The Art of Writing: How to Write Bestselling Novels

Deep POV (Point of View)

(NOTE: I cannot take reading requests since I have a family and run a small business.)

One of the most valuable skills you can learn today is writing in deep POV (Point of View).

Keeping the reader engaged is the #1 rule of writing. If you can't keep your readers engaged, they'll stop reading to play a video game instead, or maybe watch TV, or text with friends. Tons of things in today's world compete for your readers' attention, but if you can keep them engaged with deep POV, you'll keep them from putting your book down to do other things.

A lot of people don't know what deep POV is, so I'll lift the mysterious vail. Deep POV is comprised of a few different components. First and foremost is writing sensations within the body of the POV character in order to give the reader a sense of being deeper within the person, feeling what they feel. Another aspect of it is filter words. Filter words take us a step outside the POV character's head. That's a big no-no. The deeper you can stay in the character, the more engaged the reader will be. The third aspect may seem like the opposite of deep POV, but it's not. It's writing the body movements--body language--of the people the POV character interacts with. This is deep POV because one of the biggest languages of the heart is body language, so you are, in essence, getting deeper into the POV character's heart by showing the things the heart recognizes. This actually gets deeper inside your readers' hearts, as well, because their hearts also recognize the body language they read in your book. Never forget that--it's huge for keeping readers engaged.

POV CHARACTER: BODILY SENSATIONS & BODY LANGUAGE

So the next and most important thing is to get good at conveying bodily sensations such as chills crawling up her spine or her stomach wrenching or her heart clawing its way up her throat, etc. All of those types of sensations place the reader squarely in the body of the character. And that third example was a method used to evoke visceral responses from the reader. In other words, the wording and imagery is so strong, it causes the reader to have visceral feelings and sensations. However, that's a skill we'll have to save for another chapter.

There's one caveat to writing bodily sensations: they need to be original and fresh.

If you write the same cliche things every writer writes, your writing won't stand out. So be creative with how you write your bodily sensations. Now that's not to say that you need to write every single one in a unique way. You can use some normals ones here and there or not very creative ones. But you really want to do your best to come up with creative ones so your writing really stands out to the reader. Some comedic writers have hilarious ones.

So, here's an even deeper POV version of the sentence we're were working with earlier:

The scent of her coconut shampoo was intoxicating, bringing goosebumps to my skin.

Now that wasn't very creative, but you get the idea.

Here's a more creative one: Ian saw the woman pull the blood-streaked knife from her stomach and plod his direction. Chills crawled up his spine like a thousand tiny spiders with bladed legs.

Still not great but better than just "chills."

The reason for this is that the language of the heart is story and body movements (body language). The more the heart can hear a story with body language, the deeper experience and engagement it will have. Engaging the heart is the strongest form of reader engagement because the heart is what keeps the reader reading. Speak its language and you'll capture your readers' souls.

So your goal now is to go to every part of your book where your character(s) should feel some type of bodily sensation and then rework the way you've written it to make sure it's as deep POV as you can get it. If you need help, there's a book called The Emotion Thesaurus that has tons of these sensations and expressions. Use as many internal and external expressions and possible to show how your characters are feeling rather than telling how they're feeling. So really, this is a lesson in "show, don't tell." But that will also be a separate chapter.