Deep Point of View (POV) is a writing technique, a style choice, that’s become very popular among writers over the last five or ten years. The goal of Deep POV is to create an immersive experience for the reader where they’re experiencing the story along with the POV character(s). It’s like strapping a GoPro to your character or giving your reader a virtual reality headset while they’re reading. Deep POV is often THAT immersive.
Deep POV is a stylistic choice and it doesn’t suit every story. However, I have heard some scoff at this technique or point a stiff literary finger saying they won’t write in Deep POV because they don’t need to get all emotional for readers to connect with their characters or express fears that their word count will bloat.
I’ve written about why I love Deep POV here and here and here. I think it’s time to address some of these misunderstandings.
There Is No Telling In Deep POV – False!
The power of Deep POV is in removing as much psychic distance between the reader and the POV character as possible. One way this is achieved by removing the author voice summarizing, explaining and justifying.
The truth is that sometimes it best serves the story to summarize. A character simply walks to the door, drives to work, or flies across the world. I don’t know any author who writes in Deep POV who doesn’t use telling and the author voice from time to time simply to move the story ahead.
Further, telling or using a more distant POV strategically for effect is a great tool. Pulling back into a more distant POV can create a feeling of time flying past, emotional or mental disconnect from what’s going on, an out of body emotional trauma, etc. Where writers using a distant POV will switch to a limited or close POV to pull a reader in emotionally, pulling back when the norm is a very limited POV can have a reader leaning in as well.
Deep POV Is Just A Bunch Of Navel Gazing – False!
Navel gazing is when a character spends so much time on lengthy or unimportant self-reflection and internal dialogue that the pace is slowed to a snail’s crawl. Whether you’re writing in Deep POV or not, navel gazing will have readers reaching for a book mark. Deep POV often does rely heavily on internal dialogue, but navel gazing is just lazy. It’s the workaround for doing the hard work of actually providing the evidence or proof to the reader of how a character feels. Often, the navel gazing is the workaround to avoid author intrusion but the effect is the same.
Deep POV Will Bloat The Word Count
Deep POV WILL increase your word count generally. When you add up all the raw information you replace the telling, summary, and dialogue tags, you’re going to use more words. That’s why it’s very important to be economical and efficient with your words. Every word needs to move the story forward and when possible perform more than one role. This is where subtext, connotation and other literary devices are useful (pathetic fallacy, personification, onomatopoeia, metaphors, similes, alliteration, sibilance, and others) can help cut the bloat.
Distant POV: Jason watched the woman walk into the bar, her heels clicking on the hard linoleum. The lanky blond-from-a-box strode across the room towards the bar. Little early in the day for that much cleavage, he thought. He tipped his beer to his lips. But who was he to judge. (49 words)
Deep POV: Feminine heels clicked on the hard linoleum behind him. Jason swiveled in his seat. The lanky blond-from-a-box strode across the room towards the bar. Little early in the day for that much cleavage. He tipped his beer to his lips. But who was he to judge. (46 words)
This example removes the telling, the author voice, and the thought tags, and comes in slightly under the original word count. The differences between Deep POV and a more distant POV can be subtle, but the second example puts the reader in the story with the character rather than placed in the role of observer.
Have you found Deep POV ties an anchor to the pace of your novel?
Been told you should learn Deep Point Of View? Had an editor or critique partner tell you to “go deeper” with the emotions in your fiction? Looking for a community of writers seeking to create emotional connections with readers? Join the Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction Facebook group.
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