Utilizing DEEP POV

Deep POV isn't for everyone. 

Applied incorrectly IT can create a stream-of-consciousness that will quickly overwhelm the reader. 

I'd like to suggest that once you fully understand your character (absolutely vital to your success) Deep POV is something to learn slowly and methodically.

Consider this: Your book's finished and you’re now in full edit-revision mode.

You notice several scenes that fall short. What do you do?

Why not add an emotional depth to those parts without applying Deep POV to the entire manuscript? 

Example:  Your antagonist waits aboard his yacht. He's just discovered that one of his men allowed a witness to flee, and now he could face the death penalty. 

Here’s the scene in each POV:

1st:  When John returned, he found me sitting on the white leather bench. I had my eyes half-closed, my arms crossed, and I was feeling great sadness. "Well?" I asked, but I was thinking, 'Give me a reason not to kill you.' 

3rd: Matthew sat on the white leather bench and lowered his eyes. Consumed by a great sadness, he crossed his arms and waited. When John returned, he asked him, "How long have you worked for me?"

Omni: When John returned, he found his boss sitting on the white leather bench with his eyes half-closed and his arms crossed. He chose not to look at John, he was that angry. "Tell me I didn't make a mistake bringing you," he said. John couldn't think and stuttered...

Clearly, a deeper sense of intimacy is missing.

Switch to DEEP POV, and …

The bench reeked of new leather smell and left a bad taste on his tongue.  A glimpse east and the sun's glare shot pain through his temple. Closing his eyes helped, but the trembling continued. Blood pounded through crossed arms. 

This was John's fault. No respect. No gratitude. Hadn't he and his daughter been taken care of all these years? Ruby held a secure job at the Baja Hotel for the rest of her life if she wanted. John threatened that. Could his stupidity be forgiven without costing the organization everything? 

A touch of the gun hidden beneath crossed arms and the chill felt shocking at first, then comforting. 

DEEP POV is a scene written through total perception; no tags, no filtered conclusions, just straight cerebral experience between protagonist and reader. There are no subordinate clauses. As he did something, something or someone else verbed. Emphasis is never taken off the protagonist. Hence, pronouns are kept to a minimum. 

The protagonist is in the very centre of the scene with everything happening outward. Nothing points back to him. We don't see the protagonist outside himself.

It's never in the morning; it's this morning. 

It's never then, it's now. 

There is no author, no character aware of being in a story.

There are no he thoughts.  

If Deep POV sounds appealing, try writing the scene as 1st POV, then switch to 3rd. Drop as many verbs as possible, (saw, thought, looked, etc) eliminate the tags: said, asked (no need to show the reader what they already know). Do this, and I promise it'll rejuvenate you and your story.  

Happy Editing, 

--

joylene

cluculzwriter at yahoo dot ca