Deep POV is a popular stylistic writing technique that aims to remove the narrative/psychic distance between readers and the POV character. Deep POV’s goal is to immerse the reader in a real-time, lived-experience of the character’s emotional journey. The reader experiences the story as the character lives it out giving the reader has a front-row seat in the character’s brain. Obviously, I’m a big fan of deep POV, but realistically it’s not the best choice for EVERY story, nor is it a style choice that every writer needs to adopt. So, what is deep POV really good at, and where might this style of writing not serve story? Let’s dig deeper!

Genres Best-Suited To Using Deep POV For The Whole Book

Some genres are better suited to using deep POV exclusively, throughout the whole book. Not every writer chooses to write only in deep POV, and those points are next, but let’s look at the genres best suited to exclusively using deep POV.

Romance genres, literary genres, fantasy and fantasy sub-genres, YA, NA, all come to mind. Thrillers are often well-served by deep POV, horror maybe less-so, but it depends on the story. Basically, plots that focus on the character’s internal journey make the best use of deep POV’s focus on the character’s emotional journey.

If you’re looking for an emotional gut punch (happy, fearful, or sad), deep POV creates powerful emotional connections with readers. Stories that spend a lot of time, or focus, on internal conflict and/or emotional growth will be well-served by the built-in self awareness and introspection deep POV does really well.

For those suspense and mystery writers who may say you can’t use deep POV exclusively — I disagree. It’s more challenging to write those genres using deep POV because deep POV doesn’t allow for keeping secrets from the reader (that are known to the POV character). If keeping secrets from readers is a plot device you’re married to, using deep POV exclusively isn’t a great fit. Readers WILL feel cheated by this. However, a suspense or mystery where the POV character discovers and learns information and is surprised along with the reader could use deep POV to great effect.

I am personally a big fan of the Nordic Noir genre even though I find the secret-keeping hugely annoying lol Someone point me to a great Nordic Noir story that uses deep POV – PLEASE!! (maybe I just need to write one :D)

Where To Use Deep Point Inside Other POV Styles

There are still plenty of writers using first person and limited third person POV who make great use of the emotional gut punch offered by deep POV on a scene-by-scene basis.

Pulling Readers Into High Emotion: What’s the emotional high-point of the scene you’re working on? Do you know what emotion you want the reader to understand the character is experiencing (or even better what blend of emotions)? Deep POV used strategically can really pull the reader in close for a moment or a chapter inside a story written in first person or limited third person to really give an emotional gut punch. *Avoid the pitfall of trying to evoke a particular emotion in the reader.*

Mirror Moments: James Scott Bell’s book Writing From The Middle talks about mirror moments, the exact middle of a story where a character takes stock of who they are, what they want, what they’ve lost/sacrificed, and what has to change in order for them to achieve their story goal. These moments of introspection and high emotion where the character is focused on how they FEEL are well served by deep POV.

Surprising Readers: If you’ve read anything by Donald Maass, he spends a lot of time talking about the importance of surprising readers, especially with emotions. Deep POV really does well at internal conflict, that push-pull of more than one emotion, which also is great for building in reader surprise. It’s very common in real life to find our emotions pull us in more than one direction. Going out with friends is great, but knowing your ex will likely be there creates internal conflict (more than one emotion wants to be a primary concern). This push-pull of conflicting emotions is where you can dig deep for the emotions in the POV character and create surprise.

Deep POV slows the story with the introspection and description, so works really well to create suspense or anticipation for readers.

I love this scene from Guilty Pleasures by Laurel Hamilton. Anita (a necromancer) finds herself at a vampire strip club, but her goal for the evening (this scene) was not to be swayed (entranced, hypnotized, etc) by a vampire, which she admits to herself won’t be easy to do. And yet, she’s momentarily swayed even with her guard up just for a split second. Look at Anita’s momentary reaction “…it felt good.” The dip into deep POV here from the first person narrative pulls readers in, just as Anita was pulled in. For just a moment, she’s just as vulnerable as everyone else in the room despite her prior knowledge, preparation, and vigilance.

“Jean-Claude was suddenly beside me, and I hadn’t seen him come. “Are you all right, Anita?”

