Common Pitfalls and How to Fix Them
Hello, writer friends, I hope you’ve all had a great holiday and are back at the craft, learning and writing. Before we took some time off, I was writing a lot about point of view (POV). I want to wrap that up with this post, which can serve as a final checklist to ensure that you’ve got this topic down. So feel free to go back and look at your work in progress (WIP) and compare it against this list. It might not be all-inclusive, but it’s a really good start.
- Avoid Head Hopping. Stick to one POV per scene and use clear scene/chapter breaks when switching.
- Balance Deep POV with Narrative Flow. Mix internal dialogue with action and external sensory details to keep the story moving.
- Avoid Overusing Filtering Words. Cut these words and describe the experience directly. A list of filtering words:
-
- Saw
- Heard
- Felt
- Noticed
- Observed
- Thought
- Knew
- Realized
- Wondered
- Considered
- Experienced
- Looked
- Watched
- Maintain POV Consistency. Ensure all descriptions and thoughts come only from what the POV character knows and perceives.
- Deep POV vs. Overwriting. Save deep emotional immersion for key moments and allow for lighter, more natural narrative flow elsewhere.
- Let Characters Experience Events Naturally. Let the character process events naturally, just as a real person would. If something is shocking or overwhelming, they might not register all details immediately.
- Be Careful Not to Overexplain Internal Thoughts. Trust the reader to infer emotions from the context, dialogue, and sensory details.
- Be Careful with Dialogue Tags. Avoid weak dialogue tags like “she exclaimed” or redundant tags that tell instead of show. Instead, use action beats or let the dialogue itself convey the emotion.
- Ensure Appropriate Emotional and Narrative Pacing. Balance moments of deep introspection with action, movement, or lighter scenes.
- Differentiate Characters’ Unique Voices in Deep POV. Ensure each character has a distinct voice, influenced by their background, personality, and experiences.
Challenge:
- Pick a scene from your work-in-progress.
- Apply the checklist and see if it helps you spot POV errors.
Beginnings and Endings of Novels With Angela Hunt
There are times a POV
is far too deep to show,
and all the outside world should see
is ‘easy come and easy go’
because the inner man is shocked
right to the elemental core
when events have just unlocked
hell’s iron furnace door.
Tread carefully with gentle grace
and please, please never pry,
and pray that you will never face
the same; just let it lie,
for however much you love and care,
there are things only God can repair.
***
One of the most bogus themes I have seen is ‘love curing combat trauma through cathartic relating’ (let’s cry together and healing can begin!).
It just doesn’t work in very many cases; it can make things far worse, especially when accompanied by an expectation of resolution and renewed wholeness. See Jonathan Shay’s ‘Achilles In Vietnam’ and ‘Odysseus In America’ for compelling analyses.
Tolkien has it exactly right with Frodo’s observation, “How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand… there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep, that have taken hold.”
If I may add a PS, Peter Jackson got it exactly right in ‘The Return Of The King’ by using the quote above, and not trying to ‘show’ the change in Frodo beyond an eerie quietness and an enigmatic smile.
Too, I might suggest consigning the acronym PTSD to the darkest oblivion, for it’s been co-opted by those who, for example, are disappointed that their favoured candidate lost an election. I mean, colleges and corporations setting up cry rooms stocked with milk and cookies and teddy bears?
I’m printing this off to use as a check list from now on! Thanks! Where’s the laminater?
Same thing. When it’s good, we have to save.
I printed it, too.