I learned a technique about using Point Of View (POV) that is pivotal to fiction writing.  Unless someone taught you this as I was, or you read a certain book about writing theory, this is one you might miss.  But the style governs most good books we are exposed to, it’s a feature of most great literature.  The difference between an average book and a well-written novel.

And there are hundreds, if not thousands of books about novel writing and writing theory.  Some of the best of these writing manuals were assigned to us by English teachers, some are recommended because of who authored them.  E. B. White is an example of a famous author who has written about the mechanics of writing.

POV is how you present the story to the reader through the eyes of your characters.  The less POV characters you have the better, though with multiple locations you may need more than a few.  For special situations you can use a unique POV character, one that may only appear in one or two scenes, but you cannot overdo this.  Too many of these Special POV (S-POV) characters and the narrative becomes muddy.  Your S-POV characters should be rare and interesting.  Don’t just invent a cardboard cutout that serves your purpose.  This is art, not just construction.

Pick up any great novel, from “To Kill A Mockingbird” to “The Great Gatsby,” and you can see an example of what I’m talking about on the first page.  A good writer will have you inside a character’s head within the first paragraph, sometimes by the end of the first sentence.  In an engaging narrative the character will resonate with you on some level by the end of the first page.  With good writing you feel some sort of simpatico with the character, you either like them or are fascinated by them, and you want to find out more.

“Eragon” by Christopher Paolini is an excellent example in the fantasy genre, (and a damn fine book as well.)  By the end of the first page you identify with Eragon, you ‘feel his pain,’ and you want to find out more.  Eragon pulls you into the narrative and pulls you along, showing you the adventure.  Robert Jordan does this as well in his “Wheel Of Time” series.  These are examples of exceptional writing and story-telling, and examples of the power of POV mechanics.

If you want your novel writing to be taken seriously you will learn this lesson.  Even if it means you have to invent a few new characters, re-write multiple scenes, and update your narrative when you’re one step away from finished manuscript.

There is a tendency to resist radical changes in how you work, even if they seem logical and correct, and POV mechanics may seem restrictive at first glance.  But the technique is empowering.  Sometimes much of your manuscript is already written from the POV of your primary characters, and doesn’t have to be fixed, (as was the case with mine.)  You will kill pieces of your writing you really liked, felt very strongly about, needed to write.

“Just because you needed to write it does not mean your readers need to read it,” as one of my writing mentors said to me.  This is a lesson you may have learned much earlier in the process, but knowing what to cut regardless of how you feel about it, is the mark of a writer who is also a self-editor.  Which brings us to the next truism –

“Not all writers are self-editors.”  But many will think they are when they aren’t.  Unless you have a background as an editor you may not be able to judge this for yourself.  Having a background in journalism can help a writer determine this because usually editors can spot a writer who can self-edit.

If you don’t have this talent does not mean you aren’t a potentially good writer.  It just means you need a copy editor.  If you are the solitary sort you may need to hire one, and that can be expensive, but publishing a badly-edited novel is more costly.  Writers who can self-edit can usually copy edit for other writers, and can charge $1,500 to $3,000 for this service.  It’s costly because it takes a lot of time per page.  Some really good editors can charge much more than that, and publication editors can charge up to $6,000 or more per manuscript.  Publication editors are rarer than copy editors, but some copy editors can become publication editors.  Usually it takes a lot of education and training.

POV writing can spark the imagination and create scenes that enrich the narrative.  It’s what draws your readers in and keeps them engaged.  Now that you understand the theory you can go to the books in your house and read the first page.  With certain notable exceptions you will quickly see this technique in nearly all good fiction.

And POV writing is fun!  It’s how you express the passion in your characters, your passion.  It’s how you communicate human nature.  Because empathy is at the core of our better nature.  Empathy is how we view others with compassion and understanding.  Even mice who share the same cage develop empathy for each other.

But POV can be inhumane as well.  In good science fiction the author takes you inside the mind of the alien.  In some writing POV can take you inside that which is alien among and inside humans.  POV can contrast, provoke and even surprise.  Some great fiction takes the reader inside the minds of people we could never imagine, much less identify with.  Sociopaths and psychopaths are examples of this type of alien POV.  Most of us don’t claim to identify with Hannibal Lecter.

No matter what point you’re at when you learn about POV mechanics you make the necessary changes.