His voice held things that the words didn’t even hint at. Promises whispered in darkened rooms, under cool sheets. He sucked me under, rolled my mind like a wino after money, and it felt good. Crash–Shrill–Noise thundered through my mind, chased the vampire out, held him at bay.

My beeper had gone off. I blinked and staggered against the table.”

Guilty Pleasures, Laurell K. Hamilton

Playing With Time and Out Of Body Moments: Deep POV is really useful for creating the effect of time slowing or speeding past. Those moments where an hour has gone by unnoticed, or the watched-pot-never-boils feeling. Going deep can provide an opportunity for reflection in an inbetween moment in the plot, or show strong emotion that’s overwhelming or someone in denial.

Deep POV is also effective when you’re trying to show coping mechanisms, like the mom who deep cleans the oven at 10pm because her husband is “working late” again. Her deep clean is a distraction from where her mind wants to dwell. What if no matter how hard she scrubs, her mind won’t stop circling the obvious suspicions? What if she starts crying and tries to deny how she feels by simply scrubbing harder? Lots to play with here and deep POV works really well for this.

What Deep POV Is Not Well-Suited For…

Deep POV does have its weaknesses. The level of showing in the storytelling requires the reader to do work and lean into the story because the writer doesn’t do the thinking for them (through/by telling). Not everyone wants to write that type of story, nor is every genre best served by this stylistic choice.

High Action Stories: Deep POV has the tendency to slow the pace of a story and so for stories that are more action than introspection, deep POV slows things too much. It’s isn’t that you can’t write a fast-paced story using deep POV, it’s that stories that use a lot of high-action sequences (car-chase type fast-paced) where things have to happen boom boom boom without pause, deep POV will work against that effect. In stories like this, deep POV is often best used on a sentence by sentence level, not even on a scene level. Just that quick but deep gut-check before the character has to launch into action again works well.

Static Characters And/Or External Obstacles: Stories that make use of static characters, or characters who are not self-reflective much at all, deep POV doesn’t work well for. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels, for instance, don’t use deep POV at all (or much at all). I have never asked Lee Child why, (and I’ve only read three so far) but my guess is that Reacher isn’t super in touch with his emotions. His story goals involve more external obstacles, rather than internal conflict. He generally has all the skills/emotional tools he needs to achieve the story goal, so that’s not where the character arc happens.

Westerns, Nordic Noir, Procedurals: These genres usually don’t use deep POV because, IMHO, those characters don’t seem to prioritize emotional health or emotions in general. They’re far more likely to drown troubling emotions in alcohol or bar fights (I’m sure there are exceptions). Troubled protagonists who use isolation, addiction, or other problematic coping mechanisms to deny or suppress emotions they don’t know what to do with, tend to avoid self-reflection or allowing emotions to rule them with bare exceptions for mirror moments. Not to say those genres couldn’t use deep POV, but in general they don’t seem to.

Kids Lit and MG: Stories for younger readers aren’t served well by deep POV generally because those readers aren’t experienced enough to intuitively understand the stories through subtext (showing). These stories in general rely on telling quite a bit, so deep POV isn’t usually a great fit. I’ve had students learning deep POV who write MG, so it can work, but there’s a lot of bending of the rules.

Historicals: Fantasy and historicals often cheat deep POV here and there because they’re forced to define, explain or describe foreign terms. But beyond that, historicals in general don’t tend to use deep POV except for select moments. Partly because those readers are seeking the additional sweeping descriptions and explanations of things the character wouldn’t need to remind themselves of which is a big aspect of deep POV.

Historicals that fall under a romance sub-genre or a fantasy sub-genre are a bit different because the romance (internal feelings) or quest (internal conflict) aspects are the priority rather than the straight history.

Is Deep POV A Good Fit For Your Story?

Are you trying to decide if deep POV would serve your story well? My first bit of advice is to go look at the bestsellers in your genre. Are they using deep POV throughout the whole novel, saving it for key moments, are not at all? Some genres have an expectation of deep POV, and other genres are more flexible and let you choose.

Do you read stories written entirely in deep POV? Deep POV is commonly used by many writers, even if just for key moments, so are you able to recognize the change in the stories you read?

Many blogs repeat the same four to six points on writing in deep POV, so you read those and think – heh, that doesn’t look too hard. But your efforts continually fall short with beta readers, critique partners and editors. They say ‘go deeper’ and you scratch your head – but you DID go deeper. Let’s dive into the most common reasons deep POV isn’t working for newer writers and look at some solutions.

**This post got super long, so I’ve split it into parts.**

Point Of View Problems

You need a clear understanding of point of view for deep POV to work. This is not a beginner-friendly style to write in, so *deep breath* don’t give up.

Third person POV is a story from the he/she, they/them perspective. There are different ways to use third person POV. First person POV is the I, me, we, us perspective and there are different ways to use first person POV. Neither first person nor third person (or any version of either) is deep POV. You can learn more about first person POV here, and learn more about third person POV here.

• ·       First Person POV heavily leans on the narrator/author voice when telling a story from a single character’s perspective. The POV narrator/character may or may not be the protagonist (so they may or may not be privy to the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings), the narrator could also be omniscient and outside the story itself.

• ·       Limited Third Person POV uses the author voice (no narrators) to tell a story about a single character at a time. The author is only privy to the thoughts and emotions of a single character at a time, and that character may express thoughts directly to the reader (often differentiated from the author voice with italics).

• ·       Deep POV isn’t strictly a point of view issue, the name is a little confusing. It’s an additional layer of point of view applied to either first person or third person POV. In deep POV there’s no author/narrator voice.

Let’s look at some examples:

First Person POV: I stretched out my legs under the table as Sally peeled the label off the empty wine bottle. She would never look at me when there was tension between us. From down the street, Macy’s apartment building loomed over the café. The words froze in my gut. How did I tell Sally I didn’t love her anymore?

Limited Third Person POV: Sally peeled the label off the empty wine bottle. She wouldn’t even look at him. George tucked his feet under his chair and drummed his fingers on the table, frustration making him twitchy. He stared off down the street at the apartment building where Macy lived, his gut twisting with the words he couldn’t quite get out. He didn’t love Sally anymore.

Deep POV: Sally sat, shoulders rounded like a turtle in its shell, peeling the label on the empty wine bottle. George tucked his heels under his chair and let his gaze wander down the street to Macy’s building. The modern glass structure loomed over the frozen-in-time café Sally preferred. He sucked in a deep breath, his gut clenching, his throat tight. “Sally, I don’t love you anymore.” The words erupted out.

The elimination of the author/narrator voice in deep POV requires you to give the reader two plus two and let them add it up to four. This means your description and observation skills must be on point, otherwise the reader won’t ‘get it’ and feel lost.  

Head Hopping Problems

Adjacent to the issue with understanding how POV works, there are often head hopping issues. While there are first person and third person styles that use the omniscient viewpoint, it’s not all that common in popular fiction (sorry to all the diehard fans of Austen, Dickens, and Tolkien).

In contemporary popular fiction, the reader is only privy to what the POV character knows, intuits, learns, etc.

POV Violation: Cassandra kept her claws rounded and painted, her antennae erect and shiny. The green-skinned passersby approved of her with a nod and then dismissed the messy Steve who followed her.

Cassandra can’t know what others think of her or anyone else. This is an example of the author telling the reader the answer is four, instead of just giving the reader two plus two and letting them lean in and figure it out.

Deep POV: Cassandra examined the precisely-filed ends of her claws. A green-skinned man approached her, and his eyes widened and his antennae arched away from her. She checked her antennae, but they were perfect. She spun. Steve slumped along behind her, his left antennae bent and limp. Sickly splotches of purple marred his green skin.

See the difference?

No Emotions Are Added

One of the most prevalent pieces of advice I’ve seen about deep POV is to remove emotion words. This relates back directly to give the reader two plus two, don’t tell them the answer is four. Newer writers learn to remove the emotion words, but don’t know how to add that emotion back in via showing and not using the author/narrator voice.

Sally anxiously waved at Mark from across the room.

Anxiously is an emotion word, so we know that’s the author voice creeping in.

Sally waved at Mark from across the room, wanting him to respond.

This is a common fix, but ‘wanting’ is still the author voice creeping in. It’s insidious, it’ll sneak in everywhere you’re unsure of what to say.

Sally rose up on her toes, heat crept into her cheeks. He finally looked at her and she lifted her hand to wave. What if he’s not looking at her? She sank back onto her heels and hid her hand behind her back, cutting the wave short.

