When approaching a new piece, the first wall I run into is P.O.V, the dreaded point of view. There are so many aspects of a body of writing tied into P.O.V. The P.O.V. is the defining facet of how your audience views your characters and how your characters function in their world. It is also how you function as the writer of this world. Each choice comes with it's limitations and bonuses. Do you use first person, planting yourself into this world? Third person, where you are a voyeur into your character's most intimate secrets? Hell, you could even break the fourth wall, you are the god of this world, and you tell the story of your characters in an authoritative voice like the bards of old.
First person, I find, is perhaps the trickiest to pull off. It is very easy for a character to become the mouthpiece of the writer, a freer, looser, projection of themselves onto the page. This does not mean the story will not be good, and most first person stories absorb some aspect of the writer into them, their ideals, their snark, their dreams, or even their fears. The flip side of that coin is the writer who is lead by the character, dragged into their story, peering through a different set of eyes.
I have tried several times to write in first person, but it comes with a very big limitation that often clashes with my ideas for a piece. First person is just that, one person, the view point is filtered through one character's eyes. Many writers get around this, flipping the first person view to a different protagonist. This transition is handled a number of ways, the one I have seen the most being a chapter flip, where the author labels a chapter with the name of the speaker.
In my own work, I usually work in one of the tiers of third person, sometimes limited, sometimes omniscient. Third person comes with the luxury of hopping through multiple characters heads, though it is not always handled skillfully. In the many romances I have read, P.O.V. is like a tennis table match, you bounce between the male and female perspective constantly, sometimes on the same page. If you're lucky you might get a page break to indicate the perspective change, other times the tip off is usually pronoun change, or, my personal favorite, description of genitalia.
The hindrance of third person is it's a seductive drug. It's too easy to throw everything out there on the page, to reveal everything everyone is thinking all the time. But if you are in everyone's head at once, the story can become repetitive, stagnant, and clogged up by too much inner thought. The more omniscient the P.O.V. is, the harder is it too keep secrets, tell lies, and trick your reader until your big reveal.
Right now I'm at war with myself of P.O.V. My work on the romance novel is moving at a crawl. Just when I think I've worked through my hang ups on sex scenes, I go get tangled up in the voice of the piece. It is very easy to write a romance in third person, not so much in first. But three chapters in, neither voice feels right. Third person comes off stale, while first person comes with it's own set of limitations. Perhaps I could do a combination of perspectives and P.O.V. styles. It's not a new idea. The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon uses this technique.
I need to stop sweating the small stuff. This is supposed to be a first draft, I keep losing that perspective. First drafts are the perfect platform for experimentation, they are your paint splattered creative studio while a final draft is the art show. I need to relax, loosen up, maybe drink a glass of wine before writing to let the words flow out.
Or perhaps it's another issue entirely. I am usually the god of my universe, not squatting in my main character's mind. It could be an issue of control, I'm finding it difficult to relinquish the reins of the story to my character, to let her lead the way. There is a taunt chain between us, I'm not sure what will happen when I set her loose. A glass of wine might be the cure after all to let someone else drive tonight.
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