Are you getting ready to write NaNoWriMo and wondering just what POV or voice to write it in? Try Deep POV! I love how Deep POV gets a reader into the skin of the characters and helps them feel the story.

Here’s how it works:

Have you ever watched the television show Fear Factor? It’s a show where people are challenged to do “scary” things like eat a live spider or bungee jump, for charity. It’s supposed to elicit people’s deepest fears and make them overcome them. I watch it and think, “Never. Not even for charity.” However, do I feel my throat closing, that panic clenching my gut, my legs telling me to run? No. I just think – wow, they are idiots.

Consider, however, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. We watch with our hands over our eyes, our heart in our throats, experiencing true fear.

This is the difference between Standard 3rd person POV and Deep 3rd person POV. One watches from a distance, the other engages us in the fear.

Why write Deep POV?

A great book is made up of the emotional highs and lows of the POV characters. We want to feel what the character feels, ride their journey with them and possibly learn with them. A great story makes us ache with the character, and eventually, engage with their choices, their struggles with values and their epiphany. Think about this – what is going to glue your reader to the page more – grappling with the black moment/life-changing decisions with the character, or to view it from a distance? Deep POV is illuminating, empowering, it helps us understand the point of the story.

Think of the difference between Deep POV and Standard Third Person as the difference between watching the action from the outside, as if walking beside the character (Fear Factor) and being inside the body and mind of the character. (Psycho)