With this last example, I’ve given the reader two plus two. Hopefully, reading that, you can figure out that she’s anxious, but in addition to that, when deep POV is done well, the WHY behind the emotion is shared as well. Why is Sally anxious? Because she doesn’t know if Mark even sees her.

Stay tuned for part two next week. What’s your biggest struggle with deep POV?

I LOVE deep POV, but there’s a lot of confusion about what it is and what it isn’t, how it works, what genre or tense you must use – lots of questions and a lot of confusion. I wanted to put together a list of things many people don’t realize before doing a two-footed jump in the deep end of deep POV.

Very Few Novels Are Written ENTIRELY In Deep POV

I’m often asked for recommendations for novels written entirely in deep POV, and I struggle to find many. Not many bestsellers use deep POV exclusively. And there’s a reason for that. Deep POV is intense, it can bog down the pace, and not every scene or character is suited to using deep POV. This is a stylistic technique you keep in your writer’s toolbox. Some writers try to stick close to deep POV most of the time, some use it only for key emotional moments. There’s no rules (though, I believe romance generally trends towards using deep POV most of the time).

The key is to know how each scene moves the story ahead, what work each scene needs to do in telling the larger story, and be strategic with the tools you use to create specific effects. That said, I have a list on this blog post if you’re looking for examples.

I’m sharing these titles with the caveat that EVERY novel MUST use telling in places, and in genres where there’s a lot of storyworld building such as fantasy or historicals, the tolerance for it is higher than in some other genres like contemporary romance.

Deep POV Is A Hard Technique To Learn (If You Haven’t Read A Lot In This Style)

Deep POV is not intuitive if you’ve spent a lot of time reading other point of view styles. Many accepted stylistic choices in other point of view styles undermine the immersive effect deep POV aims to create for readers. Those new to learning deep POV often say there’s a steep learning curve because you have to think differently about how you tell the story, the details you choose to focus on, how those details and thoughts are shared.

Emotional Depth Is What Makes Deep POV Powerful

The power of deep POV is in the depth and exploration of the character’s emotional journey. That emotional journey is what readers find so compelling. Stories that utilize a lot of action, that use characters who aren’t prone to self-reflection or thinking, may not be well-suited to being written entirely in deep POV. Deep POV used for key emotional points in stories like these, when used effectively and strategically, are very powerful for inciting incidents, mirror moments, black moments, etc.

There’s More To Deep POV Than The Same 4 Rules

There’s so much MORE to deep POV than most blog posts tell you there is. If you don’t have a goal of writing entirely in deep POV, it’s easy to give a summary explanation of remove dialogue tags, show don’t tell, remove emotion words, remove filter words – and believe that’s all there is to it.

Deep POV is actually very complex and requires a fair amount of strategy to use well. Yes, these four aspects are the most-talked about, but if you don’t learn to recognize the author/narrator voice, get curious about emotional depth, learn to use subtext, learn to use telling strategically, deep POV will be endlessly frustrating and will fall flat with readers and editors.

Deep POV Is Often Added In The Rewrites

I’m often asked how long it took me to learn deep POV. I’m still learning and I’ve been writing deep POV exclusively for more than ten years. What I have found is that deep POV is best edited for, rather than attempted on a first draft. You can learn all the “rules” of deep POV and put out a first draft that immerses readers in the story, but getting curious about and creating reader surprise in the character’s emotional journey in each scene is hard heart work and I reserve an entire read-through JUST for deep POV.

Now, I mean the emotional aspect of deep POV. Learning the red flag words to avoid, removing telling and the author voice, etc. Those are all aspects that you can achieve on a first draft with a lot of practise. But that emotional work, depending on your own writing preferences, may be done on a second draft (planners), it may be a tenth draft (pantsers), but it’s work best saved for after you’ve gotten the plot and pace settled first.

Deep POV Is Not Limited Third, Is Not First Person

Many many people do not understand what deep POV really is. First person is not automatically deep POV. First person allows for author/narrator narration, summary, explanation, conclusions, etc. that would be considered telling in deep POV.

