Writing Lessons, Part 1 -- POV
ManuscriptsI've been doing a lot of reading lately, trying to whittle down the pile of books on the cedar chest that never seems to quite want to be whittled down. Of late, the pile has been larger than usual, though I imagine that is mostly my fault--as per the last post, I've grown rather tired of reading trilogies and series piecemeal--having to reread all of the books again each time a new one comes out. So, for the time being, I have decided to simply let them pile up on the chest until the last book has finally been published, such that I can read the entire thing at once. Frankly, my reading list is too long to do otherwise. I don't have time to keep rereading books where there are so many crying out for my attention.
The one exception to this rule is books in a series that are still stand-alone books. Those can be read with little or no reference to previous books.
I picked up one of those finally at Christmas, hoping to enjoy it during the break. It was written by one of my favorite authors--the kind of author that motivates me by the sheer awesomeness of her writing to always have her newest upcoming book on pre-order months in advance. This author has the added distinction in my mind of also being an award-winning author. One of her books has just been made into a movie, and she publishes one to two new books each year. This one was the next stand-alone book in a series that I had been enjoying for some time. The first book in the series, in fact, is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, the latest book became an illustration of a point that I have read several times in books about writing or heard at conferences and workshops.
The point of view character should always be the person in the scene with the highest stakes in the outcome of that scene.
Now there are, like all other writing rules put forth by major authors who would never like to read another book that doesn't live up to their own personal set of preferences, exceptions to this rule. Murder Mysteries would not be very mysterious if the POV character was the person with the highest stakes--this usually being the person who committed the crime. Many books are written with only one POV character, who is, on occasion, not the only character in an involved and complicated story with high stakes and therefore will occasionally be briefly witness to events where other characters have a greater stake in the outcome. Still, the reason for this rule that needs to be understood in order for you to break is successfully (letter vs. spirit of the law, so to speak) is that it is hard for the reader to retain interest in a story when they are not as intimately involved. Being in the head of a person who is less interested in the outcome creates emotional distance.
This is why gimmicky retellings of famous books sometimes fall flat. This is also why some sequels--told from another point of view--just don't work. Readers want to be in the heads of favorite characters, watching with them and emotionally reacting with them as events unfold.
Which brings me back to the book I read over Christmas. It was the fourth in the series. Each of the previous books was a stand-alone story. Each of the two previous sequels used some of the main characters from the other books. Their involvement, though, was somewhat limited.
The fourth book started out being exclusively about the POV character, and it was a compelling introduction. The author is, in my mind, one of the best authors publishing stories today about teens and young adults--she can really, really get in their heads. By a few pages in, I was hooked. I cared. I worried. I wanted to know more. Then the character moved on to The Big Adventure, and that was when the problems started. The POV character was introduced to some of the other characters from the other books and then they hit the road.
The main problem that I had with the story was that the stakes in The Big Adventure were highest for the non-POV characters. Other people reading the same story may disagree but the stakes the way I saw them were teen-angsty stuff vs. dead loved ones, possibly dead fiancee, seriously injured husband, kidnapped son (a toddler), etc. The POV character's stakes were coming-of-age issues--who am I? Where do I fit in? How can I use my talents to help out here? What if everyone out there knows that I am sometimes tempted to do bad things? Will they still like me? The other characters had literally life and death dilemmas involving the people closest to them. The POV character mostly tagged along and was witness to the events centered around the others. At one point toward the end, the POV character finally had equal stakes involving her brother, but it was but for a moment, which almost felt like a tease when it was over.
The problem with this as a reader is that for 2/3 of the book, I felt distant, barely involved emotionally. I struggled to care. I knew that I should care--but it had been years since I had read the books about the other characters from their POV, so I had to rely on this new POV character. However, she couldn't care as much as I needed her to because she was a stranger to the others. She cared the way you would about anyone you were beginning to be friends with, but not more. And because she couldn't, I couldn't.
Lesson Learned: Don't ever write a story entirely from the POV of what would normally be a secondary character. If you want to write a story from the POV of a new character, give him or her equal if not greater stakes than the other characters, at least most of the time. As much as those coming-of-age things seem like the biggest deal in the universe when you are going through them, kidnappings, murders, attempted and threatened murders of loved ones of other characters are obviously more important. If those things are in your story, we need to see those bits from the POV of the character to whom those things are happening. Seriously.
Have you ever read a story where you felt emotionally distant from the major events of the story? How would you have re-written that story if you had the chance to?