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Should I Write My Novel in Omniscient Point of View?

WriteTip | Should I Write My Novel in Omniscient Point of View?

Almost all novels are written from first person or third person point of view.

If you don’t understand those terms, click here for a post outlining the different points of view.

A lot of newer authors like writing in omniscient point of view. After all, that’s how many classic authors wrote, so it must be okay. Right?

Unfortunately, no.

So what’s the problem with Omniscient Point of View?

Omniscient was the prevailing point of view for most fiction in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Omniscient point of view is often popular with writers who have grown up enjoying the classics of English literature … most of which were written in omniscient point of view.

Essentially, omniscient point of view is writing the story from one single point of view, but a point of view that knows everything. That’s why it’s sometimes called the “God” view … because only God knows everything.

But omniscient point of view has fallen out of favour with publishers and readers because it introduces distance between the reader and the characters. Even novels set in the Victorian era now tend to be written in third person rather than omniscient.

Modern readers see omniscient point of view as old-fashioned. Readers now prefer a more intimate point of view that allows them to engage with the characters they’re reading about.

(Click here to read more about using Deep Point of View to engage readers.)

Omniscient point of view can also signal writing craft issues.

The main issues are:

  • Telling vs. Showing
  • Confusing Omniscient with Third Person
  • Headhopping
  • Author Intrusion

Telling vs. Showing

Many new authors don’t understand point of view and the way point of view is used to draw the reader into the story. New writers often start with a story they want to tell. They then write their novel from their own point of view. As the author, they are all-knowing and all-seeing, and their novel follows this train of thought.

“[Omniscient] is probably the easiest point of view for the beginning writer—and the most dangerous. The writer… can see everything everywhere. Because the writer flits about from character to character, often thoughtlessly, the result can be more like alphabet soup than a controlled experience for the reader.” (Sol Stein, Solutions for Novelists: Secrets of a Master Editor)

Modern fiction shows the story by putting the reader inside the heads of the main characters without flitting between them. This allows the reader to get to know the characters:

“the more intimate the point of view, the better. One of the most vital and difficult tasks facing a writer is creating believable and engaging characters, and an intimate point of view is a terrific way of doing this.” (Renni Browne and Dave King, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers)

Omniscient Point of View vs. Third Person

The second craft problem is that many writers don’t understand true omniscient point of view, possibly because third person and omniscient point of view both use the same he/she and him/her pronouns. What a writer thinks is omniscient may actually be third person point of view with headhopping and author intrusions.

True omniscient point of view tells a story through the eyes of an all-knowing, all-seeing narrator e.g. The Book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. If there is no clear narrator, the novel is not written in omniscient point of view.

In contrast, third person shows the story through the eyes of one or more point of view characters, one at a time. Moving between characters in a single scene is not omniscient point of view. It’s headhopping.

Headhopping

Headhopping can become an issue when the author is writing in third person point of view. Third person typically uses multiple point of view characters, and each character has their own unique voice.

Headhopping is writing from the point of view of more than one character in a scene using the voice of each character (omniscient point of view would use the single overriding external narrator).

The general rules of third person Point of View are:

  • There must only be one point of view character in each scene (this is why third person is sometimes referred to as limited: because the point of view is limited to one character per scene).
  • The point of view character should be the individual most affected by the actions in that scene.
  • The first name mentioned in a scene should be that of the point of view character.

If the author switches point of view from one character to another within the scene, this is referred to as headhopping. Telling the story from the point of view of multiple narrators within a scene presents a problem:

Anytime you change viewpoint inside an ongoing scene, you risk confusing the reader about the goal, losing reader sympathy for the desired character, putting the spotlight of reader-identification in the wrong place, and muddying the dramatic waters in terms of what is at stake for whom. (Jack M Bickham in Scene and Structure)

Author Intrusion

Author intrusions are another potential issue with third person point of view. An author intrusion could be:

  • Where the text says something the viewpoint character can’t possibly know (e.g. little did she know what would happen tomorrow).
  • The author describing something the viewpoint character can’t hear or see.
  • The author editorialises the story in their own voice, telling the reader what they should feel or believe.

Author intrusions should be avoided no matter what point of view an author is using.

So should you write your novel in omniscient point of view?

If you are writing purely for your own pleasure, then it doesn’t matter.

