Before this was requested by piyobear88, I had never heard of Deep POV. After further investigation, it reminded me of the concept known as stream of consciousness.
Stream of consciousness is a method of narration that describes in words the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters. It is a style of writing developed by a group of writers at the beginning of the 20th century. It aimed at expressing in words the flow of a character's thoughts and feelings in their minds. The technique aspires to give readers the impression of being inside the mind of the character. Therefore, the internal view of the minds of the characters sheds light on plot and motivation in the novel.
However, stream of consciousness only applies to First-Person POV.
Another term for Deep POV is limited Third Person, which I touched upon in the fourth part of this section in Third-Person POV. It's a technique that infuses Third-Person POV with the intimacy of First-Person stream of consciousness.
Deep POV is to the writer what method acting is to the actor. It requires the writer to submerge herself in the character from whose point of view a scene is being seen. It requires a casting off of all inhibitions. The writer becomes the character.
Using the Deep POV technique when writing allows you get inside the mind of your POV character and make a deep emotional connection with readers.
But to do so, you must remove as many traces of authorship from the page as possible. The less readers are reminded that they're actually reading, the more effective your Deep POV will be. Remember, you want to hold readers enthralled.
Deep POV Basics
Like I mentioned above, writing in Deep POV is all about getting inside the head of your POV character. That means you must know your character inside and out, so make sure to take the time to make them as well-developed as possible.
You will never use all of the background information you create for your novel in the novel itself, but knowing the everything about your character's life will help you better understand their goals, motivations, relationships, personality, and other major factors that will help you nail Deep POV.
You can then use these elements to add realism and consistency to the events of your character's story while you write.
How to Write in Deep POV
Writing in Deep POV may seem tricky at first, but employing these six steps as told by Kristen Kieffer can help you get Deep POV right the first time around. Check 'em out:
1. Limit Your Character's Knowledge. The first step to getting inside your character's head is accepting that they don't know everything about everything.
Your POV character will be blind to certain story elements and events simply because they haven't yet heard about them or witnessed them. This can be hard to acknowledge when you're just trying to tell a good story, but inadvertently making your character an all-knowing deity can be a costly mistake.
So make sure to only reveal the things your POV character actually knows to keep readers engaged in your story. Cool?
2. Cut Out Filter Words. Filter words are a mark of authorship. But what are filter words?
When you write that a character "thought" or "wondered" or "saw" something instead of just stating it, you take readers out of the Deep POV experience. A character doesn't think these filter words while living out their life, so why should you include them in your writing?
Confused? No worries. Here's an example to get you started:
Out of Deep POV
At last the tremors subsided and the earth stilled. Maggie wondered how bad the earthquake had been. She looked around and saw the deep black gashes in the ground where the pavement of the road had cracked. She knew that it must have been at least a 7.0.
In Deep POV
At last the tremors subsided and the earth stilled. How bad had this one been? All around, wide gashes cut into the pavement as though it were soft as flesh. Maggie shivered despite the heat. A 7.0 at least, perhaps even higher.
See how the second draft removes the words "wondered", "saw", and "knew"? This allows readers to jump inside Maggie's head, reeling with her as her town is struck by an earthquake.
3. Limit Your Dialogue Tags. Dialogue tags are short phrases used to indicate a character is speaking (e.g. "she said", "he shouted", "Mary whispered", etc.). These are yet another trace of authorship, so removing as many as possible from your writing will really add to the effectiveness your Deep POV technique.
An easy way to ditch dialogue tags without confusing readers? Place dialogue next to character actions (a.k.a. "attributive tags") instead. Take this for example:
Out of Deep POV
She found John on State Street. A stream of blood flowed down his forehead as he stood on trembling legs. "Are up you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine," John whispered back as he tore off a strip of his t-shirt to dab away the blood. Then they felt it, the ground shaking to life once again. Maggie shouted, "Get down!" and flung herself to the earth.
In Deep POV
Maggie turned down State Street and sighed with relief. John was there, standing on trembling legs and frowning. She raced to his side. "Are you okay?" She reached up to examine the cut on his forehead, but he flinched away.
"I'm fine." He tore off the hem of his shirt to dab away the blood.
Maggie's legs quavered and shook. Reaching out, she place a hand on the street lamp to steady herself and gasped as though it had shocked her. The lamp was shaking, too.
"Get down!" She tugged on John's shirt and pulled him to the ground with her. "It's another quake."
