Lately I judged some entries for an unpublished authors contest. I noticed some bloopers that I learned not to do awhile back, and I wanted to share them with you.
Point of View (POV):
Don’t use scene breaks to change points of view. Doing so really jerks the reader out of the story. If you, the author, wants to change POV’s, ask yourself why? Is it because the impact of what is happening will affect the other character the most?
If so, maybe you should have started in the other character’s POV in the first place. If it’s because you want to show the other character’s reaction to dialogue/action, see if you can reveal the second character’s emotions by having the first character observe physical reactions and body language. However, if you decide the most effective way to write the scene is to change POV, you must have a transition sentence, which is a sentence that notifies the reader, “Hey, I’m going to change to the other character’s POV.” Here is an example:
A muscle in Jana’s jaw jumped. “You’re only interested in yourself, and everyone else can fall off the earth’s crust.”
Patti stared at her sister, wondering what brought on such bitterness. What was going on in that head of hers?
Jana hurt. Her feet hurt. Her back hurt. And her heart. Her heart hurt.
The first two lines are in Patti’s POV. When Patti wonders what’s going on with her sister, this gives the reader a heads up, gives the reader a chance to change gears to wonder along with Patti what is in Jana’s head. This heads up is called a transition sentence. If you’re going to change POV’s within a scene, it’s best to do it maybe once or twice and only if it’s a long scene. You don’t want to jerk the reader back and forth between POV characters with every other sentence or every paragraph. For new authors, it might be best to stay in one character’s head for a whole scene. There are so many other skills to master! 
Too, when a writer is in that character’s body, don’t have the character think how dark his hair is, or that his blue eyes sparkle. Be realistic–do you think that way about yourself? Do you go around thinking about your jet black hair, or your sparkling blue eyes? Most people don’t. They know what color of hair they have, so they don’t think about it anymore.
Scene Breaks:
When an author uses a scene break, it is for one of two–or both–reasons:
- To depict passage of time, or;
- A change in settings.
Now, we can also have the new scene in another character’s POV, but we must have at least one of the two situations described above, (time elapse or another setting), in this new scene.
Crucible:
This is a term I haven’t heard in a long time. But it’s important to utilize in our plots, in particular, in a romance. Okay, you 
know you need each character mentioned in the story to have a goal, motivation and conflict (GMC)–both internal and external. (Read the posts on the Plotting Pantzer, Part 1, and Part 2, to review these story elements). Think of an empty cup or bowl with a Bunsen burner flame under it. Two characters (the protagonist and the antagonist) are trapped in the bottom of the crucible, which is getting hotter as the stakes get higher. They can’t get out and, even though they have external and internal conflict about each other, they are forced to work together to resolve the problem.
The conflict must be something that keeps the heroine and hero apart emotionally, but the goal must be a situation in which the characters have to stay together in order to achieve their goals. But I saw a couple of instances where the conflict was strong, but the reason for the hero and heroine to stay together to work out a story problem was weak. There was no reason for them to put up with one another.
So, just remember to watch out for these three items–point of view, scene breaks, and the crucible. Most of all, watch what happens as you write. Do you find yourself wanting to switch to the other character’s viewpoint? If so, try writing the whole scene over again, but get into the other character’s point of view. I have done this many times and have sometimes discovered that the scene has more impact in the second characters’ point of view. Use scene breaks for a change in scenery, or to indicate a passage in time. And make sure there is a good reason for your characters to have to put up with each other. You’ll be on your way to writing a great novel!
