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The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life Paperback – March 11, 2008

by Alicia Rasley (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 76 ratings
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Every Character Has a Voice

Point of view isn't just an element of storytelling–when chosen carefully and employed consistently in a work of fiction, it is the foundation of a captivating story.

It's the character voice you can hear as clearly as your own. It's the unique worldview that intrigues readers–persuading them to empathize with your characters and invest in their tale. It's the masterful concealing and revealing of detail that keeps pages turning and plots fresh. It's the hidden agenda that makes narrators complicated and compelling.

It's also something most writers struggle to understand. In The Power of Point of View, RITA Award-winning author Alicia Rasley first teaches you the fundamentals of point of view (POV)–who is speaking, why, and what options work best within the conventions of your chosen genre. Then, she takes you deeper to explain how POV functions as a crucial piece of your story–something that ultimately shapes and drives character, plot, and every other component of your fiction.

Through comprehensive instruction and engaging exercises, you'll learn how to:

  • choose a point of view that enhances your characters and plots and encourages reader involvement
  • navigate the levels of a character's point of view, from objective viewing to action to emotion
  • craft unusual perspectives, including children, animal narrators, and villains

A story changes depending on who's telling it, and The Power of Point of View will help you determine which of your characters can make your story come to life.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Writer's Digest Books
  4. Publication date
    March 11, 2008
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1582975248
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1582975245
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Award-winning romance novelist Alicia Rasley teaches writing at Indiana University-Indianapolis, online, and at writing workshops around the country and in Canada. She currently serves as an acquisitions editor for Red Sage Books and is now president of the Indiana chapter of Romance Writers of America.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Writer's Digest Books; 1st. Ed edition (March 11, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1582975248
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1582975245
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 76 ratings

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  1. Alicia Rasley

    Alicia Rasley

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    Alicia Rasley is a Rita-award winning author and nationally known teacher of writing workshops. She teaches composition and tutors students in two state universities. She grew up in the mountains of Southwest Virginia but now lives in the midwestern flat land. Her book The Year She Fell has twice been a Kindle fiction bestseller.

    Her blog is at: www.edittorrent.blogspot.com, and her website is www.aliciarasley.com/archive.htm. Her writing book, The Power of Point of View, is still available from Writer's Digest Books.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Alicia Rasley

    Alicia Rasley

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
76 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Vince
5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Important Writing Craft Book I've Ever Read! 5 Stars!
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2016
Verified Purchase
I've read over 100 writing craft books in the last forty years and " The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life " is the one I wish I'd read first and the most often.

My degree is in philosophy, which I love and have read all my life, so the author's well thought out and fully analyzed presentation was like music to my ears.

"The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life" is not sugar coated. It's for the writer who wants to get 'under the hood' and fully understand how and why everything works.

I loved it!

I read the hardbound edition years ago when it came out and I bought the Kindle version more recently to enable searches for specific POV coverage anywhere in the text. I also prefer the Kindle version because I can always have it with me. Sometimes I like to check a POV I'm reading in a novel against what "The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life" has to say about that POV.

Here's the main thing: if you wanted to be a professional movie director, you'd have to know all about the camera. You'd have to be an expert on every camera angle and technique imaginable. Screenwriters know not to include camera techniques or scene instructions in their screenplays because directors will be agrivated and pay no attention to them anyway.

However, when you are novelist you are the director. Your 'camera' is the POV you choose to use for a scene. Everything is framed within a POV. You, as the author. must provide the camera's eye view for your reader. If you want to be a serious professional writer you will need to know and understand all about POV and not just the first person, third person, and omniscient POVs. In a way, you can't even fully understand these POVs without seeing the total picture!

As you read "The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life" you'll discover that there is so much more available in POV techniques that it may 'blow your mind'.

I found that reading Alicia Rasley's book was somewhat like what T. S. Eliot meant when he wrote about exploring the whole world only to come back to his starting point and knowing the place for the first time.

Indeed, after you read and master "The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life" every other writing craft book you read will be placed in a more useable context. Craft books will become more meaningful, more memorable, more useful, and more satisfying to read. This is why I wish I had read this book first. It makes every other writing book you read thereafter a much more useful writing tool.

By all means, read "The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life" first. If you cannot read it first, as I was unable to, then read it as soon as possible. You'll gain important learning leverage.

I recommend that serious writers buy both the print and the Kindle versions. I did it myself.

