Just whose story is this, anyway?
Let's talk about POV.
Point of view. Perspective. Whose brain are you in when you first open a book? When you close that book? While you travel in the land the author has made for you?
Choosing the right POV used to be a struggle of mine as a writer. I never knew quite what to do, whose viewpoint to tell. Should I go all omniscient, and tell the story from inside everyone's head, and maybe confuse my readers with all the "head hopping" that happens when you shift POVs frequently? Should I stay rigidly inside the Heroine's head, so that my readers can identify with her as she takes her romantic journey? Should I move back and forth between the Hero's head and the Heroine's, telling the story from the perspective of the character who wants to talk the most at that point?
But I'll let you in on a couple of secrets. One of these secrets I learned at a writers workshop taught by a wonderful author, Laura Kalpakian. When I was reading snippets from my novel-in-progress during the class, I kept feeling tremendously distanced from my Heroine. And I didn't know why. Then Laura said something that was like getting a key to a door that had always been locked.
The story belongs to the character who changes the most.
In that novel, I was telling the wrong character's story. I needed to make a basic shift and scrap virtually everything I had so far, and change POVs. I needed a different Heroine, and when I found her, she made all the difference.
And the second secret is perhaps a romance reader's (and writer's) guilty pleasure: reading or telling the story from both POVs—Hero as well as Heroine. Once upon a time, romance novels were written strictly from the point of view of the Heroine, in the belief that female readers would most strongly identify with the Heroine and want to learn about love from her perspective. But once you've read a hundred of those stories (and believe me, I have!), you begin to want a different flavor of potato chip. You want to know what the Hero feels and thinks. I am particularly fond of romances where pivotal emotional exposition or love scenes are told from the POV of the Hero in addition to the Heroine. Let me inside his head and his heart. I don't require my Heroes to be so sensitive that they can cry, but give me an Alpha Male who has a soft spot for that certain woman, and I'll be a happy reader.
There's one last secret, I think. I hear all the time that a woman writer can't express how a man experiences romantic love. I really beg to differ. Why? Because we've been inundated with all kinds of background material, just crying to be used! What men feel isn't all that different from what women feel, honestly. Just spend a little time listening to the radio. Who writes and sings all those squishy love songs? Not women...men.
What about you, Dear Readers? Whose POV do you prefer when you read a romance? Come on over, pour a tall glass of something cool, put your feet up and let's chat.
Point of view. Perspective. Whose brain are you in when you first open a book? When you close that book? While you travel in the land the author has made for you?
Choosing the right POV used to be a struggle of mine as a writer. I never knew quite what to do, whose viewpoint to tell. Should I go all omniscient, and tell the story from inside everyone's head, and maybe confuse my readers with all the "head hopping" that happens when you shift POVs frequently? Should I stay rigidly inside the Heroine's head, so that my readers can identify with her as she takes her romantic journey? Should I move back and forth between the Hero's head and the Heroine's, telling the story from the perspective of the character who wants to talk the most at that point?
But I'll let you in on a couple of secrets. One of these secrets I learned at a writers workshop taught by a wonderful author, Laura Kalpakian. When I was reading snippets from my novel-in-progress during the class, I kept feeling tremendously distanced from my Heroine. And I didn't know why. Then Laura said something that was like getting a key to a door that had always been locked.
The story belongs to the character who changes the most.
In that novel, I was telling the wrong character's story. I needed to make a basic shift and scrap virtually everything I had so far, and change POVs. I needed a different Heroine, and when I found her, she made all the difference.
And the second secret is perhaps a romance reader's (and writer's) guilty pleasure: reading or telling the story from both POVs—Hero as well as Heroine. Once upon a time, romance novels were written strictly from the point of view of the Heroine, in the belief that female readers would most strongly identify with the Heroine and want to learn about love from her perspective. But once you've read a hundred of those stories (and believe me, I have!), you begin to want a different flavor of potato chip. You want to know what the Hero feels and thinks. I am particularly fond of romances where pivotal emotional exposition or love scenes are told from the POV of the Hero in addition to the Heroine. Let me inside his head and his heart. I don't require my Heroes to be so sensitive that they can cry, but give me an Alpha Male who has a soft spot for that certain woman, and I'll be a happy reader.
There's one last secret, I think. I hear all the time that a woman writer can't express how a man experiences romantic love. I really beg to differ. Why? Because we've been inundated with all kinds of background material, just crying to be used! What men feel isn't all that different from what women feel, honestly. Just spend a little time listening to the radio. Who writes and sings all those squishy love songs? Not women...men.
What about you, Dear Readers? Whose POV do you prefer when you read a romance? Come on over, pour a tall glass of something cool, put your feet up and let's chat.
posted by Nina Merrill at 10:49 PM
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