There’s a good post on Writer Unboxed titled “Perception and How to Identify POV Leaps.” In particular, I recommend it to anyone who struggles with maintaining a consistent POV (point of view) in their narrative, but it’s definitely worth a read for any student of craft.
The key clues, says writer Jordan Rosenfeld, lie in what he calls “perceptual words,” which are “signifiers that tell us who is having the experience, thus, whose POV we are in . . .”
“Whenever you offer up observations, perceptions, beliefs, feelings, sensations or thoughts of any character, you have dropped into their POV . . .”
Here’s a valuable tip for determining the POV of a passage:
“I always recommend if you’re struggling with POV to ask: Am I inside the character looking out, or am I outside the character, looking in?”
Whether you craft POV easily or not, this post is worth a read for a fresh way to look at what signals POV to a reader.
For what it’s worth,
Ray
© 2017 Ray Rhamey