Hi Everyone! I'd like you all to give a warm welcome to my friend, Monique DeVere. Monique writes romance novels that are romantic and emotion filled (but no spanking...so far...:) She's recently self-published for the first time (after publishing several books with traditional publishers). Monique's books are filled with the sort of emotion that makes you go "ahhh" when the hero professes his love so I've asked her to share with us about writing deep point of view which brings the emotional level of her books to steamy levels.
Let’s Go Deep... POV, that is!
I remember many years ago—when I was a novice
writer—a CP from my first online crit group suggested I go Deep Point Of View (POV).
Huh?
I had no idea what she could possibly have
meant and, since she didn’t offer any suggestions, I was at a total lost. It
took a while for me to figure out what deep point of view was, but once I
discovered this deeper way of writing, I haven’t looked back.
So, what exactly is Deep POV?
It’s a technique authors use to get into
their characters' minds so that the invisible narrator completely disappears.
Your stories become more like watching movies than reading novels. The reader
forgets she’s reading a book! Without deep pov the reader always has a vague
awareness of the narrator, even if the author tries hard to make her/himself
invisible. The only way to eliminate this unseen narrator is to go deep pov.
How do you get into Deep pov?
You need to burrow your way into the depths
of your character’s mind, and live through them. You need to hear their
thoughts, feel their emotions, experience their dreams, and then illustrate
this to your reader. When you do that, your reader merges into your story and
experiences your character’s life as if it’s hers, which increases her reading
pleasure immensely.
If you think of writing in first person,
you’ll instantly write differently because you’ll narrow your focus to a
single, specific point. What I mean is, once we think in first person we
automatically become the character. When we think in the third person, we retell
someone else’s tale. I’m not suggesting you write in first person in order to
achieve deep pov, I’m simply encouraging you to think that way because it makes a difference to the way you write.
Why bother?
I’ll tell you why! When you make the effort
to write in deep POV, you tighten your story and draw the reader right into the
book. You make her live your story. You
will also rid yourself of the “show, don’t tell” problem many writers
encounter. You know the sort of things I’m referring to—he/she saw, felt,
heard, smelled, thought, decided...and the list goes on.
Stick to deep, active POV, and your character
will never say things like, she heard the door slam—but rather, somewhere upstairs
in the dark, musty house, a door slammed shut.
Here are some quick rules to ensure you are
writing in Deep POV.
Your character can’t know anything s/he doesn’t
feel, touch, experience, see, taste,
smell, hear, sense, and think. She can’t know that her eyes sparked with temper.
She can, however, know that the hero makes her want to throw something at him.
She can even grab the cool, glass vase from the table next to her and debate
whether she could live without the solid family heirloom.
Another example is something like: Jessica fumbled with
her keys; she thought she heard footsteps behind her. The keys fell from her
nervous fingers. She bent to pick them up, and someone grabbed her from behind.
How about we go deep with something like: Jessica wrapped her
coat tighter around her as she strode across the almost deserted car park at
the back of her office building. Cold fog had drifted in late afternoon,
dragging down the already dank weather and giving the car park an eerie
atmosphere that brought out all sorts of creepy sounds and shadows. A sense of
unease crept over her, encouraging Jess to up her pace. Each breath she exhaled
frosted in front of her as she dug her hands in her jacket pocket and drew out
her car keys.
Why hadn’t she parked closer?
Tomorrow, sound diet advice or not, she was parking right
next to the building’s front entrance. So what if she didn’t add those extra
steps the diet mag promised would help her to shift the five pounds she put on
over Christmas? She’d rather be safe that trek across this car park in the dark
again tomorrow.
An empty bottle clattered on the asphalt somewhere to her
left, snapping her out of her thoughts and she glanced toward the sound.
Nothing.
Not that she could see
beyond the sparse circles of dim light floating down from the few lamp poles in
the car park. When did it get so dark? Jess glanced around again. A few cars
remained in the lot, scattered here and there, but hers was right at the very
end where she’d parked in her effort to give herself the greatest
calorie-burning walking distance.
Damn, she hated how easily she spooked. Quickening her
steps, she huddled further inside her coat. Great, she’d managed to scare
herself. She wanted to run, but forced her feet to keep an even pace. Then an
empty can bounced on the ground behind her as if someone had kicked it. Her
heart leaped
and, without a backward glance, she took off. Jess was not a
brave woman, and she saw no reason to change that character trait this instant,
because there was no way in hell she imagined someone kicking that can!