But if you’re writing with the intention of publishing, then first person or third person are safer options because they are more likely to engage readers and publishers.

For more information on point of view in writing, see:

 

 

Can I Edit my Novel with Grammarly?

Dear Editor | Can I Edit my Novel with Grammarly?

I usually answer these kinds of questions with an it-depends kind of answer. Sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes it is no, depending on a variety of factors.

This is no one of those times. My answer is clear.

No.

You can’t edit your novel with Grammarly. (And I’m not just saying that because I’m an editor.)

Well, you can. But it won’t be correct.

This topic has come up in several editing groups I’m a member of. Yes, editors may well have a vested interest in saying they can do the job better than a piece of software. After all, that’s how editors earn money.

The general consensus among editors is that Grammarly is correct around half the time.

The challenge for authors who need help with spelling and grammar is working out which half.

I also have a real-life example to prove my point: a novel the author claims was edited in Grammarly. We’re both members of a Facebook group for writers, and the author shared that in a post. That’s all I’m going to tell you about the book. The point here isn’t to embarrass a new writer.

The point is to show that while Grammarly can identify more errors than spellcheck, that’s not going to give an error-free novel. Far from it.

Let’s go through the first few paragraphs in the Kindle sample:

“Sonny Quick, under the table.”

This sentence is grammatically correct if we assume the unnamed speaker is telling a character named Sonny Quick to get under the table. Unfortunately, that is not the case: the next line makes clear the unnamed speaker is telling a young boy called Johnny to get under the table.

To make this clear, the sentence should read:

“Sonny, quick, get under the table.”

This shows “quick” is an instruction, not the character’s surname.

Better still, revise the sentence to give the character’s name (Johnny), and avoid the awkward double commas:

“Johnny. Get under the table. Quick.”

Let’s move on.

Lieutenant Smith stomped in, slamming the door open.

Again, this sentence is grammatically correct: the words are spelled correctly, capitalised appropriately, and the punctuation is in the right place.

But it describes a practical impossibility. The lieutenant must open the door before he stomps in. Not after. As such, the sentence should read:

The door slammed open, and Lieutenant Smith stomped in.

So we have had two sentences that Grammarly has punctuated in a way that is technically correct, but which is incorrect based on the actual content.

This next sentence is missing two commas and a period. It also says “horseshoes” even though a blacksmith can only beat one horseshoe at a time. The sentence should read:

Mr Thomas said to Lieutenant Smith, “Johnny hasn’t turned up to work this morning, so I don’t know where he is. I’m busy.” He kept beating the horseshoe he was making.

That’s how a competent proofreader (or grammar checker) would edit the sentence. A line editor or copyeditor would revise the paragraph to start with dialogue and move the action beat to the middle:

“Johnny hasn’t turned up to work this morning.” Mr Thomas beat the horseshoe he was working on. “I don’t know where he is. I’m busy.”

Why? Because we don’t need to know who Mr Thomas is talking to. It’s obvious.

Lieutenant Smith grew red! His anger was visible.

The sentence doesn’t need the exclamation mark! It’s not a Hardy Boys novel! Too many exclamation marks are annoying! (They can also be a sign of poor writing …)

On the plus side, first the sentence is showing. Unfortunately, the next sentence tells the emotion, which isn’t necessary.

Mr Thomas’s shoe tapped Johnny on the knee, just motioning that he would keep him safe.

Again, this sentence is grammatically correct. But it doesn’t make sense. Try to visualise the scene: Mr Thomas is making horseshoes, an activity normally conducted on an anvil in a forge. I’m no blacksmith, but the pictures and demonstrations I’ve seen have the blacksmith facing an anvil (which he beats the horseshoe on). The anvil is positioned beside the forge, so the blacksmith can easily heat the metal. There will also be a bucket of water next to the anvil, so the blacksmith can quickly cool the metal.

At least, that’s how I picture a blacksmith’s forge. But that doesn’t match the description we’re given.

  • If Mr Thomas is facing the anvil, how can he tap Johnny on the knee with his foot?
  • Where is the workbench? It can’t be in front of Mr Thomas, as then the lieutenant would be able to see Johnny. It can’t be behind Mr Thomas, as that would mean making an awkward movement that would be sure to attract the lieutenant’s attention.

I don’t know. Again, an editor would have asked these questions so the author could either revise or delete the sentence.

