5 year goal: point of view and second thoughts

Five Year Writing Goal

do you have goalsI’m taking part in Misha and Beth’s Five Year Project and my five-year goal is to write a novel and get it published. This is my monthly recap on how I’m doing.

Point of View: The Reluctant Scribe

I’ve written the story from 1st person in-the-moment point of view. As my main character is a 12 year old boy, the language has to be kept simple, childlike in fact. But a tutor has suggested I consider using 1st person reflecting-on-past point of view. This would allow a richer use of language and the possibility of a mature reflection and interpretation.

My fear is that I will lapse into my intrusive-know-it-all narrating voice, and that is exactly what I have been trying to avoid.

So, I have a dilemma.

Despite reservations, I am going to redraft my first few chapters using this more mature perspective and I’ll see how I get on.

Ongoing Editing Tasks

  1. Typo correcting.
  2. Consistent use of hyphens and dashes.
  3. A couple of additional scenes added to flesh out an important character.
  4. Extra descriptive passage added, in order to help the reader visualise the setting.
  5. A reflective passage split into two in order to improve the pacing and momentum of the writing.

I’ve described why I abandoned my previous novel and written an analysis of the problems: Learning from Mistakes.

Author: Ruth Livingstone

Walker, writer, photographer, blogger, doctor, woman, etc.

8 thoughts on “5 year goal: point of view and second thoughts”

  1. I understand your dilemma Ruth. I changed the viewpoint character several times before deciding to use three… one is a rather immature teenager so I have to be really careful to make sure the adult interpretation of events doesn’t creep into her chapters. It’s all part of the fun of writing though!

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  2. A very real problem for consideration, isn’t it? I think I tend to take the easy way out and stick to a POV which is close to me. Pity, because that just isn’t going to work when I start on the fantasy stuff.

    I think you’re doing the right thing though; test it in different ways and see what fits. Obviously your tutor wants to help, but at the end of the day only you know what suits the story you’re trying to tell.

    At least this way you can see it both ways (and more, if other options come up) and then make an informed choice about what you prefer and what works best for the story.

    Best of luck. Still rooting for you! x

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  3. I think you have a sensible approach. Just don’t change it if you don’t like the voice in the first few chapters. Sometimes, simplicity of voice can be better, depending on what you’re going for. 🙂

    Good luck with this month’s edits.

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  5. On the upside, at least you *know* that is a problem for you, and during rewrites you can keep an eye on it. And also during revisions of the rewrites. 🙂 I am in revisions right now as well and I have come to a chapter that will require a lot of fleshing out. It’s for a story I haven’t really written any “new” stuff on in a long time, so it will take a bit to get back into the proper style I think.

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I would love to hear your thoughts. Please leave me a comment.