Customer Reviews

The Power Of Point Of View: Make Your Story Come To Life

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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Initially, I was hesitant in purchasing this book as I saw so many copies becoming available as "used". When that happens, either the book is lacking in content or its organizational style makes it difficult to read. Well, I am glad I purchased it because the book offers a very detailed look on Point of View as well addressing advanced particulars in mixing POVs, voice, and time. Almost every chapter is followed with a recommended reading list for further study as well as helpful exercises to emphasize craft.

This is definitely a book that needs to be read more than once. Not because of level of difficulty but because of the amount of helpful information. Perhaps that is why there are so many copies available. Her book is not organized with boxes of summaries, lists, a lot of white space or diagrams. No space is wasted and perhaps for some this style might be intimidating as it seems (visually) like you are about to read a novel.

Rasley is definitely an author to watch out for in terms of "Writing How-To's. I would love to see her write a book on Dialogue as there are so many duds out there.

In The Power of Point of View, Rasley notes her personal preferences when writing herself, but does not allow her explanations of POV to be biased by that. She talks about Genre conventions, narrative distance, to individualizing POV. She uses a conversational tone in her explanations and makes learning POV easy to understand. My only minor pet peeve is that she did not include a bibliography at the end of the book to wrap up all the books that she has mentioned and recommended.

Here is the Table of Contents:

1. What is POV
2. POV Choices and What They Communicate About Your Story
3. POV and the Elements of Story
4. First Person
5. Second Person
6. Impersonal Third Person
7. Personal Third Person - Single
8. Personal Third Person - Multiple
9. Individualizing POV
10. Levels of POV
11. Creating Alternative and Unusual Voices

All in all, if you are ready for a full immersion of a Master Class in POV, then definitely get this one!

If you are looking for just a basic primer to start off with on POV with some of the more advanced nuances explained in briefest terms, than check out Donna Levin's "Get That Novel Written". It has 2 excellent chapters on POV and Time.

I consider myself a fairly advanced writer. I've studied POV in writing courses and on my own, and it's a topic most writers tend to struggle with... and most tend to fall into the "safe" first person and third person, because they are easy, and easily understood.

What Ms. Rasley has done is put together an exhaustive reference of OTHER choices, complete with examples and reasons why a writer might choose them to tell a particular story. To me, that is what makes this book worth every penny of the purchase price: demystifying the choice of WHO should tell a particular story.

If I had to whittle my large collection of writing books down to just a handful, this is absolutely one I would keep!

As anyone who has read her other books or taken one of her seminars knows, the hallmark of Alicia Rasley's teaching is that she gives you the tools you need to fix the technical problems that keep your writing from selling.

A lot of writing books play to the fantasy that you're going to write something wonderful, but beyond some platitudes they don't give you much help in doing that.

Not Alicia's. She gives you example after example, chosen from many different genres, that show you what works, and more importantly, what doesn't work, and why. She also gives you exercises that get you examining your current work in progress so you can improve what you've already written to make it stronger.

Point of View is one of those subtle things that most beginning authors don't pay much attention to. But Alicia shows you that whether you are aware of it or not, you are constantly making POV choices as you write, and many of those choices weaken your narrative drive.

She shows you how to make the right choices--ones that make your tepid prose more gripping and get the reader more involved with your characters. She also shows you how subtle changes in the way you use POV can heighten suspense or charge up the emotion in your stories.

This is a book for someone who is serious about becoming a really good novelist. If the book isn't a top bestseller, it's probably because there aren't all that many people around who fit that category. Until you've actually written a manuscript or two and run into the problems this book solves you won't realize just how brilliant Alicia's teaching is!

I bought this book in hopes of expanding my writing to other points of view (especially first person), but the advice given in this book is pretty basic. If you know little of different points of view (first-third/single-third, omniscient third, etc), then this book will layout the basic for you, to help keep them all straight. If you're pretty confident identifying basic different point of view techniques, then this book may not be worth the purchase.

I bought this book after laboriously combing through Amazon's list of writing references on the subject of Point of View. This book should have been re-written, revised, or edited for coherence before publication. While the topic of Point of View is exhaustively covered, even categorized, the writing examples given in support of story telling perspectives are poorly chosen, and the author's attempts at clarifying each topic only succeed in making things murkier for those of us trying to gain understanding. The author of this book is supposed to be a published writer and lecturer. Unfortunately, those credentials do not translate into the ability to write a scholarly treasure on a core writing subject. Can someone with better reference writing skills please produce a better book on this topic? Now I understand why one reviewer referenced initial concerns over why there were so many "The Power of Point of View" used books available in used book stores, before finally deciding to go ahead and buy it. The primary concern here is failure to communicate. "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published" is a WONDERFUL book, but it covers Point of View in only a few paragraphs. "The Power of Point of View" is NO must have, literary "Bible". But, we sorely need one. Maybe a more skillful writer like Julie Beard could find the time to write one for us. Just so you understand, I have no dog in this fight. I am a struggling writer myself. After two decades of writing mostly screenplays, I came to the realization that most movies that get made today are based on novels, graphic novels, autobiographies, etc. The movies that did get made from an original screenplay like "Rocky" and "Animal House" are rare. So, now I am trying to write in novel form. Because screenplays use only camera-eye/objective perspective, the shift into narrative forms and sliding POV's has been painful. A better book would have helped.

Point of view was the one element that mystified me most when I first began writing fiction. I received so much contradictory advice from instructors and writing workshops on the subject that I all but gave up trying to understand its arcane and ever-shifting rules.

If only I had been armed with this marvelous guide.

Without a doubt, the 265 pages of this impressive work offer the most comprehensive and understandable treatment of POV that I've had the pleasure to encounter. In addition to her in-depth analysis of the various persons and their permutations, Rasley provides exercises and suggested readings to demonstrate what she teaches.

My favorite aphorism from the book: "You don't choose POV; it chooses you.

Beginners and advanced writers alike should choose this book for their writing library.

Not only helpful, but entertaining

I was expecting a textbook with college-level material. This book has that, no question, but it goes beyond a traditional university class...with thought-provoking exercises to use whenever I feel like working, and examples to enjoy whenever I feel like reading at leisure.

And the advice is outstanding. For example, the idea that authors who hate analysis might just TRY analyzing a scene that flowed from their fingertips in a white-hot surge of creativity, just to see what they did right. That recommendation alone (see page 65) is golden, and it's only one of several dozen thoughtful, helpful pieces of advice.

This is a book I'll read again and again, both for brushups on viewpoint skill and for book excerpts that make learning POV a genuine pleasure. I wish more writing reference books were this easy to appreciate!

"Point of View" was very helpful to me as a once-published fiction writer. It is a great aid in elevating my writing to the next level. I would recommend it to any writers seeking to improve their craft and to break out of the wannabe published to successfully published.

Because I was looking for a book on point of view to recommend to a student of mine, I discovered Alicia Rasley had written one. I immediately ordered a copy and wasn't disappointed. This book covers everything any writer needs to know about point of view and covers it in language you can understand, no matter your skill level. A very good buy and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I have at least four books on POV and this is by far the most detailed and best one. Get it!