Writing Basics

Writing interior monologue: Up close and personal

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that writing interior monologue can be easiest when writing in first person and third person limited. Today, let’s delve a bit deeper into that perspective.

As I said before, it is quite simple to write interior monologue in first person point of view, as long as you remember that the narration is already something of an internal monologue in itself. Consider yourself in the situation you are writing. If you are wondering about something, how often does the monologue occur in your head as, “I wonder what he thinks he’s doing.” Or, is it more like, “What does he think he’s doing?” without adding an unnecessary explainer? Continue reading “Writing interior monologue: Up close and personal”

Writing Basics

Point of view basics: First person POV in fiction

I’m teaching a creative writing workshop this semester at my local community college, and I just had an epiphany as I was writing notes for our next class. I thought, “Hey, dummy! As long as you’re typing all of this writing stuff up, maybe you could use the content for a series of blog posts!” Of course, I’m a huge fan of re-purposing content, so I replied, “Okay, cool. Let’s do this.” So today, here’s blog post #1 of a series I have written to provide a brief overview of the basics of Point of View (POV) in fiction writing.

According to Self-editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print, there are as many as 26 flavors of point of view. For the purpose of this series, we will focus on four basics: first, second, third, and omniscient. Today, let’s start with first person POV. Continue reading “Point of view basics: First person POV in fiction”