The next post on the SCBWI British Isles conference is written by Astrid Holm, a member of my monthly writing group whose novel was shortlisted for the Chicken House Award. Emma Bayley, another member of my writing group who is working on a fantastic YA fantasy novel with environmental themes, also contributed to writing this report:

Judith Heneghan: ‘Getting to grips with point of view’.

Judith worked as a commissioning editor for Hodder and Stoughton and has written over 30 books for children. She lectures on the creative writing MA at Winchester University.

Judith said she had originally wanted to call this session ‘the what of the who’.  She stressed that there are almost no rules in POV – we are the writers, we can do what we like – you have to make decisions re POV based on the result, not based on some rule. But there are, of course, many pros and cons of each approach to consider.

She said that from the moment you get the germ of an idea, the decision about POV should be one of the first and most important decisions you make. You may have a natural POV that feels safe and comfortable – Judith said hers is third person – but it’s important to experiment with others and/or reflect on why you’ve chosen the one you have to give you the confidence to move forward with it.

We started by taking a photograph of a person or people and considering whose point of view we would interpret the action from.  Were we drawn to first person or third person?  Judith talked about all the ‘rules’ there are around POV and said that our main consideration when deciding how to portray a narrative was to look at whose story it is, and what POV makes the most moving and compelling narrative.

We may already have a voice in our head, but is it the right voice?

Judith discussed a book where she wrote 35,000 word in one character’s voice, then as she introduced two new characters, she found one of them clamouring to speak, and in a much more fun and lively way than her original POV. Yes, she was sad to lose her work so far, but if she hadn’t explored the first more passive voice she would never have discovered the more vibrant one that replaced it.

Judith then discussed fashions in publishing and how many YA books are now in first person. Often a reader has a personal preference for first or third person and it is up to the author to choose the POV that portrays his or her story in the strongest way.

She listed the following advantages of first person. It’s hugely subjective and therefore has a compelling intensity because you know exactly what the narrator’s thinking, there’s no holding back. It’s an excellent route to a distinctive narrative voice – the publisher’s holy grail! And it presents wonderful opportunities to withhold information - which is what gives stories their charge - as the narrator doesn’t have the whole picture.

First person has its limitations in that we only know what our narrator knows, and what he or she knows could be unreliable or partial.  The reader is forced to attach to the main character and see the world through his or her eyes.

Judith suggested the following as good examples of first person voices.

Once, Maurice Gleitzman

I,Coriander, Sally Gardner

The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness

Cosmic, Frank Cottrell Boyce

She also suggested that you aim for a voice that isn’t your own as it will be more vivid and distinctive, not slipping into just being ‘me’ the writer.  The voice will become something ‘other’ and be more distinctive.

Is your narrator human? How tall are they? What can they see? What don’t they know? All these questions can help.  Also using metaphors and similes that are appropriate for their world.

One of the dangers of first person is that ‘I’ can become lazy, you need to make sure the reader really cares, don’t bog down the action with too much boring internal dialogue. This can slow down the pace and action of the story.

Too much second hand information can also be tricky, as events are reported back to our narrator in a showing not telling way.

First person present tense is immediate, but can be hard work for the reader.

First person past tense can reflect back on something that has already happened. E.g I didn’t know it then, but trouble was right around the corner.

Diaries can be a good source of first person reflection too, as the information is usually quite recent and the narrator still doesn’t have the answers about tomorrow. Letters, confessions etc all work too. Framing devices can be used where the narrator is telling their tale, but is still in a position of peril, such as Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce. we only find out after the story has been told, if he will escape the initial threat introduced as he sits telling us his tale.

Disadvantages of this are that we know he will live to tell the tale! So, other equally gripping issues must form part of the plot.  Perhaps the narrator could then turn out to be someone else entirely? Or a ghost? Or something else…

Third person is more suitable generally for a fast paced adventure. You can take a more cinematic view of the action.  There is more distance from the protagonist. The reader has to guess more about their state of mind and motives.  Speech and expressions are supplied so the reader can imagine their thoughts.

Omniscient narrator, such as Dickens, as he can fly with the birds in the sky then swoop down into a window and read a character’s thoughts. This is currently a less fashionable POV.

Unlimited third person is where the thoughts of several characters can be shown, such as in Philip Pullman’s I was a Rat! The danger of this is that it can get messy and confusing for the reader if not handled well. The reader still has to care about all the characters.  Tagging the changes can bog down the text.

Limited third person as in Harry Potter by JK Rowling, is more selective and the reader only sees what the protagonist sees and thinks.  It’s like a telescope that homes in on the character, from far away to right up close.  Really intimate third person can show thoughts and feeling of the protagonist but not get bogged down with the first person internal monologue.  Third person can go in close for high drama and climax then telescope back out again to change the pace and become less intense as the plot moves along.

So can POVs be mixed up? Yes, but always think of the reader and how they will interpret the scene.  Two protagonists alternating is a common way of writing now e.g Junk by Melvin Burgess, or even having a new narrator half way through the book e.g  Incarceron by Catherine Fisher, although this is a high risk. The gain to the reader must outweigh the loss of losing the other point of view.  White Crow by Marcus Sedgewick moves from first to third person and Just in Case by Meg Rossoff successfully breaks all the so called rules!