Hey everyone. I’m sorry that this post is a day late. I had a really hard time writing this post because this writing commandment is one that I actually struggle writing in a clear and consistent way so I had a hard time writing it and it’s rather shorter than my usual post. But it’s the last one in the series! So without further ado…
Ten Writing Commandments: Keep Point of View Consistent
Point of View is important for every story. What point of view you established at the beginning of the book establishes a general idea of the kind of story you are writing. For example, if you are writing a story and you introduce the story as a second person point of view then immediately your reader understands that it’s most likely a choose your own adventure type of story. The story will be written in ‘you’ forms and the reader will feel like the one performing the actions.
If you start the book by introducing your story in first person point of view your reader understands what kind of story your writing. Your story is most likely going to have one, or possibly two or three, main characters. We know that we as the reader might have a limited amount of information because we only know what our characters know. The story will be written mostly in ‘I’ forms and will feel like reading a story from the point of view of a person telling the story to the reader.
If you start the book by introducing your story in third person point of view your reader understands what kind of story your writing. Your story is most likely going to have a large variety of casts and characters and there might even be a few interesting scenes where we have brief moments of insight outside of the characters knowledge that give us more information about the world and situation. The story will be written in ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘them’, and proper name forms and will feel like an outside observing perspective on a larger story and world.
The point of view defines a large majority of the things about a story. When an author chooses a point of view, they are setting a larger tone for their story. There are stories that combine more than one form of point of view, but these stories are more the exception then they are the rule. In a larger perspective, the point of view should generally be kept as one choice rather than waffling between more than one.
If you begin the story by having your character say, “When I opened my eyes that morning the sun was shining.” Then the reader knows that the story is going to be a first-person point of view story. If in the middle of the book you switch, they might be confused and have to refocus their attention and miss smaller more important details.
If you begin the story by having it say, “When you opened your eyes that morning, the sun was shining.” Then the reader knows that the story is going to be in second-person point of view.
If you begin the story by having it say, “When Tom opened his eyes that morning, the sun was shining.” Then the readers knowns that the story is going to be a third-person point of view story and they understand all the general expectations that come from a third person point of view story.
This post is short because it’s simple. Pick a point of view. Points of view have very specific ideas, concepts, and connotations attached to it for readers. Once you pick a point of view for your story, stick to it, or risk confusing your readers.
That’s it for the last post in the ten writing commandments series. I hope that it was hopeful for all of you. If you have any questions about any of the different sections of this series or any other posts in any other series, feel free to send me an email with your questions or contact me through the member page or the comments below. Don’t forget to like, share, become a member of my blog, or follow my Facebook and/or Instagram.
Now that we’ve come to the final post in a series it’s time for the announcement on the next series. First let me note, I am taking a short two-ish week break as I return home to visit my family now that school is over for the term. I will resume my blog updates the 15th of May. The 15th, 22nd, and 29th will be filler posts. They are posts that don’t really fit in with any other series, but I feel need to be written. They are stand-alone posts and will be posted in their own blog section if you are using the header at the top of the page for tracking. On the 5th of June I will begin posting a new series. And that series’ topic will be……...
*drum roll*
Inspiration! How to find it, how to keep it, and what to do with it. I hope this post and this series were helpful. Stay tuned next month for some stand-alone posts and remember….
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next month!
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