That’s a lot of errors for four sentences on the first page of a novel. My conclusion: if you’re writing a novel, Grammarly is no substitute for a competent human editor.

If you don’t know show from tell, find someone who does.

If you don’t know first person from third person point of view, find someone who does.

If you don’t know right from wrong (or write from right from Wright), find someone who does.

Because you can’t rely on even the best online grammar checker.

Should I Write in First Person or Third Person Point of View?

#WriteTips | Should I Write in First Person or Third Person Point of View?

Yes 🙂

You should definitely write your novel in first person or third person point of view. But which do you choose, and what are the other alternatives? Let’s look at the alternatives first.

Yes, you should definitely write your novel in first person or third person point of view. But which do you choose, and what are the alternatives? #WriteTip Share on X

Depending on who you ask, there are between three and twenty-seven different points of view in fiction. No, I can’t imagine how they get to twenty-seven either. I see four points of view in common use:

  • First person
  • Second person
  • Third person
  • Omniscient

Let’s look at each of these points of view, and discuss when it might be a good option.

First Person

First person point of view uses the “I” pronoun: I made breakfast, and I drank my coffee. As such, the narrator is speaking directly to the reader. First person takes the reader into the head of the narrator and is highly engaging when done properly.

Most novels written in first person have a single point of view character. Some have more than one point of view, although this does mean convincing the reader that both “I” characters . The challenge with multiple first person point of view characters is ensuring each character has a distinct voice.

Having two first person point of view characters can work (just don’t write two books in a trilogy from a single point of view, then add a second point of view in the final book in the trilogy. Please. It’s a clear giveaway that you’re going to kill off the main character).

Second Person

Second person point of view uses the “you” pronoun: you made breakfast, and you drank coffee. It can feel contrived, because the author is trying to convince you, the reader, that you are the character, and they are telling you what to do and what to feel.

Here’s the introduction to Synapse by Steven James, which is written in second person. I found it offputting, and I only kept reading because the premise of the novel intrigued me. In hindsight, I’m not convinced the story needed this scene as the opening hook, and suspect it lost more potential readers than it attracted:

I tend to agree with the prevailing opinion on second person point of view: it works for instructional texts (like this how-to blog post), self-help, and choose your own adventure books. Otherwise, it’s an intrusive gimmick.

Third Person

Third person point of view uses the “he/she” and “him/her” pronouns: he made breakfast, and she drank her coffee. It is by far the most common choice in modern fiction. The current trend is to use deep perspective third person, which puts the reader inside the head of the point of view characters in much the same was as first person.

Third person gives the author the freedom to explore the viewpoints of other characters. Third person can range from a very distant (almost omniscient) point of view to a very close point of view that, to the reader, feels more like first person. The modern reader wants to be intimately involved with the (fictional) lives of your characters, because this is what makes them believable and engaging:

“the more intimate the point of view, the better. One of the most vital and difficult tasks facing a writer is creating believable and engaging characters, and an intimate point of view is a terrific way of doing this.”

Renni Browne and Dave King, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

So when is third person the right choice for your story? Put simply, if first person isn’t the right choice, then use third person. Whichever you choose, make sure you engage your readers.

Split First/Third Person

Some novels use first person point of view for the main character’s point of view, and third person for a second character e.g. the love interest. This can work, but some readers find it offputting. As such, a novel written in split points of view is always going to have a lower potential readership than a novel written in third person.

I read one thriller where most of the story was in third person, but the occasional short scenes from the evildoer’s point of view were written in first person. This was an effective way of ensuring the evildoer remained anonymous: the use of the “I” pronoun effectively hid even their gender from the reader.

First person is a common choice in young adult fiction. It’s also popular in romance and women’s fiction, and can be used in mysteries and thrillers (although it’s less common in those genres). It’s rarely used in fantasy. First person can be an acquired taste. Some publishers (and many readers) won’t even consider a novel written in first person.

Omniscient

Omniscient point of view uses the same he/she and him/her pronouns as third person, but the story isn’t narrated by one of the characters. Instead, the story is told by an all-seeing, all-knowing narrator who is outside the story. And that’s the problem with omniscient: it’s often telling a story, rather than showing. Sol Stein says:

This is probably the easiest point of view for the beginning writer—and the most dangerous. The writer… can see everything everywhere. Because the writer flits about from character to character, often thoughtlessly, the result can be more like alphabet soup than a controlled experience for the reader.

