Blog – Points of View

I’ve had the good fortune to work with talented and thorough editors on numerous short stories and novels. Learning their likes and dislikes is only part of the process. Learning new skills is the challenge and the reward.

My most recent book publisher, Cursed Dragon, challenged my comfort zone around points of view, forcing a major rewrite, which led from ‘revise and resubmit’ to Acceptance (yay!). “Barnaby’s Luck” book one in a fantasy trilogy, will launch in January, 2025.

Until this revision, which I’ll get to in a moment, I chosen points of view (POV), appropriate to the length, genre and story. My short fiction was almost always told in third person from the protagonist’s POV. Having multiple, rotating, POV’s complicates short stories, in my opinion.

However, novel length works are different. I usually have multiple plot threads which often require (or so I thought), differing points of reference. Events which are separated in location but not necessarily time, are harder to ‘show’ when only one character is available as witness. More than one POV also adds depth with regard to event and character interpretation, which can drive (or slow – you don’t want that) the plot forward. This person knows something another one does not, leading to conflict.

I changed my normal rotating POV in my recently published mystery novel, “Take Your Best Shot”, choosing to follow the detective genre convention of single, first person, POV. At the time it, first person was especially a mental stretch but I found once I got into the story, it worked really well, allowing me to totally immerse in character. Since Clay’s (the investigator) voice was essentially mine, it went well and I learned the value of a time-linear event sequence.

Now we come to “Barnaby’s Luck”. The submitted manuscript featured one main protagonist, Barnaby, and a few secondary, but important, characters. Their reactions to and impressions of, Barnaby, I felt were key to building his arc and telling the sweeping story. Events critical to the plot happened in places he couldn’t be present because he was elsewhere, conducting his own, usually unsuccessful, schemes. Thus, I had chosen, a multiple (three), third-person POV, narrative style.

The editors, however, saw the advantage of telling the entire book through Barnaby’s eyes only. How to relate the events he was previously absent from without mere ‘telling’ and not ‘showing’? How to add depth to Barnaby’s character without other’s impressions? How to dramatize the events where he wasn’t present? And how to keep the page-turning advantages of switching POV’s from chapter to chapter? Although in “Barnaby’s Luck”, that wasn’t as much of a consideration as my SF novels.

The original draft had interludes featuring a peripheral, but integral, character. Some of these, I was able to keep and expand to add depth to the antagonist. But there were other scenes which needed wholesale changes to keep Barnaby ‘in the loop’. I took small events from those scenes and inserted them into Barnaby’s experiences by bringing him near the events and some minimal ‘telling’ via subsequent dialog or their impact on subsequent happenings where he was front and center.

I replaced Barnaby’s external characterization via previously POV’d characters’ thoughts, with their outward reactions to Barnaby through their words and actions. Calling him out, threatening him, contradicting him, misinterpreting him, and other techniques. It worked well and then allowed me to delve deeper into his character by his acceptance, rejection or outright surprise at other’s opinions of him and his agenda.

It wasn’t easy, changing and occasionally deleting scenes entirely. My precious prose gone with the touch of a key. I survived and so did “Barnaby’s Luck”.

I have two more books to write to complete his trilogy. The second book is in draft stage and I have to say, it goes well, knowing my character better than I did before book one revisions allowed the second novel to proceed linearly and focused. The important stuff happens when Barnaby is present because he makes them happen, he pushes for better or worse. The book is definitely better.

Will I use this in my next SF novel? I will certainly consider it as an option. The choice will effect more than just how I tell the story, it can influence the story itself.