What happens on a discovery call?

A discovery call is a thirty minute chat about what you need help with. It’s very informal, and is like having coffee with a friend.

What will we discuss on a coaching call?

We will talk about anything you like to do with your writing. I use my experience as a creative writing tutor to both offer possible solutions to issues, as well as coaching you to understand why you are experiencing the issue and how we can move forward. I also set tasks outside of our time together so that you can work toward your goals. All our conversations are confidential.

Can we meet in person?

During Covid I am happy to work with your time zone and meet you on Zoom.

POV – Rachel Grosvenor Author

Omniscient pov: An unbiased narrative that tells a story from the perspective of various characters and the world around them.

Head-hopping: A narrative that breaks out of one character’s point of view and jumps to another without indication to the reader.

So, what’s the issue?

When writing, some people get omniscient POV and head-hopping mixed up. Head-hopping can be confusing to a reader. But, omniscient POV shouldn’t lend itself to head-hopping.

Let’s look at why…

Omniscient
Observing the mindsets of characters, but not sharing inner thoughts directly:

Rachel sighed. She was feeling hungry, her stomach starting to make the familiar sounds of a missed breakfast. Paul knew that the restaurant was just around the corner and that, despite being late, they would get a table.

Note: It is not the use of passive voice here that is creating omniscient narration. I could also have said:

Rachel sighed. Hunger gripped her stomach, and she heard it starting to make the familiar sounds of a missed breakfast.

If you are struggling with omniscient POV, it can help to use passive phrases such as this to get into it. You can always edit them into the active voice later if you want to.

Head-hopping:
Often occurs in limited third person, where inner thoughts are shared directly:

Rachel sighed. Why hadn’t he told her where they were going for breakfast? It was irritating, and her stomach was starting to rumble. Paul looked over. It was as though she were being purposefully annoying. Probably because he was late. The restaurant was right around the corner, and she would have to wait.

The difference is your choice of POV.

If you are struggling with head-hopping, you are not writing in omniscient POV.
Omniscient POV is an all-knowing narrator who does not share thoughts in the style of individual characters, but maintains a consistent voice throughout.
Limited third-person POV enables the author to use the character’s voice to share thoughts outside of dialogue. If you want to use multiple POVs, your reader will need an indication of when this is going to happen, like a chapter break.

What would you like the next newsletter to be about? Are there any areas of writing you struggle with? If so, let me know here.

4 Tips for Writing in Multiple Points of View

Are you telling a story from the point of view of more than one character? It isn’t always easy, I know. Sometimes it can be hard to get that message across or know who to focus on. So, here are four tips that will make it easier for you to write from multiple points of view in your novel.

1) Assign scenes to a specific character.

Avoid head-hopping at all costs. Your reader needs to understand that they are reading from a specific character’s point of view. Head-hopping happens when you move from one character’s POV to another within one scene, meaning that the reader is left wondering who they are focusing on and through whose eyes they are seeing the story. Therefore, assign scenes to a specific person, and if you want to move to a new character, use a narrative break or new chapter so that the reader understands what you are doing.

2) Use unique dialogue.

Make sure your reader knows who is speaking through unique dialogue and action tags. This is important for any novel, but especially for writing multiple points of view. It means that your reader will immediately understand whose scene they are in and the character they are focusing on. Even if your characters are from the same place, they should still speak slightly differently. No one speaks the same as somebody else, and if they do, they might use different slang words or have physical movements that differentiate them.

3) Consider a primary point of view.

Do you have a main character or someone more important to the story than anyone else? A primary point of view makes writing a multiple character story much easier, so it’s worth thinking about if you haven’t yet considered this. It’s not something you have to do – just a recommendation.

4) Consider why you are using multiple points of view.

Why are you using multiple POVs in your novel? What is the drive, and what is the story getting out of it? What are your characters giving to the tale? These questions are worth working through because if you have a character that adds nothing to your story, you should ask yourself why they are there. The varying points of view that your characters are offering should drive and move the story forward. For example, let’s take a book I recently read – The Mitford Trial by Jessica Fellowes. The story is told from the point of view of two characters, and the reason for this is that, in this classic whodunit, these two have differing opinions, see different things, and therefore provide different clues. So, it wouldn’t work so well as a single narrative point of view.

If you are writing a story with multiple points of view, and have any questions, get in touch to ask!

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