Sol Stein, Solutions for Novelists: Secrets of a Master Editor

I’ll be back next week to go into more detail about omniscient point of view (and why I’m not a fan).

Best of the Blogs

Christian Editing Services | Best of the Blogs | 18 November 2017

We’re more than halfway through November already! For those of you attempting NaNoWriMo this month, how are you going?

I’ve flunked. But I have written and loaded a heap of blog posts, almost finished the visual rebranding for a group blog (we’ll roll that out over the Christmas break), and I’m currently doing two online courses with Lawson Writer’s Academy, one on writing craft, and one on marketing. The writing course has shown me how little I know my characters … which is why I’ve flunked NaNo.

Anyway, on with the news …

Writing

Theme

Michael Hauge asks What’s Your Theme? A novel needs an overall theme … but it’s something a lot of authors either skim over, or try and shoehorn in at the end.

https://www.storymastery.com/character-development/whats-your-theme/

What Are You Writing?

David Farland asks Are You Writing a Book, or a Movie? He goes on to explain the differences in point of view for novels and movies. As it happens, I’m currently writing a blog post on this subject, inspired by a course I’m taking through Lawson Writers Academy.

http://davidfarland.com/2017/11/writing-book-movie/

Publishing

Cover Design

Paul Barrett, Art Director of Girl Friday Productions, visits Author Marketing Experts to share Book Marketing 101: 10 Things Not to Do on Your Book Cover. There are so many bad book covers out there! Unfortunately, the authors don’t know they’re bad (because surely you wouldn’t deliberately allow your book to go out with an awful cover?).

I suspect that’s because many newbie authors can’t see beyond it’s a book! With my name on the cover!

They don’t know the principles of good design … and it’s something you need to know before you start designing your first book cover (actually, for many authors, that’s their first mistake. Designing their own cover).

https://www.amarketingexpert.com/10-book-cover-rules/

Fighting Piracy

Following Maggie Stiefvater’s blog post about her experience with book pirates, Jana Oliver visits Fiction University to share what she’s doing to fight the book pirates in Why eBook Piracy Matters.

Marketing

Branding

Belinda Griffin of SmartAuthorsLab visits The Creative Penn to share 7 Best Ways to Build an Authentic Author Brand.

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2017/11/10/authentic-author-brand/

If you’re interested in learning how to build your brand from nothing, I have two suggestions:

1. Follow my blog. I have a blog series on branding coming up in February 2018.

2. Click here to sign up to my Kick Start Your Author Platform information list. I’ll be running the programme again in March 2018 … and there will be more information about it coming up soon!

Cross Promotion

Diana Urban visits the BookBub blog to share 14 Ways Authors can Cross-Promote Each Other’s Books. You will note none of them include commenting on blog posts (although that’s always welcome!).

Facebook Chatbots

Louise Harnby introduces Facebook Chatbots in How To Market Your Book and Build Your Author Platform Using a Chatbot. What are chatbots? Are they the next big thing in book marketing? Who knows? But they are currently underutilised, and if there is one thing I’ve learned about book marketing, it’s that it pays to be at the leading edge of the curve.

That’s my top seven posts for this week. What’s the best post you’ve read this week on writing, editing, publishing, or marketing?

Best of the Blogs

Best of the Blogs: 15 April 2017

 

Best of the blogs: the best posts I’ve read this week on writing, editing, publishing, and marketing your novel. Well, mostly writing and marketing, including a useful posts about Elegant Authors from Elegant Themes.

Writing

On Christian Fiction …

TJ Mackay of InD’Tale Magazine visits Seekerville to share her views of the role of Christian fiction in a secular world.

Andrea Grigg visited Australasian Christian Writers to share a similar message. Andrea is Stepping Out and writing to encourage. And that might be in the Christian market, or the general market.

Point of View

 

Kristen Lamb continues her series on point of view with How to Immerse the Reader in Story.

And I continue my series on point of view with Using Point of View to Engage Readers. Great minds must think alike! Although Kristen has better graphics . . .

Marketing

Cover Design

Holly Brady shares seven tips to consider when briefing your cover designer. Yes, I agree with Holly when she says she never recommends authors design their own covers.

