Problem Solve POV with Color

Welcome to The Efficiency Addict column, helping writers work more effectively every single day. For the next few months, I’ll be taking a break from posting here, but until I return, I’ve lined up some great guest bloggers to share their best writing tips with you!

This month we’ll hear from Kathleen Neely, a retired educator who wrote and sold her first book in just 9 months. To read about her experience from start to sold, visit her website at KathleenNeelyAuthor.com, but first see below where Kathleen shares a simple method to problem solve POV with color.

Happy Writing! ~ Cynthia Owens, The Efficiency Addict

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Point of view (POV) problems have a way of sneaking into my writing. I begin a solid scene, identify my character, and write the action through his or her mind. Then when I re-read the passage, I discover POV gone amuck.

Types of POV Problems

First there are the omniscient POV errors.

• She can’t know he was thinking about baseball.
• He couldn’t know that she was deliberately tuning him out.

POV characters can observe another character’s demeanor, body language, or expression. POV characters can make inferences, but they can’t know.

Then there is the issue of author intrusion. My opinion on the beauty of a floral arrangement is irrelevant and interrupts the flow. Everything must be told through the eyes and ears of the character.

Another POV fault is found by allowing your POV character to narrate. When we speak, we don’t announce that we think, we feel, we said, we asked or we wondered. Remove dialogue tags and telling words. Turn this sentence – “He felt the pain when the baseball bounced off his shoulder.” Into this sentence – “Pain shot through his shoulder when the baseball made contact.”

How to Problem Solve POV

As a former teacher, I coached my students to be problem solvers.

“Mrs. Neely, I don’t have a pencil.”
“That’s a problem. Be a problem solver. “

“I forgot to write down the pages we need to read.”
“That’s a problem. Be a problem solver.”

(A little author intrusion right now—parents and teachers, never stop doing that. It moves dependent students to become independent thinkers.)

So now, faced with a dilemma, I needed to be a problem solver. I created a visual memory aide to help me keep on track – Color Coded POV’s.

The idea is simple. I choose a color for each of my POV characters. When I write a scene from his or her point of view, I turn my font into their designated color.

Will this technique avoid POV problems? Definitely not. They’ll still squirrel their way into your writing. But now they’ll be easier to locate. They should shout, jump, and wave their arms at you, begging to be seen. No longer will you have to wonder whose POV you’re supposed to be in.

Making Your Colors Count

Color coding not only provides a visual reminder, it can also reflect the nature of your character.

Red – power, energy, passion, intensity

Green – nature, outdoors, generosity

Yellow – joy, optimism, idealism, hope

Blue – loyalty, truthful, security

Purple – royalty, wisdom, noble

Orange – enthusiasm, flamboyant, warmth

Gray – age, maturity, grief

White – reverence, virginity, cleanliness

Black – formal, elegant, sophisticated

When you change scenes and font colors, stop to re-read what was just written. Do all elements of the scene match the correct POV? When you log-off for the day, let the words rest, but revisit them fresh when you log on the next day. Reviewing them will help you catch intrusions as well as prepare your mind to pick up where you left off. And when you finally say “The End,” a simple click, click, click will change the brilliant, colorful text back to its automatic boring black. Now all the brilliance will be in your story not the font.

Sharables – Because sharing is fun!

Problem solve your POV issues with color-coded characters. #HowTo Click To Tweet A simple trick to write in deep POV. #WritersLife #AmWriting Click To Tweet

Bio: Kathleen Neely is an award winning author, receiving first place for her debut novel, The Least of These, in the Almost an Author Fresh Voices Contest. She won second place in a short story contest through the Virginia Chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers . You can read two of her short stories in A Bit of Christmas – 6 Christian Short Stories Celebrating the Season, available on Amazon. Along with numerous guest blog appearances, Kathleen is a regular contributor to ChristianDevotions.us. She lives in Greenville, SC with her husband, Vaughn, and enjoys time with family, reading, and traveling.

You can contact Kathleen through:
KathleenNeelyAuthor.com
@NeelyKNeely3628