What's the big deal about POV?

When authors sit down to write, they have to make a decision about who they're going to be? The question is whose Point of View (POV) are you going to write in.

You know the subject you want to write about. You've sketched the plot out. You know you have lots of conflict and some great resolutions, but . . . you need to answer two questions: Who am I writing for? and Who am I when I'm writing?

If you want to learn more about POV, check out this Reedsy blog post:

https://blog.reedsy.com › guide › point-of-view

or try this one

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/first-second-and-third-person/

The most important thing to remember is not to switch from one POV to another. That's 'head hopping' and it's generally frowned upon. Take a look at what you're reading and decide what POV the author used. It takes practice, but it's worth the effort - you won't confuse the reader.

Joe Bunting in his website: The Write Practice has a great article about Point of View. He says, "In my experience as an editor, point of view problems are among the top mistakes I see new writers make, and they instantly erode credibility and reader trust."

He further asks:

"Why does point of view matter so much?

Because point of view filters everything in your story. Everything in your story must come from a point of view.

Which means if you get it wrong, your entire story is damaged.

For example, I just finished judging a writing contest for The Write Practice Pro. I personally read and judged over ninety stories, and I found point of view mistakes in about twenty percent of them, including a few stories that would have placed much higher if only the writers hadn’t made the mistakes we’re going to talk about soon."