The Writers’ Workout #2: Deep POV Exercise

At The Writers Block development of writing skills is a central goal. To stimulate development everyone is invited to join in exercises to flex those writers muscles in unexpected ways. To try out new things you might normally not do, practice the mechanics to get a firm grasp on them, and to work on the outcome until it shines.

For our second exercise in the #writers-workout channel, we had our members further explore the realms of deep point-of-view by writing a short story.

Exercise #2: 22 January-4 February 2018 -- Deep POV
Rewrite a fairy tale as a deep POV (3rd limited) story from the perspective of one of the characters that is not usually the main character. Remember to base it on the classic version of the tale, which would be considered public domain, not a modern copyrighted version. The focus of the exercise is to work on writing deep POV, so it's okay if you modernize or expound on the tale. It's also okay to stick close to the original ideas, but use your own words.

The Purpose

Getting into a character's head can be a challenge for many writers. Deep POV focuses on removing the filters that distance the reader from the character. By rewriting a fairy or folk tale, we are free from most aspects of creating a story (like worrying about plot and worldbuilding) and can concentrate on writing and thinking like the character. This exercise also shows the limits of what a character can see and know. By writing in 3rd limited--in deep POV--we are challenged to keep the point-of-view consistent throughout the story.

The Side Benefits

Another bonus to this exercise is the developing of a character arc that runs with the plot. We need to think and feel with the character, so the progress of the character's development can come about naturally in the story and we can see the character arc progress and how that helps to suspend disbelief.

Because we don't have to worry about plot or world, we are able to find that character arc and build it throughout the story. This allows us to see where the character needs more developing.

We did the exercise in a peer review format--so everyone's attempts went into a queue where we could comment on each other. This feedback helped point out where the POV broke and where the character arc needed more thought, and also pointed out where each of us did especially well in making things interesting. And interesting they are!

Comments and Examples from Participants

Since the point of this article isn't just to share the exercise, but to talk about how it helps, we'll let our participants speak for themselves on what they got out of the exercise.

@anikekirsten

I didn't think I could get so deep into a character's head like this. It was strange, yet familiar. He had a voice--an actual voice--in my head, which helped guide his personality. The fairytale I chose is one I heard long ago, one of Andrew Lang--who isn't quite as prolific as the others these days.

I already knew which character to write the perspective from, but I didn't quite know just how intricate a character he is. I discovered just how human he can seem, even though he's a giant. He, too, has fears and dreams, ambition and courage. This I only found out as I was writing the story. Sure, he dislikes humans, but he actually wants and tries to save them. Save the world as a whole. And he's somewhat lazy as well. I did not expect that trait.

This exercise really challenged the writing to show what he is and what he wants while staying in his head. Essentially, what he wants is to keep the Sky from falling. And so, The Red Etin builds the Pillars of the Sky. Or, at least, he tries to before that pesky human foils his plans.

@bex-dk

I cheated a bit with The Hungry Wolf--my version of Little Red Riding Hood--by rewriting and expanding the 1st person version I'd done in college. But wow--this thing was way harder than I expected.

Rewriting from 1st to 3rd wasn't as straightforward as I thought it would be. A lot of the lines and the style of narration just couldn't work in Deep POV. Surprisingly, I had to get deeper into my wolf's head and into his life than I had in the original version.

This workout also helped me get writing again. I've been blocked for a few months. Now I've got another story in editing--completely new--as well as this one awaiting some final polish before I post.

I'm really proud of everyone's work on this exercise. Some of these stories just blew me away.

@nobyeni

I had no idea this would be so interesting and difficult. I took a story that came to me immediately and found out it was actually quite boring. But then I changed the POV, and as there is only one human in the story, I took the deep POV of an inanimate object.

I like challenges, and why not try something I’ve never ever done before? It turned out quite differently, the more I started embodying the inanimate object, the more I felt for her. The more I wrote, the more I wanted her voice to be heard, the more I realised what an existential crises she was in.

I truly loved this workout, and am very happy with the result: The Dike.

@nostone-unturned

I joined TWB and this writing exercise hoping to get some practice and advice with writing. The deep POV exercise offered a great challenge. I went in knowing nothing about this writing style, so it proved tricky.

