Unlock The Freedom To Cheat Deep POV
By Lisa Hall-Wilson
I've been studying, writing, and teaching Deep POV for… 15 years? I've helped a lot of writers at various levels of accomplishment try and wrap their head around Deep POV, and I’ve learned a lot myself in that teaching process. If I’m honest though, my perspective on Deep POV and how we should approach this technique has changed somewhat over the years.
What Is Deep POV?
Deep POV is collection of stylistic choices that aim to immerse the reader in the lived experience of the POV Character. We want the emotions to be raw and real and the thoughts vulnerable and unfiltered.
Every word on the page, as much as possible, comes from within the character. The goal is to remove the author/narrator voice entirely. Yes, this is about show don't tell, but this style of writing takes showing to new depths and widens the definition of telling.
Examples Of Books Written Entirely In Deep POV
I get asked this A LOT. And I know why. People will fire up Amazon and peruse the bestseller lists and seem to come up empty. But everyone’s doing Deep POV, why can’t I seem to find a good example?
Here's the honest truth. Books written entirely in Deep POV are very difficult to find -- there are a few.
I've had students publish books that are 90% Deep POV who’ve had mixed reactions from readers. Some readers LOVE the shift into Deep POV. One student had a publisher reject the Deep POV novel, even though this was a multi-pubbed author with experience. Another student won a prestigious award by shifting to Deep POV. The results vary widely.
The majority of experienced authors are picking and choosing from among the various Deep POV tools.
They’re using what fits their voice, fits the story, and/or creates the effects they’re looking for. Remember, I said Deep POV is a collection of stylistic choices. When I poll my students on how deep they aim to write in Deep POV (on a scale of 1% - 100%), the majority landed somewhere around 70%-80%.
Deep POV Is NOT A Simple Technique
A lot of writers really beat themselves up because they can't seem to figure out Deep POV. It's not an easy technique. Despite what many blogs will try to tell you on the interwebs (and I recant any instances where I may have said it was easy), there is a lot more to Deep POV than removing emotion words, filter words and dialogue tags.
I’ve observed these three obstacles as common stumbling blocks for learning Deep POV.
- Remember I said that Deep POV widens the definition of author intrusion?
The author voice creeps into your work (usually to summarize, justify, or explain) and undermines the immersive effect deep POV aims to create. Learn to recognize it and use it strategically.
- Deep POV wants you to dive deeper into a character’s emotions and motivations.
First, this requires knowing what they are. Second, learning how to SHOW those emotions without using author summary or explanation without repeating yourself, while adding complexity, scaling up on the tension over the course of the novel, and building in reader surprise…
You get the idea. This is why AI will never really replace a great writer! It’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard. Lean into it and create an unforgettable experience for readers!
- Everyone struggles initially to shift into showing emotions in deeper ways.
Those who aren’t inclined to be introspective, who struggle to articulate or label their own emotions, tend to be the ones that really struggle with Deep POV. To overcome this, it’s going to take a lot of research and beta reader feedback.
Not Sure If Deep POV Is A Good Choice For You?
If you're someone who loves flowery language, the vast story-world building of epic fantasy, sweeping settings and detailed descriptions of historicals, the summarization and explanation of first person narration, Deep POV is going to feel restrictive and possibly suck all the joy of writing away.
Pick the tools that work for you and forget the rest.
Is keeping secrets from readers (that the POV character is privy to) a huge part of your plot?
Are you willing to recast that so the POV character learns things as the reader does or remains in the dark with the reader?
The point of deep POV is that the reader has access to the pov character’s relevant thoughts and feelings throughout the story. If they know something that’s relevant to what’s going on and you don’t share that with the reader, they’re going to feel cheated.
Do you like the more intense, personal, raw perspective of deep POV? If you're inclined to think your story is more about action than emotions, Deep POV is maybe better reserved for key gut-punch emotional moments than the whole novel.
What genre are you writing?
I love to read Nordic noir, but I've yet to find any that even attempt deep point of view (much to my great and intense sadness). Some genres almost require Deep POV, and others rely entirely on the author voice. I absolutely think someone should write a Nordic noir in Deep POV (can we dive deep into the psyche of the tortured detective protags - yes we can!), but that author would be swimming against reader expectations.
I wrote an essential list for Deep POV here.
But An Agent/Editor Told Me To Rewrite In Deep Point Of View
This is tricky and, as I'm neither an editor nor an agent, I'm going to make some generalizations and assumptions based on feedback I've gotten from students over the years. First, agents and acquisition editors are generally very busy. In most cases, they’re not going to give specific advice but more generalized tips (if you get any).
