How do you keep your deep pov descriptions fresh?

Your descriptions should stay fresh because you're filtering them through her, and if she notices something, it's for a reason. So you don't have to describe everything, just details that are somehow significant to her.

You get a chance for deeper description the first time she goes to a place or meets a person--after that, she'll likely only notice things about them that are new or different. Whether or not you use analogies depends on her personality--if she's the sort that compares things, or just notes their basic characteristics.

You could always just keep it simple. If you're finding that you're having to use something over all the time, there's probably an issue with the story itself feeling stagnant instead of needing a new way to express the same thing.

You keep what goes through their head and their perceptions of everyone and everything fresh by keeping those things fresh. Story should be moving forward with everyone in it never responding in quite the same way to every situation.

New stuff has new descriptions.

I'm not sure what's bothering you? Like, if your MC encounters a garden, they would notice different things about it than my MC. Mine might first be calculating the geometric shape, while yours might be scanning for enemies. A third might be examining the plants. Whatever your character is doing, they just notice the things that, you know, they'd notice.

Maybe you just like analogies in your writing. That's not so bad.

I find that most things get worked out in revision.

scribbledoutname said:

Can't remember who said it, but someone once wrote on a really helpful blog post where they explained that in deep pov "all description is perception". Since then I've always kept that in mind, but it's tough making details grow naturally out of your hero/ine's pov.

How do you keep what goes through your pov character's head/their perception of characters, settings and events fresh? I find myself using analogies over and over, but I know there must be a lot more to it than that!

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I don't worry about "fresh", I worry about accurate.

Think about what your MC is most likely to zero in on - particular colours, other people he/she might be attracted to, mis-spellings in grafitti or on restaurant menus, litter, someone else's clothing or grooming habits, ambulance sirens in the background, etc.

agreeing about fresh over accurate.

that said, character should determine image, description, etc., and I'm not sure that many folks think in analogy to begin with, at least not that often. I am a fairly educated, well-red guy, we're currently building a house and so we're in a rental house that was built in 1907....and looks it.




There's a shitty brick-red in the living room, and peeling light blue paint on the wood slats that floor the porch, flaking in most spots.

There is NOT, under any circumstances, "A red at the head of the stairs the deep near-maroon of the cooling embers of hell, coupled with a blue floor flecked and forlorn, like the toys of an orphanage."




Why? Because I'm a busy guy, who barely looks at them, let alone wastes half a day waxing poetic over them. Now to be fair, some people probably DO actually do this, but if you have every character doing so the problem isn't keeping your POV fresh so much as trying to pave your novel in metaphors and similes.