Point of View: Becoming Your Character

Point-of-view is probably the most important technique we have as fiction writers, and this includes memoir writing. Everything in story comes from point-of-view. Unless you're writing a who-dun-it, fast moving, plot-driven story, the kind of book you read and put down and forget, but if you're writing a book of any depth, you're interested in the characters.

One of the most wonderful things somebody can say to me about one of my novels is that they loved it; they couldn't put it down; hey stayed up till 2 in the morning to read it and they hated saying goodbye to the characters when the story ended.

That means, I did my job. That means, I created three-dimensional, full-blooded energetic characters who had a life outside of me.

This is the basis of point-of-view: you want to become our characters. You don't want your characters to be you. The movement is always out of self into character. In a visual sense, you are stepping out of your own skin and into the body of your character. You're sseeing the world through your character's eyes. You're feeling what your character is feeling.