Perspective

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

-Wayne Dyer

This quote holds a lot of truth, especially in art and writing. Changing your perspective on something can also change how you relay that perspective to others.

For example, if you’re stuck on what you’re writing or feel like a specific chapter or scene is just not getting you where you want it to, try changing the point of view for that passage. You can shift between first person, second person, third person, etc. Sometimes telling the story through a different character’s eyes for a bit can reveal more details about the story or recapture your reader’s interest.

This doesn’t mean you should be changing the perspective every other sentence, of course. Some sense of consistency is still important so you don’t confuse your readers. Try shifting only if you want the new perspective to last for a longer time. This works well for chapters, books divided into parts (usually these have different chapters within the parts as well), or chapters in which you want to show the same scene from two characters’ differing points of view (write the scene using the first character, show a separation between the sections to indicate a switch, and then retell the same scene through the second character).

This technique isn’t one that should be overdone or used chaotically, but it sometimes helps get a writer back on track and keep things interesting. Chances are, if you’re struggling to tell a story, you might be trying to tell it through the wrong character.