Fiction Writing - Point of View

Point of view (POV) may not be the most important element of writing great fiction, but learning what it is and being mindful of it when creating a story is necessary to avoid confusing the reader. If the reader gets confused they may put down your book, never finish reading it, and never recommend it to others.

So what is POV? The character who sees, hears, feels, detects smells, tastes AND who reacts to these senses is the POV character. When you put the POV character at a certain place--say inside a house--they cannot see what is going on two blocks away. They may hear sirens two blocks away or smell something burning that isn't visible, but they can't hear another character humming inside a house three doors down.

If a story is written with one character POV, that character must be in every scene. If Sally is the POV character and she isn't there it didn't happen unless someone tells her about it. If Sally (the POV character) is facing John you cannot say Harry crept up behind Sally. John might see Harry, but Sally cannot see Harry and if you say John sees Harry you are now in his POV. However, Sally might see John's eyes widen, spin around, and see Harry.

Romance fiction is most often written with two POV characters--the protagonist and the love interest.

A skilled writer can write multiple character POV and not bog down the story or lose the reader.