Limited third, close third – this is not deep POV. Let’s just do a quick recap of POV styles:

Omniscient POV – (either first person or third person) the author/narrator tells a story about a character or a group of characters. The narrator/author is not a part of the story, but knows everything about how the characters feel, and what happens next. Ex. Lord Of The Rings, Of Mice And Men, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

Objective Third Person POV – the author tells the story objectively, without adding emotions, motivations, or thoughts from the character Ex. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Limited Third Person POV – the author tells a story about ONE character at a time (this is the ‘limited’ part of this POV style), and may share some of the character’s thoughts directly with the reader (often using italics to set the character’s thoughts apart from the narrator/writer voice).

Deep POV – The character lives out the story in real time, immersing the reader in their emotional journey. There is NO author/narrator voice. Every word on the page comes from within the POV character. Every. Word.

Many take my class believing they’re writing limited third person, but are actually writing in objective third person. Their learning curve is even greater because not only do they have to shift how they tell the story to eliminate the author voice, they also must learn how to write emotions and thoughts that come from within the POV character.

Deep POV Works For Almost Every Genre

Deep POV requires enough reader maturity and insight to understand body language, social cues, subtext, etc. So, it’s not well-suited to MG or Children’s Lit.

There are some genres that are well suited to deep POV, romance genres for instance, where the character’s internal life is a focus of the story. Some writers think you can’t use deep POV for genres like mystery or suspense or cozies, because the POV character can’t keep secrets from the reader, but that’s just not true. You can’t keep secrets, but that’s not the only way to write those stories, nor does not keeping secrets remove or undercut the potential for tension.

Deep POV Limits Where The Reader Can Get Information From

With deep POV, the reader knows everything the POV character knows, thinks, feels, wants, sees, intuits, learns. The reader should know the character’s preferences, prejudices, past experience, expertise, etc (without using telling or info dumps). But that’s ALL the reader knows.

Learning to recognize POV breaks in deep POV is another challenge that many blogs don’t mention. If your character wouldn’t know x or be aware of y, then they can’t share that info with the reader. The POV character can guess what another thinks, feels, wants, or knows, but they don’t KNOW unless the other character tells them.

The POV character can’t know what the weather is like outside if they don’t check a weather forecast or they somehow interact with the outside world, and they need a reason to think about the weather. As a Canadian, I generally don’t give much thought to the fact that it will be cold or snowing outside in January. It’s a given. What makes me think about the weather is keeping track of incoming storms, force me to drive somewhere in it, have to bundle up for a walk, then I think about the weather.

The POV character can’t know something, actively think of it, but not share that with the reader. There can be things from the character’s past they don’t think about actively on a weekly, daily, or moment-to-moment basis. But if something happens that triggers emotions from the past, the use of subtext should at least hint at what’s happened. Keeping secrets from the reader without a POV break is really hard.

Show Don’t Tell Is Taken To A Whole New Level With Deep POV

Many blogs will tell you to remove emotion words, to avoid writing: he is sad, she is anxious, he waved anxiously, she clapped with enthusiasm… That’s just the beginning. Remember, the goal is to immerse the reader in the story so the feeling that they’re being TOLD a story is removed and they’re instead vicariously living out this journey alongside the POV character – a fly on the wall inside their heads.

In deep POV, “telling” includes author intrusion, POV breaks, narrative or psychic distance, and the above emotion and thinking words. Those that love flowery descriptions and objectively listing all the items in a room will find their wings clipped in deep POV unless these are details the character would notice or think about. Even word choice is character dependent. A mechanic might label the parts of an engine, a fashionista might identify individual designers, a gardening enthusiast will know a pothos from a philodendron – but most people will not. It’s a car, it’s an engine, it’s a dress or a pair of shoes, it’s a plant… Deep POV really puts the character’s internal world at front and centre.

Deep POV Is A Stylistic Choice, It’s Not About Voice Or Genre

Writing an entire novel only in deep POV is better suited to some genres than others, this is true – but it is possible (and would be compelling) to write a thriller, or a mystery, or a historical in this style. It requires a shift in how you tell the story.

Deep POV does not affect what kind of story you tell – your author voice. Your author voice is about what kind of story you tell, and how you tell it. Deep POV does not require steamy sex scenes or graphic violence, it requires emotional depth. Are you willing to “go there” with your characters? Are you willing to get really curious about what emotions are present, and all the complexities of the emotions felt but not expressed? You must learn to ask yourself what ELSE is going on internally with this character. What do they wish they could do – and why don’t they do that? What do they want, but can’t express or allow space for?

