How to Get Published

by Diane O’Connell

Q: There’s a raging controversy over point of view in my writing group. We’re taught to pick one and stick with it. But writers (big famous ones) are changing points of view all the time! What do  agents and editors think about this?

A: Your controversy on point of view (POV) is one I’ve heard often from many writers and in my online writing classes on POV. You are right in that it’s best to pick a POV — whether first person, third person singular or third person plural — and stick to it. However, you are also right that many bestselling authors seem to flaunt these rules all the time and get away with it. Michael Connelly and James Patterson are two that come immediately to mind. So, what gives?  I just read Patterson’s Run For Your Life, and it is all over the place with POV.

If you were to go back to these and other authors’ earlier works, when they were at the beginning of their writing careers, you’ll see that they don’t violate POV rules. In many instances, their earlier books are establishing characters that often end up as series characters, such as Connelly’s Harry Bosch. But after so many books, the authors need to keep things interesting, so they end up switching to the criminal’s POV, or in Patterson’s case, nearly everyone else’s POV, while keeping their main character in the first person POV, which is how they originally established that character.

Another thing is that these writers are so practiced and so good at what they do that they can make it work. In a less experienced hand, it would appear that the writer was just making it up as he went along. When Connelly does it, the reader trusts that he knows what he’s doing and is willing to go along for the ride.

There are ways of going from first person to third person POV or to have multiple first person POVs without violating the rules. For instance, your main character could come across a diary written by another character. You could then put the chapters from that character into first person (or even third person).

You could also have one character begin to tell his story to your POV character and then switch POVs to the story-telling character.

Those are just two ideas. Remember, the name of the game is to get your work published. You don’t want to do anything that will makes agents or publishers fear that you don’t have firm control over your writing. As long as you clearly establish that you know the rules — and you know how to break them — then you will be okay.

Diane O’Connell Literary Services
Diane O’Connell is an independent editor with over 25 years’ experience. Her specialty is to work with first-time authors.  For more out about her services and her online POV seminars, visit her website at www.docls.com.

Tags: break the rules, first person, point of view, pov, third person

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 2:00 am and is filed under Content, Writing skills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.