Tag: Evaluating Your First Draft

Once you’ve learned how to spot POV shifts in your writing, it’s time to fix them. Let’s look at this short fictional story, courtesy of Chat GPT, that demonstrates how shifting the point of view (POV) too often can lead to confusion and disrupt the reader’s experience:

The Picnic by the Lake

It was a beautiful day, and Emma spread the blanket on the grass by the lake. She smiled, looking at the calm water, imagining how perfect the afternoon would be with her friends. (At this point, the story appears to focus on Emma. Because we have insight into her imagination, we feel like we are seeing the story from her point of view).

Shifting points of view (POV) too frequently in a novel can be confusing and disorienting for the reader, making it difficult for them to engage with the story. However, it may be difficult for you to spot this problem on your own since you yourself are so fully immersed in the story. This is one of the many reasons why it is important to get outside feedback on your novel manuscript during the evaluation stage of the writing process.

The first step you should take when revising and refining your manuscript with your attention turned to POV is to review the outside feedback that you have received to identify specific places in the story where your reviewer(s) noted that they were confused or where the story lost their attention. The following is a list of signs that the point of view in your story is shifting too much: