Writing a Novel: Choosing a Point of View

One of the most crucial decisions you can make when crafting a novel is point of view. This is a choice that will drastically change the very nature of your novel. If you're not sure of the importance of point of view, take your favorite scene from your favorite novel and rewrite it from a different point of view. Changing from first person to third person omniscient (or the other way around) will result in a different novel entirely. So before you start writing, you'll have to decide which point of view (usually written as POV for short) best suits your story.

First Person Point of View

You can't get closer than first person POV. First person is written using "I" or "me" statements, all of these from the person telling the story. An example of first person point of view is:

I knew it wouldn't work out as soon as those words came out of his mouth.

Notice the use of "I" and the inner thoughts of the primary character. This defines first person POV. The benefit of this point of view is that it keeps things simple. You never have to worry about point of view because you're not jumping around at all. The drawback? You never get to learn anything the primary character doesn't know. This is a good point of view to use if you never need any additional information. If, however, you must introduce informatino the lead character doesn't know this is not a good choice. Unless you want to play with the idea of the interlude, but that's a different story entirely.

Third Person Limited Point of View

First person is very close. You're in the head of the primary character. If you want to stay in the head of the character, but have a little space between the reader and the story, you might want to try third person limited POV. The same sentence you read above can quickly and easily be changed to third person limited point of view like so:

She knew it wouldn't work out as soon as those words came out of his mouth.

You still only get to see the world through your primary character's eyes, but you get some distance. The same rules and limitations exist as with first person POV, but you do get some distance. This is a popular and time-honored POV, but you still don't get to know anything your lead character doesn't get to know. You can use chapters to move between two characters, but this becomes third person multiple point of view. It works just like third person limited but with more than one character. Be careful with this, as you might be accused of head hopping.

Third Person Omniscient Point of View

Are you writing a complex story involving multiple characters doing things that the reader must know? Then third person omniscient POV may be the way to go. This allows you to float around the story, kind of like a god, and be exactly where you need to be. You can be in the head of Character #1, Character #2, or Character #32. You can show any important scene through the eyes of whoever would best convey the information. An example:

She knew it wouldn't work out as soon as those words came out of his mouth. Unaware of her thoughts, he kept talking anyway.

Here you learn that she knew it wouldn't work and that he didn't know that she knew it. You're learning two separate things, and these things are not known by a single character. This is third person point omniscient point of view.

There are many benefits to this POV. You can get information across in less time because you don't have to wait for your lead character to learn it. You can reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of anyone you like. You can show whatever you like and you have great flexibility.

But this POV comes with its own drawbacks. You're no longer sitting directly beside a single character, which can prevent emotional attachment unless you're very good at third person omniscient. Getting your readers emotionally involved with the characters you create is what keeps readers coming back for more, and third person omniscient point of view can get in the way. This POV takes practice to master, at least if you want to do it well.

Second Person Point of View

You may have noticed that I went from first person to third person without stopping to talk about second person POV. I skipped it because it's almost never used in fiction writing. An example of second person is:

 You knew it wouldn't work out as soon as those words came out of his mouth.

Look at that sentence for a moment. Now pick your favorite paragraph from your favorite book and rewrite it using "you" and see what happens. Imagine writing an novel this way. It's not all that natural and it's rarely done. When it is done, it's often done poorly.

The benefit of this POV is also it's biggest drawback: you're taking the reader and actually plopping them inside the story. Not only that, but you're telling the reader what they're doing. Most readers will react poorly to this. They don't want to be told that they just ran out the door and jumped in the car, not when they're sitting in the living room reading a book. What works well for recipes and non-fiction articles doesn't work all that well in a fiction setting.

You can try it, but don't expect to find many readers.

Which Point of View is Best?

I get asked this question a lot, especially when I'm talking to aspiring writers. The question is complicated and involves several variables. The answer is simple. Use the point of view that best suits your story. If the story needs to be told through the eyes of Character #1, then do so. Never try to force a certain point of view on your story. Let the story dictate the point of view.

Writing a Novel: The Art of Characterization

Anyone can create a character. But it takes skill and talent to truly bring a character to life when that character exists only on the pages of a book. Characterization is really an artistic representation of human character and motives. Think about this definition for a moment. Let it sink in and not the last word -- motives. But this definition only tells you what you are meant to achieve. How do you achieve this?

Start With Feeling

We all feel the same basic emotions. How we express these emotions differs greatly, but the emotions themselves remain the same. When you first create your character, forget about expressing for a while. Think instead about the emotions that make up your character. Is your character lonely? Loneliness is an emotion. Content? Depressed? Whatever. Decide how your character generally feels and make sure you understand why. If he's lonely, there had better be a reason.

Once you understand the general emotions your character lives with every day, think of how these emotions express themselves in specific situations. Does your character avoid people? Maybe they get angry when not invited to something, but since they're naturally anti-social, they never go to anything anyway. Maybe your character is a chauvinist at heart and just a little domineering. Maybe this causes him to freak out when confronted with a woman who doesn't bend to his wishes (I have a character like this, though he's trying to mellow out).

How your character reacts to any given situation is a combination of his emotions and his experiences. Make sure you understand both before you truly try to make your characters come to life.

Dress and Location

We judge people by appearance and location. To say we don't is a lie. We define people by who they associate with, what they look like, and where they like to hang out. Use this to truly bring life to your character. Does he wear his pants so loose they almost fall off? If so, your readers will assume certain things about him without you ever having to be specific.

These assumptions are helpful, either because they help establish character or because they allow you to confound expectations. Maybe the teen with his pants down around his ankles really is a bum, but maybe he's truly brilliant and has great plans for his future. Either way, you'll have something by which you can bring further life to your characters.

This same idea applies to the friends your characters choose and the locations they inhabit. Think about it carefully. Have you ever thought you might like someone, then discovered they were friends with (or married to) someone you despised? That usually affects how you feel about the person in question. The same goes for places. So bear this in mind when choosing the settings and supporting characters for your novel.

Everyone Has a Motive

Anytime I talk about character development, regardless of the particular point of the article, I have to eventually talk about motive. Motive will make or break your characters, but it's more important than that. Motive, or lack of it, can make or break your entire story. It's really that important.

Motive must be utmost in your mind when crafting your story. You might have a wonderful plot, but if you want a believable story, you're going to have to make sure your readers can understand the motives behind each and every thing your characters do. You need your main character on the other side of the country? Why is he going there? Don't try to convince your reader that he just randomly decided to fly across the country for no reason. No one will buy it. But maybe he's going to visit his aging mother. Or maybe his girlfriend has run back home and he wants to make an attempt at setting things right.

If your characters are fully realized people, they have feelings and motives. Their style of dress and the people they hang out with will say something about them. Make use of these tools in your quest for characterization.

Writing a Novel: Developing Your Characters

The best characters in any novel feel like they're about to leap off the page. Readers are attached to them. They cry when they die and they want to know what happens after the book ends (provided there is anyone left alive at the end of your novel!). Good characters are living, breathing people in the hearts and minds of both writers and readers. Creating these characters takes practice and patience, but there are a few little tips that can help you out.

Make Your Characters Do Something

You can describe your characters until you're blue in the face, but a character doesn't truly become real, especially to readers, until he or she begins doing believable things. To decide what is and is not believable for a certain character, you'll have to do some thinking. You'll have to get to know your character, come to understand how he'll react to the situations you'll be throwing at him in your novel.

Readers are very good at spotting mistakes in this area. As they get to know the character, they'll know when that character is doing something that character would never do. Perhaps you have a cheating boyfriend in your novel. He's been sleeping around for years and suddenly decides not to go home with the woman he just met at the club. This guy, the one who's been sleeping with anything with legs, is suddenly loyal to his girlfriend when nothing has happened to trigger this change? I don't think so. People change, but they don't do it instantly, and usually there's a triggering event. If the boyfriend is suddenly monogamous, you're readers will be jolted out of the story and certainly notice your character is not behaving the way he ought to.

Your characters need motive. Think about your own life. How many times to do you something completely without reason? Everything we do has a reason, even if that reason is just to alleviate boredom. So give your characters motive, and have them react as if they were fully fledged people standing in the room with you, and you're halfway towards creating a believable fictional character.

Give Your Character Flaws and a Past

No one is perfect. Some of us are just quirky, some are a little annoying, others truly have a dark past with skeletons in the closet. We're all a product of our past, and your fictional characters should be the same. Most of our flaws come out of experiences we've had in the past. So do most of our strengths.

So before you can put pen to paper, you have to understand your character's past. How does that past shape who he is and how he will react to any given situation? How was he raised? Has he had any traumatic experiences in his life?