As an exercise I suggest that writers take a favorite scene and rewrite it over and over using at least eight of the POV choices presented in this book. Learn how each POV works and why it can be the most effective way to present a given scene. This way you can experience the full power and scope of all the useful tools you have available as a writer.

Again, "The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life" is the most productive writing craft book I've ever read. It has my highest recommendation. I only wish it was available years ago when I began reading craft books.
8 people found this helpful
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Livvy
5.0 out of 5 stars Master Class in POV - Concise and reader friendly
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2008
Verified Purchase
Initially, I was hesitant in purchasing this book as I saw so many copies becoming available as "used". When that happens, either the book is lacking in content or its organizational style makes it difficult to read. Well, I am glad I purchased it because the book offers a very detailed look on Point of View as well addressing advanced particulars in mixing POVs, voice, and time. Almost every chapter is followed with a recommended reading list for further study as well as helpful exercises to emphasize craft.

This is definitely a book that needs to be read more than once. Not because of level of difficulty but because of the amount of helpful information. Perhaps that is why there are so many copies available. Her book is not organized with boxes of summaries, lists, a lot of white space or diagrams. No space is wasted and perhaps for some this style might be intimidating as it seems (visually) like you are about to read a novel.

Rasley is definitely an author to watch out for in terms of "Writing How-To's. I would love to see her write a book on Dialogue as there are so many duds out there.

In The Power of Point of View, Rasley notes her personal preferences when writing herself, but does not allow her explanations of POV to be biased by that. She talks about Genre conventions, narrative distance, to individualizing POV. She uses a conversational tone in her explanations and makes learning POV easy to understand. My only minor pet peeve is that she did not include a bibliography at the end of the book to wrap up all the books that she has mentioned and recommended.

Here is the Table of Contents:

1. What is POV
2. POV Choices and What They Communicate About Your Story
3. POV and the Elements of Story
4. First Person
5. Second Person
6. Impersonal Third Person
7. Personal Third Person - Single
8. Personal Third Person - Multiple
9. Individualizing POV
10. Levels of POV
11. Creating Alternative and Unusual Voices

All in all, if you are ready for a full immersion of a Master Class in POV, then definitely get this one!

If you are looking for just a basic primer to start off with on POV with some of the more advanced nuances explained in briefest terms, than check out Donna Levin's "Get That Novel Written". It has 2 excellent chapters on POV and Time.
44 people found this helpful
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KeithLauhinghouse13
4.0 out of 5 stars Rating POV
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2012
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Very good, very in depth. There is everything you could want to know. Just splitting hairs but it was almost too technical. I needed to rest my brain after a few pages. I learned tons and will read it again.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

MysteryReader
5.0 out of 5 stars The power of Point Of View
Reviewed in Canada on April 2, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is an in-depth look into POV and how to make it work for your writing. It's the type of book with so much information, more than one reading is required to understand and remember the material.
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xaquafinax
5.0 out of 5 stars VALUABLE FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE INSIGHTS
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 6, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is a great book, perhaps one of its kind, It is not a descriptive book. This book is writing in action. Good for people with an engineering background like me, attempting to write novels. I strongly recommend this book. Every page is a journey. It fills you with delight. This book became my friend and every day was a journey to somewhere. Very interesting and absorbing. By now I have fallen in love with the writer: A beautiful mind.One rarely comes across such a book.
One person found this helpful
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Riis Marshall
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book that should be on your shelf
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 6, 2015
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This a book the should be on every serious writer's bookshelf, right next to her dictionary and Thesaurus. The only problem I've found with it is the author has inspired me to go back into everything I've ever written and make it better. If you want to make your writing the best it can be, buy this book today!
One person found this helpful
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Sylvia Wrigley
4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Useful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2009
Verified Purchase
I found the Power of Point of View very useful in terms of understanding all the different aspects and effects of voice and character viewpoint. This book is *not* light reading and I dipped in and out of it over a period of 8 weeks - it took some time to be able to take it all in. But Rasley does a great job of delving into the details with plenty of examples from a broad array of books and I understand far more about integration of character, setting and action into my conflict as a result of working through this.

This book is probably somewhat difficult to take in for beginning writers but if you have read the standard works (Bird by Bird, On Writing, Writing Down the Bones) and are interested in taking your fiction to the next stage, I definitely recommend this book.
8 people found this helpful
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noddy
5.0 out of 5 stars POV
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2016
Verified Purchase
have read bits of this but will read more because it clarifies a tricky area of writing for me somewhat
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