 

MailChimp Autoresponders

It is a truth universally acknowledged that authors need an email list, and that MailChimp is the market leader in the field. Okay, not quite.

I’ve seen several comments over the last week from people having trouble with MailChimp account. One problem is setting up autoresponder emails: those emails a new subscriber to your email list receives automatically. (If you’d like an example of an autoresponder sequence, sign up for my email list using the box on the right.)

Anyway, Elegant Themes have written an excellent post on how to set up an autoresponder sequence in MailChimp—complete with pictures. Note that autoresponders are a paid feature in MailChimp. You can select:

  • A monthly subscription where the price is based on the size of your list(s) and you’re allowed unlimited emails.
  • The pay-as-you-go model, where you buy email credits so effectively pay per email sent.

If budget is an issue, you could consider MailerLite. They offer free autoresponders if you have less than 1,000 subscribers.

 

If you prefer video instructions, then I recommend watching Day 3 of the free WP-BFF Five Day Website Challenge, and/or the paid WP-BFF MailChimp MasterClass (available through the BFF Academy, or separately).

Author Websites

Elegant Themes have introduced Elegant Authors, a Divi layout for authors. For those who don’t know, Divi is their popular drag-and-drop theme. They say the layout is free, but I suspect that means it’s free if you have Divi, which means if you have an Elegant Themes subscription.

I haven’t tried Divi or Elegant Authors—I currently use the free version of the Make theme on this site, and I’m happy with it. But I do use two Elegant Themes plugins on this website:

  • Bloom for capturing email optins.
  • Monarch for my social sharing icons.

What’s the best or most useful blog post you’ve read this week?

 

Using Point of View to Engage Readers

Shaping the Diamond Part One (Using Point of View to Engage Readers)

Last week I looked at the types of point of view we use in fiction. This week I’m looking at point of view from another perspective—why it’s important. The main reason we need to use deep perspective point of view is because it’s a great way to engage readers by making them feel part of the story:

As the distinction between narrator and character blurs, the distance between them shrinks, and so does the distance between reader and character.
– David Jauss, On Writing Fiction

This is especially useful in genres such as romance, women’s fiction and young adult fiction, where readers want to feel part of the story.

As an added bonus, proper use of deep perspective point of view helps prevent some of the most common issues I see in fiction manuscripts:

  • Headhopping and Author Intrusion
  • Writing Character’s Thoughts
  • Telling, not showing

Today I’m going to cover headhopping, author intrusion, and writing character’s thoughts. I’ll look at showing and telling next week.

Headhopping

Changing the point of view character in a scene is referred to as headhopping, which can be confusing for the reader. For example, the following paragraph shows three viewpoints in three sentences, first Alice, then Ben, then Dr Cook:

It was all too much for Alice. She turned, clung to Ben’s lapels and sobbed. Her heart was breaking. Ben held her against his chest and allowed the grief of years to be brutalised by hope. Dr Cook looked on benignly, waiting for her grief to subside before he continued with his examination.

This should be revised so the entire paragraph is from the viewpoint of a single character, the character who is most affected by the actions in that scene. This character should be named first, so the reader knows who is the point of view character in the scene.

Remember, a scene has a specific structure (which I discussed when I visited Seekerville). Adding a line break and *** does not create a new scene.

Yes, I’ve seen it done.

I think the author was breaking up the narrative into “scenes” to show she understood the rule of only having one point of view character per scene. But my reaction was that either she didn’t know how to write a proper scene, or that she was too lazy to revise her manuscript properly. Either way, the substandard writing showed a lack of respect for her potential readers.

Author Intrusion

If you’re using deep perspective point of view properly, the story is being told through the eyes of your characters. Author intrusion is when you slip out of the character’s viewpoint and tell the story as the author. An author intrusion can be as simple as one wrong word—an English character who says y’all or pavement. An American who says boot instead of trunk. A high school dropout who talks about serendipity.

For example, I have blonde hair courtesy of an excellent hairdresser. I might look in the mirror and think it’s time to get my roots touched up, but I’m not going to think of my hair colour if that’s not the focus of the scene:

The wind blew Alice’s carefully coiffured blonde hair everywhere.

It’s boring, right? Instead, deepen the point of view:

The gentle breeze whipped into a frenzy, blowing Alice’s hair everywhere–in front of her eyes, into her mouth. So much for the half-hour she’d spend drying and styling a professional coiffure for her job interview.

