The other day I was the guest in a Q&A session sponsored by the Melbourne City of Literature and Writers Victoria. The topic was self editing - to be clearer, how do you learn how to edit your own work? I put my hand up to do this session because I have now been working as an editor for two years, after doing it part-time while teaching writing and editing for many years. So I have seen many manuscripts of all shapes and sizes over that time.
From this session came many questions from the audience, including:
- What are the most common issues you see in manuscripts?
- How do you approach editing your own novel? Where do you start?
- What does a professional editor do for you?
- Is it better to focus on having some beta readers?
I will answer these questions more in future posts, but one of the issues I discussed was that of point of view - how much writers struggle with it and how often they aren't aware of what is going wrong.
Mostly what I see is distance. You might assume that writing in first person makes everything immediate and "real", but point of view is more than just using I or he/she. It's about engaging the reader by helping them to feel like they are right inside that character, being part of their experience.
Of course, not every novelist wants to do this. It depends on the novel. But like most readers, I do want to care about what happens to this person, understand where they're coming from, what is pushing them through the story towards "something", even if they aren't entirely sure themselves what that is. All the same, the reader needs to know and to want them to achieve it.
Someone once said to me, "Every character wants to be happy. But every character has a different belief of what will make them happy." Therein lies the story.
There are a number of things you need to have on the page so your character comes alive and the reader can't help but follow them through the story. "Un-put-downable" is what we hope for! One of those things is their thoughts. If we don't know what they are thinking, how can we understand what makes them do what they do? How they feel about it? What their response is? I wonder if some writers shy away from thoughts because they seem too obvious.
If you are using deep point of view well, thoughts will be direct and won't even need "she thought" or "she wondered". So rather than:
I hate the way he laughs and spits all over the table, she thought.
We can go further into her mood and feelings and reactions with a direct thought, using her own voice.
God, he's gross. Who laughs and spits all over the table at the same time? I want to shove a serviette in his horrible mouth.
Direct thoughts can provide an extra layer of voice - a character uses one voice to speak to others, and another (their own revealing voice) in their heads. Direct thoughts also help to disguise the writer's voice which can sometimes be too intrusive and sound nothing like the character, using words their character never would. (And you don't need italics for direct thoughts either - I have done this here for clarity, but I only use italics if I want to emphasise.)
We are told to "show" emotions, not tell them, and again, deep point of view makes this easier. You can get inside the character's physical sensations more easily, again in their own voice. Rather than:
John felt the anger rise up inside him like a red wave.
You can try something like this:
John's skin burned and then the rage erupted, rising out of his guts like hot, fast lava, scorching his throat on its way out.
Your character John might describe that feeling of rage differently - he's your character. If you know him deeply enough, then it becomes easier to imagine how it would feel to him.
Deep point of view also is about knee jerk reactions, or slow burning reactions, impulsive words, impulsive actions. Who is your character when they lose control? Who are they when they plan and carry out devastating deeds? Where does that come from? Why?
Answer those questions and you are on your way to deepening your point of view.
Photo by Ryan Franco on Unsplash
