Can my mc leave the room and not see the nasty man look at the letter which concerns her? So we all know and she doesn't. Sorry for such a basic question, mind is a blank. It's all third person, one pov.
Thank you.

Just ask yourself; can the pov you are writing from see this?

As Gaius says, you'd have a pov problem if you did.
A novel written from one pov - even in 3rd person - means you'd be introducing another pov (omniscient or the antagonist's) if you showed the antagonist looking at the letter when the pov character is out of the scene.

Maybe you could show the letter has been moved when she comes back into the room, implying he's looked at it, but the character could dismiss the significance at the time?

Or you could just pan out and go authorial for a moment. Used skilfully and in moderation, it's an acceptable tool. I know the current trend is for sticking religiously to a POV character at all times - but I don't mind a bit of authorial perspective, myself - as a reader or as a writer.

It fits in better if this is a book where you use multiple characters' POVs, though. If all the rest of the book is in one unitary POV and you suddenly step back like this, it might feel odd.

Rosy

I agree with Rosy.

If the scene is written from the POV of the MC then strictly you should stick with that.
However, I have sometimes been known to slip POvs particularly at the end of a scene. You need to try it and see if it clunks.
I did one in book one and no-one ever picked up on it.
I tired another in book three and both my agent and my ed jumped on me...clerluuunk.
HB x

I agree that on the whole, if you're limited PoV everywhere else, you should stick to it, at least for that chapter. If you've got a moving PoV, then that's fine too. But mixing and matching is trickier.

I agree that panning out from a very close-in PoV can work - there's no need to be too picky about the exact camera angle which can - or can't - show the MC walking across the park. And it's very unlikely that anyone will notice.

But revealing information to the reader actually and directly because the MC can't see it, as part of constructing a plot or suspense, is different: it's structural, and I think more readers are likely to trip up on it, since the implication is that you, the narrator, could have revealed all sorts of other stuff, and haven't.

Emma

Thank you so much for your replies. I have had my wrist slapped so soundly for using multiple pov's that I had a feeling I ought not to step back (as Rosy said) and use, what I am assuming, is my author's voice. This ms is strictly from one pov, so I won't use it, though am sorely tempted. One day maybe...
Thank you Gaius and Naomi, I could definitely have the letter overseen by the mc. Thank you for that. I can now get on! Have a great weekend.

Sorry Helen and Emma, crossed with you both. I absolutley agree. Though I think this particular pull back wouldn't clunk too loudly, I'm just not brave (or experienced) enough to try it. As Emma said I also didn't want the reader sitting there wondering what else they didn't know. I see that it is actually much more thrilling having it all revealed bit by bit through the poor old mc's eyes. (Or I hope so). Thank you again so much for your help. Have a good weekend.

Hello everybody.

I'm joining in this conversation a bit late, but it's an issue that's been brought up in critiques of my work, time and time again, but has recently begun to make me worry!

I have an issue with changing POV all the way through my work. Some people don't seem to mind it, but if the general consensus is that it's a technical issue that will risk my stories never being read/published, should I go through and re-write my work? I've a feeling that I would lose quite a lot of the heart of the story if I change it.

Thinking about it, I really enjoy writing and reading multiple POVs, because I love the fact the reader can be inside the head of all the characters.

If perhaps the change in POV is made all the more obvious, could this work? For example, if we've been telling the story from the main character's POV for most of the chapter, and then we suddenly switch to another's for the latter 2 paragraphs, can I put that in italics to almost define the change?

SJxx

I read somewhere you should choose the pov based on the significance of the event so that the person who it effects most will be the pov. Which not only makes writing more fun but also will tend to mean pov is your main character as it is mc's story so likely to be most important to mc.
G

SJ, if you are using multiple povs then it's usually best to do the switch when you change scenes (of which there can be a few per chapter - cf. Terry Prachett) or when you change chapters (so one per chapter - cf. Nick Hornby's About A Boy).
Aside from the occassional omniscient pov, I have not come across many authors who switch character's povs within a scene - One of the few being Jasper Fforde in The Big Over Easy, with two main protagonists, but tbh it's annoying and unnecessary.
The problem with changing povs within a scene is it tempts the writer to provide more information than the reader needs (where the writer is bursting with background and insider info they are desperate to share with the reader), such as an insight into what the antagonist is up to, but which can pop the suspense/tension building in a chapter, rather than add to it. Trust the reader to pick up the clues; don't labour the point by resorting to switching povs.

Hi SJWilliamson, I feel your pain! If you can find it there is a very interesting thread started by 'Shika' (possibly in the Techique Forum) about the very thing I am trying to do. I had a ms with three pov's one being the main character and with almost as much weight given to one of the other pov characters. The other one was the villian of the piece. I am now re-writing the whole ms from the pov of only the mc, which means my writing has to fill the space left by the 2 other pov's. (I hope this makes sense).
Although, at first, it felt like falling off a cliff, I am now moving more sure-footedly and am able to see that, actually, this way of doing it might be making it a better book and improving my writing. It also means I am slowing down the action a bit, as my tendency was to rush through as I had all the pov's doing all the work for me.
I was also told each main pov character should have an emotional arc and character development equal to that of the mc, and though I thought my second character had enough, she just didn't quite.
Interestingly, I was so fed up with having to lose her (got too attached!), after thinking about it for 3 months, I killed her off. The book now opens with her funeral. If you're getting repeated requests to change - why not try it?
Sorry to have wittered on so much and thanks all for the help.

Thank you all so much ... you've been brilliant, as always. I'll try very hard to sort this issue out in my writing from now on.

Always good to know that I'm not alone with these funny little issues! Hope I didn't butt into this thread too much. I really appreciate all your views.

SJxx

Well, I agree with James Wood (How Fiction Works), John Gardner (The Art of Fiction) and few dozen other gurus of creative writing, not to mention 90% of the writers of the past, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a moving PoV.

The only difficulty is learning to do it properly. Those books help with that, too. The key is to move for a good reason, to know when you're moving, to make sure you take the reader with you, and not to head-hop: not to leap from right inside someone's head/PoV/voice, straight to inside anothers. Do it via neutral, external stuff.

Understand Gardner's concept of psychic distance, and you'll never have trouble again.

Emma

Thanks Emma, I don't have the James Woods one but I have the John Gardner one and it's fantastic, but haven't got to the psychic distance part yet. I will read on.

Don' t worry SJ not hijacked at all. Good luck with it.