Point of View

For writers, point of view is important. For example, you can be pretty sure that this blog is written from Edith Maxwell's point of of view.

In a novel narrated in the third person from the protagonist's point of view (POV), a reader needs to be able to trust that everything she reads was experienced, seen, thought by the protagonist. I wrote the following passage this morning in my work in progress, Murder on the Beach:

Lauren dug in her bag. She drew out her business card from the college. Laying it on the bed tray, she said, "I hope you're feeling better soon. If you need anything or would like me to stop by again, will you call me?"

Bobby closed his eyes again, his ashen face uncommunicative. The nurse, thermometer device in hand, gazed at Lauren with what looked like an unspoken message to get lost and let his patient rest.

You don't get to go inside Bobby's head and find out why he closed his eyes. You don't get to really understand if that was the nurse's message or if he was just hungover or late for lunch. You have to trust the author.

Skilled writers sometimes use multiple POVs. But it's prudent to align the POV change with a scene change. I, as reader, am likely to be confused if the writer head hops, as it's called in the trade. How would you like it if I had written the preceding scene as follows:

Lauren dug in her bag. She drew out her business card from the college. Laying it on the bed tray, she said, "I hope you're feeling better soon. If you need anything or would like me to stop by again, will you call me?"

Bobby closed his eyes again, wishing that woman would just get out of his room. He never wanted to see her again.

"Ooh, she's hot," the nurse thought. "Wonder if she'd go out with me for a drink after work?" The thermometer in his hand hung forgotten.

Wouldn't you be confused? How do we know what Bobby and the nurse are thinking?

In Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, one of my favorite books, each chapter is written in the voice of five different family members (the mother and her daughers). Kingsolver is so skilled at distinguishing those voices that the reader is not lost.

I'm currently reading through the works of a very well-known, highly regarded, and prize-winning Canadian author. I love her stories. She's brilliant as she enters the psyche of her characters and her setting. I HATE how she head hops. It drives me crazy. After I read her first book several years ago, I finished it feeling annoyed. It took me this long to get back to her writing.

What do you think? What kind of POV do you like to read?