Editors these days will typically steer a writer to use “deep point-of-view,” or deep POV. It’s a writing device where the reader learns only what the current POV character sees, feels, or thinks — until the next scene, when the POV character may be someone else. If there are one or two POV characters, the […]
What’s wrong with writing from many points of view?
I know we’ve all read them, stories where the author is telling a story from the protagonist’s point of view. But in the next scene, the story moves into the mind a bystander to allow the reader to witness a disastrous event. Maybe this bystander gets wiped out. Next chapter, same thing. Protagonist is struggling […]
Five ways to rivet your readers with a first-rate first chapter
Some books draw the reader right in, like a host at an open doorway, and quickly become very hard to put down. Others, not so much. I analyzed two books I find riveting. (While both books had romance stories embedded, neither of these books is in the typical romance genre.) What did the openings of […]