The July publication of Go Set a Watchman revealed Harper Lee changed point of view when she rewrote it as To Kill a Mockingbird. The new book is an unedited version and shows Harper Lee sloppily slip-sliding between first-person and third. The difference between a story narrated by Jean Louise Finch, a 26-year-old daughter, about her disillusionment in Atticus and small town bigotry, and the one narrated by a 6-year-old Scout is significant. To Kill a Mockingbird is written in third-person limited point of view. Scout tells the story of what happened in her Alabama hometown when a black man was falsely accused of raping a white woman and her father served as his defense attorney. The narrator in To Kill a Mockingbird is an adult, Jean Louise, who tells the story of what Scout witnessed as a child. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote a manuscript, Pioneer Girl, published for the first time in December 2014 by the South Dakota Historical Society and edited by Pamela Smith Hill. This first-person account of growing up with hardships and tragedies as white settlers didn’t find interest from a publisher. It did, however, inspire 11 novels and multiple short stories by Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane. An editor and successful Bobbs-Merrill author, Rose suggested ‘Mama Bess’ (the nickname she called her mother) consider fictionalizing the stories for the juvenile market. Wilder revised and based her first novel, Little House in the Big Woods, on Pioneer Girl. Developmental editing of Wilder’s…
POV. Point of View. When you begin to write, you must decide who will tell the story. You will, of course. Duh. You are the narrator if you are the writer. But who are you? Are you the heroic character? The omniscient voice of God? The fly on the wall? Journalist reporting from the scene? How do you find the right narrator’s voice? One of… [Read More]
Filed Under: Anne Mazer, Ellen Potter, first-person, POV, second-person, Spilling Ink, third-person limited, third-person objective, third-person omniscient
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Tina L. Peterson’s debut novel OSCAR AND THE AMAZING GRAVITY REPELLENT, about an intrepid third-grader who takes on bullies and other forces of nature with the help of a magical potion, to Alison Deering at Capstone, in a nice deal by Jill Swenson of Swenson Book Development, February 11, 2014. Tina L. Peterson has been fighting gravity her whole life. She was never any good at… [Read More]
Jill Swenson: Congratulations on the forthcoming publication of your book, Leaning into Love: A Spiritual Journey through Grief, by Larson Publications in fall 2014. What is meant by the title of your book? Elaine Mansfield: After Vic’s death, I leaned into his love. I leaned into the love of the land, the life I created with him, our sons, close friends, and found support. Spiritual help came… [Read More]
While a great first chapter may interest acquisitions editors in reading your full manuscript, your last chapter may determine whether you get a contract offer or not. Reader dissatisfaction with the ending is the kiss of death to book sales. Perhaps you’ve even put down some of these books that have very well crafted first chapters that landed them a book contract but couldn’t sustain… [Read More]
The Pew Research Center reported last week that one in four American adults had not read a single book in the past year. The number of non-book readers has nearly tripled since 1978. If you want someone to read your book, you know it has to be good. Better than good. The 18-29 year old demographic is the most likely age group to have read… [Read More]