POVs by J. S. Marlo

 

Red in the Snow

Coming September 2025

   

 

  

J. S. Marlo's Books

I would like to talk about the famous, or infamous, POV.

For anyone who isn't familiar with it, POV stands for Point Of View. If you're within someone's POV, you can only see, hear, smell, taste, or feel what that someone sees, hears, smells, tastes, or feels, and you're only privy to that someone's inner thoughts.

What does it mean for a writer? Well, it means every time you write a scene, you need to choose a POV. Will I write the scene in my hero's or my heroine's POV?

Let's say I choose my heroine's POV, let's say a scent draft into the kitchen, let's say it's lilac, and let's say my heroine has never smelled lilac in her life, so...

These are 3 examples of how the scene could go down:

1- If she's alone in the kitchen, she cannot say it's lilac, because she doesn't know what it smells like. She can say she smells something sweet, something floral, a strong fragrance, a delightful fragrance, but the reader will never know it's lilac.

2- If she isn't alone in the kitchen, she can ask whoever is with her (let's say it's her boyfriend) if he smells something. If her boyfriend knows what lilacs smell like, he can say it's lilac and he can provide as much information as the reader needs to know.

3- She's with her boyfriend in the kitchen, but she's nose blind to the scent wafting in. (Remember, we're in her POV, we can know what she thinks but not what her boyfriend smells or thinks unless he mentions it.) If her boyfriend smells it and knows it, he may say something about it, or he may dismiss the scent as unimportant and not say anything, in which case the reader will never know about the lilac scent drafting in.

(I picked lilacs because I have lilacs all around my house and for a week or two in the spring, it smells amazing... I'm digressing here.)

Every scene conveys bits of information that come together to form a story. If that lilac scent is an important bit of information, then the writer has two choices:

1- Stay in her POV, but develop the boyfriend's character in such a way that he's the type of guy who notices different fragrances and likes to comment about them, or...

2- Switch the scene to his POV, that way he can notice the smell (we're in his POV, so we have access to all his senses and are privy to his inner thoughts). He can simply walk in the kitchen where the scent of lilacs lingering in the air reminds him of his grandmother's cottage. No dialogue needed.

A long time ago, when I started writing romance novels, there were all those written and unwritten romance rules about POVs that circulated among different publishers.

- Only two POVs in the story.

- Each scene had to be written in either the hero's POV or the heroine's POV.

- Love scene should be written in the girl's POV, not the guy's. (Don't readers want to know what's going on in the guy's head when... you know)

- Happy endings, meaning hero & heroine end up together, not merrily go their separate ways.

- Some publishers even had POV ratios. 60% her, 40% him.

I wrote for many publishers (not all of them are still in business) and I had many wonderful editors. It happened that at the beginning of my writing career, I had an editor who was a stickler to all romance rules. I had to rewrite many scenes and switch POV even though the information I needed to convey was now in the wrong character's head. And I couldn't get away with writing even one short scene in the antagonist's POV.

I'm not only a writer, but I'm also an avid reader. I like to know how the vilain thinks.

Over the years I added more and more mystery and suspense to my stories. I went from writing romance, to writing romantic suspense, to writing murder mysteries with a dash of romance. Suddenly, these POV rules didn't apply as much as they used to.

I was reading a mystery novel written by a well-known author last month. I very much enjoyed the story but I wouldn't describe the ending as happy in any sense of the word. Now, let me talk about the POVs in his story. (I had just finished a round of edits when I read it so it might explain why they struck me so much). The author didn't have just 2, or 3, or 4 different POVs in the story, he had many more. Not only that, but he often switched POVs within the same scene.

None of the POV rules appeared to apply to his story--or to any other genres but romance.

So, what's my current take on POVs?

- Most of my scenes are in my hero's or heroine's POVs, but I choose the POV that conveys the information the most natural and seamless way possible.

- If there are love scenes, they can be in any POV. It's whatever rocks my boat when I write it.

- I try not to switch POV within a scene, but I write some scenes in other characters' POVs. My vilains have voices, very loud and disturbing voices.

- And I still like a satisfying ending. I want my readers to enjoy the ride and disembark happy--not curse me or throw the book back at me.

Next month I'll give you a taste of Red in the Snow. I know I said that last month, but my excerpt isn't quite ready yet. Besides, it's too hot outside to mention the word snow.

Stay safe! Enjoy the rest of your summer! Hugs!

JS

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

P...O...V... by J. S. Marlo

J. S. Marlo BWL Author Page

Way back when I was writing free stories for fun, someone mentioned POV and told me I would need to start paying attention to it if I ever decided to become a real author. To be honest, I didn’t think I would ever become a real author—whatever real meant—but most importantly, I had no idea what POV stood for. Prepositions Or Verbs? Pickles Or Veggies? I had to ask what POV meant. The answer was Point Of View, which didn’t enlighten me at all. For my defense, I write in my second language, but when I tried to translate the answer in French, it didn’t help. So, I begged for the lengthy explanation-for-dummies.

