Six Weeks of Favorite Writing Prompts: Week #2, POV

Photo by Aubrey Odom on Unsplash

Sometimes, we have characters we love to hate. They aren’t necessary bad guys but in our story they are stuck like a tire in the mud—going nowhere.

I have tried so many prompts over the years, to get stuck characters freed up and moving forward. In early drafts especially, I write a lot of them (true confession) and even in revision there is often one person who just isn’t getting onboard. So I turn to this favorite prompt, adapted from a long-ago book on writing craft, Listen to Me, by memoirist Lynn Lauber.

Lauber writes: “If you find yourself telling the same story over and over, but in a way you don’t find satisfying, try changing person or point of view.”

Every time I try it, I get a new idea, perspective, breakthrough on my stuck-in-the-mud person.

It only takes a few minutes to try—so go for it!

Your weekly writing exercise

Find a character in your writing that you’d love to grow.

Then find a scene from that person’s POV.

Tell it again, from someone else’s point of view.

It can be a stranger in a coffee shop who is watching your character. It can be their long-dead relative (like the mother of my character mentioned above). It can be their ex-girlfriend or boyfriend. It can be their grandfather, their teacher or coach, the guy who gave them a ride across Colorado when they were hitching. It can be their dog.

Write the same scene anew, seen from this new person’s eyes.

Write for 20 minutes or two pages’ worth. See what happens when you break out of the known voice or point of view.

Can you catch a new image of how the character or scene could roll forward?

Photo by Aubrey Odom on Unsplash