The Crossways Blog Tour – Guest Post

Howdy!

Earlier this year, I helped out with the promotion for the release of the first book of Morgan Huneke’s new fantasy trilogy Time Captives. Now it’s time for book 2, The Crossways!

Morgan is doing all of the work by guest posting and discussing how she chose the right point of view for the book. You can find the rest of the stops on the tour right here!

But before I turn it over, here’s a little bit about her new book!

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M’lady, it has been fairly well confirmed that the Redona was hidden away by the merfolk at the conclusion of the Great War instead of destroyed as was commanded. My brother has confirmed to me Joseph’s belief that it was concealed at the Crossways.”

Toarna pressed her fingertips together in thought. “It must be recovered and destroyed as was at first intended.”

Emily, Allan, Jill, and Joey have been reunited with their long lost ancestors. But with that reunion comes the true beginning of their quest: free the rightful king of Calhortz so that he may be restored to his throne. The Redona, the only object that can free him from his long imprisonment, is rumored to be concealed in The Crossways, a mountain across the sea which cannot be entered.

A slave since birth, Adriel’s resentment and hatred towards the strytes only grows as his family is continually ripped from him. He longs for the freedom the Time Captives are prophesied to bring, but he doubts their existence, just as he doubts God’s love. Circumstances in Calhortz are so dire. How could they ever improve?

Who can enter The Crossways? Will the king ever be freed? Or will the slaves of Calhortz lose all hope of freedom before it is even offered to them?

The Crossways is the second book of the Time Captives trilogy, a tale of faith, family, fantasy, and a fight for truth and freedom.

Buy Now 

Kindle ~ Paperback ~ Signed Copy

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Choosing the Right Point Of View

Morgan Huneke

One of the biggest challenges I faced with Time Captives was choosing the right point of view. It’s a very important decision. It affects the entire book, how well readers connect to your story, how immersed they are in your book, whether it’s a page turner or so boring you have to put it down. It’s such an essential part of writing, yet I did not realize just how important it is until I did it wrong.

One factor in choosing the right narrator is what part that narrator plays in the story. Say I wanted Anna Hubbard to be the primary POV character Time Captives. She’s an interesting little girl, and I’m sure she’d have an amusing perspective on the adventure. However, there’s a problem. She doesn’t go on the adventure, and she is never told about it. She wouldn’t know what happened. If she had a reason to know, it could work for a character who wasn’t actually a part of the action to narrate. For instance, C.S. Lewis wrote his stories as if the characters told him what happened to them. In The Book Thief, Death is able to narrate Liesel’s story, not because he followed her every step of the way, but because she wrote down her story and on one of his encounters with her, he picked it up.* So the narrator has to have a reason to know the story, either by being a part of it, or by having it related to him afterwards.

Another factor is how interesting the character voice of the main point of view character is. I wrote book 1 of Time Captives and a portion of book 2 from Jill’s perspective. Unfortunately, her POV came across as rather bland and wimpy. She was seeing everything that was going on and narrating everything sufficiently, but it wasn’t really interesting. She didn’t have a unique perspective on things. Rewrite the same exact scenes from Joey’s perspective, and boom, it’s an interesting book. His personality is funnier, he’s more argumentative, he has a more unique way of looking at things.

Finally, another factor to consider is how much you want the reader to know. Having a narrator withhold information is considered a big no-no. So if you don’t want the reader to know something, it’s best to choose a narrator who doesn’t know it. In The Hunger Games trilogy, the reader only knows what Katniss knows. Evidently, we aren’t meant to know President Snow’s exact plans, but we don’t miss out on it by Snow withholding the information, we miss out on it by Katniss never being told. Conversely, in The Book Thief, Death already knows what’s going to happen in the end, but instead of keeping it from us, he tells us early on when he has an opportunity because he doesn’t want to withhold information. I kind of use the “Once Upon a Time Effect” for this. I like to tell the whole story, so I use multiple narrators to tell it all.

Point of view is very important, and definitely not something to overlook when writing.

* I really enjoyed The Book Thief, but due to language and a Certain Chapter, I can’t really recommend it for anyone but adults unless you can manage to get ahold of a sharpie edited copy like I did.

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About the Author

Morgan Elizabeth Huneke is a homeschool graduate who lives in Georgia. She has enjoyed creating characters and writing stories since early childhood. Her other interests include reading, playing the piano and violin, and politics. She is the author of Across the Stars and The Experiment.

You can connect with Morgan on her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Pinterest.

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Giveaway!

Join in the excitement of Time Captives and enter to win a special prize! The first prize winner will receive a signed copy of The Crossways. The second prize winner will receive an eCopy of The Crossways in the eBook format of his/her choice. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.

Enter Here!