the lens of character

The Oct 15 deadline for the notable November issue of Electric Spec has just passed. Doh! Thanks for submitting if you made it in.

The editors are working their way through slush. Some do a pretty good job keeping up with it, some tend to procrastinate. If you submitted, you should hear back in the next two weeks for an initial thumbs up or down.

I've been reading a lot of slush. Some authors authors do a great job of telling their story through the lens of character. Some do not. Most modern story-telling is told via a very close point-of-view, be it third person or first person. In this case, everything in the story needs to be told through the subjective lens of your pov character. This includes language, metaphors, similes. This includes vocabulary and dialogue. This includes descriptions of other people, places and things.

If an author doesn't carefully implement this, the author's subjective lens is the default. This can work, if it's consistent. A haphazard mish-mash of pov, however, does not work.
When the lens of character is successfully implemented, the story is a joy to read...