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MONDAY – CLINIC:  POV

In any given situation, when there is more than on person involved, you’ll surely have as many different views and experiences of what happened. As the storyteller, you get to choose how the story gets told and who gets to tell it. This is called the Point of View or POV.

Think of POV as the person who is holding the movie camera and what they can see through the lens. If the story is told from the perspective of a love-sick teen, then show us the story through the teen’s eyes, using his or her perspective, language and habits. What is the frame of reference for this character who is sharing this story? A younger person's experiences won't be as vast or varied as an older, wiser person.

For an explanation of POV, visit this site. They also have a simple refresher for you on the different types of Point of View (1st person, 3rd person and so on). 

When you have difficulty deciding whose POV you should use, ask yourself this question: Which character has the most to lose? Show us the story (or scene) from that character's viewpoint.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

Everyone experiences the same situation in different ways. Think of a situation that is charged with emotion. A death, a divorce, a wedding, a graduation. Write the same scene two times – each one from a different perspective. In the first one, the primary character is a 6-yr-old child. In the second version, the primrary character is a 16-yr-old teenager.  You choose the situation and you choose the point of view.

Happy Writing!
Coach Darlene