Mastering Point of View

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Summary: Mastering Point of View
Review: The book, Mastering Point of View by Sherri Szeman, has been very helpful to me. I like the way she address each of the different points of view used in writing novels. She explains each Point of View and then shows excerpts from novels to demonstrates how they are done. I like the Tips she adds through out the chapters. The appendices are historical overviews dwelling on different types of fiction and are made interesting.
As a complete book on the subject of Point of View, rather than the short chapters one reads in other self help for writer's books, it is very well done.

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Summary: The author means well, means well, means well...
Review: but is so busy endlessly repeating the few nuggets of information she has to offer that she never gets to the interesting parts. As a basic primer the book works, but all the worthwhile information could have been rendered in fifteen pages. The most frustrating part is that she doesn't seem all that well read, so instead of being able to show you how different authors make different POVs work, she repeatedly draws her examples from the same handful of books (including Ulysses--as if aspiring writers are going there). The result is a superficial treatment of something that could have been fascinating. Sorry to be so negative, Sherri, but I was excited when I saw the title and my disappointment is acute.

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Summary: Point of View--a Thorny Rose
Review: Point of view seems like it should be so simple. But when you start poking around you find it's so much more complex than you ever imagined--there's unlimited point of view, first-person, inner limited, second-person, outer limited, combo, multiple... and that's just the basics. Scared yet?

Point of view was one of those things that I just kind of closed my eyes and prayed about. I'd write a story and trust PoV to take care of itself. Sure, I had a decent sense for it, so usually things worked out okay. But I'm also sure that if I went back now, after having finished this book, I'd find a whole lot of mistakes that I need to fix. And you want to look like a pro who knows what she's doing when you send that story to an editor, right?

"Mastering Point of View" debunks common myths regarding what you can and can't do with PoV. Topics are divided into short sections that are labeled clearly; this makes it easy for you to find information at a moment's notice. Each chapter begins with the basics of its topic. Then it goes into the advantages and disadvantages to using each form of PoV--both to you and to your readers! You'll see examples, get a simple description of things to consider when choosing a PoV, find out about genres and situations each type of PoV is typically used in, and more.

"Mastering Point of View" is a comprehensive, simple, clear treatise on a murky and painful subject. It gets a little repetitive, but I've seen much worse. Every writer owes it to herself to read it at least once.