What Is Deep POV And What Does It Look Like?

Deep POV is a style of fiction writing that aims to remove all the psychic or narrative distance between the reader and the character so the reader feels as if they’re immersed in the story. By removing the author/narrator voice, the reader takes a vicarious emotional journey along with the point-of-view character. So, at its core, deep POV is a stylistic choice and through a number of specific techniques aims to create a specific effect for readers.

Deep POV puts the character's emotional journey front and center and this stylistic choice can be done on a scene level where you're looking for an emotional gut punch for readers in a key moment, or over an entire novel.

Many blogs about deep pov will list out the same four or six foundational tools as though any newbie could pick this up and run with it from these meagre explanations. Deep POV is complex and involves many tools that overlap and interact with one another to create specific effects. It’s truly a disservice to simplify deep POV to such an extent that newer writers stew in frustration for years trying to figure out why they can’t get this simple style to work for them.

There's a misconception that deep POV can't be done well in certain genres, but that's not true (with the caveat that children's and MG readers often  lack the life experience needed to understand deep POV). Deep POV works equally well in first person or third person POV styles (and no, first person POV is not automatically deep POV - it's different).

What Does Deep POV Look like? How Is It Different?

Here are some examples in limited third person changed  to deep POV and the author/narrator voice and narrative distance removed to create an immersive effect for readers: 

• Anxious energy surged through her.

She jigged her leg under the table and tapped her nails on the chrome armrests to help keep her mouth shut. 

• Bob looked at me with a sad face.

The corners of Bob’s mouth turned down and his shoulders bowed with some unseen weight.

Deep POV doesn't change the kind of story you want to tell, or even how you tell it. Deep POV does not require graphic depictions or explicit details if you don't want to, rather, it's more about the internal emotional journey the character goes through that deep POV really shines a light on.

Removing The Author/Narrator Voice For Deep POV

Learning to identify and remove the author/narrator voice that adds distance between the reader and the POV character is a key stylistic aspect of deep POV. Let's look at some examples (I've underlined where the author voice creeps into the third person examples):

The Black Forest was known for its gnarled trees, bogs, and unpredictable pits. “It’s not a nice place.” Edric couldn’t suppress the body shiver that rattled his spine.

Becomes: “The Black Forest is not a nice place. It’s full of gnarled trees, bogs and unpredictable pits.” Edric couldn’t suppress the body shiver that rattled his spine.

• He’d trained his whole life for this moment, as many before him had, but never thought to see it with his own eyes. 

Becomes: Edric scrubbed his face with his hands and stared out the window. War. Wasn’t supposed to have come to this, not in his lifetime.

• Steve kicked the can down the street, hands shoved so far down his pockets he might’ve pulled up his socks. Too depressed to go home, he trudged past home and headed to the park. 

Becomes: Steve kicked the can down the street, hands shoved so far down his pockets he might’ve pulled up his socks. He trudged past home and headed to the park.

• It was five days later when Jerry sat down for breakfast.

Becomes: Jerry slumped onto the only uncluttered chair at the table with a bowl of granola and the week’s stack of newspapers under his arm. He opened the oldest paper and spread it across the table. He had five days of news to catch up on. 

• She felt herself drawn to the last door on the left. 

Becomes: She stared at the final door, the light shining out from beneath like a safety beacon on a dark night.

Ready to dive deeper into deep POV? Try out this foundations course to learn the basic principles and see if this style of writing fiction is really for you!