So, while you may be told at a conference pitch session or via email response to rewrite in Deep POV, they likely won’t explain which aspects of Deep POV would serve your story. Yes, some novels might benefit from being shifted entirely into deep pov, but it could also mean they think you need to cut out half the narration/author summary, broaden the emotional range your character expresses or add more emotional complexity.
Do you write in Deep POV? Why or why not? And do you have a question about Deep POV? Ask Lisa in the comments!
Announcement:
Lisa is launching her 4-week Deep POV Masterclass on September 15. This course only opens twice a year! Learn more here.
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About Lisa
Lisa Hall-Wilson is a writing teacher and award-winning writer and author. She’s the author of Method Acting For Writers: Learn Deep Point Of View Using Emotional Layers. Her blog, Beyond Basics For Writers, explores all facets of the popular writing style deep point of view and offers practical tips for writers.
Other Recent Deep POV Posts by Lisa:
- The Essential Deep POV Checklist: 11 Tips For Better Writing
- 4 Tips To Master Backstory In Deep Point Of View
Featured photo credit - Artem Korolev - Unsplash
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29 comments on “Unlock The Freedom To Cheat Deep POV”
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Thanks so much for continuing to host me here at WITS. How long have I been guest-posting here about Deep POV? Since 2018? Wow.
That's right...because I need serious Deep POV help. Always. 🙂
I LOVE Deep POV and have been writing that way since way way way back when I attended a RWA conference and Suzanne Brockmann handed out little booklets with promo for her book on one side, and on the flip side, it was all about Deep POV. I glommed onto it and have never looked back.
Man, I wish I had that booklet. Lisa has helped me tremendously but I'm still shaky on the how of Deep POV. It just hasn't settled into my writing "lizard brain" yet.
Happily, you allow for narrative passages among the authorial choices, though I would substitute "effective rhetoric" from the pejorative-sounding "flowery language." Deep POV is not difficult for anyone adept at monitoring the inner landscape; but that skill also reveals that the inner landscape can be boring, trite, misguided, and laden with magical thinking.
While those things can make for an interesting character, the reality of them of which the reader is aware can also make other characters inauthentic. Deep POV can also bog a story down, and the writer's mission is not only to deeply reveal character, but also move the story along. As for Nordic fiction (I am only minimally familiar with it), I don't wonder if its VERY POINT is to capture or make a statement regarding, the mundane nature of life, the "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" aspect. In other words, a literary "anti-deep POV" style statement.
Finally, as for historical fiction, multiple influences swept by history over long periods of time affecting multiple characters in multiple ways yet lead to a singular, climactic event can, indeed be done in deep POV; then again, the book will be 100,000 pages. Every writing technique is good, but too much of one thing not so much.
I would hesitate to make a claim that Deep POV can’t mesh with these styles or be effective. It’s not for everyone, was my point. I love deep POV and value the emotional intensity it draws out. But that not the style or taste of every reader or author, nor should it be. But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. There’s many tools of deep POV that can create emotional depth and complexity and still allow for the first person narration, keeping secrets, or detailed descriptions. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
I love love love writing in Deep POV and often in first person. With 50 years plus of writing under my belt, I'll be publishing my first thriller soon, and it's mostly Deep POV from five voices, first person, present tense. I love this style of writing because it's intense, emotional, and we get to see inside the speaker's head and see things other characters aren't privy to.
Awesome!! I’m so glad you found a way to make those two styles work together!
Thanks for the post and link to your checklist! I'm writing in first person, present in deep POV for the first time, and it is HARD!
That would be hard. Keep at it. Make sure deep POV serves the story instead of creating convoluted workarounds.
I agree with your comment regarding Nordic Noir. I love the genre, and it would be fascinating to read a deep POV in that style. I think I write a lot with my character being the main voice, but it is from their point of view. I don't think it is deep POV. Oh dear, it does get confusing, but thank you for this article. I'm going to try a short piece in deep POV and see how I manage.
You won’t know til you try! Many of my students find that once they really learn deep POV and see the effects it creates, they struggle to go back to writing in a more distant perspective.
This post has encouraged me to take a deeper dive into deep POV. I am not sure I would be successful, but I'll give anything a try once to see if it works for me!
There’s a lot more to this style than what’s contained in a 800 word blog post. Just keep that in mind when researching. Many posts tell you what to take out (dialogue tags, emotions words, filter words, etc), but they fail to teach you how to go deeper with the emotions.
For some reason, I've never liked narrator/author intrusions.
I have been working on a mainstream trilogy which is mostly deep pov for 25 years now. I'm writing the final volume, LIMBO, now.
I learned from Orson Scott Card's book Characters & Viewpoint (Elements of Fiction Writing) Paperback – January 1, 1988 how to handle it, moving from a very light, almost omniscient point, through deeper and deeper points, to deep pov.