Identifying The Narrator/Writer Voice In Deep POV Is Difficult

This is an aspect of deep POV that seems to hit people unexpectedly. Identifying the narrator/writer voice, learning its function, is the second biggest obstacle for new writers learning to write in deep POV. Intermediate and advanced writers already know what the author/narrator voice is, what function it serves, so learning to write without it is much easier (though I still wouldn’t say it’s intuitive unless you’ve read a lot in this style).

Writing emotions in deep POV without using the narrator/author voice to summarize, explain, justify, conclude, is a learning curve.

You Learn Deep POV Best By Doing It

Deep POV is not intuitive, and depending on your prior skill level can come with a very steep learning curve. This technique is best learned by writing it and getting prompt feedback. There’s a lot to take in. Having a community to help you learn is really really helpful.

Otherwise, you end up learning like I did – slowly, painfully, frustratingly…

I would go to a conference and have an agent or editor meeting, and they’d point out one phrase, or something like removing dialogue tags – as not being in deep POV. I’d think I’ve got it. I might read a few blog posts that pointed out a couple of other things, and I would go the next conference only to be told, you need to remove this to be in deep POV. Over and over that happened. When you only get one cog in the mechanism at a time, nothing works and the learning is super slow.

Not all editors/beta readers understand deep POV

I’ve had many students complain to me that their editor or beta reader flagged this or that aspect of deep POV as wrong. Deep POV is a specific technique that throws out a lot of accepted things, and incorporates other things other POV styles avoid.

Be aware of this when getting feedback. When employing an editor, ask them if they know and understand deep POV, ask for a sample edit and see what they do with the deep POV aspect of your writing.

Deep POV Is Not A Beginner’s Technique

If you’re just beginning to learn writing, deep POV will present a massive learning curve. I like to say deep POV is the cosmetic final layer to building a house. I watch a lot of historical building reno shows from the UK. They take a derelict historical building, and the first thing they must do is make it water-tight and structurally sound. No one is picking curtain fabric or bathroom fixtures until all that work is done.

It won’t matter how pretty the curtains are if the walls won’t stand up. If you are a beginning writer, just know that there’s a steep learning curve ahead of you to learn this technique AND plot, structure, characterization, tension, pace, emotional arc, etc.

Deep POV, without all the foundational aspects of writing fiction in place, is going to shine a giant spotlight on where things are weak. The caveat to all this is if you’ve spent a lot of time reading deep POV and that’s the style that comes to you intuitively.

Deep POV Can Be Past Or Present Tense

Tense is really the wrong question when it comes to deep POV. The goal is to write immersively, and in real time. Can you do that in past tense? Yes. Can you do that in present tense? Yes. Most of us find one or the other usually comes to us more naturally than the other, so go with your preference. Sometimes, genre can dictate tense as well. Deep POV works equally well with either style.

Deep POV Really Brings Your Character’s Voice To The Forefront

Deep POV, because every word on the page comes from within the POV character, that character’s voice: their worldview, prejudices, motivations, past experiences, priorities – all of it is expressed in word choice, in what they focus on or ignore, what’s normal to them, what they pursue, what they give up on, what they suppress, what they express…

This is part of how deep POV creates that immersive effect for readers. But it means you have to set aside how YOU would describe something. You have to cut descriptions of things the character wouldn’t notice, or use words your character wouldn’t use. It’s like handing the reader virtual reality goggles for your character – you, the writer, don’t have a voice.

Writing Emotions Is Hardest Part Of Learning Deep POV

Removing the author/narrator voice can be super challenging. Learning to remove all the telling (emotion words, thinking words, sense words) for instance, can be a huge obstacle and leave writers floundering. Writers mistakenly think this is the hardest part about learning deep POV. It’s not.

Once you’ve learned to remove all these words, phrases, storytelling devices to create this immersive in-real-time effect, you must now add the emotion back in without using those telling techniques. Learning where, and how, and when to add emotional complexity and depth is the black belt level of deep POV and where the real magic happens.

Two to four times a year, I run a deep POV masterclass online. Two units of this masterclass are available all the time, but the interactive course that provides oodles of feedback and a supportive community only opens a few times a year. It’s open for April 2022. Find out more info here.