Another POV question

The answer, as always, is "it depends." (Very helpful, no?) If you're writing a romance, I think you'll find it tough to develop both sides of your relationship without giving the reader a peek into his head. You have more freedom in women's fiction, and hey, if you can make it work in romance, go for it!

I suppose you could, but as a woman who loves to read romances as much as I love writing them, I like knowing what the guy is thinking.

However, I believe it would all depend on the type of story you're writing and how you execute it. It could work, but I think it would be hard. Just my opinion.

I agree that it depends on the story. My first book used the POV of both the main characters, but the one coming out this fall never gets into the hero's head (for ease of discussion, I call the guy the reader will most identify with the protagonist, and the other the hero).

That's because I want the protagonist, and the reader too, to wonder whether/how much the hero is lying throughout the book. It would be cheating to spend time in his head and not give up some of the answers.

Marlys said:

That's because I want the protagonist, and the reader too, to wonder whether/how much the hero is lying throughout the book. It would be cheating to spend time in his head and not give up some of the answers.

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Oh, but there are fun ways around this! You can get inside his head, and write his thoughts very carefully - in ways that have multiple interpretations.

For a romance, I definitely like having both hero and heroine POVs. (Sometimes I have another character's POV, too. Often one of my secondary characters has a POV. It depends, though.)

Susan G.

Susan Gable said:

Oh, but there are fun ways around this! You can get inside his head, and write his thoughts very carefully - in ways that have multiple interpretations.

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That's what I meant by cheating. I love to do this in dialogue, by the way--but then it's the character who is performing the misdirection, not the author.

Marlys said:

That's what I meant by cheating. I love to do this in dialogue, by the way--but then it's the character who is performing the misdirection, not the author.

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It's not cheating if it's still what he would "say" inside his head. See, to me, the "narrative" is still that character's voice. Deep 3rd person POV is what I like to use, so to me, all the narrative is internal dialog of a sort. So, I don't think it's cheating. Careful writing. Making sure it's appropriate to how the character would think. So careful that if a reader hits the surprise, then they can go back to the prior internal dialog, and say, Ohhhhh, so THAT's what he meant by that. <G>

I don't consider that cheating in the least -- if it's done right. Now, if you make the character out and out "lie" in his head -- that's not cheating, it's just plain wrong. I mean, you can't have him thinkng how much he loves her, when actually he loathes her and that will come out later. Cause he'd be thinking how much he loathes her. <G> But there are certain things you can do if you write it skillfully.


Susan G.

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one, Susan. You're obviously comfortable with it, and your readers let you get away with it, so it works for you.

But it's not something I like as a reader, so I'd never do it as a writer.

LOL! That's why I like writing first person so much! No need to even ask these sorts of questions...

Marlys said:

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one, Susan.

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Works for me. I'm not one of those people who believes there's only "one right way" to do this.

Susan G.

Cathy C said:

LOL! That's why I like writing first person so much! No need to even ask these sorts of questions...

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Agreed.