For each scene I write, I was told I needed to step into my hero’s or heroine’s body/mind. I could only see what my heroine saw, so unless she was an alien with eyes behind her head, I couldn’t see the guy behind her clenching or unclenching his fists or ogling her. I could only hear what she heard, so unless she was the Bionic Woman (it was a TV show back when I was many many years younger), she couldn’t hear the other side of a phone conversation someone else was having...then again the man at the other end of the line with the woman beside me at the drug store two days ago was so loud, I overheard everything he said, and I wish I hadn’t. I could only taste what she ate, so I couldn’t say the dish of the guy at the other end of the table was too salty, though if he spitted it out or grimaced, I could venture he didn’t like it for some reason. Obviously my other characters could touch objects my heroine could see, but unless she also touched it, I couldn’t say the guy felt it  was rough, or soft, or clammy, unless he said so. I could only smell something she smelled, and I could only write down her inner thoughts...unless she was a psychic who could read other’s people mind.

It made sense and that sounded easy until I started paying attention to it. If my heroine walked into a room in the dark, a room in which she had never been, I couldn’t describe the room, until she bumped her toes on something and patted the object to figure out what it was. I couldn’t say someone was hiding in the closet with a knife until that someone jumped on her and stabbed her, which meant if I wanted that detail known, I had to write another scene before that one in which the killer stepped into that room and hid in the closet. I couldn't say if my hero liked the kiss if I was in my Heroine’s POV, but I couldn't tell if she enjoyed it if I was in my hero’s POV, though I do tend to write most of my love scenes in my heroine’s POV. In other words, I was forced to think before I wrote, which I ended up finding fascinating.

Before I start writing a scene, I need to determine whose character’s body/mind I’m stepping into. More than once I’ve written the same scene twice, once from one character’s POV and the other from a different character’s POV, then read both aloud to determine which one made greater impact. Two of my novels feature deaf heroines, so it was interesting writing in their POVs. Noises couldn’t startle them. They couldn’t hear snowmobiles, or steps, or voices, or birds singing in the trees, or explosions, but they could feel vibrations. I usually write around 45% in my heroine’s POV, 45% in my hero’s POV, and the last 10% through other character’s POVs. I write romantic suspense, so I like to step into my antagonist’s mind and/or some secondary character’s mind a few times through the story.

When it comes to POV, it seems different publishers have different requirements. Some have very strict rules, like 60% heroine/40% hero/0% other character, while others are more flexible. I’m lucky my publishers are flexible.

As a reader, or a writer, or both, how do you feel about POVs? Do you like stepping into the mind of the antagonist a few times? Or a secondary character? Or do you prefer staying into the heroine’s or hero’s mind the entire story?

Let me know, I’m curious.

JS

 J. S. Marlo's Website

 

CHARACTER OVERLOAD

I recently reviewed a book by an indie author who was a gifted natural story-teller. Her book centered upon a true, long-ago tragedy in a small, tight-knit backwoods town.  Unfortunately, I found the story difficult to follow, because of frequent POV shifts, sometimes as often as every few paragraphs.

 

There was usually a double drop between these shifts, but she also had a habit of changing voice. Sometimes the new POV was first person, sometimes third. Occasionally, I found myself stumbling from first person to third person subjective, followed by bursts of the venerable 18^th Century third person omnipresent. Many of her narrators were unreliable, and there were many, many characters, almost an entire town. Few were well fleshed out. However, each one, Rashomon-like, had a unique piece of information about the pivotal event.

 

As compelling as the story was, I’d have to say "thumbs down." Her tale was interesting and important—and probably remains inflammatory, even years later. People probably still remember where they were on the terrible day when a labor dispute went terribly wrong and police waded into strikers and killed someone.

 

POV shifts are tricky business, even in the hands of more more skillful writers. If I’d been her editor, I know our discussions would have been difficult, because she clearly had problems making a choice about who the main characters were. Although it might have created other difficulties in telling the story, the loss of focus that resulted from all that switching around made my job as a reader far more difficult than any author has a right to ask.  

 

My diagnosis? The story hadn’t jelled when she began to write. In her rush to get the inspiration down, to cover all the bases, she created a huge maze of information and very nearly couldn’t unravel it herself. A novel, (which is, after all, an artificial creation and not reality) needs a core character(s) and a core point of view, a place for a reader to stand among whatever whirligigs of narrative and event the author can contrive. 

 

So, if you are thinking of finally writing “that book,” definitely work out who/what/where/when before you get going. Laying the groundwork, pouring the foundation, you might say, is the place where a writer really ought to start.

 

 

 

 

 

Juliet Waldron

See all my historical novels:

 

http://www.julietwaldron.com

http://bookswelove.net/julietwaldron.php