Author intrusion can also be more noticeable moralising and editorialising—the kind of preachiness which once gave Christian fiction a bad name (I think most authors now know better).

To avoid author intrusion, remember that every word needs to be consistent with what your viewpoint character can see or hear, or what they would think. Nothing more.

Writing Character’s Thoughts

There are three ways to show character thoughts in fiction, but only one I recommend—interior monologue. I’ll discuss the other two so you know why I don’t recommend them.

Quotation Marks

I have seen people ask how you tell the difference between character thought and character dialogue. The rule I learned in school was to use one quotation mark for character thought (‘like this’) and two for dialogue (“like this”).

That’s a useful rule to remember if you’re reading fiction from the 1950’s or earlier, but this approach is now considered wrong:

Never, ever use quotes with your interior monologue. It is not merely poor style; it is, by today’s standards, ungrammatical. Thoughts are thought, not spoken.
– Renni Browne and Dave King, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

In the same way, don’t use thinker attributions (e.g. she thought). These indicate you’re using a distant point of view rather than deep perspective:

Princess Elizabeth sat waiting in the Royal quarters of the Tower of London. ‘I should be grateful I’m not in a regular prison cell,’ she thought. ‘The room is warm, and the food is as fine as I eat at home.’

Thinker attributions signal to agents, publishers, editors, and readers that you don’t know (or don’t understand) deep perspective point of view.

Direct Thought

Many authors choose to use italics to indicate direct thought:

Princess Elizabeth sat waiting in the Royal quarters of the Tower of London. I should be grateful I’m not in a regular prison cell.

However, there are disadvantages to this approach as well:

  • Italics are only effective for a few words or a short sentence. Any longer, and they become difficult to read.
  • Italics can slow the pacing of the scene.
  • Overuse of italics will annoy the reader (and my reader view is that most authors who use italics do overuse them).
  • Direct thought in italics changes the point of view of the scene from third person to first person present tense and back again . This change can be jarring for the reader.
  • Direct thought is telling where the author should be showing.

Interior Monologue

Interior monologue is what your point of view character is thinking, expressed in his or her own voice. There is no need for thoughts to be identified as such, because the rules of third person narration from a specific viewpoint character (or first person narration) imply this is the character whose interior monologue we are reading.

Interior monologue is favoured because:

  • It is showing, not telling.
  • Interior monologue doesn’t interrupt the flow of the story the way italics do, because it is the same tense and font as the rest of the story.
  • It forces the reader (and author) into the mind of the point of view character, which helps them know the character better. The better the reader knows the character, the more likely she is to empathise and feel the character’s emotions.

Interior monologue is stronger writing. It’s the writing which most engages me as a reader. If you want your reader to engage with your characters and experience their tragedies and joys, use interior monologue and deep perspective point of view.

Thinking Aloud

Some authors write scenes where a character appears to be talking to himself or herself, in that their words are set in quotation marks. But they’re alone in a room, so who are they talking to? As shown above, this can give a scene a slightly ‘off’ feel.

It’s rarely a good idea to have your characters mumble to themselves or speak under their breath… it’s almost always going to come off as a contrivance.
– Angela Hunt, Point of View

Prayer

Note that prayer is different from thinking aloud, because we’re talking to Someone (God). Prayer can be:

  • Spoken out loud (indicated by quotation marks).
  • Direct thought (indicated by italics).
  • Interior monologue.

The right choice will depend on your character and the situation—she might normally be a pray-out-loud type, but she’s likely to pray silently when she’s hiding from the maniac with the gun.

Italics

As shown above, italics can be used for direct thought. They can also be used for emphasis. However, it’s easy to overuse both, so my view is it’s best to avoid the problem by not using italics for direct thought or emphasis at all. Instead, only use italics where they are the only correct choice:

  • Book and magazine titles
  • The name of a movie, TV series or play
  • Words from other languages
  • Specific names of ships, trains or planes (e.g. the USS Enterprise)

When italics for emphasis are overused, they are telling where the author should be showing. It’s the typographical equivalent of laughing at your own joke, or asking ‘did you get it?’.

I’ll be back next week to share the other way we can use point of view to engage readers: through showing, not telling.

Meanwhile, do you have any questions on deep perspective point of view?