That thorny old issue

The point of view (POV) in a novel has been something of a hobby horse of mine since I took an MA in Creative Writing a few years ago. Whether it's my analytical brain, or my natural tidiness (no comments needed by people who know me - in my brain I'm tidy...), but I've always felt that the point of view in a novel should be clearly set out and that certain rules should be followed.

I know I can bore the socks of some people about POV, but briefly for those who don't know and are interested (rest hop to paragraph below), what I'm talking about is this: when reading about how a character feels, we imagine the writer is inside their brain. When he moves to describe another person's feelings, he's changing the point of view. This change should be flagged somehow, by a paragraph or chapter break. If it isn't, confusion can arise; who's brain are we in now, the husband's or the wife's? Or perhaps it's the mistress, who's just stepped out of the marital en-suite shower who's speaking? I also often think that a novel which is written from a third person should not switch to 1st person narrative and vice versa.

I would also go as far as to say I don't particularly like an omniscient style, where the writer is pretending to be God-like figure, sitting on a cloud high up in the sky, describing the feelings of his characters going on about their business below. Unless very well done, it can be very confusing to read, and affect the authenticity of the story. It's also quite old-fashioned, this was the way books were written in the olden days.

As for chopping and changing the POV, not being wholly omniscient, nor holding to any of the above rules, or mixing 3rd and 1st person narratives? This just drives me completely crazy. (As witnessed by those unfortunate enough to get involved in a discussion about POV with me.) It makes me wonder if the writer has mixed POV just to be different. In my view it doesn't make the story more interesting, or make the telling of it more poignant, it just confuses and annoys.

On the other hand, writing a book wholly in one character's first person, though intense, can seem self-indulgent. Many modern novelists use the easy technique of having a chapter per character, telling the story from the POV of, say, three of four main characters. But blindly following the rules of POV in this way can make the novel a little, dare I say it, boring.

So what is the writer to do? Some, like for instance, Booker-nominated Gerard Woodward in his novel about a modern British middle-class family struggling with alcohol addiction, 'I'll Go To Bed At Noon', used a combination of an omniscient POV with a third person narrative. When the story demanded it, he'd swap POV mid paragraph. And in spite of my initial huffing and puffing while reading the book, I liked it. Because, as often is the case in fiction, or art, the most magnificent things happen when rules are broken.

The reason I'm writing about this is that with my latest manuscript I'm really struggling to decide what kind of point of view to use. I'm concerned that I'm not talented enough to do what Gerard Woodward did, nor am I confident enough to go wholly omniscient. Though I think that my particularly story would really suit this way of telling it. So far I've written parts of it in third person from 3 different character's POV. There's also a chapter in 1st person, one which in my opinion works really well. It makes the story much more immediate, and I think makes the reader empathise with my main character to a much higher degree.But I can't write the whole story from this one character's POV, in first person. Nor do I think I could combine 3rd and 1st person narratives.

While pondering this I was wandering around Daunt Books in North London and picked up a new book that I thought my book club would enjoy. It's 'The Privileges' by an US author called Jonathan Dee. To be honest I chose it because it was about New York ,a city I love and a city which features strongly in my current manuscript. It also had an endorsement by Jonathan Franzen, who's novel 'The Corrections' I absolutely loved. And I'm a sucker for endorsements by authors I love. (Probably lots of people are, why else would publishers use them...?)

In any case, I started to read the new book last night and was astounded by the style. Fully omniscient, it still manages to be modern, fast paced and absolutely clear about who's brain we're having a little look into. Reading Dee has made me want to restart my manuscript from scratch to try out his style. At least I shall do an exercise we did during the MA where you copy a style for your own story for a chapter and see how it works. In a way I almost wish it won't work as that means  a re-write as early as 25,000 words into the novel. But, if it does work and I prove to be skilful enough (please, please, the God of Authors...!) it could be quite refreshing to say goodbye to all my hang-ups about POV.

Wish me luck!

Am I in love with writing or is writing in love with me?

Writing a novel is like a love affair.

When at first you get the idea for a novel you are attracted, not able to think about anything else, but still only partly seduced by the plot.

Then you start to be obsessed with the characters and worry whether you can carry the idea through to the end. You do some research and the more you find out about the subject the more fascinated you are with it. But are you the right person to tell this particular story? Whether you are or not, you can't help yourself, you jump in and start writing.

Aaah. The first few weeks of frantic activity is bliss. Your fingers can hardly keep pace with your head; the words are coming thick and fast. You laugh and cry at the characters you've created. You feel the plot is absolutely faultless, the wonderful scenes you see in front your eyes are perfect, they convey precisely the right emotions. You chuckle to yourself when you imagine your readers enjoying your words. This is the best work you've ever created. This will be the one!

At about 3rd way through there's a problem with the plot. You begin worry about one or two characters. They start to do things that aren't in the plot. They start to get annoying. Oh, but you've been here before. A little time out is needed. You know you just need to take a day or two off. You know it's just a lover's tiff. But you're upset all the same.

You get on the internet and start to do more research. This only makes matters worse. You remember how wonderful your original idea was.

People close to you ask what's up with you. 'You look tired. Has something happened?' No, you tell them, or you invent other problems in real life because all you want to do is shout at the characters in your new, lovely, wonderful manuscript. The longer you are away from the text, doubts start creeping into your head: perhaps the plot is flawed? Perhaps the characters aren't real after all? Perhaps the voice is wrong? Perhaps you should introduce a new narrator, change the point of view? Perhaps 1st person isn't right? Should you try something completely different: an omniscient point of view?

Weary and fearful you return to the manuscript. You've got this far, surely if you just try hard the plot will sort itself out, the voice will improve. And when you read it through, you find it's actually quite good. You allow yourself to be enchanted by it again. So what if there are a few problems? There's the long editing process to come after all. You remind yourself writing is a shitty job. It's the worst idea you've ever had in your life to try to be a writer. But you still love this story, and it makes you so happy to finish a scene, a chapter. You get obsessed with the word count. You start to count the days, months it'll take you to finish the novel. You set up a strict schedule and promise yourself that all else in your life: Eating, Daughter, Son, Husband, Dogs, Cats, House, Earning Actual Money, Sleeping, have to wait. You are a writer: writing is what will have to come first.

You forget to tell your family.

When you get to 50,000 words you hate the plot. You abhor your characters. They're all stupid, over-emotional creatures who refuse to act in the way you've decided. They keep injecting new scenes, use different words in the dialogue from the ones you've designated before you started that day's writing session. But, you remind yourself you're on the downhill now, it's nearly done. It's nearly over.

But the story drags on. At 75,000 words (your designated end point) the plot is still not concluded. The characters you've decided will die/fall in love/out of love/move out of the country/change their lifestyle/change their attitude just won't get on with it. In the dark hours of the night when you lie awake thinking about the characters you realise you don't want to finish the book. You never want to the leave the place you've created. You're truly in love: you want to spend your life with the manuscript.

You drink so much coffee your pee turns black.

But end it must, this love affair: with tears running down your face you write the last scene. Off your characters walk into the sunset. You know you should celebrate, but it feels more as if you should be in mourning. You sleep through the night first time in months.

You know you need all the physical strength you have and all your writing experience to start the editing process. You'll have to awaken the old love affair and start living with it again.