I finished the “rewrite” of my first draft (although the saved file name calls is version 8). I mentioned in a previous post that I had a couple big problems to fix based on feedback from beta readers.

I really confused one of the beta readers with an early chapter written from the point of view of a brand new character. While I haven’t sent the completed new draft back to this reader, I did send the rewrite of the problematic chapter, newly told from the point of view of a character introduced in Book 1. The feedback was very positive. She could recognize the callbacks to events in Book 1 and could clearly follow the advancement of the story.

The second issue, brought up by the other beta reader, was the pacing and storytelling of the climax. After rewriting the early chapter, I ended up rewriting another later on and then carrying how the story shifted into the climax. I paid careful attention to point of view and the dramatic elements of the final confrontation. I’m happy with it, but I also started looking for more references about the writing craft and especially pacing and point of view advice. I’ll cover pacing in another post, but I wanted to share some thoughts on point of view (POV).

I prefer writing in third person, at least for this series. It was a conscious choice. I want the freedom to describe actions of other characters when Charlotte, my main protagonist, isn’t there and has no reason to be. It’s also allowed me to be a little clever with storytelling. However, as this blog from Creative Cornerstones describes, multiple points of view can create storytelling problems as well:

Driftless Spirits (Book 1) is primarily told from Charlotte’s point of view. However, there are about six chapters told from the point of view of the victim of the crime Charlotte thwarts. There are also three chapters told from other character points of view. Two of those were added after the initial draft was complete for very clear reasons. The last one is the epilogue. All of these deviations from the main character’s POV were solid choices, in my humble opinion. However, I’m not going to submit my book to Creative Cornerstones for a review because she prefers books with no more than two POV characters. It’s a fair preference and her list above explains why. Each new POV creates complications.

In Tangled Roots (Book 2), Charlotte’s point of view dominates. However, I again use about four other points of view, sparingly, to tell the tale. On my next read through the book, I’ll be keeping the “11 Problems” post above in mind while examining the story and the non-Charlotte POV chapters. I think they are all necessary and add more than they take away, but it’s easier to think critically about that stance with a list to reference.