I’ve been working with a critique group to get my novel
ready for submission. One of the
suggestions was to eliminate the line break between switches of point of view
within the same scene.
Now, this is something which annoys me when I’m
reading. I’m a fast reader and I often
manage to miss the change of POV and become confused when something doesn’t
make sense. Then I have to backtrack and
reread.
But I’m also a novice writer and very conscious of my lack
of knowledge of professional standards.
I’ve already been caught in one very embarrassing systematic punctuation
error (not using a comma before an endquote when the sentence continues past
the quote: “Excellent,” he said.). Thus,
not feeling entirely confident in my evaluation of the situation.
So I did what any self-respecting geek does when confronted
with a dilemma. I hit the books. I went through four or five of my favourites
and confirmed that yes, there was a line break between POV changes. I tried to be diplomatic and respectful when
resubmitting but I can’t help feeling uneasy about not taking all their
suggestions (especially since the suggestions have all been pretty good so
far).
If this was an editor, there would be no question. Do what the editor wants unless you have a
really pressing reason why it shouldn’t be.
On the other hand, the last thing I want is for an editor or agent to
dismiss what I have because of technical errors.
To further stir my emotional stew, I was rereading Anne of Green
Gables which is full of POV changes and not a dang one of them has a line
break. Now my uncertainty is really
growing. My main concern is that I may
have offended someone who has been very gracious and helpful and whom I respect
a great deal. Ack!
Hopefully I haven’t.
And if I have, hopefully, I can repair it. Compassion, respect and honour will generally
get you through pretty much any error in judgment.
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