You might not think this important, but it really. In my first book, one of my lead characters was born and raised a prince (remember, I write fantasy). He was born to command and to one day become Emperor. He was confident and intelligent and rarely flustered. And he was used to everyone doing exactly as he told them, no questions asked. So when a little slip of a girl won't obey him, it throws his world into chaos. This man seriously cannot handle disobedience, and this trait goes on to influence how he reacts in books 2-5 of The Imperial Series. His past rules his present, and this should be true of any character you create.

Good Characters Have Layers of Personality

Think about yourself for a moment. Think about how you behave when you're around different people. You, like most of us, have different faces. You're one person with your parents, another with your lover, and still another with your friends. This isn't deception and it isn't multiple personality disorder. It's just that we all have different facets, and we show these facets to different people.

People are complex. This means your characters should be complex. The character I mentioned earlier was at points in the books the concerned and obedient son, the exacting Crown Prince, the loving husband, and the domineering father. His wife isn't necessarily dealing with the same facet his children have to face.

Do this with your characters. Make sure they all have layer upon layer of complexity. This will make them more real to you, and so to your readers.

All of these things come together to create fully believable characters. Make sure your characters act "in character" and that they have motives for everything they do. Have their past influence their present and make them as complex as real people and you're sure to have characters your readers will love and remember.

Writing a Novel: Dialogue that Counts

Dialogue in a novel occurs whenever a character is speaking. Usually, this character will be speaking to another character, but sometimes he might be having a conversation with himself or merely speaking aloud. Maybe he's just talking in his own mind. But if you're indicating exactly what was said (or thought, depending on your story), you're using dialogue. This dialogue should sound like something is actually speaking. At least, most of the time.
 
Creating Believable Dialogue That Doesn't Annoy
 
Pay attention to conversations around you. Listen to how people speak to each other. How do you speak to your closest friends? We're actually very boring, and sometimes downright annoying. I'll give you an example. The other day, I was in a coffee shop listening to people talk. Two friends sat down at the table next to me and the following conversation took place.
 
-- "Hey."
-- "Hi."
-- "How're you?"
-- "Okay. You see Idol last night?"
-- "Yeah. It was ... like ... umm ... lame. You know?"
-- "Lame. You goin' to Jim's later?"
-- "Don't know. Did he restock the beer?"
 
The conversation went on from there. Completely inane, as are most of the conversations we have during the day. These conversations might be accurate, but they'll bore your readers to tears. Dialogue must be natural, but don't write exactly what you and your buddy might say about the situation. Cut through the inane and get to the heart of the matter. Forget all the little bits and share what's important.
 
Once you have the heart of the conversation fleshed out, you want to make it real and accessible. Do this by eliminating endless exposition. In other words, don't let any of your characters sound like walking infomercials. Yes, it's tempting to use a single character to explain everything, but he starts to sound like an encyclopedia. Make his conversation natural and normal, not bookish (unless that character is completely bookish, in which case you can use this character for a lot of things, including humor).
 
Finally, clean up the speech. Most people are not illiterate and they don't talk like movie gangsters. If you do have characters that don't speak as well as everyone else, indicate this sparingly. Every word doesn't have to be garbled. Remember that your readers want the story, and having to puzzle through dialect and illiterate speech will detract from that.
 
Be Careful With Dialogue Tags
 
You have to let your readers know who's speaking. There are three ways to do this. The first is dialogue tags. Use them only when necessary, and avoid getting fancy. A simple "Arianna said" is usually sufficient (if the character is named Arianna!). If the character is actually mumbling, you might choose "Arianna mumbled" or another alternative tag, but if you use these alternatives constantly, you'll look like an amateur. Keep it simple when using dialogue tags.
 
Don't use any tags if you can get away with it. This is where the second method for indicating the speaker comes in. You can make the dialogue distinctive enough that no tags are necessary. For example, I have a character who constantly says "It's not fair." She says it a lot, and she's the only character in the book who ever says it. No tag needed. I have another character who has a different native language than everyone else. This results in odd phrases and you always know when he's speaking.
 
And then we come to the third method. You can use action and description to indicate who is speaking. For example:

Crawling slowly to his feet, Payton just shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. We’re not doing this.”

No dialogue tag, and the dialogue itself doesn't really tell you who might be speaking, but you know it's Payton because he crawled to his feet and shook his head. This is my favorite method because I can accomplish two goals. I can tell you who's speaking while I describe what he's doing.

Writing believable dialogue is a bit of an art form. You'll have to practice until you get it right. Read a few well written novels, then sit down and get to work. If you can master the nuances of dialogue, you'll be well on your way towards writing a novel readers will love.