Basically he said you can't skip deepening or lightening steps without jarring the reader, going in either direction - into the character's mind where you live right behind the eyeballs - and back out into where the character is ALMOST a narrator.
In a scene, I do one or the other, make the trip, and then stay.
Readers seem to get it - if they're capable of following - by a chapter or two in, and then like it. Some people try and give up. But the reviews have a number of people commenting that they 'couldn't get into it but something made them try again,' and then finish the novels.
I'm so used to it that it surprises me when readers don't understand, but have been known to tell a potential new reader to give it a few chapters.
I LOVE telling the story from the pov of the three main characters - and choose carefully which one gets which scene.
Since I have been chronically ill the entire time I've been writing Pride's Children, and can EITHER read or write, but not both, I haven't read a lot of modern books, and go mostly by the omnivorous reading, including classics, of my younger days. I don't feel experimental - it's comfortable to 'become the character' for a scene, and tell that piece of the story from their pov, one plotted scene at a time until each book is finished. No narrator/author intrusions.
Works for me.
If it works for you and your readers love it, keep doing what you’re doing. Deep POV as we know it now wasn’t really solidified as a technique until the early 2010s. It was what we now call Limited Third Person in the early 2000s. You sound like a pioneer. 🙂 Keep forging new paths.
Never thought of myself as a pioneer - more as an outlier. I published the first volume in 2015, the second in 2022.
I'm also an extreme plotter.
It has been an interesting ride.
Pioneer. I like the sound of that. But it hasn't much value unless other people hear about it and read/follow. And few people know my work, even though PURGATORY was Indies Today 2021 Best Contemporary novel.
I finally gave up and hired a publicist; waiting to see what she can do. I'm way too obscure in this media-glitzy marketing environment - and have to spend what energy I have WRITING the final volume... Pride's Children is meant to be my legacy, but that's a joke if no one ever hears about it.
Thank you for this, Lisa. I have been working on developing the ability to write in Deep POV for awhile. It is not an easy transition. Sometimes it feels like my hands are tied behind my back and other times it feels like my characters are on LSD because the is too much sensory detail! Your guidance and coaching is wonderful. I seem to write in Third Person Limited, First Person Narrative, and Deep POV. It sometimes feels like upping the magnification as I go deeper. I have to really watch myself or I slip into author summary. I love your classes and have become a better writer because of them.
Thank you!! Yes, blending deep POV with other styles can be effective, but you have to be strategic and understand the effects the deep POv tools aim to create in order to use them effectively. Otherwise you can end up with characters no one likes or understands, slow pacing, or tension killing on-the-nose prose.
I love to write in Deep POV. It is challenging to shift one's perspective. Often, I catch problems when editing. I will realize I am summarizing or explaining or, eek, framing. I took approximately a year and a half of classes with Lisa. It was mind blowing. Now, my novels are winning awards and getting good reviews and ratings. Deep POV works. It gave my writing the emotional punch I wanted, makes my writing sparkle. I know some people think it is just for heavy emotional scenes, but I find it helps action and thinking through problems. Thanks, Lisa (I write science fiction. My latest includes a slow burn romance as well)
I suppose I could have been more detailed in my comment. When I use Deep POV in Science fiction, I use it for the immediacy, the rawness of the thoughts, the body language. Yes, emotions play into it as well. My pacing is much improved without all the explanations and framing I used to use. And Deep POV is a constant challenge to get it right.
This is so good to hear!! It makes me so happy to see students take what they've learned and really run with it and make it work FOR them. Thanks for the update!!
In literature, examining Deep POV genuinely reveals character connection and emotional depth. It's amazing how writers may effortlessly accomplish this narrative style with the aid of a <a href="[Link deleted]professional ghost writing service, particularly when expressing intricate inner thoughts. Gaining proficiency in these methods gives every written work more strength and authenticity.
Yes. AI cannot properly write in deep POV -- it tries, but it still can't properly grasp the depth, the breadth, and intensity of emotions.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for your great explanation of deep POV. It helps clarify this style of writing for me.
Kris
Awesome! Glad to hear it! Once you go deep, you never go back.
I see you save all the "tools" for your class 😫
My present WIP, third person limited, is deep POV even if light (not absent) on emotion. The character is the center of every scene. Nothing ever happens away from the main character's view or hearing or one of her other senses. The author is entirely absent except a very occasional, only ever one sentence, address to the reader. Is that deep enough?
I have written quite a lot with specific examples on my personal blog and here on WITS over the years. Only you can say whether you're going deep enough. I would encourage you to find other writers who really understand this technique and get feedback from them on whether you're going deep enough to really connect emotionally with readers.
How do I decide whether to use first-person or third-person deep POV?