The next post on the SCBWI British Isles conference is written by Astrid Holm, a member of my monthly writing group whose novel was shortlisted for the Chicken House Award. Emma Bayley, another member of my writing group who is working on a fantastic YA fantasy novel with environmental themes, also contributed to writing this report:

Judith Heneghan: ‘Getting to grips with point of view’.

Judith worked as a commissioning editor for Hodder and Stoughton and has written over 30 books for children. She lectures on the creative writing MA at Winchester University.

Judith said she had originally wanted to call this session ‘the what of the who’.  She stressed that there are almost no rules in POV – we are the writers, we can do what we like – you have to make decisions re POV based on the result, not based on some rule. But there are, of course, many pros and cons of each approach to consider.

She said that from the moment you get the germ of an idea, the decision about POV should be one of the first and most important decisions you make. You may have a natural POV that feels safe and comfortable – Judith said hers is third person – but it’s important to experiment with others and/or reflect on why you’ve chosen the one you have to give you the confidence to move forward with it.

We started by taking a photograph of a person or people and considering whose point of view we would interpret the action from.  Were we drawn to first person or third person?  Judith talked about all the ‘rules’ there are around POV and said that our main consideration when deciding how to portray a narrative was to look at whose story it is, and what POV makes the most moving and compelling narrative.

We may already have a voice in our head, but is it the right voice?

Judith discussed a book where she wrote 35,000 word in one character’s voice, then as she introduced two new characters, she found one of them clamouring to speak, and in a much more fun and lively way than her original POV. Yes, she was sad to lose her work so far, but if she hadn’t explored the first more passive voice she would never have discovered the more vibrant one that replaced it.

Judith then discussed fashions in publishing and how many YA books are now in first person. Often a reader has a personal preference for first or third person and it is up to the author to choose the POV that portrays his or her story in the strongest way.

She listed the following advantages of first person. It’s hugely subjective and therefore has a compelling intensity because you know exactly what the narrator’s thinking, there’s no holding back. It’s an excellent route to a distinctive narrative voice – the publisher’s holy grail! And it presents wonderful opportunities to withhold information - which is what gives stories their charge - as the narrator doesn’t have the whole picture.

First person has its limitations in that we only know what our narrator knows, and what he or she knows could be unreliable or partial.  The reader is forced to attach to the main character and see the world through his or her eyes.

Judith suggested the following as good examples of first person voices.

Once, Maurice Gleitzman

I,Coriander, Sally Gard