Book Review: Writing Deep Point of View by Rayne Hall

I've been writing seriously since my teens, in the 1980s, and of course learned the different types of point of view (POV) authors can use in fiction. Back then, no one was talking about deep POV. In most of the books I read, characters' thoughts were expressed in italics, with the "he thought" attribute.

To my perception, sometime around the turn of the century, professional authors started to experiment with deep POV. Instead of saying "he thought," followed by the literal words the character was thinking in italics, they began simply putting that thought right into the text. Here's a comparison.

Third person POV:

"The chateau loomed less than a half a mile ahead, and though sunlight glossed the grasslands rising to it, a rolling nimbus cast the stone building in gloom. Holy crap, I have to go there? he thought."

Third person deep POV:

"The chateau loomed less than a half a mile ahead, and though sunlight glossed the grasslands rising to it, a rolling nimbus cast the stone building in gloom. Justin's throat felt parched. He put his hand to his neck as he tried to swallow and failed. Holy crap. How could he go there?"

That shows the very basics of deep POV, but there's a lot more to this technique. Rayne Hall covers it expertly in Writing Deep Point of View. Whether you've begun to catch on to the technique in your reading or not, this book will help you close the distance between your characters and your readers, making your fiction more compelling.

Hall's Writer's Craft series continues to deliver when it comes to helping authors learn advanced writing techniques.