See how I don't use a single dialogue tag in the second example? That could have spelled disaster, but because I placed each line of dialogue next to an attributive action, readers still know exactly which lines belong to whom.
4. The Ultimate Show, Don't Tell. You've probably heard the phrase a million times. It feels like I've mentioned it a million times in this guidebook. It's a classic piece of writing advice shared by thousands of authors every day.
Now, in some cases, telling can actually be an effective technique to use in your writing (perhaps I'll write an article about that later, eh?), but there's no such luck with Deep POV.
Since Deep POV is all about getting inside your character's head, avoiding as many instances of telling as possible is a must.
Deep POV is a very present, in-the-moment style. If you want to stay in the character's mindset, you can't write lengthy exposition, backstory info-dumps, and descriptions. All of that must be worked in naturally throughout your novel using only the POV character's thoughts, actions, senses, and conversations.
Will an occasional instance of telling make or break your novel? Not at all. But do your best to rework as many of these instances as possible, and you'll be a Deep POV champ.
5. Don't Use Passive Voice. Passive voice is a way of structuring sentences that indicates an action is being done unto someone rather than being done by someone.
For example, writing "Her shoulder was hit," rather than "He hit her shoulder," would be passive voice.
So why is getting rid of passive voice so important? Well, once again, Deep POV is a very present, in-the-moment style. Using passive voice often indicates that something has already been done or is being done distantly, as if the POV character isn't even there.
Naturally this goes against everything you're trying to achieve with Deep POV, so it's time to ditch passive voice ASAP.
But what if you aren't sure if you're using passive voice? I love the tip that says if you write "by zombies" after your sentence and it makes sense, you're writing in passive voice. Case in point? "Her mouth was kissed... by zombies!"
6. Be Careful When Identifying Characters. In Deep POV, you won't be able to relate character relationships as easily as you normally would.
For example, your POV character's narrative wouldn't state, "John, her brother, was standing in the street." It would simply say, "John was standing in the street." Your POV character already knows who John is whether the reader does or not, so they wouldn't relay that identifier from their own perspective. See what I mean?
But obviously you still need to identify character relationships somehow, right?
Doing so in Deep POV can definitely be tricky. My best tips are to work it in through dialogue (e.g. "Erik, this is my brother John."), through memory (e.g. "It was the same smile he gave mother when we were children."), or through action (e.g. "I hugged him fiercely, and he ruffled my hair and called me his favorite sister.").
Deep POV Tips & Tricks
Though Deep POV can be limiting in many ways, there are several tips and tricks you can use to make your Deep POV novel sing.
1. Relate Memory in Backstory. In typical POVs, relating memories can seem a bit contrived because readers aren't able to follow the POV character's train of thought. But in Deep POV, you can easily slip in and out of your character's memories since you're already writing from that character's mindset. Hurray!
You can take advantage of this opportunity by relating important background information through memory flashes.
Obviously your POV character must be privy to the backstory, having experienced or heard about it firsthand in order to recall it. But don't go crazy. Spending too much time on memory flashes will definitely leave readers craving more.
2. Relay Mental Distance. If your character is going through a mentally disturbing situation, such as a freak accident or an assault, they may not be fully aware of or in control of their mental capacities.
You can make this a very powerful moment in your story by pulling out of Deep POV and writing from a shallow perspective. In these moments your character isn't all in their head, so readers shouldn't be either. Right?
Just be careful not to dip in and out of Deep POV too often, whether by accident or intention, as it can easily leave readers feeling jarred. Instead, limit this escape from Deep POV to no more than two or three instances per novel–or as little as one instance for maximum impact.
3. Paint a Hyper-Vivid Picture. Have you ever wished you could write prose that sounds as beautiful as a film or a painting looks?
Deep POV provides the perfect opportunity to craft hyper-vivid pictures of your scenes since readers are already inside your character's head. They're literally seeing what your character's seeing! So to describe the picture in full detail, make sure to use the POV character's five senses, as well as memories and emotions.
When you're done, read back over your work and see just how much how your scene jumps off of the page. You might just astound yourself.
Still Having Trouble?
A useful exercise for the writer who prefers to write in Third-Person is to write a scene in First-Person, and then change all the nouns and pronouns to Third-Person.
Writing in limited Third-Person usually involves the expenditure of more words, but, if done effectively, the extra words add to the reader's enjoyment by pulling him more deeply into the events narrated.
Please give this part a vote if you've learned something new!