Choosing a Point of View for a Scene (POV)

    If you’re writing in third person omniscient POV, you are able to describe the same event from the point of view of different characters. Personally, I decide the POV before I write the scene. But sometimes, I write down the dialogue and decide whose POV gives the story its maximum impact and provokes the maximum emotional response from the reader. Of course, it can be subjective, but let’s look at an example.

  Let's say you are writing a scene about an argument between a husband and a wife. The husband is a drunk, jealous of his wife’s success, and assumes she is sleeping with her boss. Wife is just trying to make a living.

Let us take it from the husband’s POV: 

   Sam finished his third beer. He was hungry. Where the heck was Lilly? Gallivanting with her boss, no doubt. He was sure she was taken in my Brad’s fancy suits and perfumes. Sam had demanded that she return the pearl necklace Brad gave her after they got the last contract, but Sam was sure she kept it hidden somewhere. The lying bitch!

   A noise at the doorway made him look up. There she was, in a pant suit, pretending to be good people. And look at that blouse! He could see the curves she didn’t care to hide from her boss. Had she forgotten their roots? He had worked hard to put her through college! And this is how she repaid him! Flaunting her body in front of other people?

   Sam said, “Where have you been?” He put down his beer mug.

   Lilly looked startled and dropped her purse on the floor. “Oh! I asked you not to wait up.”

   He stood up and strode toward her. “You didn’t answer the question. Were you with Brad?”

   She took a step back and raised her hands in defense. “For the last time, there is nothing going on between me and Brad. He’s just my boss.”

   “Who keeps you in his office until late at night.” She was definitely sleeping with him!

   She took off her shoes and sank in the sofa, massaging her feet. “Don’t get mad! It’s just nine o’clock. He has a big presentation. If we don’t get this contract, I’ll be out of a job.”

   “You’ll find another!” A job that featured an elderly man with a potbelly, perhaps.

   She looked up, and her eyes glistened with tears. “If you didn’t stay at home drinking all day, I wouldn’t have to work so hard.”
 
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Let’s try it from the wife’s POV:

   The house looked dark. Lilly sighed and opened the door. She hoped Sam had gone to bed. She could not deal with his drinking anymore. 

   “Where have you been?” called a voice.

   Startled, Lilly dropped her purse on the floor. In the darkness, she saw his outline on the sofa, two empty cans of beer lying beside him. She watched as he put down his beer mug.
So he was drinking again.

   She wished he had just gone to bed. He would no doubt tell her how he had worked hard to put her through college. But she hadn’t squandered the opportunity by drinking! She had worked hard to get where she was.

   She didn’t know how long she could carry on like this. “Oh! I asked you not to wait up.”

   He stood up and strode toward her. “You didn’t answer the question. Were you with Brad?”
 
   She knew he was suspicious of Brad. And maybe he was right about Brad’s intentions. But Brad had never made a pass at her, although she had caught him staring down her cleavage once or twice. And the pearl necklace he gave her when they got the last contract? Sam was right in asking her to return it. That had set the boundaries right.

   She took a step back and raised her hands in defense. “For the last time, there is nothing going on between me and Brad. He’s just my boss.”

   “Who keeps you in his office until late at night.”

   She took off her shoes and sank in the sofa, massaging her feet. God, will I never catch a break? “It’s just nine o’clock. He has a big presentation. If we don’t get the contract, I’ll be out of a job.”

   “You’ll find another!”

   She looked up, tears stinging her eyes. Why don’t you get a job? “If you didn’t stay at home drinking all day, I wouldn’t have to work so hard.”

 
Looking at the two POVs, my personal preference is the wife’s, unless we are setting up the husband as the main character who changes his life based on the interaction. Sometimes writing the same scene from both POVs is incredibly powerful, and makes the reader empathize with both your characters.

How do you choose POVs?