Last Friday, I shared on my author blog that I’m releasing a novella written from Abbie Hoyt’s perspective. Abbie is the younger sister of Skylar Hoyt, and when we met her in the Skylar series, she was fifteen and pregnant. The series ended after Abbie had her baby, but still in a rather open-ended way. After several years of receiving emails from readers asking about Abbie, Chris, and Owen, I found myself longing to write more of her story, and this novella is the result.
Throwing Stones will be available for free February 14th on my website. Read a description of the story here. |
But why did a character as popular and ensconced in conflict as Abbie was in the Skylar series did she not get a turn to speak in the original books? Why was the whole series told from Skylar’s point of view (POV)?
You can also write books in third person but one POV. The Uglies by Scott Westerfield is the first book that comes to mind.
If the reader isn’t wild about your character, they will have a very hard time liking your book because they’re stuck with them the entire time. That’s not to say they won’t read it (I had a friend who didn’t bond with Katniss Everdeen but who still read all three books) but it’s more of a battle then a book written with multiple POVs. (Or omniscient, but I still don’t understand the mechanics of how omniscient is different than head hopping, so don’t ask me questions about it!)
If the author doesn’t know the character well, the story will fall flat. It’s always best to know your main character, of course, but since first person single POV is like taking up residence in another person’s head … you better understand what’s going on in there.
The reader can only know what the character knows. This is the biggest drawback for writers who are considering a single POV book. No glimpse inside the villain’s head. No behind-the-scenes peeks. Everything has to be interpreted through the POV character, and for some writers that can feel very suffocating as they tell the story.
For most genres, it’s not the norm. If you’re writing for publication, this can be a big deal. Like the romance genre typically has at least two POVs – the heroine and the hero. Often it will have the main antagonist as well. This is yet another reason why it’s important to have read current books in the genre you want to write.