Her car seemed twice as far as it had been only seconds ago.
Heavy footfalls hammered behind her and she didn’t dare look
back.
Heart pounding so hard she could barely breathe, she fumbled
with her keys, trying to find the fob. It had a personal alarm button that
would set off her car alarm if she could only find it. In her frantic key
search and mad dash to the safety of her car, her bag slipped off her shoulder,
almost tripping her. She paused, reached for it, wasting crucial seconds, but
she needed it. The thing was heavy enough to cause some damage if she used it
as a weapon. The footfall closed in and, in a split-second decision, she left
the bag and tore across the car park toward her car.
The person behind her must have picked up speed because a
large man-shaped shadow overtook her, someone else’s breath besides hers frosted
the air, and a blast of stale sweat stench shot up her frozen nostrils. Lungs
screaming for mercy, Jess pumped her arms faster. Wasn’t that what you were
supposed to do if you wanted to run faster? Or was that pump your legs quicker?
Lord, help me and I promise—
A big leather-gloved hand clamped over her mouth, her keys
flew out of her hand, and an enormous arm snaked around her ribcage, crushing
the breath out of her as her attacker swung her off her feet.
He clutched her hard against his huge body. “Did you think
you would outrun me?” His harsh laugh drilled into her eardrum.
Do you see the
difference? First of all you add a lot more words when you go Deep POV. If you
compare these two examples, I hope you’ll notice how much
Just remember, stick to only what your POV character
can touch, taste, see, experience,
smell, hear, feel, sense, or think. Remember also to depict each character
only through another character’s pov,
and use all of your human senses to
create a reflection of real-life.
If you do this, you’ll significantly
improve you writing skills.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Monique DeVere grew up on a plantation
on the beautiful island of Barbados, where her childhood was all about
exploring and letting her imagination run wild. She spent her teen years in the
UK where she still lives with her amazing hero husband, four beautiful
children, and two incredible grandkids.
Monique wrote her first novel at age
fifteen but had her heart set on becoming a doctor until she discovered that
raising her kids was far more desirable. Since writing had always been her
favourite pastime, she naturally turned to writing as her preferred job and has
had short stories published and read on radio.
Sure that medicine is her second
calling, she still has a desire to heal, and has gained degrees in Homeopathy
and Herbalism and currently has her eye on a Holistic Nutrition degree course.
However, her first love will always be
writing. She loves to create fun, emotional romances and movie scripts. Her
stories come in three categories: sweet, sensual, and sizzling Rom-Coms.
*~*~*
Title: More Than Friends
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Theme: Friends to Lovers
Logline: She just broke the
Best Friends’ Code of Honour!
*~*~*
Blurb:
She
just broke the Best Friends’ Code of Honour!
What
do you do when your best friend’s fella dumps her?
You
get drunk, catch a cab to his place, offer to bop him on the nose, then...
sleep with him?
Lily
Harper should have taken her secret attraction to Justin Knight into
consideration before rushing to his swanky apartment. Now she’s caught in a
dilemma. Lose her best friend, or the out-of-this-world sexy guy who could be
The One.
Justin
fell for Lily almost from the moment he met her, but she was with someone else
and he'd just started seeing her best
friend. Now Lily is available, and so is he, only, he isn’t having much luck
making her see that sometimes when loyalties collide, a girl has to choose
love!
*~*~*
Excerpt:
“The fact of the matter is—” he
nuzzled her ear “—I’m going to kiss you and every guy in this place is going to
go wild with envy because I’m the lucky sod who gets to do it.”
Lily sucked in a breath, missed a
step. He was making love to her, disguised as a dance. People were beginning to
take an interest. He’d made her a
spectacle.
“Justin, people are watching.”
“Sweetheart, that’s nothing new,
they’ve been riveted from the moment you first walked in the room.”
“Are you sweet talking me?”
He pulled back, his gaze
darkening. “Only if it’s working.” While
his hand caressed her back where the dressed dipped, he stroked his other thumb
against her palm.
Goose bumps raised her flesh. Oh, it
was working. That and the off-the-wall chemistry between them. Every part of
her craved his touch.
He turned her, dipped his head, and
took the kiss he’d warned her he was going to take. It was as if everything
stood still, the room, the hum of conversation, the mellow music, Lily’s
heart—everything.
*~*~*
Purchase Links:
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/242710
Kobo:
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/More-Than-Friends/book-RwR2dSv9s0W7KQssxwnA8Q/page1.html
