Historical Romance Author Carol Spradling

Visit the Archive to
see past tips.

Carol On Writing

I loved creating my story, bringing characters to life, and immersing myself in another time and place, but then the inevitable happened. It was finished. 110,000 words stared back at me and my only response was, what do I do now? What happened next is what inspired this page.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed and feel lost while writing. The most encouraging comment I heard was—no one is born a writer, but anyone can learn to write. Very true. I don’t know of any writer who sits down and types an entire book exactly as it appears when at the bookstore. Aren’t you glad to know that?

I am no expert and make no such claims. I wouldn’t dream of telling you the proper way of doing anything. However, I would like to share with you the things I encountered while pursuing my aspirations to become a published author. If you would like to add/ask anything, please feel free to send me a note.

Point of View

This is how a reader sees the story. I have to admit, this was my biggest stumbling block when starting out. I wanted to make sure the reader got a full view of the scene and had an insight into all of the characters thoughts. All this did was give readers a headache. More than anything, pick a pov and stick with it. If you need to shift to a different person's pov, or even a different pov all together, create a scene break.

There are many types of pov's. Omniscient, third person, first person. Even within those, there are finer tuned pov's. We won't go into those at this time.

Omniscient allows the reader to have an inside look at the entire scene. The story is told from a narrator's eye view with dips into each character's thoughts. We can also know things the characters aren't privy to because the narrator can share info with the reader. This method is tricky, but can be done. The problem with it…it lends to head hopping. Head hopping can frustrate and distance a reader because they don't develop an emotional attachment to any of the characters. It's almost like going to a party and flitting among all the guests. You never stay longer than a few seconds with each one, thus your presence was felt, but how well do you know anyone? Opposed to, staying with one character, or even becoming that character, as you mingle among the guests. This will allow you to hear all of the comments and inside thoughts of the one character, and you still became familiar with everyone while getting to know one character very well. Louis L'Amour is a master at omniscient pov.

First Person may look like the easiest pov, but it has major obstacles. In this pov, you never have the chance to get to know other characters on a deeper level. Your main character has to be in the room at all times and the reader only learns this character's thoughts, other than through observation, on every subject. Another major problem is the word “I”. You will reference “I” more times in this pov than any other. You will need to be creative to structure sentences to keep the reader from becoming bored. This is not impossible and if done well, is very effective. The perks to first person pov is, it gives the author a great “voice”. The reader feels as thought they are actually there. The story becomes more personal. Diana Gabaldon does first person pov and does it very well, I might add.

Third Person is what many publishing houses ask for. I wonder if they think it's safe. Third person allows the reader to view the story through one person's eyes. The advantage is, you can change the pov character by changing the scene or adding a scene break. One of the best-used methods I have seen with third person is by author, Sarah McKerrigan. She would tell a scene through one character's view. After she has shown everything in that scene from one character, she would create a scene break, switch to the other character, and continue the scene from where she left off. Brilliant. This allows the reader to see one scene from two views without head hopping.

Each book will have a need for one specific pov over the other. Whether you choose to mount your reader on the wall and allow them to see the scene as though looking through a video camera or have them become the character of the story, the choice is yours. Do what works best for the scene and your story, but be consistent.