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Thinking deeply about your characters’ interests can go a long way towards coloring in their POV.
For example, my dad loves cutting up firewood. He notices dry wood everywhere he goes. I, on the other hand, am more likely to notice houses or animals.
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For example, my dad loves cutting up firewood. He notices dry wood everywhere he goes. I, on the other hand, am more likely to notice houses or animals.
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By the same token, a character might also notice things they hate or that frighten them. My character Timothy has an aversion to doctors and all things medical because he became a below-the-knee amputee at a young age. He actively avoids medical topics.
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That said, POV is more than just what a character notices because it interests or frightens them. It also has a basis in how imaginative they might be.
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One of the ways to make description come alive is to make comparisons. Your character sees a flower in the middle of a dirt road. What does it make them think of? Is it just a flower? Or is it a friendly face in the wilderness?
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Everything a person has experienced will feed into their likes and dislikes, hopes and fears. What characters notice can not only be a tool for making descriptions more interesting, but also a way to let the reader know things about them that they didn’t know previously.
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Why does that character notices babies? Is it because they simply like children, or are they missing one of their own? Do they compare the flower to a friendly face because they’re lonely? The same tools that are often used for literary analysis can be used in its creation.
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I don’t mean to say that you should think and rethink and overthink your writing. We all do enough of that already. I’m just offering a few tips to add depth of character into POV that I’ve found work for me!
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