Virtual Book Tour

Thursday, July 31, was the final day of my blog book tour, and I must say it was quite an experience. All the hosts were terrific, some dealing with family crisis, career crisis, and personal dilemmas, but yet still willing to take the time to post because they had said they would. This is something about writers I’ve always found terrific. Their ability to “tend to business” no matter what else is going on.

And also a thank you to all those who followed the tour and took the time to post comments of praise for me and my writing. I tell you, that makes me feel so good when my peers pay compliments. All of you are super.

To all of you, a special, special thank you. It’s wonderful to know we can count on you, no matter what. Tomorrow I’m going to Springfield to hold a workshop for the gals of Ozark Romance Authors. This is a really great group of writers. They invite me back several times a year. I hope I never run out of something to talk about.

This time I’m speaking on Deep Point of View. Some writers have used this technique for years, but it’s only now catching on with genre writers. James Lee Burke is one of the best examples of deep point of view. The writer is never there, not in the narration or the exposition. The pov character shows the way at all times, even to explaining what must be explained.

A friend and member of our writer’s group asked if John Gardner is wrong when he states that all third person is a form of omniscient, ranging from restrictive—subjective—to narrator participatory? This is also how creative writing is taught in 7th through 12th grade, at least in California, my friend said.

I said back at him, No, John Gardner is not “wrong” he’s just behind the times.

I say also to him, read Burke and see if he participates in the narration, or if there’s any omniscience in his writing. He won’t find it there. I know Burke writes in first person, but his work can be changed to third person easily and all that will be changes is the pronoun I to he. In order to write his work in the same way, I’ve heard that Larry McMurtry writes his first drafts in first person to reach that same non-omniscient style, then he changes it to third person in the final draft.

Try it yourself and you’ll see it works, and oh my what a great deal of difference it makes in your finished work. You and your reader crawl inside the pov character and remain there for the entire story. Narration, exposition, internalization, the whole ball of string. Have fun.