Point of View

One of the things I enjoy about writing short stories is the opportunity to experiment, such as using a POV or tense I don’t normally use.

There are a great many opinions out there on the topic of writing novels in present tense, and/or using a 2^nd person POV, but a short story is a small enough package to allow a writer the opportunity to do something different.

For so far my novels have been in a close third person POV.

Lives Interrupted has several POV characters, and (for me) it would never have worked as a first person POV.  The majority of Driftwood is seen through Juliet’s eyes, but there are several scenes that are essential to the plot where she isn’t present, and so I chose a third person POV.

Back on the subject of short stories, I have written them in first, second and third person, and one particularly troublesome story has been written in all three.  I started it in third person, and felt it wasn’t a close enough view of the central (and only) character.  I tried writing it in first person, and discovered something interesting.  I couldn’t do it. 

The character hates himself so much I just couldn’t summon up that much self-loathing, and the writing came to an abrupt halt.  I decided then to try a second person POV, as in someone talking to themself.  This made all the difference and words started appearing on my laptop screen again.

I doubt I could keep it up for a novel, but it did make a very different writing experience for the short story.