Point of view is the camera your reader looks through. When it holds steady, readers sink into the story without noticing it at all. When it wobbles, they feel unsettled and often can’t say why. In our editing work, POV problems are among the most common issues we flag, and among the easiest to fix once you can see them.
First, choose your camera
Most novels use one of three approaches:
- First person: “I opened the door.” The reader lives inside one character’s head.
- Close third person: “She opened the door.” Still inside one character’s head per scene, but with a little more distance.
- Omniscient: A narrator who can see into anyone and comment on everything. It is a deliberate, demanding style, and it is not the same as drifting between heads.
None is better than the others. The problems start when a manuscript claims one and behaves like another.
Problem 1: Head-hopping
Head-hopping is switching between characters’ thoughts within a single scene, often within a paragraph.
Mara wondered if he’d noticed the letter in her bag. Daniel thought she looked tired, and decided not to mention the party.
In two sentences we have been inside two minds. The reader no longer knows whose experience this is, and the tension drains away. If Mara can’t know what Daniel thinks, neither should we. That gap is where suspense lives.
The fix: pick one viewpoint character per scene, usually the one with the most at stake. Show everyone else only through what that character can see, hear and infer. If you need another character’s perspective, give them the next scene, after a clear scene break.
Problem 2: The POV slip
A slip is subtler. The viewpoint character “knows” something they could not know.
She didn’t notice the man watching her from across the street.
If she didn’t notice, who is telling us? In close third or first person, this breaks the frame. The fix is to let her notice something small, or to move the observation to a scene from the watcher’s point of view.
The same applies to a character describing their own face (“her cheeks flushed a pretty pink”). People feel their faces grow hot. They don’t see themselves blush.
Problem 3: Filter words
Filter words put a pane of glass between the reader and the experience: saw, heard, felt, noticed, realised, wondered, seemed.
She heard the floorboard creak behind her.
The floorboard creaked behind her.
The second version puts the reader in the room. Because we are already in her head, we know she heard it. You won’t remove every filter word, and you shouldn’t, but cutting most of them sharpens a scene immediately.
Problem 4: Inconsistent distance
In close third, a narrator who suddenly zooms out (“Little did she know that this decision would change everything”) breaks the intimacy you built. Decide how close your camera sits and keep it there, unless a shift is a deliberate choice with a purpose.
A quick self-check
- For each scene, write down whose scene it is. If you can’t answer in one name, there is a problem.
- Highlight every line of thought or feeling. Does each belong to that character?
- Search for saw, heard, felt, noticed and test each one without the filter.
- Look for any fact the viewpoint character couldn’t know.
Get a second pair of eyes
POV problems are hard to catch in your own work, because you always know whose head you meant to be in. A line edit through our Editorial Services will flag every slip with an explanation, so you learn the pattern rather than just accepting fixes. For a quicker read on whether POV is a major issue in your draft, start with a Manuscript Assessment.