Thanks to the valiant efforts of the TWB editors, we managed to produce many great new takes on old fairy tales. I chose to write about the Pied Piper from the view of a teenage girl. The story doesn’t have much of a character arc, but I did put a new spin of the character of the piper.

I learned so much from this exercise. Following the mantra, “Show, don’t tell” seems to be easy at first, but takes a lot of effort to apply through a whole story. It took a few revisions, but all the editing really helped bring together an engaging and eerie story, Elke and the Piper

@shadowspub

This was an interesting exercise for me. Not only did it give me a chance to get a better handle on the use of Deep POV, it introduced me to a book of Canadian fairy tales I had not known about. In order to write from a different character's viewpoint, I had to create the character, and then weave him into the story. I’m planning on doing the same exercise with some of the other tales in the book.

@therosepatch

The hardest part for me was choosing a fairy tale to work with. Most of my favorites had already been done into the ground by other venues (I’m looking at you, Disney). I tried browsing some unknown ones, or ones from different regions that were unfamiliar to me, but nothing stuck out. I spent days poring over lists of various fairy tales and folktales.

Then, finally, one day, inspiration hit me. I came across “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” I thought, what if I rewrote that, but from the wolf’s perspective? What if I made it so that the boy wasn’t lying? And so a story was born, and from the start my wolf, Rayni, took a hold of my heart and refused to let go.

If you’d like to see how I told her story, here’s the link to part 1 of A Wolf’s Debt: https://steemit.com/fiction/@therosepatch/a-wolf-s-debt

@thinknzombie

The first challenge was deciding on what fairytale to use. I initially thought of Rumpelstiltskin and had figured out a basic idea, but when I started to write it, I was surprised to find a different story coming out. I don’t mean that figuratively, I actually had to stop and ask myself “What are you doing? This is the wrong fairytale!” In the end I went with it. So for the exercise, it turns out I decided on The Princess and the Pea as my base story.

The exercise sounded fun and not too hard. I mean, how hard could it be to retell a story you know well from another character’s POV? Well, it turns out it’s actually very difficult. Creating a full story arc for a minor character who would not otherwise be anything but a spear carrier in the main story while keeping true to the basic plot elements of the original fairy tale is… not a simple task.

I took a lot of liberties, so this is only very loosely based on the original story. I created new backstory and some political intrigue to go with it (‘cause I like that kind of thing). In any case, I learned a lot from this. It's definitely a good way to push the envelope and improve writing craft. I hope you give it a try as well.

You can read part 1 of the story I ended up with here The Footman and the Pea

@tinypaleokitchen

I immediately knew I wanted to do a fairytale that was a bit more off the beaten track. I’d found a list of fairy tales sorted by country of origins and there was one title that struck me immediately. I’m not going to tell you which one I chose. If you haven’t recognised it yet, you’ll find out when I post the last chapter. It was a fairy tale that my older sister used to read to me when I was a child and I have such fond memories of it. I had to share that with all of you.

Rewriting it into a Deep POV wouldn’t be easy. I expected that. The original story is a typical example of an omniscient POV that follows the paths of different characters. To find the character that could unite all those events in a single POV was quite the challenge, as was the writing of it. The thing just kept growing and growing. It did teach me a lot. I actually struggled more with the character arc than the actual POV. This story was so ingrained in my mind that I had a hard time taking the necessary distance from it to see the weakness that had snuck into the character arc.

The ending surprised even me. If you’d like to visit The Land Down The Well, click here.

The Next Exercise

If you want to join us in our exercises, come on over to @thewritersblock Discord server (see the footer at the bottom). We do all our exercises in the channel.

We are just about finished with working on openers and about to start writing some flash fiction. Why not try it out? Join our server and come into the channel. Or watch out for our next follow up article, which will come out early next week.

Even if many of us have moved on to a new exercise, you're always welcome to pick one of the older ones from the list. We'll all join in cheering you on, editing the heck out of your work, and helping you have as much fun with it as you can.

If you'd like to read up on our previous exercise, you can find that article right here.

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